The formation and significance of Carboniferous coal balls

Abstract

Coal balls (exceptionally preserved calcareous permineralized peat), widely described from tropical Carboniferous Euramerian coal seams, have yielded diverse data on the biology, ontogeny and ecology of swamp plants and ecosystems. Probably over 75% of the swamp taxa may have been preserved, in contrast to probably less then 10% in other contemporaneous environments, but the assemblages are species-poor and represent an evolutionarily conservative assemblage. The in situ nature of coal ball peats allows ecological changes to be identified from vertical profiles. Major changes in plant communities both within individual seams and between seams appear to reflect both local and widespread climatic changes, particularly in rainfall. The preservation of cell contents, plant apices, gametophytes, etc., demonstrates the contemporaneous or early diagenetic formation of coal balls. Their common association with marine sediments has supported arguments for a marine source for the carbonate. Stable oxygen and carbon isotope studies suggest a meteoric origin for some carbonate. No current model for the formation of coal balls completely explains their occurrence and rarity outside the Upper Carboniferous of Eurameria.