Dinoflagellate cysts with dinosporin walls were identified for the first time in samples collected at Todos Santos Bay, Baja California, Mexico, during winter-spring 2000. Eighteen neritic species characteristic of temperate to temperate-cool neritic regions were identified, mainly from the Gonyaulacaceae and Congruentidiaceae families. The cysts were concentrated in the coastal zone, at depths shallower than 25 m, associated with surface fine sediments. Lingulodinium polyedrum (Stein) Dodge was the dominant species in both the sediments and in the water column, producing spring and summer red tides in the area.

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Micropaleontological and geochemical data were applied to sediments from southeastern Brazil to study the hydrodynamics associated with the Holocene sea level rise. Sediment cores were taken around Vitória Bay, examined for dinoflagellate cysts and subjected to isotopic analysis. The cyst assemblage mainly dominated by autotrophic species most notably O. centrocarpum, L. machaerophorum and T. vancampoae. The influence of the marine transgression and subsequent regression observed during the Holocene along the coast of Brazil could have initially favored the establishment of an oligotrophic and higher energy environment. The inflow of continental water from tributaries combined with a higher inflow of saline water into the estuarine system could have favored the establishment and subsequent deposition of the dinocysts.