SHAPE VARIATIONS OF GRASS PHYTOLITHS IN EURASIA: TOWARDS IMPROVED INTERPRETATION OF FOSSIL PHYTOLITH RECORD USING NEW METHODS OF GEOMETRIC MORPHOMETRY
Abstrakt
Analysis of microfossil silica phytoliths is becoming an increasingly important research tool in paleoecology. A considerable amount of investigations focused, for instance, on the evolution of grassland ecosystems.
Such an advance was achievable mainly by the fact that generally used classification of grass phytolith short cells (GSSC) allows determination of grasses to the subfamily level. The standard method used in phytolith analysis is based on qualitative identification of idealized morphotypes (Madella et al. 2005), which relies mostly on visual cues of the shape and requires highly trained experts.
An alternative quantitative approach could minimize the observer's bias and ensure the consistency of data between labs. Moreover, quantitative approach provides data on a continuous scale, which reflects better the continuous variation of phytolith shape.