Research Training Program

Charlene Fricker
Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana

William DiMichele, Ph.D.
Project Advisor
Department of Paleobiology

"I am truly happy that I have been fortunate enough to be a part of the Research Training Program. It's been a wonderful 10 weeks!"

A Preliminary Report on a Collection of Pennsylvanian Plant Fossils from Little Pine Creek, Warren County, Indiana

Paleobotanical collections were made from an outlier of Pennsylvanian shale within the northeastern Illinois basin that is located along a portion of Little Pine Creek, in Warren County, Indiana. Elements of the paleoflora include Neuropteris obliqua, Palmatopteris furcata, Alethopteris sp., Eremopteris sp., Sphenopteris sp., Cyclopteris sp., Calamites sp., Annularia radiata, and the spores Calamospora sp. and Lycospora pellucida. This assemblage is characteristic of a Morrowan-Atokan (Westphalian A-B) age--the oldest Pennsylvanian flora currently known. The deposit is assigned to the Mansfield Formation of Indiana (Caseyville Formation of Illinois) and probably represents prodeltaic or interdistributary bay sediment. Further research is proposed to apply the present study to higher-level topics in paleontology, geology, and paleoecology.

This research was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Women's Committee.