It would be difficult after the closest investigation to add much to the exhaustive list of species given in the excellent paper on this subject which was read by Mr. Swanston before the Belfast Naturalists Field Club some twenty-five years ago. In that paper reference is made to the classification by the Geological Survey of the rocks of the district, under the general heading of Lower Silurian. Subsequently to the publication of the maps of the area, the information as to the Silurian fauna was greatly extended by the labours of Professor Lapworth and Mr. Swanston, to whom science is so largely indebted. The completion of the one-inch Geological Map of Ireland enabled the revision of work done in the earlier stages of the Survey's existence to be undertaken, and in this revision the North-East Silurians were amongst the first dealt with, and I was detailed to search the most promising localities for fossils, and to zone the beds in which they might occur.

The “Prussian Geological Survey” was formed in Berlin on 1st January, 1873. This was the final step in a development which started at the very beginning of the science of geology. It soon became apparent that the best way to present the geological observations made in the field was to have them printed on maps, which. could easily be re-studied and corrected by subsequent surveyors. Besides this the collection of geological observations forms the base for the application of geology in mining and for other economic purposes. Geological maps soon proved to be indispensable.

During the last few years several papers have been published which throw much light on the early history of the whales, a matter about which there have been great doubt and difference of opinion. Two important points appear to have been settled: first, that the Zeuglodonts (Archœceti) are descended from the primitive group of land-carnivores, usually known as the Creodonta, and, second, that the Toothed-whales (Odontoceti) are really derived from the Zeuglodonts. On this second point there may still be room for doubt, although in the opinion of the present writer the evidence brought forward by Professor Abel in several papers, is at least sufficient to demonstrate the extreme probability that the Archæoceti are really ancestors of the Odontoceti. The origin of the Baleen-whales (Mystacoceti) is still obscure, but the fact that numerous true teeth are found in the unborn young, points to the probability that these animals also may have originated from the same, or a closely related stock as that from which the Odontoceti have descended.

The Arenig Fawr area of North Wales constitutes the type area for the British Lower to Middle Ordovician Arenig Series and is complemented by sections in the Carmarthen and Whitland areas of South Wales. We describe chitinozoan assemblages from both areas in order to aid correlation of the Arenig Series in its type region with the global Ordovician series and stages. Chitinozoans recorded from Arenig Fawr provide permissive rather than conclusive evidence but suggest that the Henllan Ash Member correlates with the upper Floian Stage Slice Fl3 or lower Dapingian Stage Slice Dp1. Better results were obtained from South Wales where six chitinozoan assemblages are distinguished, ranging in age from late Tremadocian to middle Darriwilian (early Llanvirn). Most species are known from South China, Gondwana and/or Baltica where there are controls on ranges. They show that much of the lower Arenig (Moridunian) succession in South Wales correlates with the upper Floian Stage (Fl3). Correlatives of the lower and middle Floian Stage (Fl1, Fl2), if present, must be represented by the Ogof Hên Formation and lowest Carmarthen Formation. Chitinozoan assemblages from the upper Arenig Series (Fennian Stage) are more readily correlated with Gondwanan biozones and indicate correlation of the Fennian Stage with the Dapingian and lower Darriwilian (Dw1) stages. The middle Arenig Whitlandian Stage is constrained in South Wales to an interval from the uppermost Floian Stage to the basal Dapingian Stage, resulting in an inferred increased rate of sediment accumulation.

Roade cutting was considered to be one of the great works in the construction of the original London and Birmingham Railway (afterwards the London and North-Western Railway) between 1833 and 1838, being about 1½ mile in length, of considerable average depth, a good part of which consisted of hard rock—the Great Oolite Limestone.

The history of this gigantic rodent began to be written in 1809, when M. Gothelf Fischer described a skull from a sandy deposit on the borders of the Sea of Azof, to which he gave the name of Trogontherium. Since then, at varying intervals, to the present time, new chapters have been added to this history by both Continental and British workers, describing specimens of a more or less fragmentary character which have from time to time been discovered. The English specimens have been chiefly obtained from the ‘Cromer Forest Bed,’ that rich and remarkable series of beds occupying a position in time between the Crags and the Glacial deposits of East Anglia. The ‘Forest Bed’ specimens were first made known by Sir Charles Lyell in 1840, but were more fully described by Sir R. Owen in 1846 and referred to Fischer's Trogontherium Cuvieri. It will not be necessary at this time to refer specifically to each of the additions to our knowledge of this animal or to detail the varying opinions as to affinities and nomenclature, as these particulars will be found in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom. Although most of the British specimens of Trogontherium Cuvieri have been found in the ‘Cromer Forest Bed’ a few examples have been met with in the Norwich and Weybourn Crags. The smaller species, which has been called T. minus, was obtained from the nodule bed below the Red Crag of Felixstowe, and an incisor tooth from the Norwich Crag was referred to the same species.

An oriented Woodford Shale core from the eastern Ardmore Basin was sampled to test if the shale was an open or closed system to hydrothermal fluids, and to determine the timing of alteration. Mineralized fractures are ubiquitous in the core, and the shale exhibits a complex paragenesis with multiple hydrothermal minerals, including biotite, magnesite, norsethite, gorceixite and potassium feldspar present in and around the fractures. These minerals suggest that the Woodford Shale was an open system during part of its diagenetic history. Vitrinite reflectance (Ro) measurements indicate values of ∼1.81 % (∼230 °C). Palaeomagnetic analysis reveals a characteristic remanent magnetization (ChRM) with south-southeasterly declinations and shallow inclinations that resides in magnetite. This ChRM is interpreted to be either a chemical remanent magnetization (CRM) or a thermochemical remanent magnetization (TCRM) that was acquired at 245 ± 10 Ma during Late Permian time based on the pole position (51.0° N, 115.6° E). Because the palaeomagnetic specimens show evidence of extensive hydrothermal alteration, the CRM/TCRM is interpreted to date the migration of hydrothermal fluids through the shale. The agreement in timing with other studies that report hydrothermal alteration in southern Oklahoma and the Ouachita Mountains in Late Permian time, suggest that there were post-collisional fluid-flow events which accessed reservoirs of warm fluids.

The Vera Basin is one of a series of interconnected Neogene–Quaternary-age basins located within the Betic Cordillera in SE Spain. The initial marine phase in the basin is represented by the sedimentary succession of the Abad Member (Tortonian–Messinian) and comprises mainly marls with varying amounts of intercalated siliciclastic–calcareous turbidites. The succession contains a rich ichnofauna comprising 12 ichnogenera (21 ichnospecies), which can be subdivided into a number of distinct ichnoassemblages. Detailed analysis of the distribution of these ichnoassemblages reveals that deposition occurred within the Nereites ichnofacies, more specifically, the Paleodictyon sub-ichnofacies, presumably in a lobe-type setting, and at epi- to mesobathyal depths (i.e. 200–1000 m). Changes within the ichnofacies suggest that there is a clear deep-through-to-shallow trend within the succession extending from the older (i.e. Almocáizar Corridor) to the younger (i.e. centre of the Vera Basin) parts of the succession. These changes coincide with the onset of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) across the region, and correlate well with the pre-MSC through to Lago Mare deposits.

The belemnite genus Pseudohibolites Blüthgen, 1936 was erected without designation of a type species and is invalid according to Article 13b of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. The species P. nathorsti Blüthgen and P. caroli Blüthgen are reinterpreted using topotypes from Kong Karls Land and are considered species of Hibolithes Montfort, 1808.

The Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) is one of the most important Cenozoic climatic events shaping modern biodiversity, yet reconstructions of its palaeobiomes remain controversial. Here we describe Gesomyrmex gallicus sp. nov., a new, extinct species of the ant genus Gesomyrmex Mayr, 1868, based on minor and major workers preserved in the early Eocene amber of Oise, France. Although there are only seven known extant species in the genus, all confined to warm and humid forests of SE Asia, the fossil record of Gesomyrmex indicates that the genus once radiated across Eurasia. The new species therefore provides direct evidence that this radiation likely co-occurred with the PETM. This observation constrains palaeoclimatic reconstructions of the Early Eocene by requiring the presence of an extensive, homogeneous and interconnected rainforest-like biome across palaeo-Eurasia, a scenario otherwise corroborated by pollen assemblages. The phases of regression of warm and humid forests and the widening of dry biomes probably occurred later during the Eocene, in between hyperthermals, and were probably less extensive than some computer models predicted.