The sensory fields of four Wenlock trilobites Proetus (Proetus) concinnus, Warburgella (Warburgella) stokesii, Warburgella (Warburgella) scutterdinensis, and Harpidella (Harpidella) maura are described and found to be species specific. Certain features, such as the small cell polygon size, and prismatic layer comprising about one tenth of the cuticle thickness are characteristic of Order Proetida. Intraspecific variation is related to ontogenetic development, most markedly in the field of the free cheek of P. (P.) concinnus. The proetid occipital pustule may have functioned as a light-sensitive organ. The tropidium W. (W.) stokesii is a ridge with a central canal or groove, rather than a tubular structure, and probably contained a sensory receptor rather than a circulatory system. Despite microstructural distribution being species specific, it is of limited practical value in taxonomy as the fine details are easily lost during diagenesis.

Total contents of 21 trace elements were determined in particle size separates from the horizons of four profiles, two freely drained and two very poorly drained, of Scottish soils on drifts of basic igneous and granitic origin. Trace elements, including Co, Cu, Li, Mn, Ni, V, Zn and also Fe contained in the more easily weathered ferromagnesian minerals, tend to accumulate in the clay and silt. Elements such as Ti and Zr and also La and Y contained in resistant minerals accumulate in the silt or fine sand. Ti and Zr are mobilised to some extent, however, as these elements are present in the clay separates and in some cases show enrichment therein.

The alkali metals Li and Rb accumulate in the silt and clay particularly in the granitic soils, while the alkaline earth metals Ba and Sr occur in greatest concentrations in the sands due to their being held largely in resistant feldspar minerals. On release these elements are not strongly adsorbed by the clay.

Very poor pedological drainage leads to increased weathering and release of such elements as Co, Cu, Ni, V and Zn from the coarse or fine sands with correspondingly greater enrichment of the associated silt and clay. Weathering and enrichment of the fine fractions takes place largely in situ, there being little evidence of downward translocation due to leaching.

Twenty six of the more important species of monograptids (s.l.), retiolitids and Cyrtograptus (from a total fauna of 52 species) are described from Wenlock strata of the Cape Phillips Formation, Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Of this fauna, eight new species or subspecies, Monograptus firmus festinolatus, M. instrenuus, M. opimus, M. testis incomptus, Cyrtograptus falcatus, C. hamatus brevis, C. kolobus and C. pseudomancki, are described and illustrated.

Wenlock biostratigraphic zones comprise the Cyrtograptus centrifugus-C. insectus Zone (earliest Wenlock), M. instrenuus-C. kolobus Zone, tentatively divisible into lower and upper subzones, C. perneri-M. opimus Zone possibly divisible into lower and upper subzones, C. lundgreni-M. testis Zone divisible into a lower M. testis incomptus Subzone and an upper M. testis testis Subzone, and the Pristiograptus ludensis Zone (latest Wenlock).

The Order Adelospondyli, an isolated group of amphibians from the Carboniferous of the Edinburgh area, is redescribed and distinguished from other early tetrapods. Although systematics of genera and species is unsatisfactory, the group seems monophyletic, since as far as they are known, all conform to a single overall structural plan. There is an entire skull roof with a reduced complement of bones in an unique pattern, a highly characteristic marginal dentition, a massive hyoid apparatus, at least 70 holospondylous trunk vertebrae, and (like some other Lower Carboniferous tetrapods) a shoulder region with a heavy dermal girdle but no trace of ossified limbs or endochondral girdle. Adelogyrinids show no special affinity with other Palaeozoic amphibians: the vertebral characters in which they resemble microsaurs, lysorophids, aïstopods, and nectrideans may have evolved more than once among early tetrapods, and the shoulder girdle and neural arch characters shared with labyrinthodonts are probably primitive. The adelogyrinids thus illustrate the more general problems of establishing interrelationships among early tetrapods. Their way of life is discussed.