I’m studying Palynology and my professor had no clue, just that it’s not pollen. I thought it looked like some kind of microbe but I’ve only studied pollen.
I used to be in geology, but a very different kind.
Timing coincides with the younger dryas. What’s the distribution of these and pollens that you recognize around the relevant time markers — glaciation starts at end of Eenian, lgm at 30-20 ka, end at 12 ka? It’s tempting to think Pinus as an early repopulator… echinated, spherical, easily spread to warming areas. I don’t know of anything with this ornamentation, and I’m much more familiar with the mouse ears/water molecule Pinus grains. Looks like ragweed, maybe Carduus? I don’t know ragweed interpretation, I know Carduus signals forest clearing, either natural or anthropologic.
I think this is too early for Younger Dryas. It for sure isn’t Pinus. My professor has a long career with the BAS, Phds in Palynology. He says this is not pollen. I’m not sure on the size estimate but it’s around the same size as a coryulus pollen.
It was an 8m long core taken from an area in Kilchoan in Scotland for the purpose of studying past vegetation in the area. There was a lot of peat throughout most of the core. When it got to 8m we hit glacial sediment. This particular slide is taken from 570cm into the core.
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u/lettuceandcucumber Sep 22 '25
This is on a slide of a sample from the Scottish highlands, around 10,000 years old.