Applied Biostratigraphy

Often combined with a technique called “Vitrinite Reflectance”, reflectance and other secondary (i.e. imparted) characteristics of microfossils can be utilised as guides to thermal maturity and hydrocarbon generation. Many fossil groups will show, for example, changes in preservational colour with increasing depth of burial/thermal maturity. Sometimes this directly affects the biological material of the fossil itself but sometimes the colour-change is imparted to the microfossil from changes in the surrounding sediment.