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STEM AND LEAF CUTICLE OF KARINOPTERIS: SOURCE OF CUTICLES FROM THE INDIANA “PAPER” COAL
Author(s) -
DiMichele William A.,
Rischbieter Michael O.,
Eggert Donald L.,
Gastaldo Robert A.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
american journal of botany
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.218
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1537-2197
pISSN - 0002-9122
DOI - 10.1002/j.1537-2197.1984.tb14169.x
Subject(s) - biology , botany , sedimentary depositional environment , coal , frond , cuticle (hair) , plant cuticle , oil shale , paleontology , ecology , archaeology , structural basin , history , biochemistry , wax
Cuticular or “paper” coal‐shale is a local deposit of an organic‐rich, highly clastic rock, with abundant leaf and stem cuticles, associated with the Upper Block Coal Member in Parke County, Indiana. Fresh blocks of cuticular coal can be split along bedding surfaces to reveal a fossil flora of low diversity, dominated by pteridosperms and lycopods, with minor amounts of ferns and sphenopsids. Karinopteris is a subdominant component of this flora and the great abundance of well‐preserved cuticles of this plant allows for a reconstruction of its frond and growth habit. Karinopteris appears to have been a vine, indicative of structural diversity in the plant assemblage. The plant assemblage of the cuticular coal is dissimilar to most midwestern coal‐ball floras of slightly younger age. This is probably a result of the depositional setting in an upper deltaic‐fluvial dominated environment.