Articular surfaces reflect the relative movements between adjacent bones, and the ones involved in the elbow joint provide information about forelimb movements and may be useful for making inferences about the substrate use. The proximal articular surface of the ulna was examined through 3-D geometric morphometrics, in order to assess its usefulness as a proxy for paleoecological interpretations; particularly for two small mammals from the early Miocene of Patagonia. The sample was composed of 22 extant small mammals (rodents, carnivorans and primates) and two extinct typotheres: Hegetotherium mirabile (Hegetotheriidae) and Interatherium robustum (Interatheriidae). Forty-five landmarks were taken and principal component analysis (PCA) was used to explore the morphospace structure. The results of PCA for the whole surface were inconclusive; therefore, successive analyses were made, subdividing the surface into sub-units. The PCA for the proximal part of the trochlear notch was the most informative, allowing the recognition of morphospaces with functional value: one for digging rodents and another for most climbers. Neither typothere would have had a specialisation for climbing or digging in the features analysed. This study allows morphological patterns on different parts of a joint to be detected; interpreted, at least partially, as differential responses to different kinds of mechanical stress.

A structural reinterpretation of Appin Group metasediments of the Dalradian Supergroup in part of the northwestern marginal zone of the Irish Caledonides is presented. No major F1 folds have been recorded although bedding occasionally faces upwards NW in S1. The structure is dominated by a series of NW-facing F2 recumbent folds and associated D2 tectonic slides. The slides, which have thrust the overlying rocks to the NW, are generally oblique to the fold axial planes and commonly cut out major F2 fold hinges. Rotation of the hinges towards the NW-SE (Caledonian) stretching direction in areas adjacent to the slides may have contributed to fold excision: an example of a major dislocated sheath fold is described. DM3 produces major SE-verging inclined folds. Although D4, D5 and D6 are of minor importance in the area D6 intensifies towards the SE to become the principal fabric in a major NE–SW-trending sinistrai shear zone that contains the c. 400 Ma Main Donegal granite. The early major structures of this area are compared with those in Dalradian Supergroup of adjacent parts of Scotland. It is suggested that the absence of a major F1 fold (analagous to the Islay anticline) and the occurrence of D2 recumbent folds and low angle thrusts in NW Ireland reflect the close proximity of the foreland, composed of the Lewisian complex, to the NW; such a situation is analagous to the Moine thrust zone in Scotland. The progressive development of low angle structures and thrusts to the W of the Scottish mainland is attributed to a westward shallowing of the Lewisian basement between the SW Highlands of Scotland and NW Ireland.

A revision of the Lower Devonian dalmanitid trilobites of the Prague Basin (Czech Republic) is presented. The subfamily Odontochilinae Šnajdr is considered a synonym of Dalmanitidae Vogdes. Twenty-one previously and five newly described (three in open nomenclature) species and subspecies occur in the Prague Basin from the lowermost Pragian (one problematic specimen possibly comes from the uppermost Lochkovian) to the Lower Emsian; the last questionable record is from the Upper Emsian. The species have been assigned to four genera and subgenera: Odontochile Hawle & Corda, Reussiana Šnajdr, Zlichovaspis (Zlichovaspis) Přibyl & Vaněk and Zlichovaspis (Devonodontochile) Šnajdr. These trilobites are considered as scavengers or opportunistic predators, living most of their lives as vagrant benthos burying in the muddy substrate to find organic remains. The first undoubted adult-like meraspid specimens are described.

Bouguer anomaly maps covering most of Ayrshire at a density of about one station per sq. km., show a close relationship between anomalies and the distribution of the Upper Palæozoic rocks in the area south of the Inch-gotrick Fault, but are less clearly interpreted to the north, where thick dense igneous masses are present.

In central and south Ayrshire the gravity field may be largely interpreted in terms of the known density-contrasts at the interfaces separating Upper and Lower Old Red Sandstone, and Lower Old Red Sandstone and Lower Palæozoic rocks. The major structure, the Mauchline Basin, is reflected clearly in the largest anomaly, and there is evidence of a culmination of its south-western limb near Kirkoswald. The important N.E.–S.W. faults also give rise to large anomalies, which may be connected with the known geology. It is inferred that they moved as normal faults in Carboniferous times, and that the adjacent synclines are essentially sags associated with the fault displacements. There is geophysical evidence that both the Southern Upland and Kerse Loch Faults existed in Middle O.R.S. (proto-Armorican) times. It is concluded that a hypothesis of N.–S. Armorican stress is not valid in south Ayrshire.

In north Ayrshire, many of the anomalies are best explained by changes of thickness of the Millstone Grit lavas and of the Clyde Plateau lavas, and by the presence of thick dolerite intrusions. Additional evidence is needed, however, before final conclusions may be drawn.

Barrow describes from Glen Clova an important Older Granite intrusion, the muscovite-biotite-gneiss which he holds responsible for the formation of staurolite, kyanite and sillimanite zones of progressive regional metamorphism in the district. He states that the gneiss was filter-pressed during emplacement so that potash was strained off and concentrated in the south-eastern outcrops of the intrusion leaving its north-western portions enriched in soda. He claims that by the same process the separate intrusive areas comprising the gneiss have often been marginally enriched in potash and pegmatite.

The factual basis of the filter-press hypothesis does not withstand careful re-examination. The individual intrusive areas of muscovite-biotite-gneiss bear no marginal zones of potash and pegmatite enrichment like those envisaged by Barrow. The muscovite-biotite-gneiss in its entirety comprises two distinct units, a heterogeneous group of banded quartz-oligoclase-mica-gneisses that were intensely deformed plastically during high-grade metamorphism, and a later series of non-migmatitic microcline-granite intrusions. In neither unit can any regular variation in potash/soda ratio be detected in passing directly from north-west to south-east.

New data are provided concerning the distribution and mode of occurrence of Barrow's metamorphic zonal index minerals. Sillimanite, as fibrolite, often replaces mica and accompanies kyanite in specimens from many localities.

The stem of the various species of Piper is characterised by its anomalous vascular structure. Medullary bundles are present throughout the genus, and there is, in addition, a modified type of secondary thickening. During an investigation of these features my attention was called by Professor Montagu Drummond to certain endodermal characters which appeared to be of considerable interest and which suggested that a more extended investigation was desirable.

Reference to the literature showed that the few earlier investigators of the genus had concerned themselves mainly with the peculiarities of the vascular system. J. E. Weiss (18) made some general observations on the occurrence of the endodermis in the genus, but no mention of the genus is made in the comprehensive monographs by Kroemer (8) and by Mylius (10) on the endodermis, or in the writings of Van Wisselingh. It would appear therefore that no detailed investigation of the endodermis in the genus has been carried out, in the past.

An excavation in the mid-Ordovician (Caradoc) Bardahessiagh Formation at Pomeroy, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland in 1992 has yielded a rich fauna of invertebrates, including several specimens of the scleractiniamorph coral Kilbuchophyllia. The material is assigned to the species K. clarksoni, previously described from penecontemporaneous levels in the Kirkcolm Formation of the Northern Belt of the Southern Uplands. The diagnosis of K. clarksoni is extended to include specimens of significantly greater size than the Southern Uplands material. All the material is mouldic but includes composite moulds, which in comparison with the preservation of other faunal elements, strongly suggests an original aragonitic composition for the kilbuchophyllid skeleton. Furthermore, details of insertion of higher cycles of septa visible on one particularly well preserved specimen confirm the process of septal substitution in these corals. Septal substitution is otherwise unique to post-Palaeozoic scleractinian corals and indicates the presence of paired mesenteries in the kilbuchophyllid polyp. The significance of this for the evolution of these corals and related anemones is discussed. The discovery of kilbuchophyllid corals at Pomeroy supports the view that post-Caradoc sinistral strike-slip movement on the Southern Uplands Fault was unlikely to have exceeded 200 km.

The following analyses were made some years ago, principally with the object of ascertaining the state of oxidation of the manganese in the nodules. The nodules examined came from three different localities, two of them oceanic and the third littoral. Samples marked I., II., and III. are from nodules brought up in the trawl on board the “Challenger,” on 13th March 1874, in lat. 42° 42′ S., long. 134° 10′ E. The depth of the water was 2600 fathoms, and the temperature of the bottom water 0·2° C. The density of the bottom water was 1·02570 at 15·56° C. Being from a high southern latitude, and therefore near the source of surface aeration, the water is highly charged with atmospheric gases, especially oxygen. It contained, per litre, 18·4 c.c. of mixed nitrogen and oxygen, of which 31·81 per cent, was oxygen, and 27·33 c.c, or 53·7 milligrammes, loosely-bound carbonic acid. The position of the station is about 400 miles south-west of the nearest part of the Australian coast, and about 500 miles west of Tasmania. It was the deepest water observed in the Antarctic voyage between the Cape of Good Hope and Melbourne. The haul was a very abundant one, and a few notes which I made at the time may be interesting:—“The water was found unexpectedly deep, the bottom being red clay, with some Foraminifera.

Fossils in amber are a particularly important and unique palaeobiological resource. Amber is best known for preserving exceptionally life-like fossils, including microscopic anatomical details, but this fidelity of preservation is an end-member of a wide spectrum of preservation quality. Many amber sites only preserve cuticle or hollow moulds, and most amber sites have no fossils at all. The taphonomic processes that control this range in preservation are essentially unknown. Here, we review the relationship between amber groups and fossil preservation, based on published data, to determine whether there is a correlation between resin type and aspects of preservation quality. We found that ambers of different chemistry demonstrated statistically significant differences in the preservational quality and the propensity of a site to contain fossils. This indicates that resin chemistry does influence preservational variation; however, there is also evidence that resin chemistry alone cannot explain all the variation. To effectively assess the impact of this (and other) variables on fossilisation in amber, and therefore biases in the amber fossil record, a more comprehensive sampling of bioinclusions in amber, coupled with rigorous taphonomic experimentation, is required.

Anthraconaia lived on clay grade sediments. In highly variable life assemblages of the A.prolifera group of the E German Wettin Shales (Stephanian C) organic carbon percentage of the host sediment correlates with wu/m and A/L ratios of the shell (where wu is the maximum width ventral to the line of maximum growth, m, L the maximum length measured parallel to the line of the hinge, and A the length anterior to the umbo). Decrease in the organic carbon of the sediment is associated with decrease in umbonal development, elongation of the shell along the m axis, and straightening and reflection of the ventral margin; the latter becomes subparallel to the dorsum or to the m axis with a concomitant decrease in size. These results confirm and amplify earlier work on Anthraconaia in the Appalachian coalfields. The same morphological trends in relation to organic carbon characterise the Anthraconaia modiolaris group of Britain, both within a single succession in upper Westphalian A sediments in Yorkshire, and also in three shell bands of Lower Westphalian B age in S Wales, Yorkshire and central Scotland. In the last named, above the Musselband Coal, statistical formulae (of Leitch 1940) for the species A.salteri are shown to define neither the type assemblage nor its stratigraphical position. The shell-shape/organic carbon relationship has been broadly confirmed on other horizons of lower Westphalian B age in the Scottish and Pennine coalfields. Far from embarrassing the stratigrapher, the relationship, which reflects ultimately trophic level of deltaic palaeoenvironments, contributes to our understanding of non-marine bivalve faunas, especially of the apparent regional distribution of ‘species’ of Anthraconaia.

A detached sporophyl and megasporangium of Mazocarpon pettycurense Benson is described. It formed twelve megaspores.

Achlamydocarpon scoticum sp. nov. is described from detached sporophylls and megasporangia. The latter opened by means of three slits in the distal region so making pollination possible.

A specimen of Cystosporites devonicus Chaloner and Pettitt is recorded from ash beds at the base of the Cementstone Group.

The Punta Peligro fauna includes some of the oldest Cenozoic South American mammals, and the oldest ones for Patagonia. In addition to frogs, turtles, and crocodiles, an unusual mammalian assemblage is formed by a mixture of Mesozoic lineages of Gondwanan origin and therians (eutherians and metatherians) derived from Laurasian immigrants. This paper describes new remains of the Didolodontidae ‘condylarth’ genus Escribania Bonaparte, Van Valen & Kramarz, 1993. The new material includes an isolated right lower third molar with talonid morphology different from the homologous structure of the type species Escribania chubutensis Bonaparte, Van Valen & Kramarz, 1993, justifying the recognition of a new species. The derived nature of the didolodontid ‘condylarths’ from the Banco Negro Inferior, their differences with the Mioclaenidae Kollpaniinae from the early Paleocene of Tiupampa, and the record of bona fide litoptherns in the Banco Negro Inferior (BNI) suggest an early radiation of the panameriungulates.

The Lower Palaeozoic tectonic history of central and eastern Europe is poorly understood because of extensive Variscan and/or Alpine reworking. The trace of the Tornquist Sea, the SE arm of the Lower Palaeozoic Iapetus Ocean, extended from NE Britain to Asia Minor. The site of this ocean is constrained by the tectonostratigraphy and faunal provinciality of Lower Palaeozoic inliers in northern Czechoslovakia, and southern Poland. In this paper, the collage of contrasting tectonostratigraphic histories of terranes in the Lower Palaeozoic of Poland is reviewed. Fossil evidence demonstrates that the Holy Cross Mountains and the Krakovian Belt display Lower Ordovician and Lower Devonian angular unconformities. Faunal data suggest that the Tornquist Suture Zone must lie south of the Holy Cross and between Upper Silesia and the Barrandian of the Czech Republic. Between these areas, in the Sudeten Mountains, a continental scale sinistral mylonite zone (along the line of the Intra-Sudetic Fault) was periodically active between the Middle Ordovician and the Upper Triassic. Various dismembered ophiolite, island arc and batholith terranes from alongside the Intra-Sudetic Fault have Ordocivian and Silurian magmatic and metamorphic zircon isotopic and fossil ages. Thus the often stated view that deformation in the Sudetes is Variscan (i.e. post-Middle Devonian) must be called into question. It is proposed instead that the Tornquist Suture is located within the Sudeten mountains, and as in the Holy Cross Mountains, much of the observed deformation is post-Cambrian and pre-Gedinnian in age, i.e. Caledonian.

The animals, either wholly new, or new to Britain, described in the following communication, were taken during a yachting cruise, with our indefatigable friend Mr Macandrew, among the Hebrides, in the month of August 1850. During this voyage, which lasted three weeks, a series of observations were conducted by means of the dredge and the towing-net. Not a single new form of testaceous mollusk was procured; our exertions were amply rewarded, however, by the discovery of several remarkable Ascidians and Radiata, some of them so curious in themselves, and so important in their zoological bearings, that we have thought it desirable to lay an account of their characters and anatomy before the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

The Insect Limestone has long been known as a source of exquisitely preserved insects and other arthropods. It occurs on the north side of the Isle of Wight and is latest Eocene in age. A summary of the history of the study of the Insect Limestone is given, along with detailed stratigraphical and sedimentological information. This paper is the first in a thematic set of papers.

The preliminary notices published by me in 1870 and 1872, on the action and chemistry of Strophanthus, indicated that it was likely to prove of value as a therapeutic agent; and so early as the year 1874, I had applied the substance in a few cases to the treatment of disease. Before sufficient data, however, had been obtained to justify any conclusions regarding its value as a therapeutic agent, the observations were interrupted by my leaving Edinburgh to occupy a public office in England, in connection with which it was impossible to conduct observations on the treatment of disease. In 1879, opportunities were again afforded to resume the interrupted observations, and results confirmatory of the anticipations which had been raised by the earlier physiological observations were gradually collected. The publication of a few of these results at the Cardiff meeting of the British Medical Association in 1885 has led to Strophanthus gaining a wide recognition as an important therapeutic agent, and to the production of numerous papers dealing with its botany, chemistry, pharmacology and therapeutics, not only in this country, but also in the continent of Europe and in America.

The present communication is based principally on the results of a series of investigations into the form, dimensions, and characters of the skulls that comprise the unique collection which has been located in the Anatomy Department at the University of Glasgow for a number of years, and of which no account has yet been published. We owe the collection and preservation of this large and valuable series of crania—comprising over 700 specimens—to the zeal of Mr W. K. HUTTON, Lecturer in Anatomy, Queen Margaret College, University of Glasgow, to whom I am much indebted for permission to continue the work begun, but given up, by him. I am very grateful to Professor BRYCE for assistance and much encouragement during the progress of the research.

A pioneer study of the previously unknown δ13C chemostratigraphy in the Ordovician/Silurian boundary interval in eastern Iowa and northeastern Illinois resulted in the discovery of the Hirnantian Isotope Carbon Excursion (HICE). The presence of this major isotope excursion in the Mosalem Formation in Iowa and the Wilhelmi Formation in Illinois, which indicates that the excursion interval in these units is of Hirnantian (latest Ordovician) rather than Early Silurian age, necessitates a revised chronostratigraphic classification of these units. Although the precise level of the Ordovician/Silurian boundary remains somewhat uncertain in the absence of the diagnostic graptolites, it is herein placed in the upper part, but well below the top, of the Mosalem Formation and at the top of the Wilhelmi Formation. During a major regression following the deposition of the Maquoketa Shale, the upper part of the latter clastic unit was in some places deeply eroded, resulting in a topographically dissected landscape with upland areas separated by wide incised valleys. During a subsequent late Hirnantian transgression, these palaeovalleys were gradually filled with marine sediments, but the upland areas were not transgressed until earliest Silurian times. The new chemostratigraphical evidence is in good agreement with the available biostratigraphical data, especially from corals, conodonts, and brachiopods. A preliminary chemostratigraphical study of the presumably coeval Edgewood Group successions in Pike County, northeastern Missouri failed to document any heavy δ13C values characteristic of the HICE and some, or all, of the Hirnantian values obtained there may be diagenetically overprinted.