Multiporate Poaceae pollen as environmental stress indicator in Holocene Sahara

    During the early and mid-Holocene, climate changes that occurred between ~10,200 and ~4650 cal BP in Central Sahara have determined adaptive responses of polyploid grasses in the form of multiporate pollen. For the first time, the Poaceae pollen preserved in the archaeological record of Takarkori rockshelter offers the possibility of obtaining palaeoecological information from an anomaly rather than from the normal morphology of the identified pollen. Multiporate pollen was found in organic sands and coprolites of ovicaprines. The supernumerary pores were primarily an effect of climatic/hydrological changes and, in the most recent phases, the continued plant harvesting was a further anthropogenic pressure on the wild grasses living in the region.

https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/5/4                                             https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/5/4/41