Petrified Peat from a Permian Coal Bed in Antarctica

Abstract

Petrified plant remains that composed a Permian peat deposit occur at a coal horizon in a local area of Mount Augusta near the Beardmore Glacier in Antarctica. This discovery is the first in the entire Gondwana area that yields plant materials as exquisitely preserved as the materials of the well-known coal-ball localities of the Northern Hemisphere. A sampling of anatomical details is illustrated.