at one site and common at two. Lycospora is very abun- 

 dant in the Delwood Coal and commonly makes up 

 more than two-thirds of the spore assemblage. Rare 

 specimens of Botryococcus were observed in the carbo- 

 naceous shale band in the Delwood Coal at site 30, 

 which is less than 2.6 km from its type section at NW 

 NW, Sec. 3, T.11S., R.6E., Pope County. The coal at site 

 32, also about 2.6 km from the type section, contains 

 rare speciments of Botryococcus. 



The geologic map of the Eddyville Quadrangle 

 (Nelson and Lumm 1990) places the coal at site 32 in 

 the lower part of the Abbott Formation (now called the 

 Tradewater Formation). Palynological evidence, how- 

 ever, would place the coal in the upper part of the 

 Tradewater Formation because the most abundant Ly- 

 cospora is L. granulata rather than L. pellucida (Peppers 

 1996) and Laevigatosporites globosus is common. It also 

 contains Vestispora clara, V. fenestrata, V. ivanlessii, 

 Camptotriletes confertus, Triquitrites pulvinatus, and T. 

 sculptilis, which do not appear until the middle part of 

 the Tradewater. This disagreement between the 

 mapped and palynological age of the coal cannot be 

 resolved until more samples are obtained. 



The Delwood Coal from diamond-drilled cores at 

 sites 19 and 34 in Saline County contains rare specimens 

 of Botryococcus. Maceration 1123 F2 is from the middle 

 8.9 cm of the 42-cm-thick coal, and the coal of macera- 

 tion 2994A is 45.7 cm thick. At site 33 in Saline County, 

 the upper part of the coal contains abundant Botryococ- 

 cus. Lycospora accounts for 57% of the spore assemblage, 

 and Laevigatosporites is second in abundance at 24%. 



In Johnson County, Botryococcus is rare in the Del- 

 wood Coal at sites 21 and 23. Maceration 1054A at site 

 21 represents the top 24.8 cm of a 49-cm-thick coal. The 

 coal at site 23 is less than 0.8 km from the coal at site 22, 

 in which Botryococcus is common. The spore assem- 

 blage at site 22 is greatly dominated by Lycospora at 

 85%. 



Some of the samples of the Delwood Coal are from 

 rotary-drill cuttings of coal that extends into the deeper 

 parts of the Illinois Basin. Algae are rare in the coal at 

 sites 12, 13, 15, and 16 in Cumberland, Jasper, Lawrence, 

 and Wayne Counties. Botryococcus is common in the 

 Delwood Coal at site 17 in White County, where Lycos- 

 pora accounts for 68.5% of the spore assemblage, and 

 fern spores account for 27.5% (table 2). 



Botryococcus is rare in a coal correlated with the 

 Delwood Coal at 322.2 to 323.2 ft in Western Kentucky 

 Test Hole Gil 15 (Williams et al. 1982) at site 36 in Union 

 County, Kentucky. 



New Burnside Coal Bed (Illinois) 



The New Burnside Coal Bed is generally 4.6 to 7.6 m 

 above the Delwood Coal Bed. Botryococcus is rare in the 

 30.5-cm-thick canneloid coal at sample site 20. The 

 spore assemblage contains an unusually large abun- 

 dance (23%) of Endosporites globiformis, which was pro- 

 duced by lycopods of small stature. Endosporites seldom 

 accounts for more than 10% of spore assemblages in 

 Lower and Middle Pennsylvanian coal beds. A coal 

 from a diamond-drilled core at site 18 that contains rare 

 specimens of Botryococcus correlates with the New 

 Burnside Coal. Botryococcus is abundant in maceration 

 2897 of a core sample from site 24 in Johnson County, 

 but the spores are poorly preserved. The drill hole is 

 about 2.6 km west of the town of New Burnside, and the 

 New Burnside Coal is about 15.3 m below the Mur- 

 physboro Coal Member. 



Unnamed Coal (Indiana) Equivalent to the 

 Murphysboro Coal Member (Illinois) 



A coal correlated with the Murphysboro Coal Member 

 at site 9 in Warren County, Indiana, contains occasional 

 specimens of Botryococcus. This coal also contains coal 

 balls near Cayuga in Fountain County, Indiana (Phil- 

 lips 1980). 



ALGAL AND SPORE ABUNDANCE IN THE LEWISPORT COAL BED AND 

 OVERLYING AND UNDERLYING STRATA IN UNION COUNTY , KENTUCKY 



Strata above and below the Lewisport coal bed at site 35 

 were sampled to leam whether abundance of Botryococcus 

 is related to composition of spore assemblages (fig. 5). 

 The Lewisport coal is poorly exposed on the southwest 

 slope of Indian Hill in Union County, Kentucky. It is 

 only 6.4 cm thick and divided into upper and lower 

 benches. Only the top 33 cm of underclay is exposed. 

 Above the coal lies 8.3 cm of black coaly shale, then 2.5 cm 

 of dark gray shale with limonite nodules, 2 cm black 

 coaly shale, and finally 17.5 cm of medium gray shale. 

 Estimated Botryococcus abundance was obtained by 

 counting the number of algal colonies or parts of colo- 

 nies in proportion to 300 spores, regardless of whether 

 the spore was well enough preserved to be identified. 



Botryococcus was rare during deposition of clay that 

 formed the seat earth for the Lewisport peat swamp, 

 but it increased slightly in abundance during the later 



stage of development (fig. 5, maceration 1958B). It dou- 

 bled in abundance during deposition of the bottom half 

 of the peat, became very abundant in the upper half, 

 and reached its peak abundance in the muddy peat 

 overlying the peat bed. Botryococcus was still abundant 

 but diminished somewhat toward the later part of 

 deposition of carbonaceous mud. Algal abundance 

 abruptly decreased at the beginning of deposition of 

 less carbonaceous mud (gray shale with limonitic nod- 

 ules) and continued to decline through the rest of the 

 sampled sequence and into deposition of an upper thin 

 peaty mud (maceration 1958H). 



There is a good correlation between abundance of 

 Botryococcus and Lycospora, borne by Lepidophloios and 

 other lycopod trees. From the top of the underclay to 

 the bottom half of the peat bed, Lycospora gradually 

 triples in abundance while Botryococcus doubles in 



11 



