Palynologie en de oorsprong van Acritarchen

Tiny organic walled fossil organisms called 'acritarchs' are found in sediments of the eastern Banda Sea (Indonesian Archipel). It was believed that these organisms were the remains of one-celled organisms, i.e. the cysts of dinoflagellates. In this article it is shown that at least one type of acritarchs, the so called schizomorphitae, most likely consists of the remnants of copepode-eggs. Schizomorphitae are found in the Precambrian. This implies that copepods already existed before the 'explosion of multicellular life' at the start of the Cambrian.