While accompanying the Oxford University Hudson Straits Expedition in 1931 to Akpatok Island in Ungava Bay, North Canada, the writer found that in the horizontally bedded limestones of Ordovician age one stratum alone was graptolitiferous. This contained a vast number of individuals in all stages of development, nevertheless all of the same species. When treated suitably with acid, specimens could be isolated from the matrix and thus a complete ontogeny has been worked out.

Recent coastal erosion has revealed another chalky till above the Lowestoft Till and separated from it by bedded clays and sands. These have shown no evidence of contemporary life and, together with the newly discovered till, are assigned to the Lowestoft Stadial at this the type-section of the Anglian (Lowestoftian) Glacial Stage.

In any purely stratigraphical treatment of a tectonic problem one of the greatest of the initial difficulties is always that of deciding where to begin, and in the present case this difficulty is unusually acute, since the primary object of the investigation is an endeavour to trace back phenomena occurring in later ages to causes of long antecedent origin. In more precise language, the object aimed at is to show that certain structural features of the Mesozoic rocks of the southern Midlands of England can be attributed to the recurrence of activity along old-established fold-lines of very early date.

Reconstructed soft-tissues of the craniocervical region of dyrosaurids are analysed under functional aspects to determine their prey-catching capabilities. Jaw adductors and jaw abductors are enlarged and possess longer muscle fibres that are increased by a long retroarticular process. This muscle enlargement resulted in a more forceful and quicker contraction, effective for movement of the long rostrum. The occipital joint and the cervical ribs, the long retroarticular process and the high cervical neural spines of dyrosaurids suggest a higher dorsoventral flexibility of the craniocervical region, whereas lateromedial flexibility was reduced. The epaxial muscles of the neck and scapular muscles were enlarged, and the supraspinal ligament most likely fanned out into a nuchal ligament. Suspension of the neck and skull of dyrosaurids was achieved by the scapular muscles, dorsal neck ligaments and epaxial muscles, whereas ventral bracing was reduced. From the reconstructed specializations of the feeding apparatus, an enhanced capability for movements in the vertical plane is postulated for dyrosaurids, together with reduced lateral movements of the craniocervical region. Besides laterally directed strokes for fish-catching, behaviours such as poking in the substrate, bottom feeding, multidirectional prey-catching strokes and improvement of diving skills were options for dyrosaurids and suggest a possible expansion of their diet. The longirostrine skull limited prey size, but the dentition allowed shelly prey items. The specialization of the food-capturing system in dyrosaurids and the resulting expansion of their food spectrum is one possible explanation for their evolutionary success, including their undisturbed transition of the Cretaceous–Palaeogene boundary.

A map is presented showing a series of airborne magnetometer profiles from the north end of the South Island of New Zealand to the mouth of Waikato River. The two southern profiles are related to the exposed Upper Palaeozoic igneous rocks which are considered to extend north across Cook Strait and along the west coast of the North Island to cause the anomalies in the northern profiles. The North Island profiles are considered to reflect the Kawhia Syncline and a major anticline to the east. The eastward displacement of the magnetic low relative to the synclinal axis at the surface is considered due to the eastward dip of the axial plane of the syncline.

Certain amygdaloidal tholeiitic rocks and associated volcanic breccias are intrusive into the Cuillin gabbro (sensu lato) and are not xenolithic as Harker believed. Six tholeiites have been analysed and their compositions compared with the non-porphyritic central magma type of Mull. It is postulated that the ultrabasic rocks close to some tholeiitic intrusions were contaminated by the tholeiitic magma.

Paradoxides sp. is recorded from South America for the first time, together with an associated faunule which includes Ehmania cf. akanthophora Harrington and Kay, 1951.

The eastern Arabian Sea is influenced by both the advection of upwelled water from the western Arabian Sea and winter convective mixing. Therefore, sediments collected from the eastern Arabian Sea can help to understand the long-term seasonal hydrographic changes. We used the planktonic foraminifera census and stable isotopic ratio (δ18O) from sediments drilled during the International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 355 to reconstruct surface hydrographic changes in the eastern Arabian Sea during the last 350 kyr. The increased abundance of Globigerina bulloides suggests enhanced advection of upwelled water during the latter half of MIS7 and the beginning of MIS6, as a result of a strengthened summer monsoon. A large drop in upwelling and/or advection of upwelled water from the western Arabian Sea is inferred during the subsequent interval of MIS6, based on the rare presence of G. bulloides. The comparable relative abundance of Neogloboquadrina dutertrei, G. bulloides and Globigerinoides ruber suggests that during the early part of MIS5, hydrographic conditions were similar to today. The upwelling decreased and winter convection increased with the progress of the glacial interval. A good coherence between planktonic foraminiferal assemblage-based monsoon stacks from both the eastern and western Arabian Sea suggests a coeval response of the entire northern Arabian Sea to the glacial–interglacial changes. The glacial–interglacial difference in δ18Osw-ivc was at a maximum with 4–5 psu change in salinity during Termination 2 and 3, and a minimum during Termination 4. The significantly reduced regional contribution to the glacial–interglacial change in δ18Osw-ivc during Termination 4 suggests a lesser change in the monsoon.

The δ13C profile from the lower interval of the Martin Point section in western Newfoundland (Canada) spans the Upper Cambrian (uppermost Franconian – lowermost Trempealeauan). The investigated interval (∼110 m) is a part of the Green Point Formation of the Cow Head Group and consists of the upper part of the Tucker Cove Member (topmost part of the Shallow Bay Formation) and the lowermost part of the Martin Point Member (bottom of the Green Point Formation). It is formed of rhythmites of marine carbonates alternating with shales and minor conglomeratic interbeds. Multiscreening petrographic and geochemical techniques have been utilized to evaluate the preservation of the investigated lime mudstones. The δ13C and δ18O values of the sampled micrites (−4.8 ‰ to +1.0 ‰ VPDB and −8.2 ‰ to −5.3 ‰ VPDB, respectively) have insignificant correlation (R2 = 0.01), as similarly do the δ13C values with their Sr counterparts (R2 = 0.07), which supports the preservation of at least near-primary δ13C signatures that can be utilized to construct a reliable high-resolution carbon-isotope profile for global correlations. The δ13C profile exhibits two main negative excursions: a lower excursion (∼4 ‰) that reaches its maximum at the bottom of the section and an upper narrow excursion (∼6 ‰) immediately above the boundary of the Tucker Cove/Martin Point members (Shallow Bay Formation – Green Point Formation boundary). The lower excursion may be correlated with the global SPICE event, whereas the upper excursion may match with a post-SPICE event that has been also recognized in profiles of equivalent sections on different palaeocontinents.

As the most diverse animal phylum, Arthropoda expectedly has a complex nomenclatural history. Fossil stem groups scattering diagnostic traits of extant clades further complicate the matter. There have been some recent attempts at reorganizing higher-level arthropod taxonomy based on new fossil interpretations and phylogenetic results. However, I argue that this proposed terminology has introduced unnecessary confusion both for semantic reasons and because the core of these interpretations is being falsified. In this paper, I defend the rightful use of Arthropoda and Euarthropoda as key terms in organizing the major branches of the arthropod evolutionary tree and emend Euarthropoda based on the most recent findings in this field. To help with the description of the tree when dealing with euarthropods that belong outside of the main radiative clade including extant taxa, I propose the name Cenocondyla nom. nov., which represents the least inclusive group containing both Mandibulata and Chelicerata.

The Anarak Metamorphic Complex, localized in Central Iran, is a fossil accretionary wedge composed of several tectonometamorphic units. Some of these, the Chah Gorbeh, the Morghab and the Ophiolitic complexes, contain mafic rocks that have been metamorphosed at high-pressure–low-temperature conditions. Such units have been stacked together and later refolded during the final stages of exhumation. Structural analysis at the mesoscale recognized at least three deformation events. Microstructural analyses, mineral chemistry and thermodynamic modelling reveal that the mafic schists followed contrasting P–T paths during their tectonometamorphic evolutions. In the schists of the Chah Gorbeh and Ophiolitic complexes an early greenschist-facies stage was later overprinted by blueschist-facies phase assemblages with suggested peak conditions of 390–440°C at 0.6–0.9 GPa for the meta-basalt within the Ophiolitic Complex and 320–380°C at 0.6–0.9 GPa for the blueschists of the Chah Gorbeh Complex. P–T conditions at metamorphic peak were 410–450°C at 0.78–0.9 GPa for the Morghab blueschists, but they are reached before a greenschist-facies re-equilibration. Compositional zoning of amphiboles and epidotes of this greenschist-facies stage suggests a renewed pressure increase at the end of this metamorphic stage. Based on these data we reconstructed a clockwise P–T path for the Morghab mafic schists and a counter-clockwise path for the Chah Gorbeh blueschists and ophiolitic meta-basalts. Such contrasting metamorphic evolutions of tectonic units that were later accreted to the same wedge are indicative of the complex tectonic dynamics that occur within accretionary–subduction complexes.

Spinosaurus aegyptiacus was probably the largest predatory dinosaur of the Cretaceous period. A new study shows that it was a semiaquatic hunter. The function of Spinosaurus’ huge dorsal ‘sail’ remains unsolved, however. Three hypotheses have been proposed: (1) thermoregulation; (2) humpback storage; or (3) display. According to our alternative hypothesis, the submerged sail would have improved manoeuvrability and provided the hydrodynamic fulcrum for powerful neck and tail movements such as those made by sailfish or thresher sharks when stunning or injuring prey. Finally, it could have been employed as a screen for encircling prey underwater.

Dr. Trotter's recent theory of devolatilization of coal seams is criticized on structural grounds and the “square law” suggested is shown to be no improvement on many other expressions of varied types. The data are best represented both for South Wales and the Kent Coalfield by Hilt's law. The influence of depth of burial on coal vegetation is discussed; loss of volatile matter is probably promoted by temperatures, but is almost certainly retarded by high pressures. The Hilt rate is controlled by the chemical-physical factors and may be influenced also by varying rates of sedimentation during the accumulation of the Coal Measures.

The fauna of a Lower Carboniferous (S1) fissure near Clitheroe, Lancashire, is listed. Coignouina acanthina sp. nov. (Otarionidae) is described, together with its unusual ‘eye-mound’ which bears tubercles rather than lenses. Note is made of new material of C. acanthina (Coignou) which necessitates modification of Osmólska's (1967) reconstruction of the cephalon. Carbonocoryphe hahnorum sp. nov. (Proetidae) is also described and a brief account presented of its variation, postlarval ontogeny and palaeo-ecology.

The three species of Placoparia; P. (Placoparia) cambriensis Hicks, P. (Coplacoparia) tournemini (Rouault) and P. (Coplacoparia) borni Hammann have been recognized from the Ordovician of North Portugal. New subspecies of P. (Placoparia) cambriensis have been established on the basis of differences in the pygidium and suggests the presence of two, broadly coeval, populations in western Europe during the Llanvirn. Quantitative analyses have provided information on growth patterns.

In 1911 Mr. E. J. Wayland, F.G.S., and the authors visited the Portuguese East African province of Mozambique in the interests of the Memba Minerals, Ltd. The country was very little known geographically, and except along the coast, it was a terra incognita to geologists. We hope in due course to publish a detailed account of our observations, but as it will be some time before this can be completed, it seems advisable to give a short résumé of the salient geological features of the territory. It is hoped that these resultswill prove of interest to students of East African geology, especially in their bearing on problems of theoretical interest concerning the geological history of that portion of the globe.

Part III of the Catalogue of the Fossil Cephalopoda in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.), by A. H. Foord and G. C. Crick, was published in 1897. Since then much fresh material has come into my hands and it is now possible to give much more accurate and fuller details of the horizons and localities at which the various species occur. This is of special importance, in view of the fact that the Goniatites can be used as zone indices of the Carboniferous Series from the upper part of the Dibunophyllum beds (D2 of Dr. Vaughan) up to the Middle Coal-measures. This I showed to be the case in my Presidential address to the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, and published in the Naturalist, April to July, 1909, and elsewhere. Many details have, however, been added since then, and an elaborated and emended table will be published in a forthcoming paper by myself and Dr. Wilmore, F.G.S., on the Carboniferous succession of some Midland areas.

Evaporites within Upper Triassic to Lower Cretaceous sequences in the Atacama region of northern Chile are interpreted as the deposits of continental and coastal saline lakes. Halite casts and finely laminated calcareous evaporites, intercalated with alluvial and fluvial sediments, are probably playa lake deposits. These continental evaporites have been recognized in Upper Triassic alluvial sediments (Cifuncho Formation), in Upper Triassic–Lower Jurassic braided river deposits (basal unit of the Pan de Azúcar Formation), and within a sequence of Lower Cretaceous aeolian, alluvial and playa lake mudflat sediments (Quebrada Monardes Formation). Lower Cretaceous evaporites between marine limestones (Lautaro Formation) and continental redbeds (Quebrada Monardes Formation) were probably deposited in coastal saline lagoons, produced during a regionally extensive marine regression.

These sequences, and other similar successions in northern Chile, provide a record of almost continuous evaporite deposition, and hence of arid to semi-arid conditions, since Upper Triassic times. These conditions were primarily the result of a constant latitudinal position within the subtropical zone. A contributary factor was the geographical position of the area, initially on the west coast of Gondwanaland and subsequently on the coast of South America, with cold, northward-flowing ocean currents and offshore winds.