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Special Report 17

This pamphlet is designed as a stratigraphical introduction to the acritarchs for earth scientists. Theacritarchs are cysts of small marine planktonic algae that form the vast majority of the Palaeozoicmarine microflora. They are polyphyletic, belonging to various unknown algal groups. In total there is regularly a much greater acritarch numerical abundance and species diversity than for other fossil groups in sedimentary rocks. They are of considerable value in Palaeozoic biostratigraphy andpalaeoecology in both simple and complex structural provinces. Additionally. they are of economicimportance in age dating, well correlation and organic thermal maturation in the hydrocarbonexploration industry. From the early Jurassic they become less important in biostratigraphy, for cysts of known dinoflagellate affinity become dominant in most marine palynomorph assemblages in the Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary.