DEVELOPMENT OF PALEOBOTANY IN THE ILLINOIS BASIN 49 



As to the future developments of paleobotany in coal- ball studies, Baxter 

 suggested: 



...I would expect most of the important new discoveries to relate to the 

 smaller "herbaceous" flora, which I think has been largely overlooked up 

 to now. I also think the cordaitean assemblage of seeds, leaves, stems, 

 and roots is much more complex than now realized and holds a lot of prom- 

 ise for some major new discoveries. 



Hall indicated, "One project that I think might be done with coal balls is 

 to examine their pollen content, a palynological study of coal balls. There's still 

 plenty of room for electron microscope studies on coal-ball plants, both TEM and 

 SEM. " Stewart stated, "I am all for getting palynologists to take a look at their 

 material from a biological point of view, to try to relate spores and pollen to the 

 structure and organisms that produce them. " 



Stratigraphy will continue to be important in the study of compression-im- 

 pression floras. However, compression floras must be found in more than the 25 

 stratigraphic units now known in order to improve the biostratigraphic subdivisions 

 The compression floras known from the upper part of the Pennsylvanian (McLeans- 

 boro Group) are low in diversity and mainly contain forms with long stratigraphic 

 ranges. The paleoecological implications of compressions also offer a promising 

 area of study, as does systematic study of outstanding floras from a single local- 

 ity or bed. 



Palynology continues to be an important tool in the identification and cor- 

 relation of coal and other rocks in the Illinois Basin. As spore data accumulate, 

 palynology will prove more reliable in correlating strata between different basins. 

 More detailed studies are needed to refine the criteria for differentiating individ- 

 ual seams and interpreting their stratigraphic relations. Examination of some of 

 the thinner and less widely distributed coals that have not received much atten- 

 tion should be included. Additional palynological studies of the thin coals in the 

 Chesterian Series, which Kosanke initiated, will probably be made. 



Paleoecological factors that influence the composition of the coal flora will 

 no doubt be emphasized. One approach is the study of spore assemblages and 

 petrographic constituents of samples taken at frequent intervals throughout individ- 

 ual coal seams, which has been done in several areas outside Illinois. Although 

 detailed petrographic analyses of coal columns have been made at the Illinois 

 Geological Survey, spore analyses of correspondingly close intervals of a coal 

 seam have not yet been published. 



The paleoecology of plant life will become clearer as the affinities of more 

 dispersed spores become known. The vertical sequences of coal balls in coal al- 

 so provide evidence of the plants that inhabited the swamps, and such sequences 

 could shed considerable light on changes in the peat swamp environment. The 

 fact that the coal balls of plant fossils are essentially in situ makes them inval- 

 uable for such work . 



The synthesis of spore data from all the branches of paleobotany would be 

 helpful in relating isolated spores and pollen to their parent plant types. Such a 

 synthesis could explain the variations in spore morphology encountered in paly- 

 nological studies. It could also delineate stratigraphic ranges of plants where 

 only palynological data are available. Studies of the spora assemblages from a 

 variety of rocks other than coal also could shed light on the Mississippian and 

 Pennsylvanian floras. 



We agree with the sentiment expressed in James Schopf's closing comment 

 to us, "There is no dearth of potentially productive material to work on! " 



