Plants of Devonian-Mississippian black shales, eastern interior, USA

Conference · Tue Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1983 · Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6411701

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Macrofossils of the New Albany shale and equivalents of Late Devonian of Early Mississippian age in the east-central United States are known from three main floras or assemblages. One flora is almost entirely composed of Callixylon logs, slabs, and slivers, presumed to be driftwood permineralized after burial. Callixylon fossils are most abundant in the upper part of the Clegg Creek Member of the New Albany shale (Famennian) and equivalent strata in western New York, Ohio, and contiguous areas, perhaps because these Propymnosperms reached the zenith of their development at that time. A second, and later, flora consists principally of permineralized wood pieces (phosphatized free-wood or concretions) of stems, rachises, petioles, and possibly even mid-veins of pinnules of diverse members of the Lycopsida, Sphenopsida, Cladoxylales, Coenopteridales, Progymnospermae, and Pteridospermae. The principal concentration of these stem and petiolar segments is in the Falling Run Member of Sanderson Formation of the New Albany shale on the west side of the Cincinnati arch in southern Indiana and Kentucky, and in central Kentucky in the low saddle between the Cincinnati arch proper and its southward extension as the Nashville dome. The third type of macrofossil plant assemblage is consituted of Foerstia. These plants are considered to be algal in origin and indicate no clear relationship either to distance from shore or depth of water. The main concentration is in middle and lower New Albany shale and equivalents. It is also found sparingly in West Virginia and Michigan and much farther west (one specimen from the Exshaw shale of Montana).

• Research Organization: Michigan State Univ., East Lansing
• OSTI ID: 6411701
• Report Number(s): CONF-8304200-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States) Journal Volume: 67:3
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
040201* -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- Site Geology-- (-1989)
58 GEOSCIENCES
580100 -- Geology & Hydrology-- (-1989)
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
BLACK SHALES
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CHATTANOOGA FORMATION
DEVONIAN PERIOD
DISTRIBUTION
ENERGY SOURCES
FOSSIL FUELS
FOSSILS
FUELS
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS
MATERIALS
MISSISSIPPIAN PERIOD
NORTH AMERICA
OIL SHALES
PALEOZOIC ERA
USA