Because there is a lot of pollen and it doesn't fall apart easily, it is often preserved in layers of sediments and can become fossilized within rocks – even in places where other plants and animals are not likely to be preserved as fossils. This makes pollen a good source of data about past climates.

Paleobotanists – paleontologists who specialize in ancient plants – have far more fossilized pollen to study than fossilized plants. Whenever possible, they try to correlate pollen records with the fossil leaves, trunks, seeds or pinecones found nearby to confirm that the plants were in the area. Counts of ancient pollen tell us both the types of plants that grew in an area and the relative abundance of each plant species.

While pollen can be found in ice cores and seafloor sediments, the most common place to find ancient pollen is in sediment from the bottom of lakes.

Learn: GEOL 1330 UNIT THREE