Europe has at present the most extensive network of palynological sites covering the Late Pliocene and the Early
Pleistocene or roughly the Gelasian-Calabrian Stages. This paper covers ten points of recent progress in the palynology
of this time period: 1) the contribution of palynology to truly global stratigraphy, 2) the existence and steps of vegetation
succession after a glacial period, 3) the causes for the disappearance from Europe of some taxa, 4) the location and the
types of vegetation refugia, 5) the causes of the low arboreal pollen representation in glacial times, 6) the extent of
extreme glacial conditions, 7) the input of long marine records to short terrestrial ones, 8-9) cyclopalynostratigraphy for
wiggle matching dating and duration estimations and, finally, 10) short glacial periods and long interglacial ones in an
obliquity-forced climate
