44 ILLINOIS STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY CIRCULAR 480 



States, more than 100 new species of spores were described. Concerning his 

 thinking at the beginning of the 1950 study, Kosanke wrote us: 



I felt I had demonstrated (19^3) the value of coal correlations vising 

 spores and pollen so that my own thoughts on the matter at the start of 

 the Illinois project were simply to establish the range zones and con- 

 sequent results. .. .Plant succession, whether modern or from the fossil 

 record, records change, and change is interesting to examine. I believe 

 such changes are easier to follow in palynology than in studies of mega- 

 scopic remains. 



At a symposium on oil exploration in 1964, Kosanke illustrated some spores and 

 discussed how spore data from Paleozoic strata could be applied to oil exploration. 



Kosanke came in contact with many paleobotanists on collecting trips in 

 the Illinois Basin and other areas, among them Schopf, Andrews, Arnold, Just, 

 Hoskins, Stewart, Baxter, Mamay, and Dele voryas. Although Kosanke did not 

 study coal-ball plants extensively, upon noticing that the plant material in them 

 had not been replaced, he (Kosanke, 1945b) devised a way to stain plant remains 

 in calcareous coal balls. 



Palynological maceration techniques usually result in the separation of the 

 megaspores and miospores that form the bases for most palynological research. 

 Thus, megaspores become the subject of specialized study. The most comprehen- 

 sive description of Mississippian and Pennsylvanian megaspores in the United 

 States is Marcia R. Winslow's publication (1959) on the Illinois megaspores. 



Peppers (1964) compared the variations in abundance and variety of spores 

 from various lithologic units in several cylothems in the Illinois Basin. In 19 70 

 he studied in detail the spore assemblages from numerous samples of coals from 

 the Carbondale and upper Spoon Formations of the Illinois Basin. Although coal 

 correlation was the primary purpose of the study, variations in spore assemblages 

 in several coals were found to be related to some extent to structural features, 

 which were thought to have produced differences in surface elevation at the time 

 of coal deposition. 



Comparative studies of spores from compressions have been made by 

 Pfefferkorn, Peppers, and Phillips (1971). 



Indiana University and Indiana Geological Survey 



Experiences leading to the first palynology course at Indiana University 

 were described by Canright: 



The summer of 1958 Gulf Oil asked me to go to Caracas to help set up a 

 palynology lab for the subsidiary, Mene Grande Oil Company. There I 

 worked on the Eocene palynomorphs of the Maracaibo Basin, as well as a 

 Lower Cretaceous core from Ghana.... in 1959. I established a palynology 

 course at Indiana University at the graduate level. 



Canright became Chairman of the Botany Department of Arizona State Uni- 

 versity at Tempe in 1964, and the collections made by him and his students from 

 the Illinois Basin from 1954 to 19 64 were acquired for the paleobotanical collec- 

 tions in the Botany Department at Indiana University, where David C. Dilcher is 

 paleobotanist and Donald R. Whitehead is palynologist. 



G. K. Guennel, while paleobotanist with the Indiana Geological Survey, 

 contributed two important papers on the palynology of Indiana coals. The first 



