Abstract
Palynology is the study of organic-walled microfossils which include pollen, spores, dinoflagellates, acritarchs, tasmantids, and chitinozoa. Quaternary palynology is concerned predominantly with the paleoecological analysis of fossil pollen and spores. Palynology is one of the most widely used technique in Quaternary paleoecology. Fossil pollen and spores (palynomorphs) can be found in a wide variety of deposits. Recovery of the fossils from sediment samples is relatively easy. Transmitted light microscopy is sufficient for routine identification and counting of palynomorphs. Their occurrence in large quantities makes fossil pollen and spores amenable to numerical and statistical analysis. Interpretation of fossil samples in North America is aided by a large data-base of modern pollen and spore samples taken from various depositional environments and different vegetation types. Despite the long history and wide application of fossil pollen analysis in Quaternary studies, significant methodological and interpretive problems remain to be resolved. In this paper, I outline the basic principles and methods of Quaternary palynological analysis and review some representative examples of contemporary research in Canada.