How to extract and analyze pollen from internal organs and exoskeletons of fossil insects

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Issue Date
2021-12-17Author
Grímsson, Friðgeir
Ulrich, Silvia
Zetter, Reinhard
Hörnschemeyer, Thomas
Engel, Michael S.
Wedmann, Sonja
Publisher
Cell Press
Type
Article
Article Version
Scholarly/refereed, publisher version
Rights
© 2021 The Author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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Show full item recordAbstract
This protocol explains how to extract pollen from fossil insects with subsequent descriptions of pollen treatment. We also describe how to document morphological and ultrastructural features with light-microscopy and electron microscopy. It enables a taxonomic assignment of pollen that can be used to interpret flower-insect interactions, foraging and feeding behavior of insects, and the paleoenvironment. The protocol is limited by the state of the fossil, the presence/absence of pollen on fossil specimens, and the availability of extant pollen for comparison.For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Wappler et al. (2015), Ulrich and Grímsson (2020), and Wedmann et al. (2021).
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Citation
Grímsson, F., Ulrich, S., Zetter, R., Hörnschemeyer, T., Engel, M. S., & Wedmann, S. (2021). How to extract and analyze pollen from internal organs and exoskeletons of fossil insects?. STAR protocols, 2(4), 100923. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xpro.2021.100923
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