The whole organic substance may have been removed, or may persist merely as a thin carbonaceous layer.
A considerable number of Calamarian fructifications are known, preserved, some as carbonaceous impressions, others as petrified specimens, exhibiting the internal structure.
Coal then meant the carbonaceous residue obtained in the destructive distillation of wood, or what is known as charcoal, and the name collier was applied indifferently to both coal-miners and charcoal-burners.
Other minerals which occur in the rocks of this group are calcite, garnet, biotite, chloritoid, epidote, tourmaline and graphite or dark carbonaceous materials.
Usually the original organic substance remains as a thin carbonaceous layer forming the surface of the cast, but sometimes it has entirely disappeared.