Palynology is a branch of science which belongs both to the geology and palaeontology but also to the botany. The name derives from the Greek meaning in the original sense “doctrine of disseminated dust”.
In contrast to recent research (mostly on pollen, spores and dinoflagellates), the palaeo-palynology is interested in the extinct plant and animal organic-walled microfossils (OWM).
Palynomorphs are important tools for determining the age of sediments and provide information on their life and depositional environment and paleoclimate. The following examples show typical representatives of Paleozoic aquatic and terrestrial OWM derived from the actual research activities.
For all fossil palynomorphs to be preserved in sediments it is important that they are made of highly resistant organic compounds such as the bioploymer sporopollenin. As they exhibit a large potential of fossilization against thermal, chemical, and physical destruction, palynomorphs are preserved over long geological periods. The oldest known OWM are those from the Precambrian, although in our section we deal primarily with the Palaeozoic microfossils mainly from the Ordovician to Devonian, which date from the period of about 490 to 360 million years before present. Post-Palaeozoic studies are recently integrated as well.
