Palynospheres™ are a new range of high quality marker grains, specifically developed for microfossil research by Palynotech in collaboration with experts in the field. This new material offers palynologists all of the properties required of this demanding application and provides a much needed alternative to other marker grain products such as Lycopodium spores and DuPont NEM microbeads (Kitaba, I. & Nakagawa, T., Quaternary International, (2017) Vol. 455, pp166-169).
Palynospheres™ marker grains are tolerant to all chemicals commonly used during pollen slide preparation, including hydrofluoric acid.
Palynospheres™ are extremely physically robust, easily coping with the physical extraction procedures used to recover fossilised pollen from collected sediments.
Palynospheres™ are available in a range of sizes and have a density very close to that of fossil pollen grains (c. 1.4 g/cm³).
Palynospheres™ are matt black and spherical, making them easily distinguishable from the target microfossils in the sample.
Palynospheres™ are available in both a dry format for preparation by the end user and as a liquid formulation which is supplied ready for use at a defined concentration.