Mycelium is a root-like structure of a fungus consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae. Its normal form is that of branched, slender, entangled, anastomosing, hyaline threads. Fungal colonies composed of mycelium are found in and on soil and many other substrates. A typical single spore germinates into a monokaryotic mycelium, which cannot reproduce sexually; when two compatible monokaryotic mycelia join and form a dikaryotic mycelium, that mycelium may form fruiting bodies such as mushrooms. A mycelium may be minute, forming a colony that is too small to see, or may grow to span thousands of acres as in Armillaria.
Lycopodiopsida is a class of vascular plants known as lycopods, lycophytes or other terms including the component lyco-. Members of the class are also called clubmosses, firmosses, spikemosses and quillworts. They have dichotomously branching stems bearing simple leaves called microphylls and reproduce by means of spores borne in sporangia on the sides of the stems at the bases of the leaves. Although living species are small, during the Carboniferous, extinct tree-like forms (Lepidodendrales) formed huge forests that dominated the landscape and contributed to coal deposits.
Bituminous coal, or black coal, is a type of coal containing a tar-like substance called bitumen or asphalt. Its coloration can be black or sometimes dark brown; often there are well-defined bands of bright and dull material within the seams. It is typically hard but friable. Its quality is ranked higher than lignite and sub-bituminous coal, but lesser than anthracite. It is the most abundant rank of coal, with deposits found around the world, often in rocks of Carboniferous age. Bituminous coal is formed from sub-bituminous coal that is buried deeply enough to be heated to 85 °C (185 °F) or higher.
Kerogen is solid, insoluble organic matter in sedimentary rocks. It consists of a variety of organic materials, including dead plants, algae, and other microorganisms, that have been compressed and heated by geological processes. All the kerogen on earth is estimated to contain 1016 tons of carbon. This makes it the most abundant source of organic compounds on earth, exceeding the total organic content of living matter 10,000-fold.
Polypores are a group of fungi that form large fruiting bodies with pores or tubes on the underside. They are a morphological group of basidiomycetes-like gilled mushrooms and hydnoid fungi, and not all polypores are closely related to each other. Polypores are also called bracket fungi or shelf fungi, and they characteristically produce woody, shelf- or bracket-shaped or occasionally circular fruiting bodies that are called conks.
Inertinite refers to a group of partially oxidized organic materials or fossilized charcoals, all sharing the characteristic that they typically are inert when heated in the absence of oxygen. Inertinite is a common maceral in most types of coal. The main inertinite submacerals are fusinite, semifusinite, micrinite, macrinite and funginite, with semifusinite being the most common. From the perspective of coal combustion, inertinite can be burned to yield heat, but does not yield significant volatile fractions during coking.
A maceral is a component, organic in origin, of coal or oil shale. The term 'maceral' in reference to coal is analogous to the use of the term 'mineral' in reference to igneous or metamorphic rocks. Examples of macerals are inertinite, vitrinite, and liptinite.
In coal geology, liptinite is the finely-ground and macerated remains found in coal deposits. It replaced the term exinite as one of the four categories of kerogen. Liptinites were originally formed by spores, pollen, dinoflagellate cysts, leaf cuticles, and plant resins and waxes.
Coalbed methane, coalbed gas, or coal seam gas (CSG) is a form of natural gas extracted from coal beds. In recent decades it has become an important source of energy in United States, Canada, Australia, and other countries.
An arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) is a type of mycorrhiza in which the symbiont fungus penetrates the cortical cells of the roots of a vascular plant forming arbuscules. Arbuscular mycorrhiza is a type of endomycorrhiza along with ericoid mycorrhiza and orchid mycorrhiza. They are characterized by the formation of unique tree-like structures, the arbuscules. In addition, globular storage structures called vesicles are often encountered.
A conidium, sometimes termed an asexual chlamydospore or chlamydoconidium, is an asexual, non-motile spore of a fungus. The word conidium comes from the Ancient Greek word for dust, κόνις (kónis). They are also called mitospores due to the way they are generated through the cellular process of mitosis. They are produced exogenously. The two new haploid cells are genetically identical to the haploid parent, and can develop into new organisms if conditions are favorable, and serve in biological dispersal.
Cannel coal or candle coal is a type of bituminous coal, also classified as terrestrial type oil shale. Due to its physical morphology and low mineral content cannel coal is considered to be coal but by its texture and composition of the organic matter it is considered to be oil shale. Although historically the term cannel coal has been used interchangeably with boghead coal, a more recent classification system restricts cannel coal to terrestrial origin, and boghead coal to lacustrine environments.
Rhizopus oligosporus is a fungus of the family Mucoraceae and is a widely used starter culture for the production of tempeh at home and industrially. As the mold grows it produces fluffy, white mycelia, binding the beans together to create an edible "cake" of partly catabolized soybeans. The domestication of the microbe is thought to have occurred in Indonesia several centuries ago.
Aspergillus terreus, also known as Aspergillus terrestris, is a fungus (mold) found worldwide in soil. Although thought to be strictly asexual until recently, A. terreus is now known to be capable of sexual reproduction. This saprotrophic fungus is prevalent in warmer climates such as tropical and subtropical regions. Aside from being located in soil, A. terreus has also been found in habitats such as decomposing vegetation and dust. A. terreus is commonly used in industry to produce important organic acids, such as itaconic acid and cis-aconitic acid, as well as enzymes, like xylanase. It was also the initial source for the drug mevinolin (lovastatin), a drug for lowering serum cholesterol.
Fungi diverged from other life around 1.5 billion years ago, with the glomaleans branching from the "higher fungi" (dikaryans) at ~570 million years ago, according to DNA analysis. Fungi probably colonized the land during the Cambrian, over 500 million years ago,, and possibly 635 million years ago during the Ediacaran, but terrestrial fossils only become uncontroversial and common during the Devonian, 400 million years ago.
A fungus is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one of the traditional eukaryotic kingdoms, along with Animalia, Plantae and either Protista or Protozoa and Chromista.
Tectonic Burial is the deformation of rocks caused by extreme pressure over millions of years. It often causes temperature evolutions and deep burials. Tectonic burial is usually the result of continental collisions or subduction in a region. An increase in burial depth leads to a weakened basin and basement but creates better preservation structure within the basement.
Marie-Therese Mackowsky (1913-1986) was a German mineralogist.
Bituminite is an autochthonous maceral that is a part of the liptinite group in lignite, that occurs in petroleum source rocks originating from organic matter such as algae which has undergone alteration or degradation from natural processes such as burial. It occurs as fine-grained groundmass, laminae or elongated structures that appear as veinlets within horizontal sections of lignite and bituminous coals, and also occurs in sedimentary rocks. Its occurrence in sedimentary rocks is typically found surrounding alginite, and parallel along bedding planes. Bituminite is not considered to be bitumen because its properties are different from most bitumens. It is described to have no definite shape or form when present in bedding and can be identified using different kinds of visible and fluorescent lights. There are three types of bituminite: type I, type II and type III, of which type I is the most common. The presence of bituminite in oil shales, other oil source rocks and some coals plays an important factor when determining potential petroleum-source rocks.
The Blanowice Formation is a geologic formation in Częstochowa, Poland. It is late Pliensbachian-Lowermost Toarcian age. Plant fossils have been recovered from this formation. Along with the Drzewica Formation is part of the Depositional sequence IV-VII of the late lower Jurassic Polish Basin. Deposits of sequences IV, V, VI and VII make up the Blanowice Formation, being all four sequences are of Pliensbachian age, documented by megaspores (Horstisporites). On the upper strata, “sub-coal beds" cover the sequence VII-lower VIII, while the uppermost part of VIII is identified with the Ciechocinek Formation. The Blanowice Formation has been known for decades thanks to the abundant plant fossils and plant roots, but mostly due to the Blanowice Brown Coals, where the oldest Biomolecules found worldwide have been recovered. The Mrzygłód mine dinocyst assemblage is taxonomically undiversified, containing specimens that are good age indicators allowing relatively precise suggestion of its age. Luehndea spinosa, with a single recovered specimen spans between the Late Pliensbachian (Margaritaus) to the Lowermost Toarcian (Tenuicostatum). Other ocal dinocysts such as Mendicodinium range Late Pliensbachian–Aalenian, a wider stratigraphic range. The lower part of the formation is coeval in age with the Gielniów Formation and Drzewica Formation, Lobez Formation and Komorowo Formation (Pomerania), Olsztyn Formation, the lower part of the Rydeback Member of the Rya Formation, lower Fjerritslev or Gassum Formation, lower and middle Sorthat Formation (Bornholm), Neringa Formation (Lithuania). The upper part is coeval with the lowermost upper Rydeback Member, upper Gassum Formation and lower Lava Formation (Lithuania).
