DEVELOPMENT OF PALEOBOTANY IN THE ILLINOIS BASIN 43 



I first became acquainted with Dick Wilson about 1936. I had become much 

 concerned with the various classifications based on spores and I learned 

 that he was too. I think [the publication by] "Wilson and Coe" [194-0] had 

 just appeared. It seemed logical that we get together on the classifica- 

 tion. I had learned of Bentall's work in Tennessee and it seemed to me a 

 good idea to bring him in too. He did most of the drawings for the publi- 

 cation by Schopf, Wilson, and Bentall (194-4) and he also made other con- 

 structive suggestions after I had written a first draft version. 



Two students who did their graduate work under H. R. Wanless at the Uni- 

 versity of Illinois completed their theses in palynology. Brokaw (1942) correlated 

 the Springfield (No. 5) and Harrisburg (No. 5) Coals by the use of spores. Eddings 

 (1947) described the small spores of the Chapel (No. 8) Coal (formerly called the 

 Trivoli Coal) and showed both the lateral extent of the coal and the thickness 

 of the interval between the No. 6 and No. 8 Coals. 



Robert M. Kosanke joined the Illinois Geological Survey in late 1942, work- 

 ing under Cady in the Coal Section. He later replaced Schopf as Survey paleo- 

 botanist when Schopf moved to the Bureau of Mines in 1943. Kosanke, like Schopf, 

 contributed to all branches of paleobotany in the Illinois Basin, but his major con- 

 tributions were in the areas of palynology, research, and teaching. Asked how he 

 got started in these areas, Kosanke wrote: "My interest in geology- paleontology- 

 paleobotany originated with a science requirement, general geology, at Coe Col- 

 lege, taught by Leonard R. Wilson. I started graduate work at Cincinnati with J. H. 

 Hoskins in 1940. " It was when Hoskins went on leave early in World War II that 

 Kosanke joined the Illinois Survey. 



Kosanke later continued his graduate studies at the University of Illinois, 

 completing his degree in 1952 under Stewart. He received a part-time appoint- 

 ment to the University botany staff in 1958 and taught a course in palynology. He 

 had gained early palynological experience from undergraduate research with Wilson 

 on interglacial peat deposits in Iowa (Wilson and Kosanke, 1940) and from a study 

 of microfossils from Pennsylvanian coal from Iowa, his senior thesis (Wilson and 

 Kosanke, 1944) . Kosanke wrote us, ". . .1 was delighted to have the opportunity 

 to teach palynology in the graduate college at Illinois. Even when I started teach- 

 ing palynology in 1958 there were few schools in the United States offering such 

 a course. " One of Kosanke' s early students in that course was Russel A. Peppers, 

 who replaced him at the Survey shortly after Kosanke joined the U. S. Geological 

 Survey in Denver in 1963 . 



Peppers recalls how he was introduced to palynology by Kosanke: 



William Merril, advisor for my master's thesis at the University of Illi- 

 nois, suggested that I collect some carbonaceous material from the Muddy 

 Sandstone Member (Cretaceous) to see if it would yield spores or pollen. 

 I was making a general stratigraphic study of the Muddy in parts of the 

 Powder River Basin, Wyoming. I brought a few samples to Kosanke, and he 

 showed me how to macerate them and prepare the material. Although the 

 sample did not yield a large variety of spores, I became interested in 

 palynology and completed my doctoral thesis under Kosanke. 



Kosanke (1945a, 1947, and 1950), while with the Illinois Geological Sur- 

 vey, was one of the first in the United States to establish a framework of correla- 

 tion of coals in an entire basin and through a thick sequence of strata. In his 1950 

 publication, which is now a basic reference for Pennsylvanian spores in the United 



