When Pax (1) in 1889 constituted his section Sinenses, he was well aware that it contained at least three distinct groups, each of which could with good reason be regarded as separate sections. Of these the one which he designated Poculiformia is the equivalent of Obconica. This group Poculiformia (while sharing in the general definition of Sinenses) he marked off by the beaker-shaped calyx which is generally accrescent after anthesis. In his view the group comes nearer to group Cortusina (i.e. section Cortusoides) than to the more isolated Auganthus (i.e. Sinenses sensu restricto), which may quite well be the case. In its turn the group Cortusina is to be distinguished from Poculiformia by the character of its calyx—a tubular or cylindrical structure. Of the species quoted by Pax as within Poculiformia, only four are now considered legitimate members of Obconica—P. obconica, P. filipes, P. Listen, and P. oreodoxa.

The district examined in the course of the research embodied in this paper is the south-eastern part of the county of Fife, lying between the coast-towns of Aberdour and Kirkcaldy, and stretching inland to a roughly semicircular boundary enclosing Auchtertool, Raith and Chapel. The area within these limits, amounting to approximately 30 square miles, was mapped on a scale of 6 inches to a mile, and the chief results of the field-work are shown in the map on Plate III.

The publication by Kidston and Gwynne-Vaughan ïn 1912 of a memoir on Stenomyelon tuedianum Kidston marked the beginning of a proposed series, which was never continued by them, on the Carboniferous Flora of Berwickshire, based upon material collected during 1900 and 1901 from rocks of the Calciferous Sandstone Series (Cementstone Group) at various localities in Berwickshire while Kidston was working with Mr A. Macconochie of the Geological Survey. Brief notes on this material, with identifications of some of the plants found in compression form, were contributed by Kidston to the “Summary of the Progress of the Geological Survey” (Kidston, 1901, 1902 a), where he commented upon the interest and importance of the material; but beyond recording the occurrence of petrified specimens, no further description of these was given at the time. An incomplete list of anatomical species identified from this Berwickshire material was also given by Kidston at a later date (Kidston, 1923, p. 19). Some of the petrifactions, in addition to the Stenomyelon tuedianum already referred to (Kidston and Gwynne-Vaughan, loc. cit.), have been described by various writers, mostly from specimens in the Kidston Collection of Fossil Plant Slides in the Botany Department of Glasgow University, where the majority of the sections is to be found.

Coprolites of four distinct shapes, cylindrical, discoidal, beaded and irregular masses, are described from 11 horizons within Bed 16 of the Foulden sequence. These coprolites are composed of either phosphatic or claystone material, although they have not been analysed mineralogically or chemically. Their producers appear to have been fish, probably both nektonic predators and nekto-benthonic scavengers or detritus feeders.

Ostracods are poorly preserved and of two broad types, thick shelled paraparchitids including Shemonaella scotoburdigalensis and thin shelled podocopids, possibly species of Carbonita or Cavellina. This ostracod assemblage represents a conservative ‘carbonaceous fades’ fauna which occurs widely in plant-rich sediments in lower Carboniferous (Courceyan) sequences of northern England and southern Scotland. Other microfauna includes spirorbid worm tubes, fish scales, arthropod cuticle fragments, spat of myalinid bivalves, plant fragments and spores. No significant changes in the vertical distribution of the microfauna could be detected.

The microfauna indicates a general fresh to brackish water lacustrine or lagoonal environment possibly with access to quasi-marine conditions.

Fossils in amber are a particularly important and unique palaeobiological resource. Amber is best known for preserving exceptionally life-like fossils, including microscopic anatomical details, but this fidelity of preservation is an end-member of a wide spectrum of preservation quality. Many amber sites only preserve cuticle or hollow moulds, and most amber sites have no fossils at all. The taphonomic processes that control this range in preservation are essentially unknown. Here, we review the relationship between amber groups and fossil preservation, based on published data, to determine whether there is a correlation between resin type and aspects of preservation quality. We found that ambers of different chemistry demonstrated statistically significant differences in the preservational quality and the propensity of a site to contain fossils. This indicates that resin chemistry does influence preservational variation; however, there is also evidence that resin chemistry alone cannot explain all the variation. To effectively assess the impact of this (and other) variables on fossilisation in amber, and therefore biases in the amber fossil record, a more comprehensive sampling of bioinclusions in amber, coupled with rigorous taphonomic experimentation, is required.

Two trilobite faunas of late Ordovician (Sandbian and Katian) age are described from the siliciclastic Karagach Formation, western Tarbagatai Range, eastern Kazakhstan. They comprise 15 families and 24 genera and include the new taxa Agerina acutilimbata sp. nov., Birmanites akchiensis sp. nov., Dulanaspis karagachensis sp. nov. and Kimakaspis kovalevskyi gen. et sp. nov. Most of the Karagach Formation yields graptolites characteristic of the Diplograptus foliaceus [multidens] Biozone, which are associated with the older trilobite fauna; the uppermost part, which is the source of the younger trilobite fauna, contains Orthograptus quadrimucronatus and Dicranograptus hians which suggest a younger age, equating with the lowermost Ensigraptus caudatus Biozone, and the base of the Katian Stage. Most of the trilobite genera in both faunas have a wide geographical distribution in the late Ordovician, although Dulanaspis and Sinocybele are characteristic of low latitude eastern peri-Gondwanan faunas.

A pioneer study of the previously unknown δ13C chemostratigraphy in the Ordovician/Silurian boundary interval in eastern Iowa and northeastern Illinois resulted in the discovery of the Hirnantian Isotope Carbon Excursion (HICE). The presence of this major isotope excursion in the Mosalem Formation in Iowa and the Wilhelmi Formation in Illinois, which indicates that the excursion interval in these units is of Hirnantian (latest Ordovician) rather than Early Silurian age, necessitates a revised chronostratigraphic classification of these units. Although the precise level of the Ordovician/Silurian boundary remains somewhat uncertain in the absence of the diagnostic graptolites, it is herein placed in the upper part, but well below the top, of the Mosalem Formation and at the top of the Wilhelmi Formation. During a major regression following the deposition of the Maquoketa Shale, the upper part of the latter clastic unit was in some places deeply eroded, resulting in a topographically dissected landscape with upland areas separated by wide incised valleys. During a subsequent late Hirnantian transgression, these palaeovalleys were gradually filled with marine sediments, but the upland areas were not transgressed until earliest Silurian times. The new chemostratigraphical evidence is in good agreement with the available biostratigraphical data, especially from corals, conodonts, and brachiopods. A preliminary chemostratigraphical study of the presumably coeval Edgewood Group successions in Pike County, northeastern Missouri failed to document any heavy δ13C values characteristic of the HICE and some, or all, of the Hirnantian values obtained there may be diagenetically overprinted.

Specimens of trematopid amphibians from the Asturian (Upper Carboniferous) of Nýřany, Czech Republic, are redescribed as two taxa, namely Mordex calliprepes Steen and Mattauschia (gen. nov) laticeps Fritsch. Mordex calliprepes is represented by a single post-metamorphic specimen and has the diagnostic trematopid characters of the nasal region. Mattauschia laticeps is represented by one adult partial skull and mandible plus some fragments and two small post-metamorphic specimens including the species name-bearer. It has the trematopid-type modified lacrimal and a large but oval naris and appears to be the most primitive trematopid yet described. The stratigraphically sequential large trematopids Mattauschia, Fedexia, Ecolsonia and Acheloma show progressive acquisition of the derived features that characterise the terminal form Acheloma.

Mordex has a combination of primitive and derived characters and its position within the family is less clear. The many ‘branchiosaurs' in the Nýřany assemblage include specimens that could be larvae of both Mordex and Mattauschia but certain attribution is not possible and they are assigned to Olsoniformes incertae sedis. Mordex and Mattauschia appear to be terrestrial exotic elements in the Nýřany tetrapod assemblage, but with possible larvae in the lake assemblage. Representatives of at least four Palaeozoic dissorophoid families were present in late Middle Pennsylvanian/Asturian strata implying diversification of the Dissorophoidea prior to this time.

A comprehensive study of the ∼2200-Ma-old Kuetsjärvi Sedimentary Formation (KSF), NW Russia, was undertaken to contribute to our understanding of palaeoenvironments associated with the global perturbation of the carbon cycle between 2330 and 2060 Ma. Closely spaced drill core samples (n=95) were obtained from a 150-m-thick unit deposited in rift-bound fluvial-deltaic and shallow-water lacustrine settings with a short-term invasion of sea water. Apart from a very few de-dolomitised samples, all other carbonate lithologies are represented by Corg-free, S-poor, quartz-rich dolostones, stromatolites and travertines which have high Sr concentrations (51–1069 ppm) and low Mn/Sr ratios (2·9 ± 2·1). The carbonate succession, excluding travertines, shows high δ13C (+7·5 ± 0·6‰, n=95) with a limited variation (+5·8 to +8·9‰). Fluctuating δ18O values (10·8–20·4‰) were overprinted during diagenesis, regional greenschist-grade and later retrograde metamorphism. Several short-term stratigraphic excursions of δ13C were apparently governed by evaporation and CO2 degassing combined with pulses of12C-rich hydrothermal waters precipitating travertines. However, the 13C-rich nature of the dolostones reflects the global isotopic signal, which was modified in a shallow water lacustrine environment by evaporation, enhanced uptake of 12C by cyanobacteria, and pene-contemporaneous oxidation and loss of organic material. The best proxies to δ13C and 87Sr/86 Sr of coeval sea water recorded in the KSF dolostones are likely to be around +5–6‰ and 0·70406, respectively. The study of the KSF has shown that circumspection is necessary when attempting to model the behaviour and evolution of the global C-cycle in Deep Time. Models which purport to explain global oceanic–atmospheric evolution without first adequately accounting for the possibility that many Precambrian carbonate deposits might be non-marine, or at least influenced by non-marine fluids, should be viewed with caution

The Insect Limestone has long been known as a source of exquisitely preserved insects and other arthropods. It occurs on the north side of the Isle of Wight and is latest Eocene in age. A summary of the history of the study of the Insect Limestone is given, along with detailed stratigraphical and sedimentological information. This paper is the first in a thematic set of papers.

The mumps, or what I beg leave to call angina maxillaris, is an epidemic disease of a very singular nature. It has appeared sometimes to be pretty general; but this has not been the case for many years in this place. It seems to be analogous to, if not the same distemper with that called the branks, by the common people in Scotland. In the general account of epidemics, in the first volume of the Medical Essays of Edinburgh, a disorder is mentioned which seems to have been a flight degree of that which is the subject of the following paper. I have had much practice in this disease, and indeed was once reduced to the utmost danger by it myself.

The lower Carboniferous–late Permian dyke swarms of the Scottish Highlands and Islands comprise a mild-strongly alkaline basic series of dolerites, camptonites and monchiquites. Differentiation within the suite was largely controlled by olivine + clinopyroxene fractionation. Major and trace element data indicate that dolerites and camptonites chemically overlap, their mineralogical contrasts resulting from differential loss of an H2O, CO2-rich fluid phase during ascent. By contrast most monchiquites have high Mg-values and are relatively primitive compositions, some being near-primary magmas which have risen rapidly from mantle levels with little chemical modification.

HREE-buffered incompatible element profiles imply a garnet–lherzolite source, which must underlie the lithospheric mantle region represented by spinel lherzolite xenoliths found in some monchiquites. C. 0·5–2·0% partial melting can account for the gross incompatible element variation in the suite, but relative fluctuations in K, Ba, Rb, Sr, P and Zr imply chemical heterogeneity controlled either by refractory mantle accessory phases or by modification of magmas during ascent through variably metasomatised lithospheric mantle.

Among the numerous fragments of plants found inside the fossil hollow tree stumps of Lepidophloios wünschianus Carr. from the Calciferous Sandstone Series in the island of Arran (Walton, 1935, p. 313) are two small portions of a strobilus. These fragments are embedded in the calcite matrix, and as they are separated from one another by a distance of only a few millimetres it is possible that they are parts of one strobilus. They have suffered considerable maceration and distortion before petrification occurred. A series of over 54 peel sections transverse to the axes of the two fragments and a series of 80 longitudinal sections through one of them were prepared. The longitudinal sections were made from 4 mm. of the block of material. Each section therefore used on an average 0·05 mm. of the block.

The 6845 ± 50 BP climactic eruption of Mount Mazama discharged 47 ± 9 km3 of vertically zoned calc-alkaline magma, affording a virtually complete section through the chamber. Evidence for two andesitic parents with different trace-element (particularly Sr) and water contents is preserved in the ejecta. Prior to eruption, a dominant volume of rhyodacite was underlain successively by high-Sr andesite, high-Sr crystal mushes, and low-Sr crystal mushes. Intergranular liquids in the high-Sr magmas were probably richer in water than those in the low-Sr magmas. Thermal continuity throughout the ejecta favours eruption from a single, zoned reservoir. Insight into chamber development is given by preclimactic rhyodacitic lavas and tephra erupted between about 30,000 BP and the climactic eruption. The oldest of these lavas, contaminated derivatives of low-Sr magma, contain crystal-poor magmatic inclusions of low-Sr andesite; the youngest has inclusions of high-Sr andesite and, like rhyodacitic pumice in the climactic ejecta, is hybrid magma containing an admixed high-Sr component. A model for steady-state growth of the chamber is inferred whereby repeated recharge, first by low-Sr then high-Sr andesite (± basalt), builds up a cumulate succession, while derivative liquid fractionates convectively, segregates, and mixes with an incrementally growing silicic volume. The magma chamber at Mount Mazama may provide insight into the evolution of some granitoid plutons.

This paper completes the description of intact and three-dimensional Ctenopyge species from the upper Cambrian Peltura minor Zone in Västergötland, central Sweden. All these species are present together, on the same bedding planes. The most abundant species, Ctenopyge (Eoctenopyge) angusta Westergård, 1922 has previously been described, and an almost complete ontogeny worked out. C. (Ctenopyge) gracilis Henningsmoen, 1957 is a small trilobite with nine thoracic segments and very long, thin curving and subparallel thoracic spines; the genal spines partially encircle the body. Two axial spines at the rear are of considerable length. When reconstructed in side view, the posterior thoracic spines rise upwards as an inclined fan, but when relaxed the tips of all the thoracic and axial spines come to lie in the same plane as the horizontal genal spines. An almost complete ontogeny is described for this species, and individuals show an evident spinosity from an early stage, but the body size at which thoracic segments are liberated is highly variable. C. (Ctenopyge) ahlbergi n. sp. is a larger, robust and broad species distinguished by long, stout genal spines, ten thoracic segments, and a very spiny body with the first three to four spines expanded into lateral flanges. A degree 6 meraspis shows these flanges already developing. C. (Ctenopyge) rushtoni n. sp has likewise ten thoracic segments, and has stout, broad-based and tapering spines. Incomplete meraspides 6 and 7 are known for this species. In both C. (Ctenopyge) ahlbergi and C. (Ctenopyge) rushtoni there are also two axial spines at the rear, and the extended body would have had a similar rising tail fan to that of C. (Ctenopyge) gracilis. C. (Mesoctenopyge) tumida is also present as a single large adult and several smaller holaspides. In this species the first thoracic segment is confirmed as bearing a pair of long curving spines, somewhat smaller than the encircling genal spines. The remaining thoracic spines are straight and sharp, and evidently longer in young holaspides. There is a single long axial spine on the last segment. No adult pygidium has been found.

Some comments on the diversity of the fauna as a whole and the range of functional types are appended.

This study describes bioerosion traces ascribed to either predation or endo- and epibiont activity in twenty assemblages from the Mediterranean region and Paratethys, spanning in age from Eocene to Recent. Statistical analysis of the distribution of bioerosion traces among genera and assemblages revealed that there is higher drilling predation intensity on smaller species. Larger species seem to be primarily affected by non-drilling predators. Greatest variety in types of bioerosion could be related to species’ ecology and body size. Both major categories of bioerosion (etchings and traces of predatory activity) vary considerably among samples. Different genera show significant differences in the frequency of different bioerosion types. Shell size seems a major factor contributing to these differences.

This paper evaluates the taxonomy, biostratigraphy, and palaeogeographical significance of the Cambrian bradoriid arthropods of China, the majority of which occur in the lower Cambrian of SW China. Of bradoriid faunas world-wide, Chinese occurrences yield the greatest number of specimens and a comparatively high diversity at all taxonomic levels. Nevertheless, taxonomic diversity is much less than previously supposed. Some 80 bradoriid genera and nearly 300 species have been proposed on the basis of Chinese material. By contrast, in our study, which encompasses all of the important Chinese bradoriid faunas, we recognise only 16 genera and 21 species, including those treated under open nomenclature. Interpretation of deformed specimens as discrete species and lack of application of the rules of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature resulted in taxonomic splitting and a proliferation of names. There are an additional 12 poorly known monotypic genera of uncertain systematic status that are listed but not treated further herein. One phosphatocopid species, a group originally thought closely related to the Bradoriida, is also described.

Most Chinese bradoriid material is known from Yunnan Province; the group also occurs in Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Liaoning, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang and Zhejiang provinces. The first bradoriids occur just below the Abadiella trilobite Biozone. They are most prolific and diverse in the Qiongzhusian Stage, constituting the most abundant animal group; the succeeding Canglangpuian Stage contains fewer individuals and species. A previously proposed bradoriid biozonal scheme lacks rigour and is of little practical value: of the five supposed biozones, two correspond to trilobite zones and three are based on taxa that herein are considered to belong to a single species.

Palaeogeographically the bradoriids occur in the Middle and especially the Western subprovinces of the Cambrian of the SW China (Yangtze) Platform. Almost all of the bradoriid genera and species are endemic to that region. The palaeogeographical links with other bradoriid faunas are mostly within the Redlichiid trilobite Realm, with areas such as N China, Australia and parts of central Asia.

Fossil tree resins preserve a wide range of animals, plants, fungi and microorganisms in microscopic fidelity. Fossil organisms preserved in an individual piece of amber lived at the same time in Earth history and mostly even in the same habitat, but they were not necessarily parts of the same interacting community. Here, we report on an in situ preserved corticolous community from a piece of Miocene Dominican amber which is composed of a lichen, a moss and three species of leafy liverworts. The lichen is assigned to the extant genus Phyllopsora (Ramalinaceae, Lecanoromycetes) and is described as P.magna Kaasalainen, Rikkinen & A. R. Schmidt sp. nov. The moss, Aptychellites fossilis Schäf.-Verw., Hedenäs, Ignatov & Heinrichs gen. & sp. nov., closely resembles the extant genus Aptychella of the family Pylaisiadelphaceae. The three leafy liverworts comprise the extinct Lejeuneaceae species Cheilolejeunea antiqua (Grolle) Ye & Zhu, 2010 and Lejeunea miocenica Heinrichs, Schäf.-Verw., M. A. M. Renner & G. E. Lee sp. nov. and the extinct Radulaceae species Radula intecta M. A. M. Renner, Schäf.-Verw. & Heinrichs sp. nov. The presence of five associated extinct cryptogam species, four of which belong to extant genera, further substantiates the notion of a stasis in morphotype diversity, but a certain turnover of species, in the Caribbean since the early Miocene.

Combined field and geophysical data show that plutons from the Bega Batholith are elongate, meridional, wedge-shaped bodies which intruded during a period of regional east–west extension in the Palaeozoic eastern Lachlan orogen, eastern Australia. Plutons within the core of the batholith have intruded coeval, syn-rift sediments and co-magmatic volcanics. The batholith is bound by high-temperature, dip-slip faults, and contains several major NE-trending transtensional faults which were active during batholith construction. In the central part of the batholith, the Kameruka pluton is an asymmetric, eastward-thickening, wedge-shaped body with the base exposed as the western contact, which is characterised by abundant, shallow-dipping schlieren migmatites which contain recumbent folds and extensional shear bands. A shallow (<30°), east-dipping, primary magmatic layering in the Kameruka pluton steepens progressively westward, where it becomes conformable to the east-dipping basal migmatites. The systematic steepening of the layering is comparable to sedimentary units formed during floor depression in syn-rift settings. The present authors suggest that the wedge-shaped plutons of the Bega Batholith are the deeper, plutonic expression of a hot, active rift. The batholith was fed and sustained by injection of magma through sub-vertical dykes. Displacement along syn-magmatic, NE-trending faults suggests up to 25 km of arc-perpendicular extension during batholith construction. The inferred tectonic setting for batholith emplacement is a continental back-arc, where modern half-extension rates of 20–40 mm yr−1 are not unusual, and are sufficient to emplace the entire batholith in ∼1 Ma. This structural model provides a mechanism for the emplacement of some wedge-shaped plutons and is one solution to the ‘room problem’ of batholith emplace

Before continuing the description of the alimentary tract, there are two general questions which must first be discussed very shortly. So far we have only dealt with the first two parts, the buccal cavity and the pharynx, and the latter name has such a well-defined significance that it is easy to state the boundaries of that part of the canal to which it should be applied, and therefore to fix the limits of the part in front. Unfortunately there seems to be no sort of unanimity with regard to the exact application of the names of the parts which follow, so that it is not easy to be sure to what parts the names should properly be applied, and it is extremely difficult to make comparisons between different forms without repeating a large part of the work already done by other observers. To take a concrete case: the part to which the name “œsophagus” has been applied has been limited, by different workers, by the extent of the stratified epithelium, by the extent of the striated muscle, by the absence of a serosa, by the absence of glands, and even by the relative diameter of the tube. Needless to say, these various boundaries do not coincide (in many cases some of them do not exist), and hence the difficulty of unravelling the descriptions in the literature of the subject is very great. So in what follows the names used will be defined, and I hope the nomenclature suggested will be such as to be acceptable and of scientific utility throughout the Chordata.