. B Figure 1 A. Cross section of a pair of modern cells of Bolryococcus braunii Kiitzing. B. Colony of B. braunii. Cells, cell caps, and cell walls are not present in fossil Botryococcus (adapted from Blackburn and Temperley 1936). Paleozoic algae preserved in torbanite without appre- ciable ; White's description (in Bain 1906) of algae in the Galena Formation of Illinois strongly suggests that Botryococcus can be traced back at least to the Ordovician. COAL BEDS THAT CONTAIN BOTRYOCOCCUS Coals containing Botryococcus are widely distributed in the Illinois Basin (table 1 and


. B Figure 1 A. Cross section of a pair of modern cells of Bolryococcus braunii Kiitzing. B. Colony of B. braunii. Cells, cell caps, and cell walls are not present in fossil Botryococcus (adapted from Blackburn and Temperley 1936). Paleozoic algae preserved in torbanite without appre- ciable ; White's description (in Bain 1906) of algae in the Galena Formation of Illinois strongly suggests that Botryococcus can be traced back at least to the Ordovician. COAL BEDS THAT CONTAIN BOTRYOCOCCUS Coals containing Botryococcus are widely distributed in the Illinois Basin (table 1 and fig. 2). Analyses of the samples are discussed below according to stratigraphic unit, oldest to youngest (fig. 3). References in the text are to the unit name in southern Illinois. Correlation with equivalent (but occasionally differently named) units elsewhere in the basin are given in figure 3. Reynoldsburg Coal Bed (Illinois) Kosanke (1950) studied the palynology of the Rey- noldsburg Coal Bed near the town of Reynoldsburg, Johnson County; and Smith (1957) reported on strippa- ble reserves of the coal in southern Illinois. Trask and Jacobson (1990) mapped the coal outcrop near Reynoldsburg. The coal lies just above the Pounds Sandstone Member and at the base of the Tradewater Formation (formerly Abbott Formation; Greb et al. 1992). It is late Morrowan in age (fig. 3). In places the canneloid and bituminous coal grades upward into an oil shale several feet thick, called the Ozark oil shale, that was locally used in cookstoves and fireplaces. At site 28 (table 1), the Reynoldsburg contains abundant Botryococcus and opaque, finely divided kerogen. Spores in maceration 2695 are poorly preserved, but the assemblage is dominated by Densosporites, which were produced by small lycopods. Botryococcus is rare in the coaly shale at site 29, about 2 miles east of Reynoldsburg, and in the coal at site 31, about 11 miles east of Reynoldsburg. The can- neloid coal and bituminous shale at s


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