Sporopollen – a useful tool for Palynology

This website (Sporopollen) is a database created and used by Dr. Jianguang Zhang to finish his PhD. The goal is to professionally collect sporomorph (spore and pollen) data especially fossil sporomorph data for identification, stratigraphic analysis, and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction.

Currently, it has collected 101,688 sporomorph pictures, 225,322 plant pictures, 31,922 sporomorph descriptions. In the same time, from 63,035 references, it has collected 2,215,162 occurrences for both sporomorph and non-sporomorph fossils. The collected plant data cover 32,986 genera from 948 families. The collected sporomorph pictures cover 5,861 genera. They can be queried in the form of Map (not completed) or Dataset.

Potonie's Turmal System (Potonie, 1956, 1958, 1960, 1966, 1970; Potonié, 1967; Potonié and Kremp, 1970), which arrange all sporomorphs by their aperture, structure, sculpture, shape, and size characters, is used to help users to identify sporomorph. As more and more sporomorph pictures under scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) are collected, the Turmal System has been modified to more efficiently describe sporomorphs. The sporomorph glossary used in this website mainly follows Traverse (2007), Punt et al (2007) and Hesse et al (2009).

For stratigraphic analysis, the stratigraphic unit of each occurrence is transferred into age after the international chronostratigraphic chart 2020. Based on the abundances for different stratigraphic unit, age distribution plot can be automatically created for both a single genus / species and a genus group / species group separately at era, period, epoch, and age levels. It can give age distribution plots for both sporomorph and non-sporomorph taxa.

The plant taxonomy used in this website mainly follows Smith et al (2006), Taylor et al (2009), Christenhusz et al (2011) and Byng et al (2016). For dispersed angiosperm pollen, their plant affinities mainly follow Muller (1981) and Song et al (2004). We have reviewed all of the 858 dispersed Mesozoic sporomorph genera related with Bryophytes, Pteridophytes, and Gymnospermae . We concluded that 40 genera are comparable with extant Bryophytes, 216 genera are comparable with in situ or extant Pteridophytes, and 227 genera are comparable with in situ or extant Gymnospermae. They can be linked to their parent plant at order or family level. The rest of 245 genera are possible Pteridophytes and the rest of 130 genera are possible Gymnospermae, but they are not comparable with any order or family. The lack of in situ sporomorphs is one of the reasons that some dispersed sporomorphs can not be linked to their parent plants. But the most important reason is that the dispersed sporomorphs are not described in detail. Descriptions under SEM and TEM are needed to get the precise parent plants for dispersed sporomorphs.

Based on the plant taxonomy and sporomorph taxonomy, all of the collected sporomorph pictures, plant pictures, and sporomorph descriptions can be queried taxonomically. For the dispersed sporomorphs from Mesozoic to present, this website can automatically link them to their parent plants.

Eco-Plant model that assesses the effect of humidity (EPH) and the effect of temperature (EPT) is used by different authors for Mesozoic climate reconstruction (e.g., Hill, 2017; Vakhrameev, 1991). We have linked the 483 genera of the Mesozoic dispersed sporomorphs for Bryophytes, Pteridophytes, and Gymnosperms to their related Eco-Plant model. As the first reliable angiosperm is discovered at the top of Jurassic (Sun et al., 1998; Sun et al., 2002), so that although the dispersed sporomorphs for angiosperms has not been linked to Eco-Plant model, this website can still automatically link all of the sporomorphs from Triassic and Jurassic to the Eco-Plant model in order to reconstruct the climate.

Currently, this website is only used for scientific study and scientific communication. Each user must create an account to login. If you need an account, please send email to: zhangjianguang108@126.com describing:(1) your study field, education background, and work experience (2) your publication list. If we think you can contribute or you have potential to contribute to this database, you will get an invitecode which can be used to create a new account.

Dr. Jianguang Zhang

University: Technische Universität Darmstadt Institut für Angewandte Geowissenschaften Darmstadt Deutschland (Germany) Email: zhangjianguang108@126.com Address: Jianguang Zhang Wienerstr. 44 64287 Darmstadt Deutschland (Germany)

Working Areas

Palynology
Paleoenvironment and Paleoclimate
Online Database Development

Publictation

Doctoral thesis: Quantitative analysis of Triassic-Jurassic pollen and spores for paleoenvironmental and paleoclimate reconstructions
By: Jianguang Zhang PDF
Univerity: Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany 2022

Article: The Eco-Plant model and its implication on Mesozoic dispersed sporomorphs for Bryophytes, Pteridophytes, and Gymnosperms
By: Jianguang Zhang, Olaf Klaus Lenz, Pujun Wang, and Jens Hornung PDF
In: Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 2021

Article: Database-based Eco-Plant analysis for Mesozoic dispersed sporomorphs
By: Jianguang Zhang, Olaf Klaus Lenz, Pujun Wang, Youfeng Gao, and Jens Hornung PDF
In: MethodsX 2021

Article: Palynology and the Eco-Plant model of peat-forming wetlands of the Upper Triassic Haojiagou Formation in the Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, NW China
By: Jianguang Zhang, Olaf Klaus Lenz, Jens Hornung, Pujun Wang, Martin Ebert, and Matthias Hinderer
In: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 2020
Sporopollen Figs in this paper

Links

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jianguang_Zhang
TU Darmstadt: https://www.geo.tu-darmstadt.de/iag/personen_iag/personen_iag_details_14784.en.jsp
Petrorevol: http://www.petrorevol.com/geofrontpage.php?language=english

Tutors

References:
1. Byng, J.W., Chase, M.W., Christenhusz, M.J.M., Fay, M.F., Judd, W.S., Mabberley, D.J., Sennikov, A.N., Soltis, D.E., Soltis, P.S., Stevens, P.F., Briggs, B., Brockington, S., Chautems, A., Clark, J.C., Conran, J., Haston, E., Moller, M., Moore, M., Olmstead, R., Perret, M., Skog, L., Smith, J., Tank, D., Vorontsova, M., Weber, A., Grp, A.P., 2016. An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG IV. Bot J Linn Soc 181, 1-20.
2. Christenhusz, M.J.M., Reveal, J.L., Farjon, A., Gardner, M.F., Mill, R.R., Chase, M.W., 2011. A new classification and linear sequence of extant gymnosperms. Phytotaxa 19, 55-70.
3. Hesse, M., Halbritter, H., Weber, M., Buchner, R., Zetter, R., Ulrich, S., Frosch-Radivo, A., 2009. Pollen Terminology: An illustrated handbook. Austria: Springer.
4. Hill, R.S., 2017. History of the Australian Vegetation Cretaceous to Recent The University of Adelaide Press.
5. Muller, J., 1981. Fossil Pollen Records of Extant Angiosperms. Bot Rev 47, 1-&.
6. Potonie, R., 1956. Synopsis der Gattungen der Sporae dispersae I.Teil:Sporites. Hannover: Amt für Bodenforschung.
7. Potonie, R., 1958. Synopsis der Gattungen der Sporae dispersae II.Teil:Sporites (Nachtraege), Saccites, Aletes, Preacolpates, Polyplicates, Monocolpates. Hannover: Amt für Bodenforschung.
8. Potonie, R., 1960. Synopsis der Gattungen der Sporae dispersae III.Teil:Naechtrage Sporites, Forstetzung Pollenites Mit Generalregister zu Teil I-III. Hannover: Amt für Bodenforschung.
9. Potonie, R., 1966. Synopsis der Gattungen der Sporae dispersae IV. Teil: Nachtraege zu allen gruppen(Turmae). Hannover: Amt für Bodenforschung.
10. Potonie, R., 1970. Synopsis der Gattungen der Sporae dispersae V.Teil:Nachtraege zu allen gruppen(Turmae). Hannover: Amt für Bodenforschung.
11. Potonié, R., 1967. Versuch der Einordnung der fossilen Sporae dispersae in das phylogenetische System der Pflanzenfamilien. Köln: Westdeutscher Verlag.
12. Potonié, R., Kremp, G.O.W., 1970. Synopsis der Gattungen der Sporae dispersae VI. Teil. Hannover: Amt für Bodenforschung.
13. Punt, W., Hoen, P.P., Blackmore, S., Nilsson, S., Le Thomas, A., 2007. Glossary of pollen and spore terminology. Rev Palaeobot Palyno 143, 1-81.
14. Smith, A.R., Pryer, K.M., Schuettpelz, E., Korall, P., Schneider, H., Wolf, P.G., 2006. A classification for extant ferns. Taxon 55, 705-731.
15. Song, Z.C., Wang, W.M., Huang, F., 2004. Fossil pollen records of extant angiosperms in China. Bot Rev 70, 425-458.
16. Sun, G., Dilcher, D.L., Zheng, S.L., Zhou, Z.K., 1998. In search of the first flower: A Jurassic angiosperm, Archaefructus, from northeast China. Science 282, 1692-1695.
17. Sun, G., Ji, Q., Dilcher, D.L., Zheng, S.L., Nixon, K.C., Wang, X.F., 2002. Archaefructaceae, a new basal angiosperm family. Science 296, 899-904.
18. Taylor, E.L., Taylor, T.N., Krings, M., 2009. Paleobotany:The Biology and Evolution of Fossil Plants. London: Academic Press.
19. Traverse, A., 2007. Paleopalynology Second Edition. The Netherlands: Springer.
20. Vakhrameev, V.A., 1991. Jurassic and Cretaceous Floras and Climates of the Earth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.