A diverse assemblage of moderately well-preserved radiolarians occurs in the Ordovician cherts of the Crawford Group in the Southern Uplands terrane of the Scottish borders. A total of 8 genera and 11 species are described. Taxa present correlate to the Middle Ordovician Pygodus anserinus biozone. Key species identified include: Proventocitum procerulum, Inanigutta gansuensis, Inanigutta sp. cf. I. complanata, Inanibigutta sp. cf. I. verrucula, Inanibigutta sp. cf. I. pinglianensis, ?Inanibigutta inconstans, ?Inanihella penrosei, Haplentactinia armillata, ?Oriundogutta ramificans and Syntagentactinia sp. A new species Haplotaeniatum albaensis is introduced here and described on the basis of details of skeletal architecture observed using microcomputed tomography, demonstrating the potential of this technique as a tool for improving the understanding of radiolarian taxonomy.

While the Neogene history of the Eastern Mediterranean region is now fairly well understood, our knowledge of older regional palaeogeographies is less accurate, especially the positions of blocks and nappes constituting the Aegean Islands prior to the Cenozoic. Our study focuses on the ophiolite exposed on the island of Karpathos (Dodecanese), which is located in the Aegean fore-arc at a pivotal position between the ‘western’ and ‘eastern’ ophiolites of the Mediterranean region and where conflicting Late Jurassic and Late Cretaceous ages have led to diverging tectonic and palaeogeographic interpretations. To test these ages, we targeted the radiolarian cherts that depositionally overlie the ophiolite and extracted diagnostic radiolarian assemblages of Aptian (∼125−113 Ma), early–middle Albian (∼113−105 Ma) and Turonian (∼93.9−89.8 Ma) ages. These results suggest that previous Late Cretaceous K–Ar isotopic ages (from 95.3 ± 4.2 Ma to 81.2 ± 1.6 Ma) may have been reset by Late Cretaceous metamorphism or affected by argon loss. Overall, the new Early Cretaceous ages show that the Karpathos ophiolite should not be correlated with the Pindos Nappes of Greece or the ophiolites of Cyprus or Syria but rather with the Lycian Nappes of Turkey and their root located in the Izmir–Ankara–Erzincan Suture Zone. Therefore, the Karpathos ophiolite represents a remnant of the Northern Neotethys, not the Pindos Ocean or the proto-Eastern Mediterranean Basin.

Jurassic mélange complexes related to the subduction of the Neotethys Ocean occur in the Bükk Mountains, North Hungary. This paper characterizes the sedimentary sequence of basin and slope facies that occur in the southwestern part of the Bükk Mountains, placing special emphasis on the redeposited sedimentary rocks (olistostromes, olistoliths: Mónosbél Group) in order to obtain information on the provenance of the clasts, and the mode and time of their redeposition. The series of formations studied shows a general coarsening-upwards trend. Based on radiolarians and foraminifera, the Mónosbél Group formed in Early to Late Bathonian time. The lower part of the complex is typified by a predominance of pelagic carbonates, shale and radiolarite with andesitic volcaniclastic intercalations. The higher part of the succession is characterized by polymictic olistostromes. Large olistoliths that are predominantly blocks of Bathonian shallow marine limestone (Bükkzsérc Limestone) appear in the upper part of the sequence. Based on the biostratigraphic and sedimentological data, results of analyses of the redeposited clasts and taking into consideration the concepts of the development of the western Neotethys domain, the evolutionary stages of the sedimentary basins were defined. The onset of the compressional stage led to initiation of nappe stacking that led to the formation of polymict olistostromes and then to the redeposition of large blocks derived from out-of-sequence nappes of the former platform foreland.

Challengeron diodon is reported for the first time from the north-eastern Aegean Sea. The specimen was collected on 18 February 2001 from subsurface (0.5 m) neritic waters with a depth of 30 m, off Bozcaada Island in the Aegean Sea.The primary hydrographic parameters, temperature 13.8°C, salinity 37.4 psu and dissolved oxygen 7.47 mg l−1, were recorded at the sampling station. A synonymy is given, together with a brief diagnosis based on morphological characters and supported by micrographs.