Noeggerathiales were until recently a group of plants with uncertain systematic position that existed in the Carboniferous and Permian times. Recent discoveries classify them as heterosporous progymnosperms. Despite the discovery of additional specimens, the group still remains highly artificial because their reproductive organs are rarely preserved in organic connection. Within the Carboniferous of Iberian Massif, the noeggerathialeans are poorly represented. Here, we describe Palaeopteridium andrenelii sp. nov. from the uppermost Carboniferous of Portugal. This is the second representative of Noeggerathiales reported in the Portuguese Carboniferous after Carlos Teixeira have described the noeggerathialean Rhacopteris gomesiana in the 1940s from Douro Carboniferous Basin (Stephanian C/lower Gzhelian, Upper Pennsylvanian). Palaeopteridium andrenelii was found in upper Asturian (upper Moscovian, Middle Pennsylvanian) strata from the classical Westphalian outcrops of Ervedosa, located in the region of Alto da Serra (Fânzeres), Gondomar, in northwestern Portugal. Two reproductive structures are associated with the frond of the new fossil species. Although not organically linked, both structures could belong to parent plant (frond) and represent possible detached macrosporangia. This reenforces the Palaeopteridium as a noeggerathialean and the first reproductive structures found for this genus.

The Vicissicaudata, a group of artiopods, originated and reached their highest diversity during the Cambrian period. However, relatively few vicissicaudatan species are known from the Paleozoic. Here we report a new species of vicissicaudatan arthropod, sister to the cheloniellids, from the Late Carboniferous Mazon Creek Lagerstätte. The two specimens preserve a small eyeless head, a trunk comprising seven tergites with wide pleural lobes, a narrower postabdomen bearing two long, posteriorly directed caudal appendages, and a short, shield-shaped telson. This new species not only extends the stratigraphic range of the Vicissicaudata into the Late Paleozoic but also represents an intermediate morphology between the cheloniellids and other vicissicaudatans.

Clastic sedimentary systems and their characteristics are assumed not to have been modified by carbonate bioclastic grains until the Phanerozoic. Here, we show that the presence of carbonate bioclasts produced by disintegrated biomineralizing metazoans modified fine-grained siliciclastic facies in the Late Ediacaran Tamengo Formation, Brazil, ca. 555–542 Ma. The analysis of both polished sections and thin sections shows that sand-sized carbonate bioclasts (< 2 mm) derived from the Ediacaran metazoan Corumbella created diverse sedimentary features later found in the Phanerozoic record, such as bioclastic-rich horizontal and low-angle cross-laminations, erosive pods and lenses, bioclastic syneresis cracks, ripples preserved by bioclastic caps, microbial lamination eroded and filled with bioclasts, and entrapped bioclasts within microbial mats. These sedimentary features would have hardly been recorded in fine siliciclastic facies without the sand-sized bioclasts. Based on these features, together with other sedimentary evidence, Corumbella depositional settings in the Tamengo Fm. are reinterpreted as mid-ramp, subtidal settings. The multi-component organization of the skeleton of Corumbella favoured disarticulation to yield a sand-sized bioclast, so in turn creating a new complexity to shallow marine clastic settings typical of Phanerozoic marine depositional systems.

This work reports the first data on the Variscan metamorphic evolution of the Marmarosh/Maramuresh massif in the Outer Eastern Carpathians. Geothermobarometry determinations coupled with U-Th-Pb dating of monazite, apatite, titanite and rutile were used to construct P-T-t paths and refine the geodynamic evolution of the pre-Alpine crystalline basement. These clockwise P-T-t paths evolve from 560–630 MPa and 515–535 °C to c. 900–1180 MPa in the north (Ukraine), while in the southern nappe (Romania), the P-T-t conditions evolve from 455–620 MPa and 545–555 °C, through to 670–745 MPa and 540–560 °C, to 910–965 MPa and 645–660 °C. The northernmost nappes were likely structurally lower relative to the southern nappes. Variscan progressive metamorphism related to nappe stacking climaxed at 350–340 Ma, as documented by U-Pb rutile and U-Th-Pb monazite dating.

In both regions, post-kinematic exhumation to 700–500 MPa, 550–630 °C MPa and then to the titanite stability field was dated at 317–327 Ma, using the U-Pb system on apatite and titanite. Subsequent Permian retrogression and exhumation was constrained to 280–290 Ma by U-Pb rutile and apatite and U-Th-Pb monazite dating. These data link the massif to the external zone of the Central European Variscides. We infer that all Variscan crystalline basement fragments in the Alps and Carpathians probably represent remnants of the same microcontinent, which was dismembered during Alpine orogenesis.

Paleoproterozoic granitoids of the lesser Himalayan belt are keys to understanding the evolution of the northern Indian continental margin and its position in the Columbia supercontinent assembly. We present whole-rock chemistry and zircon U-Pb geochronological data for Gwaldam Biotite Granite (GBGr) from the Baijnath Klippe (BK) in Kumaun Himalaya to elucidate their petrogenesis and geodynamic implications. Granites are characterized by ferroan, weakly peraluminous nature with high SiO2 and K2O contents, enrichment in LILE (Rb, Th, K and Pb), and depletion in Ba, Nb, P, Hf and Ti. Granites show enrichment in light rare earth element relative to heavy rare earth elements and pronounced negative Eu anomalies. Such chemistry suggests typical A-type granite with high Y/Nb >2 values that characterize it as A2-type granite. Zircon U-Pb ages for the granite yield upper intercept at 1900 ± 3 Ma (core) and 1854 ± 2 Ma (rim). Integrating the chemical and geochronological data, we propose a two-stage evolution model for the area. In the GBGr, the ∼1900 Ma date of zircon core is likely the date of crystallization of the melts presumably formed during the first extensional stage at uppermost mantle – lower crust levels caused by slab break-off/rollback, which followed a post-collisional setting. The second incipient rifting stage produced melt that entrained the zircon cores (∼1900 Ma) during its ascendance and crystallized as the GBGr at ∼1854 Ma when the zircon rims crystallized. It is further proposed that the Paleoproterozoic Northern Indian continental margin later underwent at least two crustal extensions during the Columbia supercontinent agglomeration.

The Lorne Plateau lava succession of the north-west Grampian Highlands of Scotland is an early component of post-collisional Late Silurian to Early Devonian magmatism in the Orthotectonic Caledonides emplaced in two phases between the Late Silurian (425.0±0.7 Ma U-Pb zircon) and the Siluro-Devonian boundary at ∼419 Ma. Palaeomagnetic study comprising thermal demagnetization and component analysis embracing the time frame of the preserved succession yields a coherent mean direction of magnetization from 58 sites (D/I = 43.7/−47.4°, α95 = 4.0°). A palaeomagnetic fold test is significantly positive with sills intruding unlithified sediment on the island of Kerrera confirming primary remanence. The ∼600 m thick succession has uniform normal polarity throughout permitting correlation with the beginning of a normal polarity chron extending from ∼426 to 403 Ma. The pole position at 2.7°N, 317.3°E (dp/dm = 3.8/5.8°) predicts a palaeolatitude of 26°S and corresponds precisely with remanence in contemporaneous rocks from the Midland Valley of Scotland. Regional palaeofield directions are evaluated in the context of transpressional moulding of the Acadian Orogeny on the Great Glen Fault system (~416−380 Ma).

The Early-Middle Jurassic impression/compression macroflora and the palynoflora from the Qaidam Basin in the northeastern Qinghai-Xizang (Tibetan) Plateau have been well studied; however, fossil wood from this region has not been previously documented systematically. Here, we describe an anatomically well-preserved fossil wood specimen from the Lower Jurassic Huoshaoshan Formation at the Dameigou section in northern Qinghai Province, northwestern China. This fossil exhibits typical Metapodocarpoxylon Dupéron-Laudoueneix et Pons anatomy with usually araucarian radial tracheid pits and variable cross-field pits, representing a new record for Metapodocarpoxylon in the Qaidam Basin. This discovery indicates that trees with this type of wood anatomy were not confined to northern Gondwana but also grew in more northerly regions in Laurasia. The wood displays distinct growth rings, with abundant, well-formed earlywood and narrow latewood. This observation, along with previous interpretations based on macroflora, palynoflora and sedimentological data, suggests that a warm and humid climate with mild seasonality prevailed in the region during the Early Jurassic.