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The tridactyl ichnotaxon Eubrontes giganteus commonly has been attributed to a carnivorous theropod dinosaur similar to Dilophosaurus or Liliensternus. For this to be correct, however, at least fiv...

During the summer of 2001, the U.S. Geological Survey drilled a core hole to a depth of 422 m at the Fort Fisher Historic Site (33°58'24"N, 77°55'01"W) located in Kure Beach, North Carolina (Fig. 1...

The first known primate fossil from the Atlantic Coastal Plain, a mandibular fragment representing the family Omomyidae, is described from the early Eocene Fisher/Sullivan Site in northeastern Virginia. The jaw, containing m1–m2, was found near the base of the Potapaco Member, Bed B, of the Nanjemoy Formation, indicating an early Ypresian age, ca. 54.5 Ma. As the specimen lacks diagnostic antemolar dentition, its precise identity cannot be confidently determined. However, its diminutive size and plesiomorphic molar morphology suggest that it represents a primitive omomyid. Comparison with a diversity of omomyids finds that nearly all omomyid genera are larger and/or derived in various features compared to the Nanjemoy specimen. Closest resemblances are to the primitive omomyids Steinius, Anemorhysis, Loveina, Melaneremia, and especially Teilhardina.

Anthony Overton is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century’s most significant African American entrepreneurs. Overton, at his peak, presided over a Chicago-based financial empire that included a personal care products company (Overton Hygienic Manufacturing Company) a bank (Douglass National Bank), an insurance company (Victory Life Insurance Company) a popular periodical (the Half-Century Magazine), and a newspaper (Chicago Bee). This impressive business portfolio contributed to Overton being the first businessman to win the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal in 1927, as well as him currently being acknowledged in the Harvard University Business School’s database of “American Business Leaders of the Twentieth Century” as the first African American to head a major business conglomerate. Nevertheless, despite Overton’s noteworthy entrepreneurial accomplishments, he remains a mysterious figure. The most readily apparent reason for this is the unavailability of his business records and personal papers. Still, because of Anthony Overton’s prominence, a large body of scattered alternative primary and secondary sources were available to construct this biography. Along with examining Anthony Overton and his accomplishments, this book places his activities in the context of larger societal occurrences in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America. Moreover, by recounting Overton’s life story, this biography seeks to more fully illuminate the role of business and entrepreneurship in the African American experience.

In 1916, Anthony Overton established the Half-Century Magazine as a venue to more effectively market Overton Hygienic Manufacturing Company products. To deflect charges of shameless self-promotion, Overton put forward a female employee as the owner, editor, and public face of this women-oriented periodical. Overton’s skullduggery included submitting anonymous editorials and publishing articles under a pseudonym (McAdoo Baker) to convey his beliefs regarding business enterprise, racial identity, and personal conduct. Above and beyond Overton’s deception, the Half-Century created a commercial environment where black female readers were not exposed to racially insulting personal care products ads. This advertising policy, along with Half-Century’s sponsorship of a contest extolling the beauty of African American women, enhanced Overton-Hygienic’s position in the marketplace.

This chapter discusses how Anthony Overton’s relocation to Chicago in 1911 proved to be one of the wisest moves of his life. Within a short period of time, the once frustrated entrepreneur established an important business niche in one of America’s leading cities. Yet Anthony Overton’s first years in Chicago were not without challenges. Within a year after his arrival, the sudden death of his wife, Clara, forced Overton to reorient both his personal and business affairs. He subsequently began to more fully incorporate his daughters and other attractive young females as the “public face” of his personal care products company. This maneuver helped increase the Overton-Hygienic Manufacturing Company’s prominence in an industry then dominated by his primary competitors, Annie Turnbo-Malone and Madam C. J. Walker.

Determining the contours of Anthony Overton’s early life, especially between his sixteenth and thirty-first birthdays, has been complicated by a long-standing dissemination of misinformation. This chapter discusses how much of the literature (including encyclopedia entries, book chapters, newspaper articles, and obituaries) portrays him as someone who experienced success in a wide variety of areas. However, a fact check of Overton’s early life reveals that he experienced considerable failure and disappointment. The evidence suggests that Overton, later in life, created many of the long-standing myths regarding his formative years. Also, it is clear that the young Overton ultimately benefited from his exposure to two mentors: his father Anthony Overton Sr. and Booker T. Washington.

This chapter examines how Anthony Overton dramatically diversified his financial interests during the 1920s. In 1922, Anthony Overton assumed the presidency of Chicago’s Douglass National Bank (the second black-owned bank to receive a national charter). Two years later, Overton started the Chicago-based Victory Life Insurance Company. In 1927, Victory Life became the only black-owned insurance company granted the right to conduct business in New York State. Following this business coup, Overton, in some circles, became regarded as “the merchant prince of his race.” To further enhance his growing status as a business magnate during the 1920s, Overton built two major commercial structures in the heart of black Chicago’s commercial district (the Overton Building and the Chicago Bee Building).

In late 1929, Anthony Overton was perceived to be the nation’s most successful black businessman. Yet, by the mid-1930s, the public’s perception of Overton had shifted dramatically. The Great Depression’s negative impact on African American real estate values negatively impacted the profitability of both the Douglass National Bank and the Victory Life Insurance Company. Also, disclosure of Overton’s long-standing, unauthorized funneling of Victory Life funds into Douglass National resulted in his ouster as president of Victory Life. Moreover, despite creative efforts to keep it afloat, the Douglass National Bank ultimately became a casualty of the Depression. In the end, Anthony Overton retained control of the Overton Hygienic Manufacturing Company and the Chicago Bee newspaper but had lost the honorific moniker “the Merchant Prince of his Race.”

This introduction discusses the methodology employed to construct this biography of Anthony Overton and provides an overview of how the book is chronologically and thematically organized. It also examines Anthony Overton’s enigmatic personality. Notwithstanding his tendency to periodically exaggerate his early life accomplishments, Overton was not a braggart. In fact, he was widely perceived to be a low-key and unassuming individual. Moreover, unlike many successful business people owning fine cars and homes; Overton, during the peak of his commercial success, did not own an automobile and lived in his married children’s spare bedrooms. Finally, although he was a conservative disciple of Booker T. Washington, Overton possessed (for the times) a fairly progressive attitude regarding women’s “proper” role.

The early1940s witnessed a rehabilitation of Anthony Overton’s public image. Thus, at the time of his death in 1946, much of the negativity associated with the early 1930s had dissipated. Anthony Overton’s son, Everett, presided over the Overton Hygienic Manufacturing Company from 1946 until his own death in 1960. Everett’s son, Anthony Overton III, ran the company from 1960 until 1983 (when Overton Hygienic closed). Shortly after the Overton Hygienic Manufacturing Company disappeared from the landscape of US business, a consortium of Chicagoans began a campaign to honor the legacy of the company’s founder, Anthony Overton. Their efforts ultimately resulted in the physical restoration of the Overton Building and the Chicago Bee Building, as well as their designation as municipal landmarks.

The last comprehensive review of the fossil vertebrates from the Miocene of Calvert Cliffs was published more than 100 years ago. This volume is a collection of papers that updates some of the geological features of Calvert Cliffs and provides reviews of the fossil biota that include representatives from the following taxonomic groups: chondrichthyans (chimaeras, shark, skates, and rays), actinopterygians (ray-finned fishes), crocodilians (crocodiles), and sirenians (sea cows). Peter Vogt, Ralph E. Eshelman, and Stephen J. Godfrey document how the 20–40 m [65–130 ft] high Calvert Cliffs along the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay continue to yield insights into 18–8 mya (Miocene) geology, marine and terrestrial vertebrate fauna, and the origin and evolution of Chesapeake Bay and Calvert Cliffs up to the present. These exposures rank high among the best-known fossiliferous deposits of any age. Bretton W. Kent describes the cartilaginous fish (the chondrichthyan) fauna, consisting of 54 species—3 chimaeras (ratfishes), 39 sharks, and 12 skates and rays—a fauna rich in large macrophagous sharks and large neritic rays. In an addendum to Kent’s chapter, he and David J. Ward describe a new species of giant thresher shark with serrated teeth. Giorgio Carnevale and Stephen J. Godfrey present an account of the 38 actinopterygian taxa known from osteological remains and a diverse otolith assemblage of at least 55 taxa. These actinopterygians show an affinity for well-oxygenated muddy and sandy substrates dominated primarily by shallow-water species characteristic of the inner shelf and secondarily by epipelagic taxa. Robert E. Weems details the crocodilians referable to the tomistomine Thecachampsa. The closest living relative is Tomistoma schlegelii, the false gharial of Southeast Asia. Two species are present: Thecachampsa sericodon and T. antiquus. These tomistomines are found in shallow marine coastal deposits, indicating that they inhabited coastal waters. Daryl P. Domning reports that fossils of the Miocene marine fauna include rare sirenians of the family Dugongidae. Three taxa are known: the halitheriine dugongid Metaxytherium crataegense, the dugongine dugongid Nanosiren sp., and another dugongine, aff. Corystosiren. The St. Marys Formation contains remains that may be referable to Metaxytherium floridanum, but confirmation awaits the discovery of more complete specimens.

Coprolites (fossilized feces) can preserve a wide range of biogenic components. A mold of a hatchling turtle partial shell (carapace) referable to Taphrosphys sulcatus is here identified wi...

New and more-complete material ofProcolpochelys charlestonensisWeems and Sanders, 2014 provides the first detailed information on the skull, jaw, and plastron of this species, which occurs in the Oligocene Ashley and Chandler Bridge formations near Charleston, South Carolina. This material allows a much more detailed comparison of this turtle with the co-occurring pancheloniid speciesAshleychelys palmeriWeems and Sanders, 2014 andCarolinochelys wilsoniHay, 1923a, as well as with its Miocene successorProcolpochelys grandaeva(Leidy, 1851). Fused dentaries, found in the Cooper River north of Charleston, belong to the pancheloniid genusEuclastes, previously known only from the Upper Cretaceous and Paleocene. This specimen, apparently from the upper Eocene Parkers Ferry Formation, expands the temporal range of this genus and indicates thatEuclastessurvived in the North Atlantic basin far longer than was previously known. These new finds, combined with previous records of fossil pancheloniid sea turtles, provide an improved picture of the temporal distribution, evolutionary trends, and likely phylogeny of pancheloniids from the Late Cretaceous to the present.

The vertebrate fauna from the Lower Cretaceous Patuxent Formation of Virginia is composed of a single partial fish impression from the James River at Dutch Gap and a diverse tetrapod ichnofauna from near Fredericksburg that includes trace fossils made by frogs, turtles, theropods, sauropods, ankylosaurs, and ornithopods. The footprints occur on overbank deposits preserved locally within a fluvial braided-stream sequence that formed near the western border of the Early Cretaceous Atlantic Coastal Plain.

A small (3.4 cm) coprolite from the Upper Cretaceous (middle Campanian age) Coachman Formation in South Carolina, contains six cervical vertebrae from a very small, freshwater, trionychid turtle. Four of the vertebrae included in the coprolite are aligned and partly articulated. The coprolite shows typical selachian heteropolar shape with traces of spiral morphology, and is attributed to one of several common lamniform shark taxa in the associated marine fauna, most probably Squalicorax kaupi. Based on the minute size of the included vertebrae, with the largest 4.5 mm long, the turtle must have been very small and likely newly hatched. Assuming the selachian producing the specimen was a marine or estuarine species, this coprolite specimen indicates that the shark was feeding in or proximal to a fluvial environment, as observed in modern species of Carcharhinus. Given the small size of the coprolite, the shark was likely also small, suggesting that a juvenile Late Cretaceous shark was feeding far upstream, perhaps near its pupping area.

This chapter examines the “contested terrain” associated with the founding of Chicago’s Douglass National Bank in 1921. Anthony Overton, one of history’s most prominent African American entrepreneurs, is widely regarded as the founder of the second national bank organized by African Americans. Yet, the evidence indicates that this distinction should go to Pearl W. Chavers, a relatively obscure early twentieth-century black business person. The story of Anthony Overton’s ascent and P.W. Chavers’ descent in the Douglass National Bank’s administrative hierarchy reveals the power of money and influence. It also illuminates the nuances of both group and individual entrepreneur-based strategies for African American economic development.

Using Edward Franklin Frazier’s important 1947 essay “Human, All Too Human: How Some Negroes Have Developed Vested Interests in the System of Racial Segregation” as a reference point; this chapter examines how racial desegregation affected two black Chicago insurance companies, the Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company and Chicago Metropolitan Assurance Company. Frazier predicted that if racial segregation were eliminated, it would ultimately result in the decline and disappearance of African American enterprises. As the evidence indicates, Professor Frazier proved to be a fairly accurate prophet in this regard. Some of the city’s long-standing African American firms, including the Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company and the Chicago Metropolitan Assurance Company, have, indeed, been removed from the landscape of American business.

This book examines the entrepreneurial experiences of and contributions by African American entrepreneurs in Chicago. Through a careful examination of black business activity in areas such as finance, media, and the underground economy known as “Policy,” this work illuminates the manner in which blacks in Chicago built a network of competing and cooperative enterprises and a culture of entrepreneurship unique to the city. This network lay at the center of black business development in Chicago as it allowed blacks there greater opportunity to fund and build businesses reliant on other blacks rather than those whose interests lay outside the black community. Further, it examines how blacks’ business enterprises challenged and changed the economic and political culture of the city to help fashion black communities on Chicago’s South and West sides. For much of the 20th century, Chicago was considered the single best demonstration of blacks’ entrepreneurial potential. From the time the city was founded by black entrepreneur Jean Baptiste DuSable and throughout the 20th century, business enterprises have been part black community life. From DuSable through black business titans like John H. Johnson, Oprah Winfrey, and Anthony Overton black entrepreneurs called the city home and built their empires there. How they did so and the impact of their success (and failure) is a key theme within this book. Additionally, this work analyzes how blacks in Chicago built their enterprises at the same time grappling with the major cultural, political, and economic shifts in America in the 19th and 20th century.

The Late Triassic timescale is poorly constrained due largely to the dearth of reliable radio-isotopic ages that can be related precisely to biostratigraphy combined with evident contradictions between bio-stratigraphic and magnetostratigraphic correlations. These problems are most apparent with regard to the age and correlation of the Carnian–Norian boundary (base of the Norian Stage). We review the available age data pertaining to the Carnian–Norian boundary and conclude that the “long Norian” in current use by many workers, which places the Carnian–Norian boundary at ~228 Ma, is incorrect. The evidence supports a Norian stage that is much shorter than proposed by these workers, so the Carnian–Norian boundary is considerably younger than this, close to 220 Ma in age. Critical to this conclusion is the correlation of the Carnian–Norian boundary in nonmarine strata of Europe and North America, and its integration with existing radioisotopic ages and magnet-ostratigraphy. Three bio-stratigraphic datasets (palynomorphs, conchostracans and tetra-pods) reliably identify the same position for the Carnian–Norian boundary (within normal limits of bio-stratigraphic resolution) in nonmarine strata of the Chinle Group (American Southwest), Newark Supergroup (eastern USA–Canada) and the German Keuper. These biostratigraphic datasets place the Carnian–Norian boundary at the base of the Warford Member of the lower Passaic Formation in the Newark Basin, and, as was widely accepted prior to 2002, this correlates the base of the Norian to a horizon within Newark magnet-ozone E13n. In recent years a correlation based solely on magnetostratigraphy has been proposed between the Pizzo Mondello section in Sicily and the Newark section. This correlation, which ignores robust biostrati-graphic data, places the Norian base much too low in the Newark Basin section (~at the base of the Lockatong Formation), correlative to a horizon near the base of Newark magnet-ozone E8. Despite the fact that this correlation is falsifiable on the basis of the bio-stratigraphic data, it still became the primary justification for placing the Carnian–Norian boundary at ~228 Ma (based on Newark cyclo-stratigraphy). The “long Norian” created thereby is unsupported by either bio-stratigraphic or reliable radioisotopic data and therefore must be abandoned. While few data can be presented to support a Carnian–Norian boundary as old as 228 Ma, existing radio-isotopic age data are consistent with a Norian base at ~220 Ma. Although this date is approximately correct, more reliable and precise radio-isotopic ages still are needed to firmly assign a precise age to the Carnian–Norian boundary.

Conchostracan-rich beds between the Siberian Trap flood basalts and within the thick underlying Hungtukun tuffs of the Tunguska Basin can be closely correlated with conchostracan faunas of Dalongkou (NW China) and the Germanic Basin. The Germanic Basin faunas in turn can be closely correlated with the marine international stratigraphic time scale, and the accuracy of the biostratigraphic correlation of the Permian–Triassic boundary (PTB) is confirmed by a minimum in δ13Ccarb values at this level. These high-resolution correlations demonstrate conclusively that the PTB is located within the temporally brief but thick Siberian Trap flood basalt sequence. The PTB lies slightly above the level of the main Permo-Triassic extinction event in low latitude marine beds, which occurred at the base of the C. meishanensis–H. praeparvus conodont zone and correlates with the beginning of the Siberian Trap flood basalt event. The main end-Permian continental extinction event was somewhat earlier, within the middle of the C. changxingensis–C. deflecta conodont zone. This horizon marks a mass extinction that devastated a diverse conchostracan fauna and left only low diversity faunas at low and high latitudes. This continental extinction event horizon lies within the middle of the Hungtukun tuffs of the Tunguska Basin and 107 m above the base of the Guodikeng Formation at Dalongkou (NW China). A “Triassic type” pioneer flora with numerous lycopod spores appears immediately above this level. Severe high northern and southern latitude marine extinctions occurred concurrently with this continental event, but low latitude marine biota was not then affected. This earlier event is best explained by global warming. The main low latitude extinction event in marine warm water faunas occurred somewhat later and left no signature in high latitude marine faunas or in continental faunas, but it does coincide with a rapid collapse of tropical rain forest environments (disappearance of the highly diverse Gigantopteris flora). This collapse likely was caused by global cooling due to a volcanic winter event.

International audience; New major and trace element data and (40)Ar/(39)Ar plateau ages constrain the timing, duration and time-related geochemical evolution of the Central Atlantic magmatic province in the U.S.A. (Newark and Culpeper basins) and refine correlations with basaltic lava flows from other Late Triassic-Early Jurassic circum-Atlantic basins. The precise, statistically robust (40)Ar/(39)Ar plateau ages were obtained on biotite and on fresh plagioclase and calculated using the latest (40)K decay constants. These ages are supported by a general consistency of the Ca/K calculated from (37)Ar/(39)Ar of the plateau steps and the Ca/K obtained by detailed electron microprobe analyses on plagioclase phenocrysts. The ages of five analyzed basalt lava flows, from all three lava flow units in the Newark basins, and the ages of two sill samples are indistinguishable, indicating a brief magmatic peak phase at 201.8 +/- 0.7 Ma. Recalibrated (40)Ar/(39)Ar plateau ages from the entire province indicate a near-synchronous onset and peak volcanic activity at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary within the circum-Atlantic basins from the U.S.A., Canada and Morocco. The early erupted magmas (Moroccan Lower to Upper basalts, the Fundy basin North Mountain Basalt, and Orange Mountain and equivalent U.S.A. flows) yield an enriched geochemical signature (e.g., with relatively high La/Yb), whereas late magmas in the U.S.A. (Hook Mountain and Hampden basalts) and Morocco (Recurrent basalt) yield relatively depleted geochemical compositions (low La/Yb). A slight, but significant age difference for eruption of Hook Mountain and Hampden basalts (200.3 +/- 0.9 Ma) and Recurrent basalts (198.2 +/- 1.1 Ma) is interpreted as evidence of a diachronous northward rift-drift transition during break-up of Pangea. Our data indicate also a prolonged intrusive sequence that continued until about 195 Ma at the Palisades sill and is consistent with sporadic late CAMP magmatism for dykes from the south-eastern U.S.A. and for intrusions from Guinea.

Two protocetid whale vertebrae, here referred to“Eocetus” wardii, have been recovered from the riverbed of the Pamunkey River in east-central Virginia. Neither bone was found in situ, but both were found with lumps of lithified matrix cemented to their surfaces. Most of this matrix was removed and processed for microfossils. Specimens of dinoflagellates were successfully recovered and this flora clearly demonstrates that both vertebrae came from the middle Eocene Piney Point Formation, which crops out above and below river level in the area where the bones were discovered. These vertebrae are the oldest whale remains reported from Virginia and are as old as any cetacean remains known from the western hemisphere.

Strata of the Moenave Formation on and adjacent to the southern Colorado Plateau in Utah–Arizona, U.S.A., represent one of the best known and most stratigraphically continuous, complete and fossiliferous terrestrial sections across the Triassic–Jurassic boundary. We present a synthesis of new biostratigraphic and magnetostratigraphic data collected from across the Moenave Formation outcrop belt, which extends from the St. George area in southwestern Utah to the Tuba City area in northern Arizona. These data include palynomorphs, conchostracans and vertebrate fossils (including footprints) and a composite polarity record based on four overlapping magnetostratigraphic sections. Placement of the Triassic–Jurassic boundary in strata of the Moenave Formation has long been imprecise and debatable, but these new data (especially the conchostracans) allow us to place the Triassic–Jurassic boundary relatively precisely in the middle part of the Whitmore Point Member of the Moenave Formation, stratigraphically well above the highest occurrence of crurotarsan body fossils or footprints. Correlation to marine sections based on this placement indicates that major terrestrial vertebrate extinctions preceded marine extinctions across the Triassic–Jurassic boundary and therefore were likely unrelated to the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) volcanism.

The teeth of two megatooth macro-predatory shark species (Carcharocles chubutensis and Carcharocles megalodon; Otodontidae, Chondrichthyes) occur within the Miocene Chesapeake Group of Mary...

Conchostracans or clam shrimp (order Conchostraca Sars) are arthropods with a carapace consisting of two chitinous lateral valves. Triassic conchostracans range in size from 2 to 12.5 mm long and are common in deposits that formed in fresh water lakes, isolated ponds and brackish areas. Their dessication- and freeze-resistant eggs can be dispersed by wind over long distances. Therefore many conchostracan species are distributed throughout the entire north- ern hemisphere. In the Late Permian to Middle Triassic interval, several of these forms are also found in Gondwana. Many wide-ranging conchostracan species have short stratigraphic ranges, making them excellent guide forms for subdivision of Triassic time and for long-range correlations. The stratigraphic resolution that can be achieved with conchostracan zones is often as high as for ammonoid and conodont zones found in pelagic marine deposits. This makes con- chostracans the most useful group available for biostratigraphic subdivision and correlation in continental lake deposits. Upper Triassic Gondwanan conchostracan faunas are different from conchostracan faunas of the northern hemisphere. In the Norian, some slight provincialism can be observed even within the northern hemisphere. For example, the Sevatian Redondestheria seems to be restricted to North America and Acadiestheriella n. gen. so far has been found only in the Sevatian deposits from the Fundy Basin of southeastern Canada. Here we establish a con- chostracan zonation for the Changhsingian (Late Permian) to Hettangian (Early Jurassic) of the northernhemispherethat,forthemostpart,isverywellcorrelatedwiththemarinescale.Thiszona- tion is especially robust for the Changhsingian to early Anisian, late Ladinian to Cordevolian and Rhaetian to Hettangian intervals. For most of the Middle and Upper Triassic, this zonation is still preliminary. Five new genera, six new species and a new subspecies of conchostracans are described that are stratigraphically important. Half of the eight stage boundaries of the Triassic have been defined by a bio-event within a marine Global Stratotype and Point (GSSP) locality, and these definitions have been accepted by both the International Subcommission on Triassic Stratigra- phy and the International Commission on Stratigra- phy. The remaining four stage boundaries are nearing final definition. In the Lower Triassic, both the base of the Induan (priority: Brahmanian) Stage (¼ base of Triassic) and the base of the next younger Olenekian Stage have been firmly defined. In the Middle Triassic, there is wide agree- ment that the defining species for the base of the Anisian Stage should be Chiosella timorensis in the GSSP candidate site at Desli Caira (Romania), but there has not yet been a formal vote on this. The base of the overlying Ladinian Stage, however, has been firmly defined. In the Upper Triassic, the base of the Carnian has been firmly likewise defined, but there is not yet a final defi- nition for the boundaries of the overlying Norian and Rhaetian stages. A consensus has not been reached on a defining species for the base of the Norian or its GSSP locality, but all of the different proposals under consideration do at least fall within a rather narrow stratigraphic interval. For the base of the Rhaetian, Misikella posthernsteini Kozur & Mock has been chosen as the defining species by the International Working Group on the Rhaetian stage, and the GSSP candidate locality at Steinbergkogel (Austria) has been studied in detail by a group under the leadership of L. Krystyn (Vienna) and presented to the participants of the International Conference on 'Upper Triassic Sub- divisions, Zonations and Events' in Bad Goisern in the autumn of 2008. The base of the overlying Hettangian stage (¼ base of the Jurassic) has been defined (so far only by a working group) as the FAD (First Appearance Datum) of Psiloceras spelae Guex, Taylor, Rakus & Bucher. The final definition of the Triassic stages within marine GSSP sections will be completed in the near future, but more than 50% of known Triassic rocks are of continental origin. Therefore, the main task of Triassic stratigraphers in thefuture will besubdivid- ing and correlating terrestrial strata, both between

(2007). The age and provenance of “Eschrichtius” cephalus Cope (Mammalia: Cetacea) Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology: Vol. 27, No. 3, pp. 752-756.

Definitive criteria for distinguishing gastroliths from sedimentary clasts are lacking for many depositional settings, and many reported occurrences of gastroliths either cannot be verified or have been refuted. We discuss four occurrences of gastrolith-like stones (category 6 exoliths) not found within skeletal remains from the Upper Triassic Bull Run Formation of northern Virginia, USA. Despite their lack of obvious skeletal association, the most parsimonious explanation for several characteristics of these stones is their prolonged residence in the gastric mills of large animals. These characteristics include 1) typical gastrolith microscopic surface texture, 2) evidence of pervasive surface wear on many of these stones that has secondarily removed variable amounts of thick weathering rinds typically found on these stones, and 3) a width/length-ratio modal peak for these stones that is more strongly developed than in any population of fluvial or fanglomerate stones of any age found in this region. When...

Until recently fossil footprints were virtually unknown from the Cretaceous of the eastern United States. The discovery of about 300 footprints in iron-rich siliciclastic facies of the Patuxent Formation (Potomac Group) of Aptian age is undoubtedly one of the most significant Early Cretaceous track discoveries since the Paluxy track discoveries in Texas in the 1930s. The Patuxent tracks include theropod, sauropod, ankylosaur and ornithopod dinosaur footprints, pterosaur tracks, and miscellaneous mammal and other vertebrate ichnites that collectively suggest a diversity of about 14 morphotypes. This is about twice the previous maximum estimate for any known Early Cretaceous vertebrate ichnofauna. Among the more distinctive forms are excellent examples of hypsilophodontid tracks and a surprisingly large mammal footprint. A remarkable feature of the Patuxent track assemblage is the high proportion of small tracks indicative of hatchlings, independently verified by the discovery of a hatchling-sized dinosaur....