Coal facies studies in Brazil have been done for south Brazilian coal measures over the last 20 years using different methods for reconstructing paleoenvironments of peat fort-nation and deposition. The first studies were based on Teichmuller's concept of macerals; from 1984 to 1993, microlithotypes and palynomorphs were used according to the methodology described by Hacquebard and Donaldson. In the 1990s, a new method of interpreting paleoenvironments implementing organic geochemistry, sequence stratigraphy and the use of biomarkers has become more common in the literature, as well as the use of Diessel's Gelification Index (GI) and Tissue Preservation Index (TPI). (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.