Pollen database of Early-Miocene Amazonian palynological diversity

June 29, 2015
milantvm

By Milan Teunissen van Manen
MSc Biological Sciences, University of Amsterdam.

As part of my MSc research project on Early-Miocene paleodiversity shifts due to marine incursions in the Amazon basin, I recorded and photographed large numbers of palynomorphs. The database consists of a set of images (Teunissen van Manen, 2015a) that I took with my smartphone (bundled in pdfs for sharing purposes) and an Excel overview file (Teunissen van Manen, 2015b) where each of the entries is described. Some of the entries are well documented taxa (C’mon, who hasn’t heard of Zonocostites ramonae and Mauritidites franciscoi before?) while others are “types” that are not formally described – mainly because in Amazonian sediments new, unseen palynomorphs pop up all the time. Indeed, this was the reason why I started the database in the first place: I was merely trying to keep up with the vast diversity that I encountered during sample counting.

Mauritidites franciscoi
TP 100

Seeing the added value of having a digital record of the palynological diversity from the Amazon basin samples, my project supervisor, Carina Hoorn (UvA), encouraged me to publish the database online so others could also access it. I’d like to invite you to take a look. I hope it can maybe help you with identifying taxa or, who knows, linking taxa across the Amazon basin… if you do, please let me know!

…or maybe it will have you rejoice in the huge diversity and alien beauty of pollen morphology, just as it rejoiced me as I was working through my (seemingly endless) samples.

REFERENCES

Teunissen van Manen, Milan (2015a): Miocene Amazonian Palynological Diversity – Image files. figshare. http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1396453

Teunissen van Manen, Milan (2015b): Miocene Amazonian palynological diversity database – Entries record. figshare. http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1396562

This project was conducted with Research Group of Palaeoecology & Landscape Ecology, part of the Institute for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Dynamics.

XPERT Henry Hooghiemstra

June 22, 2015
WDG

WDG's avatarPalaeoenvironment

Henry-Hooghiemstra-2We are delighted to be able to confirm the University of Amsterdam‘s leading expert in tropical palaeoecology, Emeritus Professor Henry Hooghiemstra, will be giving the first of our XPERT lectures; on Monday 17 August at Science Park 904. The lecture will be open to XPERT participants and other interested people. If you are not a member of XPERT but wish to attend please contact William Gosling to ensure that we have space for you.

TITLE: Exploration of dynamic tropical ecosystems in space and time

Abstract below…

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Theses rush at The Open University

May 17, 2015
encarnimontoya

Hi palaeo-people!!

Alice Kennedy (far right) celebrating post-viva examination.

Alice Kennedy (far right) celebrating post-viva examination.

It is been a while since the Milton Keynes’s part of the group have manifested in the blog. The main reason is that we have been a bit busy basically…submitting theses!!!!

So this very short post is to congratulate Hayley Keen, Frazer Bird and Alice Kennedy for their recent handing in during the last two months and to celebrate that we have a new doctor in the group!!! Alice defended her thesis on 14th May, having as tribunal Prof. John Marshall (Southampton), Dr Phil Sexton (Open University) and Dr Sarah Sherlock (Open University). Next viva will be Hayley’s on 28th May (exam panel: Dr Dunia Urrego [Exeter], Prof. David Gowing [Open University], and Dr Mark Brandon [Open University]). Frazer will be defending his research next 25th June in front of Dr Pete Langdon (Southampton), Dr Neil Edwards (Open University), and Dr Sarah Sherlock (Open University).

Well done guys, this has been hard work and we are sure that your projects will have amazing contributions to high quality research!

Frazer Matthews-Bird
Hayley Keen

Andean bear

April 30, 2015
WDG

WDG's avatarPalaeoenvironment

Bear-zoomOn our first field day three of the XPERT team (Valerie, Barry and Sarah) claim  they saw an Andean or spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus) in the paramo of the Cayambe-Coca National Park… Valerie did manage to provided some supporting evidence in the way photos.

An Andean bear, or a black dog? An Andean bear, or a black dog? (photo: van den Bos)

For more information on Andean bears visit: Andean bear foundation

View original post 20 more words

Sediment coring in Lake Erazo

April 14, 2015
WDG

XPERT field school is underway…

stxal8's avatarPalaeoenvironment

Lake Erazo Sediment coring on Lake Erazo. Photo by Valerie van den Bos (who spent the flight over reading a book on how to take the perfect photo)

By Alexandra Lee and Nick Primmer

To study the palaeo-environmental record of the Andean cloud forest, sediment cores were taken from the recently discovered Erazo lake. In mixed conditions of blazing sun and pouring rain, 14 researchers, one bus driver and several Ecuadorian guides hauled what felt like a ton of equipment up to the lake 2,300 m asl. In the centre of the lake, a wooden coring platform was mounted between two boats securely anchored at three positions. Using a modified Livingston corer with a drop hammer, five cores were successfully recovered from the lake up to a maximum depth of two metres. The main challenge encountered was the stability of the platform which resulted in several complications limiting the number of cores…

View original post 29 more words

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