A range of hydrocarbons and of oxygen- (carboxylic acids, alcohols, ketones) or nitrogen- (porphyrins) containing compounds commonly encountered in solvent extracts of coals are regarded as biomarkers. This means that their chemical structures provide a distinct link to natural products (lipids, terpenoids, pigments) identified in extant descendants of coal–forming flora. The abundance of biomarkers is generally high in subbituminous coals and decreases with rank due to thermally induced conversion to simpler molecules.
Hydrocarbon biomarkers prevailing in humic coals are mostly related to either higher plant detritus (C27, C29, and C31 n-alkanes, pristane) or the associated degradative microflora (hopanoids, C32 to C40head-to-head and head-to-tail linked isoprenoids). Fluctuations in abundance of ubiquitous bacterial hydrocarbons are supposed to reflect changes in the paleodepositional environment, while the appearance of specific plant terpenoids in the molecular fossil record...
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Radke, M. (1998). Biomarker: Coals. In: Geochemistry. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4496-8_29
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