Traces: The Memoir of a Forensic Scientist and Criminal Investigator

by Patricia Wiltshire

Theirs was a turbulent marriage and, if I felt more generous, I would say my parents could not help it. But I was at the heart of the tumult and it is difficult to forgive the lack of tranquillity in your home.

A friend of mine, Professor Margaret Collinson, retrieved a whole bee out of Cretaceous deposits, and the pollen sacs on its legs, with all the pollen grains beautifully preserved, were clearly visible. The pollen was about 100 million years old but had been preserved in sediment that had consolidated to form rock. It is not only amber that can preserve insects.

There are few absolutes in biology. Everything is probabilistic whether it concerns human health, the composition of the flora in a rich pasture, the animal and plant species found in any pond, or the growth pattern of daisies in the lawn. The identity and quantity of the various kinds of pollen and spores found in a sample depends on a great many variables, which we call ‘taphonomic factors’. I define palynological taphonomy as ‘all the factors that determine whether a palynomorph will be found in a specific place at a specific time’.