Atlas of Holocene organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts of the Mar Piccolo (Taranto, Southern Italy)

Dinoflagellates are one of the major components of modern plankton. Some of them produce a preservable organic-walled resting cyst, known as a dinocyst, which represents a direct link between the organism, its environment, and the sedimentary record. Dinocysts provide a unique window into key palaeoecological and palaeoenvironmental factors, such as past sea-surface conditions. Analyzing dinocyst assemblages, essential for deciphering such factors, requires a robust taxonomy and consistent nomenclature for accurate taxa identification. Here, 60 dinoflagellate cyst taxa have been identified in the frame of palynological analyses of Holocene sedimentary archives (S05B core and surface sediments) from Mar Piccolo, a semi-enclosed basin of the Mediterranean Sea. Taxa have been briefly described, and 251 micrographs have been collected in 21 plates. The Atlas offers comprehensive iconographic documentation that is also valuable for comparing dinocyst assemblages from open and semi-enclosed seas of the Mediterranean.