Pollen and non-pollen palynomorph preservation in the dung of the Greater One-horned Rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis), and its implication to palaeoecology and palaeodietary analysis: A case study from India Sadhan K. Basumatary a, ⁎, H. Gregory McDonald b , Rajib Gogoi c a Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, 53 University Road, Lucknow 226007, Uttar Pradesh, India b Bureau of Land Management, Utah State Office, 440 West 200 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84101, USA c Central National Herbarium, Botanical Survey of India, Howrah 711 103, West Bengal, India abstract article info Article history: Received 31 January 2017 Received in revised form 10 April 2017 Accepted 15 May 2017 Available online 17 May 2017 The Greater One-horned Rhino of India is an endangered species. We investigate the pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs preserved in rhino dung collected from a communal rhino dung midden in Kaziranga National Park to document the vegetation composition and dietary habits of this rhino. The palynodata reflects the dom- inance of nonarboreals over arboreals from forested and grassland areas respectively. The arboreals include a mixture of evergreen, riparian, and deciduous taxa, which are strongly indicative of different types of forest in the park. The high presence of grass pollen and phytoliths in the rhino dung was marked and confirmed that grass is the primary food of the rhino. Diatoms and Thecamoeba in the rhino dung assemblage was suggestive of the ingestion of huge amount of water and the water logged condition in parts of the park. Energy dispersive spectroscopy analysis indicated that the silica contained in rhino dung sample was high in comparison to the others elements and determination of its presence is useful for understanding rhinoceros' habits. The generated data will be helpful and to serve as a guideline for subsequent palaeoecological and palaeodietary studies in the park. © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Dung Flood Kaziranga National Park Palaeoecology Rhinoceros unicornis 1. Introduction The Greater One-horned Rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis, Linnaeus, 1758) is one of the largest herbivorous wild animals in the world. This rhinoceros is completely herbivorous and consumes a significant quan- tity of plants each day including terrestrial, marshy and aquatic species. One of the unique behaviors of rhinos, including the Greater One- horned Rhino is to consistently use the same location for their daily ex- cretion and dung may be deposited at this site or midden by multiple in- dividuals for up to several years (Dinerstein, 2003; pers. comm. local community). The systematic study of the modern pollen and vegetation relationship in Kaziranga National Park and wildlife sanctuary is difficult due to the high risk of disturbance to the wildlife and the ecology. Therefore, the study of pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs from the rhino dung has the potential to examine the relationship between the modern pollen and vegetation and the diet of the rhino with minimal impact to the animal or local vegetation. Previous work on the relation- ship between modern pollen and vegetation based on animal dung has shown it serves as one of the best analogues of local and regional vege- tation (Moe, 1983; Carrion, 2002; Kropf et al., 2007). Similarly, in some habitats such as deserts and other regions such as swamp and wet- lands as well as areas where animal dung is commonly encountered, the dung serves as a substrate that can be useful for the preservation of pollen. The study of coprolites as a substrate that preserves pollen can facil- itate the study of the palaeodiet of wildlife in relation to the palaeovegetation and climate in a region (Wood et al., 2013). Studies of coprolite palynology, especially in North America, have been used to interpret the prehistoric diet of both people and animals and the local vegetation (Martin and Sharrock, 1964; Bryant and Larson, 1968; Bryant, 1969, 1974; Riskind, 1970; Hall, 1972; Schoenwetter, 1974). However, including both phytoliths and diatoms in a single study can also serve as a powerful proxy for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and recognizing domestic herbivores (Lu and Liu, 2003; Gallego and Distelm, 2004; Blinnikov, 2005; Boyd, 2005; Lu et al., 2005; Rovner, 1986; Bowdery, 1999; Osterrieth et al., 2009; Morris et al., 2009a, 2009b; Gross, 2011; Blinnikov et al., 2013). There are few studies that have examined both palynomorphs and phytoliths in coprolites (Bryant, 1974; Bryant and Williams-Dean, 1975; Horrocks et al., 2002, 2003; Ghosh et al., 2008; Scott et al., 2016). This is the first study of the palynomorphs combined with Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (FESEM-EDS) analysis in rhino dung to observe the vegetation composition in Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 244 (2017) 153–162 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: sadhankumar_basumatary@bsip.res.in (S.K. Basumatary). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.revpalbo.2017.05.004 0034-6667/© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/revpalbo