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Small ammonoid assemblages are recorded from the Perapertú Formation in northern Palencia. This is a mudstone unit with local platform limestones characterised by carbonate debris flows on the limestone margins. This unit, of Late Bashkirian to Early Moscovian age, participates in a series of southwards verging thrust slicesNorth of a major fault zone which originated as the head (leading edge) of a large thrust sheet with an internal deformation consisting of thrust slices and at least one nappe structure. Opposed vergencies at the head of this major thrust sheet (Carrionas Thrust Front) and the Ruesga Fault which locally modifies its trace, mark the position where the northern branch of the Cantabric-Asturian arcuate fold belt has overridden the southern branch in early Westphalian (Langsettian) times. The chronostratigraphic significance of the Perapertú Formation is discussed in the context of marine-terrestrial correlations for the Late Bashkirian-Early Moscovian time interval. It is concluded that the evidence from NW Spain suggests a position of the base of the Moscovian at the level of basal Westphalian or even within the highest Namurian. A brief analysis of the literature shows this position to be different to some of the correlations admitted in recent publications. A newly discovered goniatite fauna from the lower part of the Perapertú Formation contains Brannerocera ssp. indicating Late Bashkirian to earliest Moscovian, and Deleshumardites cantabricus Kullmann gen. et sp. nov. This fauna is figured and described in conjunction with the new subfamily Dombaritinae Kullmann (family Delepinoceratidae).

We performed a quantitative palynological analysis of Arnsbergian (Namurian, Late Mississippian) mudstone intervals, potentially prospective for unconventional hydrocarbons. While many palynological studies exist on these stratigraphic intervals in the Widmerpool Gulf and the Edale Basin (sub-basins of the Pennine Basin), very few studies perform full statistical analyses. Using the Carsington Dam Reconstruction C3 (Carsington DRC3, Widmerpool Gulf) and the Karenight-1 (Edale Basin) boreholes, we show that the combination of quantitative palynological data and detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) can aid biozonation and additionally, provide paleoecological constraints to the Arnsbergian mudrocks. The studied interval in Carsington DRC3 was assigned to the TK miospore biozone and a hitherto undescribed peak in the fresh water alga Botryococcus was recorded. Using relative abundances of hinterland species, mainly from the genus Florinites, both boreholes could be correlated and a more confident assignment of the TK miospore biozone covering an interval containing goniatite biozone E2b in Karenight-1 was achieved. The techniques used in the current study should be especially valuable for assessing borehole materials where the recovery of macrofossils, like goniatites used as the main biostratigraphic tool in the Namurian, can be very low. Future studies should focus on the same stratigraphic interval from different sub-basins of the Pennine Basin to further assess the applicability of quantitative palynological analysis combined with DCA as a stratigraphic tool for potentially prospective mudstones.

The Belpre Tephra suite from the Chattanooga Shale in eastern Tennessee and the lower Rhinestreet Shale in western New York has yielded high-precision chemical abrasion−thermal ionization mass spectrometry (CA-TIMS) U-Pb zircon dates of 375.55 ± 0.10 Ma from “tephra 01” and 375.25 ± 0.13 Ma from “tephra 06” at Little War Gap, Hancock County, Tennessee, and 375.14 ± 0.12 Ma from “tephra 7.67” at Eighteenmile Creek, Erie County, New York. While the latter two ages provide an apparently isochronous marker horizon for stratigraphic correlation, the conodont zonation for the two localities is disjunct: The tephra beds from the Chattanooga Shale at Little War Gap are, at least in part, Frasnian zonation (FZ) 8, based on the co-occurrence of Ancyrognathus barba and Palmatolepis housei , while the tephra-bearing interval from the Rhinestreet Shale in Erie County, New York, is apparently older, in FZ 7, based on the occurrence of Ancyrognathus sp. L? of Klapper and the goniatite Naplesites inyx . We discuss various hypotheses to explain this chronostratigraphic conflict, including the proposition that we have reached the current limits of resolution of both radioisotopic and biostratigraphic methodologies in this epoch.

Beds with ammonoids are recognized as a result of the study of goniatitids and prolecanitids from the Nyut, Khuren, and Ayan-Yuryakh in the Okhotsk Region. Beds with Neopronorites tenkensis, assigned to the Upper Artinskian Substage, correspond to the upper part of the Echian Horizon of the Verkhoyansk Region. Beds with Paragastrioceras–Baraioceras characterize the middle part of the Kungurian Stage and correlate with the upper sunhorizon of the Tumarian Horizon of the Verkhoyansk Region. Beds with Sverdrupites harkeri correspond to a biostratigraphic subdivision with the same name widely distributed in the Vekhoyansk-Kolyma Region and assigned to the Roadian Stage. The new species Neopronorites tenkensis is described.

Mimimitoceras is the most abundant late Famennian goniatite genus in the Anti-Atlas of Morocco and the Saoura Valley of Algeria. Based on conch morphology, conch ontogeny, suture line and ornament, six new species can be separated, which occur in three successive rock intervals. The new species M. carnatum, M. comtum, M. endocuboide, M. taourirtense, M. alidrisii and M. ibnishaqi are compared with time equivalent Central European species.

Intervals of faunal turnover in the fossil record are often preserved at unconformities, suggesting that their apparent abruptness is an artifact of geologic discontinuities. A detailed investigation of the Middle Devonian Kacak Bioevents of the Appalachian Basin focused on stratigraphically complete sections of eastern New York State to further elucidate the nature and timing of faunal turnover where not cloaked by an unconformity. The Lower Kacak Bioevent is fairly well constrained to the lower portion of the East Berne Member of the Mount Marion Formation. The Upper Kacak Bioevent is less well constrained to within the middle to upper East Berne Member, however. A thorough dissection of the East Berne Member has yielded the more precise timing of the initial Hamilton Fauna incursion, occurring at the level of the thin, fossiliferous, Dave Elliot Bed (DEB). The occurrence of the goniatite Tornoceras aff. mesopleuron below the DEB constrains the Hamilton incursion to the earliest Givetian age. T...

The Devonian palaeontological record of South Africa is essential in understanding plant and animal evolution as well as global palaeobiogeography and palaeoecology at high subpolar-polar (60–90°) southern palaeolatitudes. As early as the mid-nineteenth century, fossils, most notably those of marine invertebrates, from rocks that would later be known as the (? Pragian-Emsian) Rietvlei/Baviaanskloof formations (Table Mountain Group) and the (Emsian-Givetian) Bokkeveld Group have been recognised to be faunally distinct and similar to those found in Emsian-Eifelian (Early-Middle Devonian) successions in Argentina, Antarctica, Bolivia, Brazil, Falkland Islands (Malvinas), Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ghana and Senegal. This broad region of endemism in southwestern Gondwana was referred to by many iterations, namely ‘Flabellite Land’, the ‘Austral Province’, ‘Falklandia’ and later by the ‘Malvinocaffrischen Provinz’ or ‘Malvinokaffric Realm’ as is used currently. Many fossils from the Rietvlei/Baviaanskloof formations and the Bokkeveld Group are important in defining the faunal composition of the Malvinokaffric Realm. The Malvinokaffric Realm is noteworthy in that it comprises a low-diversity fauna with high endemism, namely those of terebratulid, strophomenid and spiriferid brachiopods as well as calmoniid and some homalonotiid trilobites. Conulariids, tentaculitids and hyolithids are abundant and reef-building corals are rare whilst stromatoporoid sponges, conodonts, goniatite ammonoids and graptolites are generally absent. Subsequent research suggests that several gastropods, ostracods, palynomorphs, acritarchs, chtitinozoans and gnathostome fish may also be endemic to this region. Palaeoclimatic and palaeomagnetic indicators suggest that the Malvinokaffric Realm was situated at subpolar-polar regions during the Emsian-Eifelian, persisting at cool temperatures. Given the high palaeolatitudes occupied by southwestern Gondwana during the Devonian Period as well as the relatively complete stratigraphic record of this period in South Africa, continued research into the palaeontology, palaeoenvironments, and palaeoecologies of this key Malvinokaffric locality will continue to ever ingrain the importance of Africa in understanding global palaeobiogeography.

The Basal Chotec or jugleri Event, close above the Lower–Middle Devonian boundary, has been regarded as a minor but important eustatic transgressive event, which is characterized by significant environmental changes, faunal extinction, appearance of new forms, and maximum radiation, particularly among the goniatites. This study contributes to a more precise stratigraphic allocation of the event, and provides a reconstruction of paleoenvironmental settings in the type area of the event, the Prague Basin (Czech Republic). The beginning of a transgression is recorded already in the Třebotov Limestone (partitus Zone, Eifelian, early Middle Devonian). The basin-wide change in the sedimentation pattern (onset of peloidal and crinoidal grainstones (calciturbidites) of the Chotec Formation) corresponding to the uppermost partitus and costatus conodont zones, base of Nowakia (Dmitriella) sulcatasulcata dacryoconarid Zone, and Pinacitesjugleri goniatite Zone is interpreted here to be linked to a maximum flooding of the basin. A hypothesis of enhanced nutrient load during sedimentation of the Chotec Formation is suggested here as a triggering mechanism for intense micritization and peloid formation and prasinophyte blooms, which could be, along with a greater depositional depth, responsible for oxygen deficiency and consequent reduction of diversity and habitat tracking among benthic invertebrates.

In the Tafilalt of the eastern Anti-Atlas, Morocco, the impact of the polyphase global Taghanic Crisis (upper part of Middle Givetian) on facies and faunas was studied in more than twenty successions of a strongly condensed hemipelagic platform (northern and central Tafilalt), of a more neritic to biostromal area with interspersed shale basins (southern Tafilalt, Amessoui Syncline), and in a predominantly hypoxic basin (southeastern Tafilalt). In the pre-crisis interval, a deepening (Depophase If-Win) and increased nutrient supply allowed faunal blooms of macrofauna, especially of goniatites (Maenioceras), resulting in the deposition of the fossiliferous Maenioceras Marls (middle part of ansatus Zone) on the platform and of correlative dark goniatite shales in the SE. In the Amessoui Syncline, shales alternate with small-sized but widespread coral-stromatoporoid biostromes. In the western Tafilalt thin styliolinites indicate eutrophic peaks at the top. A significant pre-Taghanic regressive trend (top of Depophase If) is recorded by disconformity-bound, shallowing upwards cycles at the base, within, and at the top of the Upper Sellagoniatites Bed (higher part of ansatus Zone with Polygnathus ovatinodosus) and by corresponding biostromes and calcareous sandstones in the S and SE. The regressive episode allowed the local re-appearance of shallow-water conodonts (youngest known Bipennatus), culminated in an iron-encrusted hardground or intraclastic reworked unit, and caused local extinctions of ammonoids and of reefal fauna. The initial Taghanic Onlap (base of Depophase IIa-Tagh; upper part of ansatus Zone with rare “Po.” alveoliposticus) led to the return of marls and styliolinid-rich nodular limestones or of hypoxic shales in the S and SE. Equivalents of the Lower and Middle Tully Limestones of the North American Taghanic type area can be recognized, may display subcycles, and are separated by a minor regressive phase. A disconformity or distinctive sea-level fall, associated with the final extinction of Sobolewiidae and other goniatites, separates equivalents of the Upper Tully Limestone. The subsequent aff. amplexum Bed (base of Depophase IIa-UT) is characterized by an initial radiation of Pharciceratidae and of some conodonts (Oz. semialternans Zone), by blooms in branching tabulate corals (youngest known Bainbridgia) and phacopid trilobites, and by a positive carbon isotope excursion. The final extinction of Maenioceratidae and Agoniatitina (Sellagoniatites) coincided with a minor regression at the top of the Taghanic Crisis interval. Uniquely in the eastern Tafilalt, with the most complete sedimentary record, a thin bioclastic conodont lag is preserved at the base of the Upper Givetian and below the deepening of Depophase IIa-Gen. The post-Taghanic radiation of ammonoids and especially of conodonts falls in the nodular Mzerrebites erraticus Beds (hermanni Zone) of the platform and in correlative hypoxic goniatite shales and marls of the S and SE. Radiation continued in the subsequent, haematite-rich Lunupharciceras nodules of the platform and in the widespread Lower Marker Bed (both cristatus ectypus Zone) that are separated by disconformities. The Tafilalt record confirms that the Taghanic Crisis was a second order global overturn of pelagic and reefal biota that progressed in at least three distinctive steps over several hundred thousand years. The detailed event stratigraphy allows global correlations and comparisons with other regions (New York type area, Dra Valley, France, Germany) that have been investigated in similar detail. It is assumed that the Taghanic Crisis was primarily driven by repeated and fast eustatic fluctuations and climate change (greenhouse overheating pulses), which were probably linked. Hypoxia/anoxia played only a local role in extinctions. The crisis can be recognized globally but it had very different effects regionally leading variably to faunal migrations, blooms, and extinctions.

article i nfo Available online xxxx During the Devonian Period the cool water Malvinokaffric Realm was located at high palaeolatitudes in the southern hemisphere. The Realm is defined by its highly endemic marine benthic fauna, which makes extra- Malvinokaffric correlations problematic. Investigation of the Devonian palynomorphs from an extensive regional sub-surface dataset (24 wells) in the Chaco Basin, Bolivia, reveals the presence of a number of stratigraphically restricted and regionally correlative epiboles (peak abundances) of the distinctive palynomorphs Bimerga bensonii, Crucidia camirense, Evittia sommeri, Petrovina connata and Ramochitina magnifica. These palynomorph epiboles were then located at outcrop by a high-resolution palynological investigation (225 samples) of two Bolivian outcrop localities in the Chaco Basin: Bermejo, Santa Cruz Department and Campo Redondo, Chiquisaca Department. The important Evittia sommeri epibole in the basal Los Monos Formation is related to a marine transgression that is present in both these outcrop sections. Additional chronostratigraphic control on this marine transgression comes from the occurrence of rare goniatites in the base of the Huamampampa Formation at Campo Redondo, which are at least early Eifelian in age (post Chotĕc Event). Based on the goniatite together with spore data, the marine transgression with Evittia sommeri in the basal Los Monos Formation can be tentatively assigned to the Mid Devonian (mid-late Eifelian) Kacak Event. The presence of a datable Malvinokaffric goniatite has shown that key spore taxa which are used zonally in both Laurussia and Gondwana do not all have coincident first occurrences in both areas. Furthermore, despite the appearance of some cosmopolitan elements in the microflora, Mid and Late Devonian spore assemblages in Bolivia are distinct from other regions in being relatively impoverished in both progymnosperm and lycopod spores. This floral difference is attributable to the Malvinokaffric Realm continuing to retain a distinctive cool climatic signature throughout this interval. However, the sporadic occurrences of extra- Malvinokaffric macrofauna in restricted stratigraphic intervals of the Middle Devonian in South America and South Africa are significant. The oldest known occurrence of the extra-Malvinokaffric brachiopod Tropidoleptus in Bolivia is coincident with the late Eifelian basal Los Monos Formation transgression. Hence there was a relationship between influxes of this fauna and marine transgressions, i.e. temporary periods of reduced climatic gradient. The migration of Devonian spores, and particularly heterosporous spores, between Gondwana and Laurussia clearly occurs during the Mid and Late Devonian. This is at variance with models claiming a wide Rheic Ocean during much of the Devonian.

Wetland floras narrowly define perceptions of Pennsylvanian tropical ecosystems, the so-called Coal Age. Such wetlands reflect humid to perhumid climate, leading to characterizations of Pennsylvanian tropics as everwet, swampy. These views are biased by the high preservation potential of wetlands. Sedimentation patterns, paleosols, and fossil floras indicate the presence of vegetation tolerant of subhumid to dry–subhumid, perhaps semi-arid climate in basins between peat formation times. Understanding the significance of this seasonally-dry vegetation has suffered from conceptual and terminological confusion. A clearer view has emerged as models for framing the data have improved. Basinal floras typical of seasonally-dry conditions, relatively low soil moisture regimes, are well documented but mainly from isolated deposits. Some of the earliest, dominated by primitive pteridosperms (“Flozfern” floras), occur in clastic rocks between European Early Pennsylvanian coal beds. Later Early Pennsylvanian, fern–cordaitalean vegetation, different from coal floras, is preserved in marine goniatite bullions. Conifers are first suggested by late Mississippian Potoniesporites pollen. About the same time, in North America, broadleaf foliage, Lesleya and Megalopteris occur in basin-margin settings, on drought-prone limestone substrates. The best known, xeromorphic floras found between coal beds appear in the Middle through Late Pennsylvanian, containing conifers, cordaitaleans, and pteridosperms. The Middle Pennsylvanian appearances of this flora are mainly allochthonous, though parautochthonous occurrences have been reported. Parautochthonous assemblages are mostly Late Pennsylvanian. The conifer flora became dominant in western and central Pangaean equatorial lowlands in earliest Permian. Location of the humid–perhumid wetland flora during periods of relative dryness, though rarely discussed, is as, or more, perplexing than the spatial location of seasonally-dry floras through time — wetland plants had few migratory options and possibly survived in small refugia, within and outside of basins. Coupled oscillations in climate, sea level, and vegetation were driven most likely by glacial–interglacial fluctuations, perhaps controlled by orbital cyclicity.

A recently driven sewer tunnel west of Blackburn has shown the presence of a thick turbidite sequence between the R. gracile and R. bilingue Goniatite Bands. Above the R. bilingue Band, turbidites pass up through delta slope deposits into delta top fluviatile sandstones, derived from the northeast. The section provides evidence for the westward limit of advance of the pre-R. gracile Kinderscoutian delta slope and also enables a more accurate R2 isopachyte map to bc drawn.

© 2015, Pleiades Publishing, Ltd. Beds with ammonoids are recognized as a result of the study of goniatitids and prolecanitids from the Nyut, Khuren, and Ayan-Yuryakh in the Okhotsk Region. Beds with Neopronorites tenkensis, assigned to the Upper Artinskian Substage, correspond to the upper part of the Echian Horizon of the Verkhoyansk Region. Beds with Paragastrioceras–Baraioceras characterize the middle part of the Kungurian Stage and correlate with the upper sunhorizon of the Tumarian Horizon of the Verkhoyansk Region. Beds with Sverdrupites harkeri correspond to a biostratigraphic subdivision with the same name widely distributed in the Vekhoyansk-Kolyma Region and assigned to the Roadian Stage. The new species Neopronorites tenkensis is described.

Twenty one species of bivalves included within 13 genera are described from the latest Frasnian and earliest Famennian (Late Devonian) of the Montagne Noire, France. Twelve new species and 4 new genera are described(Cabricardium sedolor n. gen., n. sp.;C. archi n. gen., n. sp.;Disarnella helena n. gen., n. sp.;D. spyridion n. gen., n. sp.;Lunulacardium petrboki n. sp.;L. passula n. sp.;Metrocardia myrmedon n. gen., n. sp.;M. rouxiana n. gen., n. sp.;M. frydai n. gen., n. sp.;Karkulum rubrum n. gen., n. sp.;K. toros n. gen., n. sp.;Cheiopteria feisti n. sp.). They form at least four bivalve-dominated communities of theCheiopteria Community Group which are analogous to the communities of this group known from the Silurian of North Gondwanan and Perunican Europe. Analyses of the bivalve-dominated communities show that in the region of the Montagne Noire near the Frasnian and Famennian boundary, unique restricted conditions developed for the explosive adaptive radiation of the bivalves after the Kellwasser Event (late Frasnian) in the sedimentation environment of the black calcareous shale and micritic limestone sedimentation. The bottom waters, which were not deep (just below wave base), were temporarily ventilated by surface currents, as is documented by current oriented empty bactritid shells, by temporary mass extinction of juvenile bivalves unable to survive longer periods of hypoxia, by the lack of trilobites, by the limited occurrence of brachiopods and by the drift of bivalve, ostracode, brachiopod, bactritid and goniatite larvae into the region of the Montagne Noire. Similar facies of black shale with nodules or intercalations of dark micritic to biodetrital bituminous limestone with bivalve-dominated communities which developed after the Kellwasser Event are known also in the late Frasnian and earliest Famennian of Morocco, the South Urals and Poland.

A previously unknown Namurian goniatite and brachiopod fauna is described from Southeast Asia. The goniatites provide new insights into their global distribution and the age of the fauna. Two new brachiopod genera, Eileenella Racheboeuf and Plicambocoelia Boucot and Brunton, and five new species are described. The brachiopod fauna is unlike any known previously from Asia.

Gattendorfia crassa is an Early Carboniferous (Mississippian) goniatite species with strikingly allometric conch growth. Analysis of 15 high-precision cross-sections of this species demonstrates the small intraspecific variability of some of the conch form characters, but remarkable variability in others. While the whorl expansion rate, umbilical width, and conch thickness vary within narrow limits, the expansion rates of the whorl height and whorl width are remarkably plastic. Variability of most of the characters tends to be smallest in intermediate growth stages, whereas juveniles and adults are more variable. The differences in morphological plasticity are interpreted in terms of the function of the ammonoid conch, especially the orientation of the aperture during life.

A co-occurrence of the clymeniid Postclymenia evoluta Schmidt, 1924 and the goniatite Acutimitoceras hilarum Korn, 2002 is reported from the Anti-Atlas of Morocco. Both species occur in the same limestone horizon within the Acutimitoceras prorsum Zone, that has yielded an exclusive conodont fauna of the Upper praesulcata Zone (latest Devonian, above the Hangenberg Black Shale). This record is firm evidence that some clymeniids survived the global Hangenberg Event, but soon later became extinct without descendants.

An outline is given of the business and personal life of a professional civil engineer who was introduced to Carboniferous geology and palaeontology in the north of England by amateurs and, through his own efforts as an amateur and the help of others, became an internationally recognized expert on goniatites and Carboniferous stratigraphy. Through his fieldwork and goniatite determinations he was able to establish, in 1924, a set of faunal zones for the Carboniferous of northern England that provided the key to unlocking many of the problems of Carboniferous stratigraphy throughout Europe and the USA. Subsequent researches and many publications refined and consolidated this scheme over the next 30 years. His relationship with other amateurs is explored and also his role in acting as a consultant to the professionals of the Geological Survey. His part in the origins of the Palaeontological Association in 1957 is given. Details of the many awards and honours he received are outlined, including the rare one for an amateur — that of Fellowship of the Royal Society.

About one hundred carbonate mud mounds, covering an area of 440 km 2 in the eastern Anti-Atlas of Morocco, constitute one of the largest mound agglomerations known so far from Lower Carboniferous settings. They occur within a 4000-m-thick succession of shales with intercalated bedded limestones, sandstones, and siltstones. According to conodont and goniatite biostratigraphy, mound formation started in the early Gnathodus texanus Zone and terminated during the G. bilineatus Zone of the Visean stage. Individual mounds are a few metres to 30 m high, have base diameters of up to 300 m and are concentrated in several parallel, WNW–ESE running belts. From their lithology and facies relationships, four types of mounds can be distinguished: (1) massive crinoidal wacke- or packstones without stromatactis; (2) massive crinoidal wacke- or packstones with rare stromatactis; (3) similar to (2), but allochthonous; and (4) biodetrital (skeletal) grainstone mounds. While carbonate deposition in types (1) to (3) was probably triggered by microbial precipitation, type (4) is the result of a predominantly mechanical accumulation of skeletal debris. Biota in the four types comprise a great variety of invertebrates, among which crinoids, sponges, and bryozoans are most common. Diagenesis of the mound carbonates was dominated by recrystallization of micritic matrix and organic remains and late burial cementation. Oxygen and carbon isotope data of brachiopod and crinoid ossicles, matrix, and early marine cements plot in a large field and do not allow definite conclusions about the composition of the ambient seawater. Microbial activity and the absence or scarcity of green algae, colonial corals and coralline sponges suggest deposition of the mounds in moderate water depth close to the lower limit of the photic zone. D 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

The relative influences of local tectonics and global eustasy in the architecture of the sedimentary units of the Namur-Dinant Basin (southern Belgium) are determined. Nine third-order sequences are recognised. During the Lower Tournaisian (Hastarian and lower Ivorian) a homoclinal ramp extended from southern Belgium through southern England (Mendips) and into southern Ireland. From the upper Ivorian to the lower Visean rapid facies changes occurred due to progradation and increasing prominence of Waulsortian mudmounds. Progradation gradually produced a situation in which inner shelf facies covered the Namur (NSA), Condroz (CSA) and southern Avesnes (ASA) sedimentation areas, whereas outer shelf facies were restricted to the Dinant sedimentation area (DSA). During the middle and late Viscan a broad shelf was established from western Germany to southern Ireland. Because the shelf built up mainly by aggradation, parasequences can be followed over a large area. An early phase of Variscan shortening is perceptible during the Livian. The stratigraphic gap between the first Namurian sediments (E2 Goniatite Zone) and the underlying Visean varies from place to place, but is more important in the north. Sequence 1 straddles the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary. It starts with a transgressive system tract (TST) corresponding to the Etroeungt Formation (Fm.) and its lateral equivalent (the upper part of the Comb lain-au-Pont Fin.), and to the lower member of the Hastiere Fin. The highstand system tract (HST) is represented by the middle member of the Hastiere Fin. which directly overlies Famennian silicielastics in the northern part of the NSA. Sequence 2 starts abruptly, in the DSA and CSA, with the upper member of the Hastiere Fin. as the TST. The maximum flooding surface (MFS) lies within the shales of the Pont d'Arcole Fin., whereas the thick-bedded crinoidal limestones of the Landelies Fm. form the HST. Sequence 3 can clearly be recognised in the DSA and CSA. Its TST is formed by the Maurenne Fm. and the Yvoir Fm. in the northern part of the DSA and by the Maurenne Fm. and the Bayard Fin. in the southern part of the DSA. The Ourthe Fin. represents the HST. Growth of the Waulsortian mudmounds started during the TST. Sequence 4 shows a significant change of architecture. The TST is represented by the Martinrive Fm. in the CSA and the lower part of the Leffe Fin. in the DSA. The HST is marked by the crinoidal rudstones of the Flemalle Member (Mbr.) and the overlying oolitic limestones of the Avins Mbr. (respectively lower and upper parts of the Longpre Fin.). These latter units prograded far southwards, producing a clinoform profile. Sequence 5 is only present in the DSA and in the Vise sedimentation area (VSA). The TST and the HST form most of the Sovet Fm. and its equivalents to the south, namely, the upper part of the Leffe Fm. and the overlying Molignee Fm. In the VSA, the HST is locally represented by massive grainstones. Sequence 6 filled the topographic irregularities inherited from previous sedimentation. In the CSA, NSA and ASA the TST is formed by the peritidal limestones of the Terwagne Fm. which rests abruptly on the underlying Avins Nibr. (sequence 4) with local karst development. In the DSA, the TST corresponds to the Salet Fin. and, further south, to the black limestones of the strongly diachronous Molignee Fin. Over the whole Namur-Dinant Basin, the sequence ends with the thick-bedded packstones and grainstones of the Neffe Frn. as the HST. Sequence 7 includes the Lives Fm. and the lower part of the Grands-Malades Fm. (Seilles Mbr. and its lateral equivalents), corresponding respectively to the TST and HST. Sequence 8 corresponds to the Bay-Bonnet Mbr. (TST), characterised by stromatolitic limestones. The HST corresponds to the Thon-Samson Mbr. Sequence 9 is the youngest sequence of the Belgian Dinantian in the CSA and DSA. It includes the Poilvache Nibr. (TST, Bonne Fm.) and the Anhee Fm. (HST). These units are composed of shallowing-upward parasequences. The uppermost Visean and basal Namurian are lacking in southern Belgium where sequence 9 is directly capped by Namurian E2 silicielastics. In the VSA, sequence 9 is well developed.

New ammonoid and conodont data from Germany, the Montagne Noire (France) and southeastern Morocco document a complex sequence of sedimentary events and faunal changes within an extended Givetian (late Middle Devonian) Taghanic Event Interval or Taghanic Biocrisis. Direct association of supposed typical middle Givetian ammonoids, trilobites and corals with upper Givetian marker taxa such as pharciceratids have been found, for example, in Moroccan and French time equivalents of the New York Upper Tully Limestone. The initial and eustatic Taghanic Onlap level is not known to be characterized by the first appearance of any widespread index conodont, goniatite or other taxon. A future upper Givetian substage, therefore, might be based either on the entry of Ozarkodina semialternans or on the first appearance of Schmidtognathus hermanni. The semialternans Zone correlates with a third sedimentary cycle within the Tully Limestone and with the spread of the first Pharciceratidae. Eobeloceratidae (Mzerrebites juvenocostatus) and Archoceratidae n. fam. (Atlantoceras). The (Lower) hermanni Zone is marked by a post-event transgression which led to a significant conodont radiation and to a further diversification of Pharciceratidae and Eobeloceratidae (Mz. erraticus). Neue Ammonoideen- und Conodonten-Daten aus Deutschland, Frankreich (Montagne Noire) und aus Südost-Marokko belegen eine komplexe Abfolge sedimentärer Ereignisse und von Faunenwechseln in einem längerfristigen Taghanic-Event-Intervall bzw. einer Taghanic-Biokrise des Givetiums (oberes Mittel-Devon). Direkte Vergesellschaftungen von Ammonoideen, Trilobiten und Korallen, die früher als typische Mittel-Givetium-Formen angesehen wurden, mit Leitformen des Ober-Givetiums (z. B. Pharciceraten) konnten in Marokko und Frankreich in Zeitequivalenten des Oberen Tully-Kalkes von New York nachgewiesen werden. Der initiale und eustatisch bedingte Taghanic Onlap ist bisher nicht durch das Einsetzen eines weit verbreiteten Index-Conodonten, -Goniatiten oder eines Vertreters anderer Fossilgruppen gekennzeichnet. Eine künftige Ober-Givet-Unterstufe sollte daher entweder durch das Einsetzen von Ozarkodina semialternans oder durch das erste Auftreten von Schmidtognathus hermanni definiert werden. Die semialternans-Zone korreliert mit einem dritten Sedimentations-Zyklus im Tully-Kalk und mit der Ausbreitung erster Pharciceratidae, Eobeloceratidae (Mzerrebites juvenocostatus) und Archoceratidae n. fam. (Atlantoceras). Die (Untere) hermanni-Zone ist durch eine Post-Event-Transgression gekennzeichnet, welche eine wichtige Conodonten-Radiation und eine weitere Diversifizierung der Pharciceratidae und Eobeloceratidae (Mz. erraticus) ermöglichte. doi:10.1002/mmng.20010040107

Givetian samples have yielded well preserved palynomorphs including miospores, prasinophytes, acritarchs, and coenobial algae. Two new miospore species (Grandispora parvula Turnau, sp. nov., and Perotrilites granulaticonatus Turnau, sp. nov.), and two new prasinophyte species (Dictyotidium obesum Turnau, sp. nov., and Polyedrixium skalensis Turnau, sp. nov.) are described. Ten possibly new miospore and prasinophyte forms are described but not specifically named. Two miospore zones of the East European zonal division are distinguished. The direct conodont and goniatite data indicate that the first appearances of (1) Chelinospora concinna, (2) Daillydium pentaster, (3) Samarisporites triangulatus, and (4) Ancyrospora incisa are: upper Lower, or Middle varcus Subzone for (1); Middle varcus Subzone for (2) and (3); and above the base of the hermanni–cristatus Zone for (4). Four successive palynofacies are described: (i) a spore-dominated palynofacies lacking in acritarchs; (ii) palynofacies with acritarchs; (iii) palynofacies with abundant leiospheres; (iv) palynofacies dominated by tasmanitids. The palynofacies changes are possibly related to the eustatic sea-level fluctuations, but the pattern is obviously complicated by changes in surface water circulation and/or fertility.

The distribution of conodonts across several sections in the Northern Urals is documented for the interval spanning the Carboniferous Mid-Tournaisian (‘Lower Alum Shale’) global event. In the Northern Urals the event interval is represented by cherty sediments with layers of clastic limestone. The event interval comprises the uppermost part of the duplicata-sandbergi Conodont Zone and the lower part of the quadruplicata Conodont Zone, and is marked by an extensive radiation of conodonts. At this interval a number of siphonodellids, pseudopolygnathids. and a new species of primitive Eotaphrus appear. This new species ( Eotaphrus simplex sp. nov.) is described herein. Although some conodont taxa became extinct at the event level, the predominant conodont radiation is in contrast to the worldwide extinction of goniatite faunas previously described. The abundant and characteristic post-event conodont fauna has good potential for correlation of the Mid-Tournaisian boundary in deep-water facies both in the Northern Urals and worldwide.

About one hundred goniatite beaks (jaws) and five radulae from the Late Mississippian (Early Carboniferous) of Arkansas wgere studied with light and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Four beaks were found within the body chamber of the goniatite Girtyoceras. Owing to the three-dimensional preservation, these oldest known beaks could be studied in detail and compared with those in living coleoids. The beaks are univalved, and the lower one is larger than the upper. Each beak consists of an organic outer and inner lamella; only the rostrum is weakly calcified. In the lower beak the outer and inner lamellae are about the same length, but in the upper beak the outer lamella is considerably shorter than the inner lamella. The goniatite beaks resemble those in living coleoids in the relative length of the outer and inner lamellae in the upper beak, which probably indicates similarity in muscle insertion. Concerning the length of the inner and outer lamellae, the lower beak is similar to that in Vampyroteuthis and the pelagic octopod Tremoctopus. Late Mississippian goniatite beaks dealt with here are similar to those of Carboniferous and Permian goniatites in general morphology, but differ from those of Mesozoic ammonoids. In the latter ammonoids, the lower beak has a long outer lamella and a short inner lamella, whereas both lamellae have about equal length in the goniatites. Goniatite radulae remain stable during ammonoid evolution and demonstrate a more or less distinct similarity with those in living coleoids.

The Drahany Upland is built of a flysch sequence of Lower Carboniferous age (shale, greywackes, conglomerates), and a preflysch sequence of Devonian to Lower Carboniferous age (spilites, carbonates, shales). Lower Carboniferous black shales are known by goniatites and bivalvian assemblages, also fossil traces. According to the Żakowa (1971) methodology were determined species of bivalves of the genus Posidonia and Septimyalina. Amler (1994) describes the morphology of the bivalve genus Streblochondria. So far was from the Culm sites od Drahany Upland determined 18 kinds of Lower Carboniferous bivalves represented by following species: Posidonia becheri, Posidonia corrugata, Posidonia kochi, Posidonia trapezoedra, Posidonia radiata, Septimyalina sublamellosa, Septimyalina lamellosa, Septimyalina cf. minor, Dunbarella mosensis, Streblochondria patteiskyi, Streblochondria praetenuis, Sanguinolites sp., Janeia böhmi, Polidevcia cf. sharmani, Anthraconeilo oblongum, Palaeoneilo luciniforme and Edmondia sp. These genera originated from localities of Myslejovice Formation (i. e. Opatovice, Dědice, Pístovice, Nemojany, Ježkovice, Radslavice and Myslejovice). Lower Carboniferous marine bivalves can be also used for correlation of goniatites zones in the Upper Viséan of Myslejovice Formation. Correlation table is adapted from Amler (2004). Correlation of bivalve zones to goniatite zones has proven to be useful. Due to the very variable conditions of the various locations the deviations can be partly caused by incompleteness of the fossil record from the specifi ed horizons.

In their paper on the age of the Detroit River Group, the authors, E.C. Prosh and C.W. Stearn, suggest that the occurrence of two to four species of stromatoporoids in the Detroit River, which are also known to occur in well-dated Lower Devonian Arctic formations, outweighs the evidence of conodonts and goniatites that is currently used to date the Detroit River as mostly, or entirely, Middle Devonian. The conodont and goniatite evidence is much stronger than indicated by the authors and too strong to be set aside in response to their new data. Correlation difficulties are attributable to the known endemism of the eastern North American Early and Middle Devonian faunas and to environmental differences.

A remarkable diversification of several independent ammonoid lineages with high evolutionary rates occurred in the Late Devonian Wocklumeria Stufe. Many speciation events led to paedomorphic ammonoids that display a striking range of conch shapes, sculpture, and ornamentation. In the goniatite family Prionoceratidae, the transition from normal Mimimitoceras species to paedomorphic Balvia species provides an example of rapid size decrease combined with an early character developmental offset arising from progenesis. Adults of early Balvia species largely have the preadult ancestral morphology of Mimimitoceras, but later evolving species acquire distinct conch and ornamentation types. Progenetic ammonoid species also appeared within the clymeniid family Kosmoclymeniidae and probably in the Glatzielliidae. In the clymeniid family Parawocklumeriidae, evolution is characterized by the extension of tri-segmented and triangularly coiled whorls found only in juveniles of earlier species, to the adults of later species. This is interpreted as resulting from neoteny. The distribution of paedomorphic ammonoids in the Late Devonian Wocklumeria Stufe is closely correlated to relative sealevel changes. The regressive trend in the lower two-thirds of the Wocklumeria Stufe is interpreted as the cause of a diversification of the pelagic habitat during unstable conditions, and as an extrinsic factor inducing heterochronic change. Some ammonoids reacted by rapid maturation and faster reproductive rates, giving the opportunity to exploit a wider range of niches. The apparent consequence was the formation of several allopatric species. □Ammonoidea, Late Devonian, evolution, heterochrony, sealevel changes.

Conical shells (mostly orthoconic nautiloids, locally gastropods and rugose corals) were used to determine current directions in Ludlovian to upper Famennian cephalopod limestones in the eastern Anti-Atlas of Morocco, Ougarta Aulacogen and Ahnet Basin (both Algeria). Data plots established on 50,413 measurements from 217 localities document rather consistent current patterns which show only minor variations through subsequent intervals. A conspicuous feature are currents derived from pelagic platforms and directed towards adjacent basins. Shell accumulations decrease markedly towards platform margins yielding less distinctive information on current directions which, due to lack of shells, cannot be established in the basins proper. Orientation patterns of styliolinids show such a puzzling variation in adjacent samples that their use for current analysis is doubtful. The same is true for the presumed down-stream position of goniatite apertures which shows a highly variable pattern which is rarely consistent with that of concomitant orthoconic nautiloids. The direction of orthocones in cephalopod limestones onlapping lower Givetian mud mounds and ridges in the Ahnet Basin of Algeria shows a radial pattern which is the result of a mere gravitational deposition of shells on the steep slopes of these buildups. Apart from this exception the applicability of conical shells for current analysis is confirmed.

In 1956 two fossil specimens were exposed in concretions associated with two crushed body chambers of the orthoconic nautiloid Rayonnoceras sp. recovered from the Fayetteville Shale (Chesterian, upper Mississippian) of northern Arkansas. The two specimens were subsequently described as a new genus and species of demosponge, Vintonia doris Nitecki and Rigby and placed in the new family Vintoniidae (Nitecki and Rigby, 1966). The specimens were described as silicified. Nitecki and Rigby's analysis, based on the presence of an assumed skeletal net resembling the spongin net of Recent sponges, suggested that the specimens were demosponges with sycon structure. The “net” was considered spongin because of its geometric pattern and cellular appearance. That interpretation led to the placement of the specimens in the Order Keratosida despite the presence of an apparently well-developed ectosomal region, a feature that is not common in the Keratosida (Nitecki and Rigby, 1966). As part of ongoing studies of goniatite ammonoid and orthoconic nautiloid associations in shales by RHM, one of the two nautiloid body chambers and the prepared thin-sections were loaned to RHM in 1999. Re-examination of the thin sections revealed that the specimens do not represent sponges, but are fragments of badly degraded and broken plant axes that probably belonged to seed fern petioles or stems. The specimens are deposited at the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL under the collection numbers B-56–1095, 1096, 1098–1102 and PE 10098, with locality labels that read “?Town Creek, City of Fayetteville, Washington County, Arkansas.” However the precise outcrop of the crushed nautiloid body chambers and specimens in this study is uncertain because there are numerous exposures in Town Branch Creek system that have …

The late Middle Devonian ‘Taghanic (Pharciceras) Event’ was originally named by Michael House for goniatite turnovers in the New York Appalachian Basin during deposition of the Tully Limestone; subsequently, it has been associated with the extinction of most of the long-lasting ‘Hamilton Fauna’ in this region. Stratigraphic and paleoecologic research in the type area has revealed at least three main faunal transitions, recognized as discrete bioevents: (1) replacement of much of the endemic ‘Hamilton Fauna’ (a subset of the Eastern Americas Realm) with the previously equatorial ‘Tully Fauna’ (a subset of the Old World Realm); (2) subsequent extermination of most of the ‘Tully Fauna’ and recurrence of the ‘Hamilton Fauna’, coincident with the eustatic sea-level rise termed the ‘Taghanic Onlap’; and (3) extinction of much of the ‘Hamilton Fauna’ and return of some ‘Tully’ taxa along with a further incursion of Old World Realm taxa during continued rise in global sea level. The Taghanic Biocrisis is currently recognized globally as a series of pulsed biotic transitions and extinctions, ultimately resulting in an end to previous faunal provinciality and appearance of a global cosmopolitan fauna. We review the current knowledge of these faunal transitions in the type area with respect to geologically rapid global and local environmental changes observed using a high-resolution stratigraphic framework across the entire onshore-offshore environmental gradient. Globally recognized environmental changes, specifically temperature increases, changes between arid and humid intervals, rapid sea-level fluctuations, and widespread black shale deposition account for the faunal transitions discriminated in the type area, but only in the context of regional basin dynamics associated with basin morphology and the degree to which estuarine-type watermass circulation patterns were operating, resulting in salinity variation as a dominant control on faunal distribution. Herein, we outline the interplay between global and local environmental changes that served as driving forces behind the local incursions and extinctions, including the demise of the long-stable ‘Hamilton Fauna’.

Studies carried out during the last decade have permitted the establishment of palynological zonal schemes for the Namurian deposits in China. The palynological zones proposed in this paper are based on material from Jingyuan, northwest China, where the exposures are well-developed without any apparent break and miospores are abundant and well preserved allowing the recognition of successive Namurian miospore zones. Seven miospore assemblage zones, i.e. Zones TA, VR, SB, KM, BP, AS and TQ, equivalent to goniatite Zones E 1 , E 2 , H, R 2 , R 2 -G 1 , lower G 2 and upper G 2 , respectively, according to the ammonoids and conodonts associated with them, covering the age from Namurian A to early Westphalian A, have been described. Some correlations of zones recognized in Jingyuan and those of Western Europe are briefly discussed.

Newly discovered non-marine bivalve bands and other fossiliferous horizons, re-collection of some known horizons and re-examination of museum material from an inland section covered over for many years are utilized to correlate the succession at Westward Ho!. A non-marine bivalve band at Westward Ho! is correlated with one in the late Namurian of South Wales. The dated strata range from the late Namurian, very probably late R 1c in Cycle 3 of the Bideford Group, to the lower part of the Communis Chronozone in Cycle 9, which includes the Cornborough Sandstone and overlying ‘Culm Bed’. The adjacent Greencliff Beds, which have yielded a marine trace fossil, are briefly discussed and their structure is re-interpreted. They may possibly be of an earlier age than the Bideford Group. The Westward Ho! sequence, when compared with those of nearby Clovelly and Bude to the southwest, reveals stratigraphical gaps and lacks five black shale horizons with major goniatite bands. The possible significance of these differences in the Westward Ho! succession is briefly discussed.

The Canning Basin of northwestern Australia is a key area for understanding global changes at the “Kellwasser Events” and the Frasnian‐Famennian boundary. Frasnian stromatoporoid‐coral‐cyanobacterial reef platforms stretched out for enormous distances along the palaeoshelf but in the early Famennian they were completely replaced by cyanobacterial reef platforms. An iridium anomaly in the sequence was formerly believed to be at or close to the boundary and was interpreted as possible evidence for an asteroid impact. Recent field work and detailed biostratigraphy in the area east and southeast of Fitzroy Crossing has given dating relevant to the timing and extent of sea level changes, hypoxic incursions and reef backstepping. Goniatites and conodonts provide correlations with the international biostratigraphy. In the Horse Spring area the stage boundary falls within the Virgin Hills Formation which normally has a rich pelagic goniatite, nautiloid and conodont fauna. In the latest Frasnian (Zone 13 of Klappe...

und Literatur, Abhandlungen der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Klasse 9: 191-203. Seilacher, A. 1988. Why are nautiloid and ammonoid sutures so different? Neues lahrbuch for Geologie und Paliiontologie, Abhandlungen177(l): 41-69. Tanabe, K., N. H. Landman, and R. H. Mapes. 1998. Muscle attachment scars in a Carboniferous goniatite. Paleontological Research 2(2): 130-136. Urlichs, M., and R. Mundlos. 1988. Zur Stratigraphie des Oberen Trochitenkalks (Oberer Muschelkalk, beranis) bei Crailsheim. In H. Hagdorn (editor), Neue Forschungen zur Erdgeschichte von Crailsheim. Sonderbiinde der Gesellschaft fiir Naturkunde in Wiirttemberg 1: 70-84. Vogel, K. P. 1959. Zwergwuchs bei Polyptychiten (Ammonoidea). Geologisches lahrbuch 76: 469-540. Wang, Y., and G. E. G. Westermann. 1993. Paleoecology of Triassic Ammonoids. Geobios 15: 373-392. Ward, P. D.1987. The Natural History of Nautilus. Boston: Allen & Unwin. Weitschat, W. 1986. Phosphatisierte Ammonoideen aus der Mittleren Trias von CentralSpitzbergen. Mitteilungen des Geologisch-Paliiontologischen Instituts der Universitiit Hamburg 61: 249-279. Weitschat, W., and K. Bandel. 1991. Organic components in phragmocones of boreal Triassic ammonoids: implications for ammonoid biology. Paliiontologische ZeitschriJt 65: 269-303. Weitschat, W., and K. Bandel. 1992. Formation and function of suspended organic cameral sheets in Triassic ammonoids: reply. Paliiontologische ZeitschriJt 66: 443-444. Wenger, R. 1957. Die Ceratiten der gennanischen Trias. Palaeontographica A 108: 57-129. Westennann, G. E. G. 1992. Fonnation and function of suspended organic cameral sheets in Triassic ammonoids discussion. Paliiontologische ZeitschriJt 66: 437-441. Zaborski, P. M. P. 1986. Internal mould markings in a Cretaceous ammonite from Nigeria. Palaeontology 29: 725-738. Chapter 10 Soft-tissue Attachment of Middle Triassic Ceratitida from Germany

At least two orders of allocycles, termed for convenience ‘low frequency’ and ‘high frequency’, are detectable in the Pendleian sedimentary succession of central Scotland (Read and Forsyth 1989; Read 1993 a ). New evidence suggests that the high frequency cycles were orbitally forced and provides an incentive to estimate their frequency, despite the inadequate framework of radiometric dates for the earliest Namurian. The low frequency allocycles, which Read (1993 a ) provisionally equated with the basic third-order cycles of the Exxon Production Research Company’s (EPR) sequence stratigraphy (see Mitchum and Van Wagoner 1991), reflected a series of major marine transgressions. These may be traced over the greater part of the Midland Valley, into England and (in some cases) far beyond. Until recently, it had been assumed (Read 1993 a ) that only three such major transgressions could be identified within the Scottish Pendleian succession, namely the Top Hosie Limestone, the Black Metals and the Index Limestone. A further undoubtedly major marine transgression associated with the Orchard Limestone marks the base of the Arnsbergian. The Eumorphoceras pseudobilingue and Cravenoceras cowlingense ammonoid (goniatite) bands which correlate with the Index and Orchard horizons respectively (Ramsbottom 1977), have been reported from as far away as the Donetz Basin (Aisenverg et al . 1979), strongly suggesting a eustatic origin. However, palaeontological evidence suggests that there are two more Pendleian transgressions which mark low-frequency allocycles. Firstly, as N. J. Riley has informed the author, Cravenoceras cf. malhamense has been recorded as far afield as Poland (Korejwo 1969). This form characterizes the ammonoid band . . .

Anatomically preserved plants are described from marine goniatite bullions of Marsdenian age (Namurian B, Upper Carboniferous) from Star Wood, Oakamoor, Staffordshire, England. They comprise stems and petioles, up to 15 cm long, predominantly of cordaites (Mesoxylon) and pteridosperms (Sutcliffa), with rare calamites, ferns and lycopsids, and are preserved as calcareous permineralizations. Rare fusainized plant fragments are also found. The flora is similar, although comprising fewer species, to the roof nodule floras of Langsettian (Westphalian A) age from Lancashire which occur above coal seams yielding calcareous coal balls. The plants preserved in these roof nodules probably grew in well-drained, slightly elevated lowlands, not inundated during marine transgression, and contrast in botanical composition to the boras of lowland peat-forming mires represented in typical coal ball floras. The Oakamoor assemblage likewise probably represents an assemblage living in well-drained elevated areas which drifted into the sea and was preserved in sediment-starved carbonates during the height of the marine transgression. These species of plants appear not to have become part of lowland mire ecosystems until later in the Carboniferous. The occurrence of this flora pre-dates that previously described From the Westphalian Coal Measures, and extends the range of several important Upper Carboniferous plant taxa.

The oldest known Lower Devonian goniatite faunas, which can be called Anetoceras faunas, are of Zlichovian (in most cases apparently upper Zlichovian) age. They include the goniatite fauna of the upper Zlichovian in the Barrandian. The well known fauna of the Hunsriick Shale, hitherto regarded as the oldest, also belongs here. Analogous goniatite assemblages are known from several other European regions, from North Africa, Asia Minor, the Urals, Central Asia, NE part of the USSR, North America (Nevada) and SE Australia. The distinctive feature of these faunas is the occurrence of the genera Anetoceras (incl. Erbenoceras), Mimosphinctes, Palaeogoniatites, Teicherticeras (incl. Convoluticeras). They show the first appearance of Mimagoniatites, Gyroceratites and Pseudobactrites. They may be contrasted with younger goniatite faunas particularly by their lack of anarcestids. The wide distribution of the Anetoceras faunas and their distinctive character permit wide-reaching, even intercontinental correlations of the upper Zlichovian. This is an important episode in Devonian biostratigraphy. Graptolites had become extinct, and the development of goniatites was beginning.

Significant increases in our understanding of Carboniferous geological and geographical processes, including plate tectonics, palaeomagnetism, climatology and sea level changes have occurred in recent years. Further advances will increasingly depend on the accurate determination of radiometric ages for the boundaries of the major Carboniferous stratigraphie subdivisions. The recent 39 Ar/ 40 Ar dating of sanidines from European Silesian tonsteins holds out great hopes that structural, igneous and metamorphic events dated by radiometric methods can be better correlated with stratigraphie events defined by goniatite zonation. Palaeomagnetic and tectonic studies in the European Hercynides have established that the Upper Palaeozoic geological evolution of the British Isles took place to the north (present coordinates) of an active micro-plate collision zone along the Galician-Brittany-Massif Central line. Lithospheric stretching of the British/Irish Hercynian ‘foreland’ in the Lower Carboniferous was followed by a belt of north-migrating crustal shortening which disrupted the thermal sag phase of extensional subsidence in northern Britain from Westphalian C times onwards. Backstripped subsidence curves for north British Carboniferous basins indicate that subsidence may have occurred in response to lithospheric thinning of up to 50%. The proposal that there was crustal extension and limited seafloor spreading between Greenland and Scotto-Scandinavia along the Rockall/Faroes line during Carboniferous times is discussed and it is suggested that strike-slip tectonics, known to have been active in Maritime Canada may have played a more important role. Radiometric studies of detrital zircons reveal that the nature of the sourcelands for the huge amounts of Carboniferous detritus in the northern British Isles changed little during the course of the period. They were dominated by outcrops of post-Archaean sediments, minor Archaean basement and abundant Caledonian granitoids with little evidence for Proterozoic crustal growth in the hinterlands. A combination of Mid-Carboniferous climatic change, to a more humid regime, and granite/gneiss terrane unroofing, substantially explains the flushing-out of huge amounts of feldspathic detritus in the Namurian. This Carboniferous climatic change itself must have been influenced by the growth of the E-W Hercynian mountain chain and the accompanying fusion of Gondwanaland with Pangea. Some palaeomagnetic evidence also exists for latitudinal shift at this time. Perhaps the most important influence was the early Namurian expansion of the great Gondwanan ice centre. Waxing and waning of this on a Milankovich time scale dominated Silesian sea level changes and facies evolution. Many late Dinantian and Silesian ‘minor’ sedimentary cycles are probably of glacio-eustatic origins, but there seems little evidence that supposed Dinantian and Namurian mesothemic cycles have such an origin. There are, in fact, increasing doubts as to the actual existence of these particular cycles.

William Sawney Bisat, who died at his home in Collingham, near Leeds, on 14 May 1973, was an ‘amateur (part-time)’ geologist and, like the ‘father of historical geology’ William Smith, he was a professional surveyor and civil engineer. His geological distinction was assured when he revealed the true succession of the Carboniferous rocks of Yorkshire and Lancashire by the description of the different goniatite faunas contained in some of the component strata. This knowledge made correlation of rock-sequences in Britain and western Europe more accurate and thus helped in the understanding of the palaeogeography and environmental conditions in Carboniferous times. He also contributed substantially to the unravelling of the complex nature of the deposits left by the Pleistocene ice in northern England. Unique features of Bisat’s work were that much of it was engendered by the shared efforts of fellow members of local scientific societies and that his results generally received their first publication in the records of those local societies.

The Devonian goniatite genera Pinacites and Foordites are described from west-central Alaska. This is the first time that Pinacites has been found in North America. The faunas are compared with those of the Eifelian Stage of Europe and in particular with the lower part of the Chotéč Limestone of Czechoslovakia.