Carboniferous spores part I

The 'Bernard Owens Collection' of single grain mount palynological slides:
Compiled by Mike Stephenson and Bernard Owens

PDF report cover

These pages contain information on the first 68 taxa of the Bernard Owens single mount palynology collection. The complete collection of 145 taxa will be released later. Because, websites do not have publication status, a formal publication has been produced in .pdf format in the British Geological Survey Research Report Series (RR/06/05) and is available as a free download. This report has been assigned an ISBN number and deposited with the copyright libraries. It has been reviewed by two referees internal to the BGS and two further independent and experienced palaeontologists. It is to the research report that bibliographical reference should be made in formal taxonomic research.

A 'professional' version with a number of further images of all species and detailed data concerning age, distribution, etc. is available on CD ROM and hard copy, primarily for the commercial sector, and can be purchased through the BGS. Please contact Dr Mike Stephenson at BGS

The collection

The collection of single grain mount slides which is partly illustrated here, is possibly the most important collection of single grain Late Palaeozoic palynomorphs in the world with over 145 taxa represented by many specimens (up to 25 specimens per taxon), showing a wide range of preservation and natural variation. The specimens were collected from localities worldwide but are most closely associated with the UK and north-west Europe. Many of the taxa illustrated and described are integral to the biozonation of the Carboniferous of north-west Europe published by Clayton et al. (1977) and to earlier regional biozonations of smaller stratigraphical intervals within the UK (Smith and Butterworth, 1967; Neves et al., 1972, 1973; Owens and Burgess, 1965; Owens et al., 1977).

Each single grain mount slide is associated with a unique BGS collections number prefixed with MPK. All slides are held in the BGS Palaeontology Collections at Keyworth, Nottingham. For information on the collection and on slide loans please contact Dr Mike Howe, Chief Curator, BGS, Keyworth phone 0115 936 3105.

References

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BALME, B E. 1952. On some spore specimens from British Upper Carboniferous coals. Geological Magazine, Vol. 89, 175–184.

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BUTTERWORTH, M A, and WILLIAMS, R W. 1958. The small spore floras of coals in the Limestone Coal Group and Upper Limestone Group of the Lower Carboniferous of Scotland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Vol. 63, 353–392.

CLAYTON, G. 1971. Lower Carboniferous miospore assemblage from the Calciferous Sandstone Measures of the Cockburnspath region of eastern Scotland. Pollen et Spores, Vol. 12, 577–600.

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HOFFMEISTER, W S, STAPLIN, F L, and MALLOY, R E. 1955. Mississipian plant spores from the Hardinsburg Formation of Illinois and Kentucky. Journal of Paleontology, Vol. 29, 372–399.

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KEDO, G I. 1957. Spores from the supra salt Devonian deposits of the Pripyat depression and their stratigraphical significance. Byelorussian SSE. Palaeontology Reports, 3–45.

KEDO, G I. 1963. Spores of the Tournaisian Stage of the Pripyat Depression and their stratigraphical significance. Paleontologiya i Stratigrafiya BSSR, Vol. 4, 3–121.

KNOX, E M. 1950. The spores of Lycopodium, Phylloglossum, Selaginella, and Isoëtes and their value in the study of microfossils of Palaeozoic age. Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, Vol. 35, 211–357.

KOSANKE, R M. 1950. Pennsylvanian spores of Illinois and their use in correlation. Bulletin of the Illinois State Geological Survey, Vol. 74, 1–128.

LOBOZIAK, S, and ALPERN, B. 1978. Le bassin houiller Viséen D'Agadès (Niger). III: Les microspores. Palinologia, Vol. 1, 55–67.

LOBOZIAK, S, and CLAYTON, G. 1988. The Carboniferous palynostratigraphy of north east Libya. 129–149 in EL ARNAUTI, A., OWENS, B, and THUSU, B (editors). Subsurface palynostratigraphy of northeast Libya. (Benghazi, Libya: Garyounis University Publications.)

LOOSE, F. 1934. Sporenformen aus dem Flöz Bismarck des Ruhrgebietes. Arbeiten, Institut für Paläobotanik und Petrographie, Brennsteine, Vol. 4, 127–164.

LOVE, L G. 1960. Assemblages of small spores from the Lower Oil shale Group of Scotland. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh B, Vol. 67, 99–126.

NEVES, R, GUEINN, K J, CLAYTON, G, IOANNIDES, N, and NEVILLE, R S W. 1972. A scheme of miospore zones for the British Dinantian. Compte Rendu 7th Congrès International de Stratigraphie et de Géologie du Carbonifére, Krefeld, 1979, Vol. 1, 347–353.

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NEVES, R, and IOANNIDES, N. 1974. Palynology of the Lower Carboniferous (Dinantian) of the Spilmersford Borehole, East Lothian, Scotland. Bulletin of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, Vol. 45, 73–97.

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List of specimens

Sample details and sometimes description (where this adds to the concept of the taxon) are given alongside the photographed specimens. Each specimen has an MPK code that corresponds to a single slide that identifies it as part of the collection.