Introduction
Gondwana, which includes Australia, South Africa, India, Antarctica and South
America, holds the largest coal deposits. These coal deposits were formed from
vegetation growing in the vast swamps that occupied huge slowly subsiding
depressions left bare after the retreating glaciers at the end of the carboniferous. The
early Permian climate was cold, with freezing winters and humid cold summers.
Cold temperate climate followed for some time until the warming up towards the
end of the Permian. The vegetation that gave rise to the vast coal deposits (Fig. 1)
was predominantly the Glossopteris flora which was composed of trees varying in
size and shedding their leaves in winter. The trunks of these plants and large
quantities of their leaves settled in the marshes and degraded into peat which
accumulated, and through diagenetic processes, subsidence and compression
formed the coal deposits. The Permian vegetation shed their pollen and spores as
well, and these were deposited with the rest of organic remains. Pollen and spores
are resistant to degradation and their fossil remains are used to reconstruct the
environment and landscape at the time of deposition, the climatic conditions and
type of vegetation. The pollen and spores were extracted from coals that were
formed from plant remains deposited during the Permian era that signifies the last
period of the Palaeozoic between 298 and 250 million years ago: The end of the
Permian marks a dramatic change in the flora in the wake of a meteorite impact in
Brazil and extensive flood volcanism in Siberia and China, which triggered the
release of immense sulphur-di-oxide fumes and carbon-di-oxide, resulting in the
greatest known mass extinction of fauna and certain flora.
Pollen and spores in this book are described according to a devised and universally accepted systematic code; a critical approach of the traditional systematic
classification is undertaken. Furthermore, pollen and spores are discussed in terms
of their botanical affinity and are compared with pollen and spores of living
Australian plants. Some of the Permian pollen/spores show close resemblance to
those of Australian plants growing today. These signify continuity, whereas many
others became extinct over a period of time as a result of climatic changes occurring
in their environment. Ignoring the affinity of fossil pollen/spores to existing plants
on one hand, the attempt to reconstruct past environments is incompatible.
ix
Gondwana, which includes Australia, South Africa, India, Antarctica and South
America, holds the largest coal deposits. These coal deposits were formed from
vegetation growing in the vast swamps that occupied huge slowly subsiding
depressions left bare after the retreating glaciers at the end of the carboniferous. The
early Permian climate was cold, with freezing winters and humid cold summers.
Cold temperate climate followed for some time until the warming up towards the
end of the Permian. The vegetation that gave rise to the vast coal deposits (Fig. 1)
was predominantly the Glossopteris flora which was composed of trees varying in
size and shedding their leaves in winter. The trunks of these plants and large
quantities of their leaves settled in the marshes and degraded into peat which
accumulated, and through diagenetic processes, subsidence and compression
formed the coal deposits. The Permian vegetation shed their pollen and spores as
well, and these were deposited with the rest of organic remains. Pollen and spores
are resistant to degradation and their fossil remains are used to reconstruct the
environment and landscape at the time of deposition, the climatic conditions and
type of vegetation. The pollen and spores were extracted from coals that were
formed from plant remains deposited during the Permian era that signifies the last
period of the Palaeozoic between 298 and 250 million years ago: The end of the
Permian marks a dramatic change in the flora in the wake of a meteorite impact in
Brazil and extensive flood volcanism in Siberia and China, which triggered the
release of immense sulphur-di-oxide fumes and carbon-di-oxide, resulting in the
greatest known mass extinction of fauna and certain flora.
Pollen and spores in this book are described according to a devised and universally accepted systematic code; a critical approach of the traditional systematic
classification is undertaken. Furthermore, pollen and spores are discussed in terms
of their botanical affinity and are compared with pollen and spores of living
Australian plants. Some of the Permian pollen/spores show close resemblance to
those of Australian plants growing today. These signify continuity, whereas many
others became extinct over a period of time as a result of climatic changes occurring
in their environment. Ignoring the affinity of fossil pollen/spores to existing plants
on one hand, the attempt to reconstruct past environments is incompatible.
ix