Horsetails and ferns are a monophyletic group and the closest living relatives to seed plants.
These taxa comprise cycads, lycopods and ferns (although not all ferns are restricted to humid settings).
The species composition and the numbers of individuals and species of oribatid mites in the litter were affected by the size of the ferns.
Elements of the local mire vegetation, fern spores and other palynomorphs were not included in the pollen sum.
Both white mangrove and leather fern can become dominant in disturbed areas, which may explain their increased representation.
The resulting channel bars will have provided more extensive areas of clastic substrates, which will have favoured the fern-pteridosperm complex.
In the ferns, this evidence can be enhanced by additional data from reproductive organs.
Understorey plants were not identified to species, but were categorized as herbs, ferns, herbaceous vines, palms, t rees and lianas.
