Editing Pollen (section)

==In the fossil record==
{{Main article|Palynology}}
The [[sporopollenin]] outer sheath of pollen grains affords them some resistance to the rigours of the fossilisation process that destroy weaker objects; it is also produced in huge quantities. There is an extensive fossil record of pollen grains, often disassociated from their parent plant. The discipline of palynology is devoted to the study of pollen, which can be used both for [[biostratigraphy]] and to gain information about the abundance and variety of plants alive — which can itself yield important information about paleoclimates. Also, pollen analysis has been widely used for reconstructing past changes in vegetation and their associated drivers.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Franco-Gaviria |first1=Felipe |last2=Caballero-Rodríguez |first2=Dayenari |last3=Correa-Metrio |first3=Alexander |last4=Pérez |first4=Liseth |last5=Schwalb |first5=Antje |last6=Cohuo |first6=Sergio |last7=Macario-González |first7=Laura |title=The human impact imprint on modern pollen spectra of the Maya lands |journal=Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana |date=6 April 2018 |volume=70 |issue=1 |pages=61–78 |doi=10.18268/bsgm2018v70n1a4|doi-access=free |bibcode=2018BSGMx..70...61F }}</ref>
Pollen is first found in the [[fossil]] record in the late [[Devonian]] period,<ref name="palynology">{{Cite book| last = Traverse | first = Alfred | chapter = Chapter 8: Devonian Palynology | pages=199–227 | title = Paleopalynology | volume = 28 |series = Topics in Geobiology, 28 | year =2007 | publisher = Springer | location = Dordrecht | isbn = 978-1-4020-6684-9 | doi = 10.1007/978-1-4020-5610-9_8}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=De-Ming |last2=Meng |first2=Mei-Cen |last3=Guo |first3=Yun |title=Pollen Organ Telangiopsis sp. of Late Devonian Seed Plant and Associated Vegetative Frond |year=2016 |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=e0147984 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0147984 |pmid=26808271 |pmc=4725745 |bibcode=2016PLoSO..1147984W |doi-access=free}}</ref> but at that time it is indistinguishable from spores.<ref name="palynology"/> It increases in abundance until the present day.