Dear authors,

I would like to thank you for all of the work that you have put into responding to the very detailed reviewers comments, and also the additional comments that have been provided scientists within the wider palynological community. The invited reviewers both recommended that your research be published, and that it was of high value and of interest to the scientific community. One of the additional reviews also suggested the same.

It is clear from all 4 reviews and your detailed responses that you have needed to make some significant technical alterations to your work, and undertake a large re-write and/or clarifications of your text.

Therefore, I have decided that you manuscript should undergo major corrections, and as part of this I would like to send your corrected manuscript out for a further review to ensure that all the corrections that you have undertaken have improved the technical aspects of your paper, as well as the clarity of your arguments.

From your responses to each reviewer I can see that you will have undertaken much additional work to ensure it is publication ready, and I would like to thank you for addressing the various reviews so diligently and thoroughly. I look forward to reading the corrected version of your manuscript.

Best wishes
Keely

Dear authors,

Thanks (again) for undertaking the substantial revisions to your manuscript as outlined by the various reviewers of your paper. Whilst I appreciate the time and effort this has taken, I hope it has been an insightful and valuable journey.

You will see that your paper was sent out for a re-review to one of the previous reviewers of your paper in order to assess the nature of your revisions. I am pleased to tell you that, subject to very minor technical corrections, your paper is accepted for publication.

Alongside the short report from the re-review, please also find an annotated PDF with technical corrections that I have spotted in your manuscript. I would be grateful if you could address as many of these as possible just to aid the flow of the paper a little. I do not expect you to provide an author response. I will trust that these are undertaken where highlighted and where necessary.

Many thanks for all of the effort you have invested into this paper. I look forward to seeing it published in due course!

Best wishes
Keely