Spiniferites cruciformis: a fresh water dinoflagellate cyst?

Palynological studies of cored lacustrine sediments from the late Quaternary of Lake Kastoria, northern Greece, revealed a Late Glacial interval with abundant dinoflagellate cysts. Cyst assemblages include two identifiable species, Spiniferites cruciformis and Gonyaulax apiculata. The presence of the fresh water species G. apiculata is consistent with the lacustrine setting of these deposits, but that of S. cruciformis is anomalous. Previously, this species has only been recorded in abundance from presumed brackish marine sediments from the Black Sea and Marmara Sea sediments where geochemical data clearly record brackish salinities. Therefore, it has been regarded as a low salinity cyst type with a wide range of morphological variation that some workers have suggested to reflect salinity fluctuations. Specimens from Greece display only part of the range of morphological variability previously described from these (brackish) marine settings. Encountered morphological variation includes ellipsoidal/pentameral and cruciform endocyst shapes with rare intermediate shapes, and highly variable septa development. Specimens characterized by extremely reduced ornamentation known from (brackish) marine environments have not been recorded. Our records of S. cruciformis indicate that: (1) it could thrive in fresh water conditions; and (2) that apparently most of the strong morphological variations of the cysts are an intrinsic phenomenon for this taxon, and may only partly be linked to salinity variations as suggested earlier. We suggest that S. cruciformis essentially is a fresh water taxon, and that its records in (brackish) marine environments, with the exception of specimens with strongly reduced ornamentation, may be due to transportation, to short-lived fresh water surface conditions in such environments, or to tolerance of the species to brackish conditions.