British Coal Measures Research Articles

Scottish Carboniferous amphibian localities

Synopsis A catalogue of Carboniferous amphibian localities in Scotland is given. The horizon, matrix lithology and amphibian fauna at each site is recorded, together with a list of the repositories in which the material is housed. The Scottish Carboniferous amphibian fauna is divisible into two discrete assemblages: a Coal Measures assemblage, comprising taxa found elsewhere in the British Coal Measures; and a pre-Coal Measures assemblage restricted to the Midland Valley. The Carboniferous flora and fish fauna appear to partition in a similar way. The boundary between these two assemblages is represented by the Passage Group.

The stability of underground workings in the soft rocks of the Coal Measures

The characteristics of soft rocks typical of the British Coal Measures are defined and a series of working hypotheses are developed to provide improved design methods for underground roadway and face supports and pillars in coal mines. Proposed design equations are tested against case history data.

Lost & Found: 116. Palaeozoic Fossil Insects

E.A. JARZEMB0WSKI of the Dept. of Palaeontology, British Museum (Natural History), London SW7 5BD., writes as follows:- "I work on fossil insects under Dr P.E.S. Whalley at this museum. I gave a talk on Scottish fossil insects at the Pal. Ass. Edinburgh meeting last year, and included Lithomantis carbonarius Woodward (Bolton, H. 1921-2. A monograph of the fossil insects of the British Coal Measures. Palaeontogr. Soc. Honogr. pi.2 fig. 4). The counterpart of this specimen, if it exists, would be worth examining, as this is the best preserved Palaeodictyopteran yet found in Britain. I was wondering if it might be possible to "advertise" for help in locating it via...

Discovery of amphibians in the Namurian (Upper Carboniferous) of Fife

CARBONIFEROUS amphibians are very rare as fossils and almost all major finds of British specimens were made in the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, knowledge of Carboniferous tetrapods, both amphibians and reptiles, has expanded considerably in recent years1,2. All are from Europe or North America and most are from horizons equivalent to or later than the British Coal Measures (Westphalian and Stephanian, respectively). Far fewer amphibians are known from the Lower Carboniferous and knowledge of the Namurian tetrapod fauna, between the Lower Carboniferous and the Coal Measures, is even more meagre. With the exception of a single incomplete anthracosaur amphibian from the Namurian of the Ruhr, Germany3, pre-Coal Measure amphibia are known from only three areas (1) West Virginia and south-western Pennsylvania in the United States4,5; (2) Nova Scotia, Canada6, and (3) the Edinburgh area and southern Fife in Scotland7,8. In November 1974, however, fossil amphibian and fish remains were discovered at the Dora Opencast Site (area C), south-east of Cowdenbeath, Fife (Fig. 1), in Carboniferous strata of Namurian age. The richly fossiliferous bone bed at Cowdenbeath formed a localised patch in a seatrock (rooty, muddy siltstone), which lies beneath a coal seam below the Lochgelly Blackband Ironstone. The Lochgelly Blackband Ironstone itself has also produced a fauna with amphibian remains in the Dora site, while a few specimens have been recovered from strata up to 6 m lower in the sequence.

The age of the British upper coal measures with reference to their miospore content

Details are given of miospore distributions and zonation in the British Upper Coal Measures. These are compared with miospore distributions in strata of comparable age in France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Spain, and parts of Russia and the United States. Various published correlations of these strata are discussed and an amended correlation between the British and French sequences suggested. It is concluded that there is as yet little palynological evidence for the presence in Britain of Carboniferous strata of an age younger than that of the Westphalian D stage.

An illustrated key to the commoner British Upper Carboniferous plant compression fossils

This key is intended to guide readers to the identity of some 150 of the commonest Upper Carboniferous plant fossils preserved as compressions. Each of these species is illustrated by a line drawing emphasising those features by which it may be distinguished from comparable forms. A table shows the stratigraphic range and relative abundance of these plants through the British Coal Measures.

The breakdown of British Coal Measure rocks

The influence of geological structures, textural features and mineralogy on the breakdown of Coal Measure rocks are considered, particular attention being paid to the more common rocks that are intimately associated with coal seams. A geographical variation is recorded in the clay mineralogy and evidence is introduced which favours two dominant processes being involved in the immediate slaking properties of mudstones, shales and seatearths. These are capillarity and intra-particle swelling of the 10 Å mixed-layer mineral. Disintegration in terms of fundamental grain size is believed to be brought about by inter-particle dispersive mechanisms which are of longer term. An incipient rank relationship is tentatively suggested by the slaking behaviour of the more extreme end-members associated with low-rank coals.

The clay minerals of some British coal measure rocks

The clay fraction (−5μ) was examined for a borehole located in rocks of the coal measures, near Mansfield, England using the X-ray diffractometry technique. On the basis of the studied specimens, it appears that illite and kaolinite are the predominant clay minerals, together with quartz, in the majority of the cases. The ratio illite/kaolinite was found to give an indication on the transgression and regression of the sea. The detection of pyrite coincides with the abundance of kaolinite.

A Kaolinite Mudstone (Tonstein) in the British Coal Measures

ABSTRACT A bed of kaolinite mudstone, a tonstein, about 2 inches thick was deposited over at least 3,000 sq. miles in the Coal Measures of the Midlands and of the North of England. Based on the field relationships, the petrography, the mineralogy and the geochemistry it is claimed that this band was formed by the in situ alteration of volcanic ash. This tonstein is, therefore, thought to be a bentonite. A review is also given of the literature on tonsteins and postulated origins.

Boron Content in Relation to Organic Carbon in Certain Sediments of the British Coal Measures

Boron Content in Relation to Organic Carbon in Certain Sediments of the British Coal Measures

Techniques in sedimentary geochemistry--[Part] 2, Determination of the ferrous iron contents of carbonaceous shales

ABSTRACT A method is described for the determination of ferrous iron contents in shales containing organic matter up to 4 per cent carbon equivalent. After initial attack on the shale the ferrous iron is made to react with iodine monochloride and the liberated iodine titrated against standard potassium iodate. The value of ferrous iron determinations in shales is illustrated by consideration of the composition of various members of a British Coal Measure cyclothem.

British coal measure labyrinthodont localities

British coal measure labyrinthodont localities

Some Chemical Data on British Carboniferous Sediments and Their Relationship to the Clay Mineralogy of These Rocks

Analyses of shales, mudstones and associated strata from the British Coal Measures reflect the general similarity of the clay mineralogy of the rocks studied. Variations in the Na ~ :K+ ratio appear to be due to variations in the Na+ :K+ ratio in illite. It is suggested that degraded illite supplied to the site of sedimentation had a bigher Na+ :K+ ratio than the illite now present in the shales and that post-depositional changes have caused a fall in this ratio. Under conditions of rapid sedimentation such changes tend to be inhibited by rapid burial. In the seat earths, produced by very slow sedimentation, post-depositional changes continued to an advanced stage and resulted in low Na+ :K+ ratio in the final sedimentary rock.

LVII.—Pityosporites Westphalensis, sp. nov., an abietineous type pollen grain from the coal measures of Britain

Abstract Recent investigations of the microfloras of the Upper Carboniferous coal-seams of a part of the South Wales Coalfield have demonstrated the presence in these coals of pollen grains of typical Abietineous aspect referable to the genus Pityosporites Seward. A new species—P. westphalensis—is described. The grains are found distributed through the seam as part of the overall microflora and are not associated with any male fructifications or sporangia. However, on morphological grounds they are referable to the Coniferae and indicate the existence during late Carboniferous (Coal Measures) times of a group of conifers which quite probably were the early representatives of the Abietineae. The geographical and vertical distributions of Pityosporites in the British Coal Measures are given as far as they are known at present, and it is concluded that this hitherto unknown group of Coal Measures conifers made a small but nevertheless significant contribution to the floras of those times.

XCV.—Descriptions of nine species of small spores from the British Coal Measures

XCV.—Descriptions of nine species of small spores from the British Coal Measures

VIII.—Variation in Shape of Shell with Respect to Ecological Station. A Review dealing with Recent Unionidæ and Certain Species of the Anthracosiidæ in Upper Carboniferous Times

Studies in the variation of the Anthracosiidæ (= Carbonicolidæ) in the South Wales Coalfield by Davies and Trueman (1927) and in the Scottish Coalfields by Leitch (1936, 1940, 1941) have suggested that environmental influence on shell form is confined to changes in thickness of shell and in obesity. Davies and Trueman quoted H. R. Wakefield, who remarked that to-day among the Unionidæ these characters appear to vary according to the station of the shells in a single lake. Leitch referred to the work of Ortmann (1920) on the relation between obesity and distribution of river mussels in a large drainage basin in the U.S.A. The writer, in the course of very detailed work on the most highly variable faunas of the Anthracosiidæ known in the British Coal Measures, found evidence suggesting that certain other changes in shell shape and dimensions may also accompany environmental changes, as far as past environments may be reflected in the lithology of the rocks containing the shells.

The Periods of Coal Formation represented in the British Coal Measures

As a result of recent work on the correlation of the Coal Measures in the various British coalfields it is now possible to determine the relative ages of the chief productive measures in the different areas. Some aspects of this work were summarized in 1933 but much further work has been done since that time, especially with reference to the Scottish coalfields (Weir and Leitch, 1936). The results of these investigations may be expected to throw considerable light on the physiography and other factors controlling the deposition of the Upper Carboniferous rocks, but in the present note attention is drawn only to the zonal distribution of the more important coals in various British coalfields.

Structure of Some Carboniferous Seeds from American Coal Fields

1. Structurally preserved seeds were found in coal ball material collected under the auspices of the Illinois State Geological Survey by Dr. A. C. Noe of the University of Chicago. The source of the coal balls was from southern Illinois and Indiana in coal no. 5, which is in the Allegheny group of the Upper Pennsylvanian. 2. The seeds described are Conostoma oblongum Will. of the order Lagenostomales, and Pachytesta gigantea Br. of the order Trigonocarpales. This is the first description of Pachytesta from American coal balls. 3. Illustrations of Lagenostoma ovoides from the British Coal Measures, and of Pachytesta gigantea, Conostoma oblongum, Cardiocarpon, and Trigonocarpon hookeri from the American Coal Measures, are used to demonstrate similarity in development of Paleozoic seeds with those of modern gymnosperms, and to show variation in ontogeny at the time of petrifaction.

A NEW TYPE OF PALAONISCOID FISH: 3. A new Type of Palaeoniscoid Fish, with Remarks on the Evolution of the Actinopterygian Pectoral Fins

Summary.A new fish‐fauna is described from the Middle Culm (barren Coal) Measures of Bude, North Cornwall, comprising three species, of which two, the Acan‐thodian Acanthodes wardi Egerton and the Palaeoniscid ElonicMhys aitkeni Traquair, are already well known and have a fairly wide distribution in the English Coal Measures. The third form belongs to a very distinct new genus and species, Cornuboniscus budensis, which, while a typical Palaeoniscid in its fusiform shape, heterocercal tail, and in most other features of its external anatomy, differs from all normal members of that group in having a paddlelike pectoral fin supported by a uniform row of radials but without basal elements. The structure of this fin is compared with those of the aberrant Lower Carboniferous genus Tarrasius and the living Polypterines, and it is tentatively suggested that Cornuboniscus may be a survivor from the original normally shaped Palaeoniscoid stock which, after acquiring the characteristic pectoral fins, gave rise subsequently to degenerate elongated types, of which Tarrasius and the Polypterines represent different branches. The fossils are preserved as external moulds, and are sometimes quite uncrushed, so that many details of the anatomy usually obscured are finely preserved, especially the sensory canal‐system and the bones of the rostral region.Finally, in a survey of the principal types of Actinopterygian pectoral fins it is suggested on the evidence of the development of these organs that the Palseoniscoids must have divided very early into four groups, and an attempt is made to show how the principal types of pectoral fins in existing Actinopterygian fishes might have been derived from the fins in those groups.

Notes on Some Plant Remains from the Carboniferous of Illinois

1. Fragments of a stem, leaves, and sporangiophores bearing sporangia containing spores, all hitherto undescribed species and all possessing Calamitean characters, were found in coal ball 236 of the Harrisburg, Illinois, collection. The geological age of the material is the Alleghany group of the Upper Pennsylvanian. 2. In its anatomical structure the stem is conformable with the genus Calamites, but varies in detail from any of the described species, and so the specific name multifolia has been assigned to it. 3. Many sections of Calamitean leaves were found, some of them remarkably well preserved. In general they resemble leaves of the Asterophyllites type of the British Coal Measures, yet differ from them in specific details to such an extent that they too have been assigned to a new species, multifolia. 4. The sporangiophores are all detached from any vegetative structure and are separated from one another, except in one instance where two of them were found so related as to suggest an original aggregation into a strobilus. They are unique in the number (twenty-five to thirty) of sporangia they bear. The sporangia are round to angular in section, with a single layer of wall cells, and contain numerous spores. The spores are elliptical to elongate, 25 X 50 μ, with smooth spore coats and devoid of contents. 5. It is suggested that the fragments described may possibly be vegetative and reproductive portions of the same plant.