Chemometric study of functional groups in Pennsylvanian gymnosperm plant organs (Sydney Coalfield, Canada): Implications for chemotaxonomy and assessment of kerogen formation

Overall, the results are encouraging in offering increasing support for fossil-leaf chemotaxonomy, but bearing in mind the limited sampling number (56) and restricted sampling of genera (5). Apart from this general conclusion, which supports our previous FTIR work vis-à-vis chemotaxonomy, we noted functional-group similarities in our FTIR data with types of kerogen and coal macerals. On this basis, we hypothesize that, in combination with the different preservation states of our fossil specimens, these factors have a bearing on kerogen genesis from plant material, i.e. the oil and gas prone Types I and II.