부산대학교 도서관

Dual-beam focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) is here applied to palaeopalynology in order to slice spores and pollen grains for reconstructing their ornamentation and wall-ultrastructure. Characteristics of spore and pollen wall structure are important for understanding botanical affinities and phylogeny and are of particular interest for establishing ancestral states in pollen of early flowering plants. While ultramicrotomy is the most commonly used method for ultrathin sections for studying ultrastructural details of spores and pollen under transmission electron microscopy (TEM), the FIB-SEM technique allows three-dimensional imaging. Furthermore, the region of interest may be selected with nanometric precision when using FIB-SEM. Initial studies of palaeopalynological remains using FIB slicing for SEM imaging have revealed very promising results. Moreover, this technique can be similarly easy applied to many other palaeontological remains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]