Dropping my adversarial tone and asking a couple of serious questions...
I was wondering if this might be due to either of two factors:
- Since many Paleozoic halites are Silurian, a lack of pollen and spores
may simply be due to a lack of land plants during this time (yes I
know there are Silurian land plants but they're few and far between).
Of course this idea presupposes an evolution of land plants
- Evaporites are thought to form in harsh environments, places where we
might not expect nearby land plants to provide much in the way of pollen
or spores
How much pollen and spores are obtained from modern-day evaporite deposits?
How about earlier Cenozoic or Mesozoic evaporites?
I'm also curious why you have processed hundreds of Paleozoic evaporite samples
looking for pollen and spores. Are you looking for modern-day material in these
halites?
- Steve.
-- Steven H. Schimmrich, Assistant Professor of Geology Department of Geology, Geography, and Environmental Studies Calvin College, 3201 Burton Street SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546 sschimmr@calvin.edu (office), schimmri@earthlink.net (home) 616-957-7053 (voice mail), 616-957-6501 (fax) http://home.earthlink.net/~schimmrich/