(1) The scanning electron microscope (SEM) provides important advantages for studying microfossils, including a wide range of magnification, high resolution, depth of field, and ability to view samples without destruction. (2) SEM photographs show examples of microfossils like foraminifera, coccoliths, dinoflagellates, ostracods, and bryozoans. Electron microscopy reveals details of their wall structure, morphology, and taxonomy. (3) Studies of microfossil biometry, phylogeny, spine microstructure, and carapace morphology using SEM techniques provide paleontological and biostratigraphic information important for environmental interpretation.

1. (A importância da microscopia electrónica em Micropaleontologia)
Centro de Investigação em Ciência e Engenharia Geológica (CICEGe)
Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Quinta da Torre
P-2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
pal @ fct.unl.pt
PAULO LEGOINHA
The importance of electron microscopy in Micropaleontology

2. Micropaleontology / microfossils
Photographs of microfossils obtained with the SEM. (1) Globorotalia conomiozea; planktonic foraminifera from Quelfes
(Algarve), ~7 Ma (Messinian). (2) Gyroidina soldani; benthic foraminifera from Penedo norte (Setúbal Península), ~14.6
Ma (early Tortonian). (3) Coccolithus pelagicus, x 6500; coccosphere, calcareous nannofossil from Palença (Setúbal
Península), ~18 Ma (Burdigalian). (4) Hystrichokolpoma rigaudiae; dinoflagellate, from Setúbal Península (Miocene).
(5) Pterygocytheris (P.) siveteri, x 80; ostracod from Almada - Cristo Rei (Setúbal Península), ~15.5 Ma (Langhian).

3. The advantages of the scanning electron microscope in the
study of microfossils are:
• very wide range of useful magnification
• very small limit of resolution: 250-50 Å
• large depth of field allowing good stereoscopic vision
• easy preparation and no destruction of the material under
study
• possibility of varying the angle of observation

4. Lipps, Jere H. 2006. [Review of Vénec-Peyré, Marie-Thérèse, Les Planches Inédites de
Foraminiféres d’Alcide d’Orbigny—À L’aube de la Micropaléontologie / The
Unpublished Plates of Foraminifera by Alcide d’Orbigny—the Dawn of
Micropaleontology] Palaeontologia Electronica, Vol. 9, Issue 2, R6, 7pp.
http://palaeo-electronica.org/toc9_2.htm
“the birth of micropaleontology” Alcide d’Orbigny, 1826

5. Nanofósseis
50µm
(cianobactérias)
1 µm = 0.001 mm
Paulo Legoinha Mestrado em Paleontologia, UNL/UÉ
1 mm = 1000 µm

6. You can find Emiliania huxleyi all over the planet, from Portugal to the Philippines.
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/expeditions/2012/06/08/you-wanted-to-know-what-are-these-phytoplankton/
cocosfera
Calcareousnannoplankton

7. Elena Colmenero-Hidalgo , José-Abel Flores , Francisco J. Sierro (2002)
- Biometry of Emiliania huxleyi and its biostratigraphic significance in
the Eastern North Atlantic Ocean and Western Mediterranean Sea in
the last 20 000 years. Marine Micropaleontology, Volume 46, Issues 3–4,
2002, 247 – 263. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0377-8398(02)00065-8
Morphological scheme of Emiliania
huxleyi from a distal view based on
SEM . The parameters measured
are shown.
Emiliana huxleyi can be separated into two types, depending on placolith size. The larger forms
(E. huxleyi > 4 µm) are mainly present in glacial sediments and almost disappear during the
deglaciation and Holocene, while the smaller forms (E. huxleyi < 4 µm) are the most abundant
type during the Holocene.
Calcareousnannoplankton

8. PlanktonicForaminifera
walltexture
P.F.Sextonetal./MarineMicropaleontology60(2006)1–16

9. Planktonic
Foraminifera
wall structure
cancellate
spinose
pustolose,
finely perforate
smooth,
perforate
cancellate
encrusted

10. Bayesian inference SSU rDNA
phylogeny of the benthic and
planktonic foraminifera.
The phylogeny is based on the
partial 3’ terminal fragment of
the SSU rRNA gene (407
unambiguously aligned
nucleotide sites) and is rooted on
the benthic foraminifer
Allogromia sp.
Heidi Seears (2011)
PhD thesis, University of Nottingham
PlanktonicForaminifera

11. Dinoflagellata
archaeopyle
Dinocyst
(15 to 100 µm)
http://botany.si.edu/references/dinoflagellates/protoperidinium_be.htm

12. Fig. 3 SEM images of most abundant species in different
morphotypes of cheilostome bryozoan distributed around
Tasmania. These morphotypes are: erect rigid foliose (A)
Lanceopora obliqua ; erect rigid robust branching (B)
Menipea and (C) Smittoidea n ...
Zahra Z Amini , Mohammad H Adabi , Clive F Burrett ,
Patrick G Quilty
Bryozoan distribution and growth form associations
as a tool in environmental interpretation, Tasmania,
Australia. Sedimentary Geology, Volume 167, Issues
1–2, 2004, 1 – 15
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sedgeo.2004.01.010
BRIOZOA

13. Echinodermata
Spinemicrostructure
A.Kroh&J.H.Nebelsick(2010)Int.Assoc.Sedimentol.Spec.Publ.42,201–228

14. Plate 3 C: carapace; RV: right valve; LV: left valve.
Figs. 1–8 . Cyprideis belfortensi s Molinari, 1962. 1.
Female LV, sample RAII 262. 2. Female RV, sample RAII
265. 3. Female LV, internal view, sample RAII 261. 4 .
Male RV, sample RAII 262.
Silvia Ligios , Elsa Gliozzi (2012) - The genus
Cyprideis Jones, 1857 (Crustacea, Ostracoda) in the
Neogene of Italy: A geometric morphometric
approach. Revue de Micropaléontologie, Volume 55,
Issue 4, 2012, 171 - 207
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.revmic.2012.09.002
Ostracoda

15. Conodonts have no close living
relatives, and without homologous
structures in extant organisms to
aid interpretation, analysis of
natural assemblages is the only
rigorous method of reconstructing
the original spatial arrangement
of conodont elements in the
feeding apparatus (Purnell, 1997)
… interpretation is also supported
by recent studies of conodont
histology, microstructure and
surface micro-wear
Câmbrico (550 Ma) - Triásico (200 Ma)
Conodontóforos
YangZhangetal.(2014)JournalofAsianEarthSciences80,75–83
Biostratigrafia (datação das rochas)
Cor – paleotermómetros –
- maturação térmica (“janela de óleo”)
http://australianmuseum.net.au/What-are-conodonts

16. Male flower of Erdtmanithecales, with about 110 million years, from the Early Cretaceous of
Vale de Água (Aljubarrota) and preserved trisulcate pollen on the stigma.
Paleobotany

17. X-ray tomography of flower of Nynpheaceae (Monetianthus mirus Friis et al. 2009) with
about 110 million years from the Lower Cretaceous of Vale de Água (Juncal) with flower
drawing and reconstitution.
Paleobotany

18. Pollen Symplocos sp.:
Scale bars: A, B, 10 μm ; C, 1 μm.
Vieira M., Poças E., Pais J. & Pereira D. 2011. - Pliocene flora from S. Pedro da Torre deposits
(Minho, NW Portugal). Geodiversitas, 33 (1): 71-85.
M.O. – equatorial view MEV - equatorial view detail of the exine surface
Palynology

19. 0,3 mm
100 µm
Early skeletal microfossils
Lower Cambrian (~ 550 to 530 Ma)
Earliest …
foraminiferid test (i)
cnidarian skeleton (o, p)
protoconodont (b)
micromollusc Latouchella (g)
microgastropod Aldanella (a)
Dorsal skeleton of an onycophoran arthropod (n)
(l) Hexatinellid spicule (> 550 Ma)
Armstrong & Brasier (2005)

20. Thank you / Obrigado