The Geiseltal fossil collection from southern Sachsen-Anhalt Germany contains remarkably well-preserved fossils of middle Eocene age. These include several crocodylian skulls, representing at least four different genera with a fifth genus represented by two mandibular rami. As sites with this many crocodylian genera are unknown in modern ecosystems, it has been hypothesized that these crocodylians may have differences in habit as compared to living crocodylians. In order to test similarities between the Geiseltal crocodylians and extant species, an analysis was conducted using geometric morphometrics to quantify shape in crocodylian skulls of all living species (n = 218) and all well-preserved crocodylian skulls of the Geiseltal fauna (n = 28). A relative warps analysis was used to quantify and compare skull shape, revealing Allognathosuchus and Boverisuchus to be very distinct from each other as well as from Asiatosuchus and Diplocynodon. Overlap in shape alone exists between some Diplocynodon and some Asiatosuchus, but there was significant difference in adult size. When compared with extant crocodylians, three Geiseltal genera occupied distinctly non-modern morphospace in the first two relative warps axes. Comparison of the diets of living crocodylians with similarly shaped skulls was used to reconstruct the prey preferences of the Geiseltal crocodylians, revealing differences in specialization. During the middle Eocene high global temperatures, partitioning of prey preference may have allowed this group to attain its higher than usual diversity, reducing the amount of direct competition.

New calmoniids from the Lower Devonian Talacasto Formation in the Precordillera of San Juan, Argentina, extend the stratigraphic and geographic ranges of a clade including Bouleia Kozlowski, 1923 and Parabouleia Eldredge, 1972. The new genus Talacastops accommodates the Lochkovian T. zarelae sp.nov. from the Talacasto Formation and a closely related species from western Bolivia (Talacastops sp.nov. A). The diagnosis of Parabouleia is broadened to include P. eldredgei sp.nov., from Lochkovian strata in the lower part of the Talacasto Formation. Calmoniids from below the Scaphiocoelia Assemblage Zone display morphological disparity that rivals later occurrences, and do not conform to a model of gradual transformation of an acastomorph ancestor. Stratigraphic range extensions based on correction for ghost lineages imply a high diversity within Calmoniidae very early in the Devonian.

The Lower New Red Sandstone of Devon outcrops in a north-south band near Torquay to Exmoor. It rests unconformably on the Devonian and Culm. Westwards of Tiverton and again west of Exeter the outcrop extends into the Culm synclinorium. The Lower New Red sediments in the second and longer of these narrow tongues, together with the associated Hatherleigh, Highhampton and Essworthy outliers, form the subject of this paper.

On Ord Ban, quartzite in superposed recumbent folds trending north–south is separated by a slide from mica-schist, granulite, and marble folded in monoclines trending east–west. The reasons for distinguishing between these two styles of folding are given, and the characters of the two styles are contrasted. A fold in quartzite and a fold in marble are described in detail, and kinematic interpretations are attempted. It is concluded that evidence of an early deformation involving mylonitization has been preserved in the quartzite, and that the latest tectonic event distinguishable was the production of the monoclines with attendant twinning of calcite and dolomite.

The author has been engaged during occasional visits to the Vale of Eden in the study of the well-known Brockram conglomerates which form so conspicuous an element in the Poikilitic series of the district. Tentative results obtained five or six years ago have been fully confirmed by later observations, and though the investigation is not quite complete, the author regards the present occasion as an opportune one for presenting a preliminary statement of views which have already obtained some currency by annual demonstrations in the field to scientific societies of the North of England.

The coiling of the Liassic oyster Gryphaea is discussed and the assessment of tightness of coiling investigated. Hence Hallam's (1960a, b) statistical work on Gryphaea is interpreted and from his original measurements a highly significant increase in thetightness of coiling is demonstrated in the Gryphaeas of the higher Sinemurian horizons of Britain. The presence of a strong natural selection pressure favourable to more tightly coiled individuals of the communities is indicated, and the nature of the lineage discussed. It is suggested that recent criticisms of Trueman's work lack foundation.

Herpetopora Lang is considered to be a junior synonym of Pyripora d'Orbigny, from which Rhammatopora Lang is distinguished by possessing apertural spines. A new species of Pyripora is described from the Albian of Texas.

The recognition of fossiliferous horizons both below and above the classical Ediacara levels of the Flinders Ranges, South Australia, significantly expands the potential of this candidate World Heritage succession. Here we document a small window into the biology and taphonomy of the late Ediacaran seafloor within the new Nilpena Sandstone Member of the Rawnsley Quartzite in Bathtub Gorge, northern Heysen Range. A 1 m2 slab extracted from the gorge, now on permanent display at the South Australian Museum, has a death assemblage dominated by the erniettomorph Phyllozoon hanseni Jenkins and Gehling 1978 and a newly named macroscopic tubular body fossil – Aulozoon soliorum gen. et sp. nov. – on its fine sandstone bed sole. The orientations and juxtaposition of these taxa suggest overprinting of an in situ benthic Phyllozoon community by sand-filled tubes of Aulozoon carried in by a storm wave-base surge. Phyllozoon hanseni is a widespread species that is restricted to the Nilpena Sandstone Member of the Rawnsley Quartzite, whereas Dickinsonia costata ranges from the underlying Ediacara Sandstone Member into the Nilpena Sandstone Member. Fundamental differences in the ways these two vendobiont taxa are constructed and preserved may provide insights into their biology and phylogenetic affinities. In the Nilpena Sandstone Member, D. costata is joined by Dickinsonia rex Jenkins 1992, which appears to be confined to the member, and is here re-described to clarify its taxonomic status and stratigraphic distribution.

The Amdeh Formation is a 3.4 km stack of sparsely fossiliferous quartzites and shales which crops out in the Al Hajar mountains near Muscat. Here we describe the uppermost member (Am5) that can be dated biostratigraphically as Darriwilian and which is the outcrop equivalent, and probably the seaward continuation, of the Saih Nihayda Formation in the Ghaba Salt Basin of northern Oman. The outcrops at Wadi Daiqa and Hayl al Quwasim consist of 690 m of quartzitic sandstones, shales and bivalve-rich shell beds. Trace fossils referable to the Cruziana and Skolithos ichnofacies abound. The member comprises storm-dominated shelf, shoreface and delta deposits. A number of new discoveries have been made in the outcrops: fragments of the arandaspid fish Sacabambaspis, ossicles and moulds of the early disparid crinoid Iocrinus, two new genera of conodont, an occurrence of the rare trinucleid trilobite Yinpanolithus, and palynological and sedimentological evidence of more continuous Floian–Darriwilian deposition than is usual in the region. Sea levels during Middle Ordovician time are estimated to have been 50–200 m above present levels and a wide, low-gradient shelf covered much of Arabia. Similar trace fossils and storm-dominated, micro-tidal, sedimentary rocks occur throughout the region. Small changes of sea level, possibly caused by the growth and melting of polar ice sheets, could lead to substantial seaward or landward shifts of facies belts. The Am5 deposits are thick compared to most equivalents in Arabia implying active subsidence and a ready supply of sediment.

Zircons from a bentonite near the base of the Purley Shale Formation in the Nuneaton area, Warwickshire, yield a 206Pb/238U age of 517.22 ± 0.31 Ma. Based on the fauna of small shelly fossils and the brachiopod Micromitra phillipsii in the underlying Home Farm Member of the Hartshill Sandstone Formation, trilobite fragments that are questionably referred to Callavia from the basal Purley Shale Formation, and the presence of trilobites diagnostic of the sabulosa Biozone 66 m above the base of the Purley Shale Formation, the bentonite likely dates an horizon within Cambrian Stage 3, at about the level of the Fallotaspis or basal Callavia Biozone. This is consistent with bentonite ages from other localities in southern Britain, which constrain the age of the lower and uppermost parts of Cambrian Stage 3. The new date provides additional chronological control on the earliest occurrence of trilobites in the Midland Microcraton, a date for the marine transgression at the base of the Purley Shale Formation, and is the first radiometric age from the Cambrian succession of Warwickshire.

The Peloritani Mountains, in the southern part of the Calabrian Terranes, southern Italy, have been classically interpreted as the product of the Paleogene brittle deformation of the European continental back-stop of the Neotethyan subduction complex. This reconstruction conflicts with the occurrence of an Alpine metamorphic overprint that affected portions of both the Variscan metamorphic units and part of the Mesozoic sedimentary covers of the mountain belt. New field data, integrated with petrographic, micro- and meso-structural analyses and stratigraphic investigation of the syn-tectonic terrigenous covers, well constrain a Paleogene collision event along the Africa–Nubia convergent margin that caused the exhumation of the Alpine metamorphic units of the Peloritani Mountains. The syn-collisional exhumation was associated with shearing along two major Africa-verging crustal thrusts arising from the positive tectonic inversion of the former European palaeomargin. Early tectonic motions occurred within the mountain belts and produced the exhumation of the external portions of the edifice. Later tectonic motions occurred along the sole-thrust of the entire edifice and caused the definitive exhumation of the entire mountain belt. The whole crustal thrusting lasted for a period of c. 10 Ma, during the entire Oligocene. The definitive southwestward emplacement of the Peloritani Mountain Belt onto the Neotethyan accretionary wedge was followed by two Late Oligocene – Early Miocene NW–SE-oriented right lateral shear zones, replacing the previous crustal thrust. These two strike-slip belts are interpreted as the surface expression of the deep-seated suture zone between the colliding Africa and Europe continental crusts.

Dr. F. W. Clarke truly observes in regard to the origin of chert: “No one process can account for all the occurrences of amorphous and cryptocrystalline silica, and each locality must be studied in the light of its own evidence.” (Data of Geochemistry, 1916, p. 544.)

The Anatolian Platform, which was a part of the Gondwanan Platform, is mainly characterized by carbonate-dominated deposits ranging in age from Devonian to Permian. The biostratigraphy and systematics of a late Asselian–early Sakmarian fusulinid fauna from the Anatolian Platform including Eastern and Central Taurides have been investigated in three sections: Özbek Hill, Eskibey and Bademli. Twenty-four fusulinid taxa, belonging to twelve genera, were determined in a single fusulinid zone dated as late Asselian–early Sakmarian. Early–middle Asselian fusulinid faunas have not been observed in any of the measured sections throughout the Anatolian Platform. This indicates that lower to middle Asselian deposits are represented by an interval characterized by quartz sandstone overlying upper Gzhelian strata. Five new species (Pseudochusenella anatoliana, Pseudofusulinoides altineri, Pseudofusulinoides convexus, Pseudofusulinoides subglobosus and Pseudofusulinoides vachardi) are described in this study. The Early Permian fusulinid fauna correlates very well with the fauna of other sections in the Palaeotethyan realm (Southern Alps, Central Asia, Southern China and Japan).

The Early to Late Triassic development of a carbonate ramp system in the subtropical belt of the NW Tethys was controlled by the interplay of several global and regional factors: geotectonic setting (slow continuous subsidence on a passive continental margin), antecedent topography (low-gradient relief inherited from preceding depositional regime), climate and oceanography (warm and dry climatic conditions, storm influence), relative sea-level changes (Olenekian to Anisian eustatic rise, middle Anisian to early Carnian sea-level fall), lack of frame-builders (favouring the maintenance of ramp morphology), and carbonate production (abundant formation of lime mud, non-skeletal grains and marine cements, development of diverse biota controlled by biological evolution and environmental conditions). Elevated palaeorelief affected the ramp initialization on a local scale, while autogenic processes largely controlled the formation of peritidal cyclicity during the early stage of ramp retrogradation. Probably fault-driven differential subsidence caused a local distal steepening of the ramp profile in middle–late Anisian time. The generally favourable conditions promoted long-term maintenance of homoclinal ramp morphology and accumulation of carbonate sediments having great maximum thickness (~500 m). Shutdown of the carbonate factory and demise of the ramp system in the early Carnian resulted from relative sea-level fall and subsequent emergence. After a period of subaerial exposure with minor karstification, the deposition of continental quartz arenites suggests the possible effect of the Carnian Pluvial Episode.

Early in January, 1916, Dr. O. P. Hay, of Washington, D.C., referred to me for description the fossil bone of a large bird that had been discovered in the eastern part of South Carolina some time previously. This specimen I at once recognized as the lower extremity of the right femur of some bird belonging to a species much larger than any existing form in the United States. I find this specimen to be thoroughly fossilized and of a dull-black colour, the edges of both condyles being considerably chipped off. On the antero-internal aspect the shaft appears to be cut away as if by some shaving implement. This, and where the shaft is broken nearly squarely across above, exposes a filling of a dense, very hard, pale-grey matrix, with a grain as fine as clay. Judging from this there should be no doubt but that this femur was a thoroughly pneumatic one in the living bird, and that the thickness of the osseous wall of the shaft was by no means great, as may be appreciated by examining the figures on the accompanying Plate XV.

Petrographic and geochronological studies of the rocks of Bulland Hill, an inlier of basement in the Punjab alluvium, are reported. Acid and basic pyroclastic and high-level intrusive types give an Rb–Sr isochron age of 870±40 million years. The previous correlation with the Malani Rhyolite Series of north-western India must be abandoned.

A porphyry boulder from the Permo-Carboniferous boulder bed, probably a tillite, in the Salt Range has the same age as the Bulland Hill rocks.

Geological survey, electron microprobe analyses of clinopyroxenes and isotopic age determinations have revealed that the intrusive dolerites and basic–intermediate lavas of the Shelve Ordovician Inlier are part of a co-magmatic suite which show transitional affinities between tholeiites and alkali basalts. The ages of most of the intrusives are shown to be mid-Ordovician.

Tie-line data are presented for twelve analysed igneous pyroxene pairs, from which it is demonstrated that a precise point of intersection, at or close to Wo75 En25 in the ternary diagram, does not exist. Eight tie-lines for pyroxene pairs from ultrabasic nodules in basalts are also considered. The tie-lines for metamorphic pyroxenes are compared with the igneous, and are shown to intersect over a similarly wide range, the average (Ca82 Mg18) being the same for both assemblages. It is shown that no conclusions can be drawn as to the genesis of the pyroxene assemblage, from the assumption of a characteristic tie-line intersection point. Optical determinations are considered, and shown to be of little practical value in this particular problem.

The present investigation establishes the following facts:—

(1) Xenoliths of vein quartz in a vogesite dyke near Kircubbin, Ards Peninsula, Co. Down, exhibit felspathic replacement-rims.

(2) The replacement-rims have developed as a result of the introduction of alk-aluminous emanations, and to a smaller extent of cafemic constituents, into the quartz xenoliths.

(3) Rheomorphic leucocratic veins extend from the felspathized rims through the lamprophyre, the veins being essentially similar in type to felspathic dykes which are associated with British Caledonian lamprophyres.

(4) Phenomena similar to those of (1), (2), and (3) are developed in the Newmains dyke, Dumfriesshire.

(5) Quartz lenticles in potash-enriched hornfels in the vicinity of the Newmains dyke exhibit similar replacement-rims, and thus bear witness to the high degree of mobility of the emanations which brought about the felspathization.

(6) Felspathization of xenoliths is shown, by reference to various recorded examples, to be a phenomenon which characterizes British Caledonian lamprophyres.

(7) The Caledonian dyke suite: lamprophyre—porphyrite—porphyry is shown to parallel the rock suites developed by processes of metasomatism and rheomorphism in individual heterogeneous intrusions.

(8) Ultrabasic types, such as hornblende-peridotite, biotite-peridotite, hornblendite, biotite-pyroxenite, and scyelite, are shown to be the most basic members of the lamprophyre suite.

(9) Chemically, the various components (a) of single heterogeneous lamprophyre dykes and (b) of the Caledonian dyke suite as a whole are shown to be expressible in terms of sialic material, alk-aluminous emanations, and cafemic emanations, the latter being directly related to the ultrabasic types listed in (8).

The remarkable xenolithic dyke described in this paper is one of the little-known swarm of camptonite and monchiquite dykes of probable Permian age in the Northern Highlands of Scotland. It is the first intrusion containing xenoliths of ultrabasic rock to be recorded from the Glenfinnan area, although such xenoliths have been described from vents or intrusions of probable or known Permian age in Caithness in the extreme north of Scotland, and in Ayrshire and elsewhere in the south of Scotland.