| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4750052 | Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology | 2016 | 7 Pages |
•Permineralized palynomorphs are commonly destroyed during acid maceration.•Studies of intact specimens in petrographic thin sections address this problem.•Confocal laser scanning microscopy documents their structure at high resolution.•Raman spectroscopy documents their composition and fidelity of preservation.•Studies in situ, rather than of acid macerates, provide notable advantages.
Acid maceration, used to isolate compression-preserved flattened spores and pollen from fine-grained clastic rocks, can yield copious quantities of palynomorphs and high-quality morphological information. Such maceration, however, is generally not applicable to organic-walled microfossils three-dimensionally permineralized in chemically precipitated rocks (e.g., most fossiliferous cherts), its use resulting in disintegration or destruction of the fossils as they are freed from their embedding supporting matrix. In this study of bisaccate pollen grains permineralized in stromatolitic chert of the late Early Permian Assistência Formation (Irati Subgroup) of southeastern Brazil, we compare the morphology of specimens imaged by scanning electron microscopy in acid-resistant residues with that of grains embedded in petrographic thin sections and imaged by transmitted light optical microscopy, confocal laser scanning microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. The results document numerous benefits of the use of these three techniques for studies of permineralized palynomorphs in situ.
