THE PALAEOECOLOGY OF CARBONIFEROUS PEATS BASED ON THE MIOSPORES AND PETROGRAPHY OF BITUMINOUS COALS

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Abstract
Summary: The lack of ecological data concerning the vegetation of the peat deposits and adjoining areas in the Carboniferous period is a limiting factor in the use of spores for stratigraphical purposes. For this reason, a petrological and palynological investigation of a number of coal seams containing crassidurain, in the Yorkshire Coalfield, was undertaken. The results show four distinct assemblages of miospores, each assemblage being more or less associated with coal of a distinctive petrographic type. Their vertical sequence is similar in the different seams. The succession culminates in the crassidurain, above which, under favourable conditions, the sequence is reversed. The peats producing this sequence are considered to be autochthonous in origin although a partly allochthonous coal type is also recognized. Existing theories, which do not take account of palynological evidence, attribute the petrographic differences in the humic coals to varying degrees of aerobic decomposition controlled by environmental factors such as degree of drainage, or depth of water covering the peat surface at the time of deposition. They do not satisfactorily explain all the new evidence. The possibility that at least part of the sequence, and particularly the crassidurain, was the result of climatic factors is suggested.