Greenland are unrivalled for their paleoenvironmental compre- 

 hensiveness and their high degree of stratigraphic and paleoeco- 

 logical control. These collections also include a large number of 

 planktonic fossil assemblages prepared from Late Precambrian 

 rocks of the Arctic, Australia, Europe, the Soviet Union, Africa, 

 and North America, including, curiously, some from Cambridge, 

 Massachusetts. 



Type materials include those from the Gunflint, Bitter Springs, 

 Fig Tree, Skillogalee, Narssarssuk, Draken, Hunnberg, and 

 Rysso formations. 



ASSOCIATED COLLECTIONS 



The Pollen Collection. Palynology is the study of pollen, 

 spores, and other organic microfossils. Long recognized as an 

 important tool in stratigraphic studies, palynology is now 

 employed in a wide variety of paleobiological and paleoclimatic 

 investigations as well. The Harvard Pollen collections constitute 

 a reference collection documenting the pollen and spores of 

 some 11,000 species of extant vascular plants. Although species 

 represented come from many parts of the globe, the collection is 

 especially rich in tropical American and Chinese material. These 

 collections are currently used in basic research in palynology 

 and have provided source materials for several Ph.D. theses 

 completed at Harvard. Fossil pollen and spore collections are 

 also included in the Pollen Collection; most notable among 

 these are material from the Oligocene Brandon Lignite prepared 

 by Alfred Traverse and Holocene pollen and spores from Gatun 

 Lake, Panama, described by Alexandra Bartlett. 



The Wood Collection. The wood collection, approximately 

 30,000 specimens, and the wood microscope slide and other ana- 

 tomical collections (ca. 30,000) constitute a large informational 

 reservoir concerning plant structure. The wood sample collec- 

 tions are also of potential use in studies of the physical proper- 

 ties of woods and their chemical composition. Although no 

 program of instruction or research in wood technology is now 

 offered, the collections are available and curated for such poten- 

 tial utilization. 



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