The tectonothermal evolution of a unit in the foreland fold-and-thrust belt of the Iberian massif is established using the conodont colour alteration index (CAI). The unit consists of two parts with different tectonothermal histories – the Esla nappe region and the Valsurbio region – separated by a synorogenic Carboniferous basin (Guardo–Valderrueda basin). The Esla nappe region evolved in diacaizonal conditions (corresponding to the diagenetic conditions of the pelites) whose palaeotemperatures were controlled by rock burial. Maximum values were reached before the emplacement of the thrust nappes, so tectonic superimposition is not registered by the CAI. Overburial due to the emplacement of the thrust units was prevented by simultaneous intense erosion. The geothermal gradient obtained for burial was c. 35 °C km−1 and the temperature reached by the older Cambrian rocks was c. 210–230 °C. The Valsurbio region was affected by an extensional tectonothermal post-orogenic event that gave rise to metamorphism with ancaizonal or epicaizonal conditions (corresponding to anchizone or epizone of the pelites). The most common maximum palaeotemperatures reached in this event fall within the range 305–415 °C, although higher palaeotemperatures could be reached locally as a consequence of contact metamorphism. This event gave rise to subhorizontal cleavage that cuts the main Variscan folds. Coal rank data indicate an increase in maximum palaeotemperatures eastwards from the Esla nappe region to the Valsurbio region through the Guardo–Valderrueda basin.

The geochemistry and petrology of the type section of the Caradoc Series in the Onny valley indicate that it was deposited on a marginal basin continental shelf similar to the western side of the present Sea of Japan. The lower beds form a transgressive–regressive sequence in which the rocks become less mature upwards. All the coarser sediments above the basal quartzites and conglomerates are greywackes in which the apparent muddy and ferrous matrix is due to the breakdown of unstable minerals and particles. Higher values of Na2O and Na/K ratios are found in the coarser shallow-water sandstones of the Horderley Sandstone Formation and decrease markedly in the succeeding beds, accompanied by an increase in K2O. Higher values of carbonate-corrected (and hence related) other major and minor elements like SiO2, CaO, P2O5, MnO and most trace elements correlate with the transgressive systems and maximum flooding surfaces of the three sequences recognized where they are related to condensation at those horizons. Chemical Indices of Alteration (CIA) suggest that the Horderley Sandstone Formation underwent greater predepositional physical weathering than lower and higher beds, which is compatible with the petrography, and were deposited during a cool phase within overall warm Sandbian–Katian times. Trace element ratios suggest an oxic to suboxic depositional environment.

New sedimentological, biostratigraphical and geochemical data recording the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event (T-OAE) are reported from a marginal marine succession in southern Beaujolais, France. The serpentinum and bifrons ammonite zones record black shales with high (1–10 wt%) total organic carbon contents (TOC) and dysoxia-tolerant benthic fauna typical of the ‘Schistes Carton’ facies well documented in contemporaneous nearby basins. The base of the serpentinum ammonite zone, however, differs from coeval strata of most adjacent basinal series in that it presents several massive storm beds particularly enriched in juvenile ammonites and the dysoxia-tolerant, miniaturized gastropod Coelodiscus. This storm-dominated interval records a marked negative 5‰ carbonate and organic carbon isotope excursion being time-equivalent with that recording storm- and mass flow-deposits in sections of the Lusitanian Basin, Portugal, pointing to the existence of a major tempestite/turbidite event over tropical areas during the T-OAE. Although several explanations remain possible at present, we favour climatically induced changes in platform morphology and storm activity as the main drivers of these sedimentological features. In addition, we show that recent weathering, most probably due to infiltration of O2-rich meteoric water, resulted in the preferential removal of 12C-enriched organic carbon, dramatic TOC loss and total destruction of the lamination of the black shale sequence over most of the studied exposure. These latter observations imply that extreme caution should be applied when interpreting the palaeoenvironmental significance of sediments lacking TOC enrichment and lamination from outcrops with limited surface exposures.

Several enigmatic sedimentary structures are present in Upper Silurian and Lower Devonian terrestrial rocks of south Wales. These are millimetre ripples, wrinkle structures, ‘cauliflower’ and ‘molehill’ structures, calcretized matgrounds, ‘pepper-pots’ and ‘fairy rings’. Most of the structures occur on fine-grained sandstone bedding surfaces in both inclined and non-inclined red heterolithic deposits that form a large part of the Lower Old Red Sandstone in south Wales. These deposits consist of conspicuous units up to 3 m thick, comprising millimetre- to centimetre-scale laminasets of alternating mudstone and fine-grained sandstone, interpreted as muddy point bars on ephemeral channel margins, crevasse-splay lobes or distal flood-out deposits from ephemeral flow. They are rich in trace fossils reflecting animal locomotion, burrowing, foraging, ploughing and resting. Millimetre ripples and wrinkle structures are related to rapid growth of cyanobacterial mats on wet sediment surfaces, especially in films of standing water, that may have been a critical constituent of the food chain for terrestrial communities. Pustular ‘cauliflower’ and ‘molehill’ structures are preserved on tuffs and have been linked to algal blooms formed following an increase in nutrients due to ashfall into floodplain ponds. The tuffs are associated with a diverse ichnofauna indicating that opportunist colonizers took advantage of an abundant food source.

New age data from Sr isotope analysis and both planktonic foraminifera and nannofossils are presented and discussed here for the Upper Eocene–Upper Miocene sedimentary rocks of the Değirmenlik (Kythrea) Group. New dating is also given of some Cretaceous and Pliocene sediments. In a revised stratigraphy the Değirmenlik (Kythrea) Group is divided into ten formations. Different Upper Miocene formations are developed to the north and south of a regionally important, E–W-trending syn-sedimentary fault. The samples were dated wherever possible by three independent methods, namely utilizing Sr isotopes, calcareous nannofossils and planktonic foraminifera. Some of the Sr isotopic dates are incompatible with the nannofossil and/or the planktonic foraminiferal dates. This is mainly due to reworking within gravity-deposited or current-affected sediments. When combined, the reliable age data allow an overall biostratigraphy and chronology to be erected. Several of the boundaries of previously defined formations are revised. Sr data that are incompatible with well-constrained biostratigraphical ages are commonly of Early Miocene age. This is attributed to a regional uplift event located to the east of Cyprus, specifically the collision of the Anatolian (Eurasian) and Arabian (African) plates during Early Miocene time. This study, therefore, demonstrates that analytically sound Sr isotopic ages can yield geologically misleading ages, particularly where extensive sediment reworking has occurred. Convincing ages are obtained when isotopic dating is combined with as many forms of biostratigraphical dating as possible, and this may also reveal previously unsuspected geological events (e.g. tectonic uplift or current activity).

A new species of Cuora, Cuora chiangmuanensis sp. nov., is described on the basis of a nearly complete shell with limb bones from the late Middle – early Late Miocene Chiang Muan Mine, Phayao Province (Northern Thailand). C. chiangmuanensis is distinguished from other fossil and living Cuora species mainly on the basis of its plastral morphology. Among fossil and extant Cuora taxa, the new species appears to be a missing link between the taxa from Southeast Asia and those from East Asia. It represents the earliest record of the genus and demonstrates that by 11–12 Ma, Asian box turtles were already present in Southeast Asia.

This paper presents the different analogue scenarios of the tectonic evolution of the northern Outer Carpathians (i.e. the Western and northern Eastern Outer Carpathians) which formed as an accretionary wedge in front of the East Alpine–Carpathian–Pannonian (ALCAPA) block during Oligocene–Miocene times. Currently, this fold-and-thrust belt forms an arc which is asymmetrically convex to the north and wider in its eastern part. Palaeomagnetic investigations have suggested that the rocks of the arc underwent counter-clockwise rotation along almost the whole arc, which is difficult to explain as an effect of simple indentation of the triangular indenter. In this case two branches of the arc should be rotated in the opposite directions. The structural evolution of the Western Outer Carpathians is characterized by superposition of two successive tectonic shortening events directed N–S and NE–SW. The results of the presented analogue modelling suggest that two scenarios of the geodynamic evolution of the studied belt could explain the occurrence of such differently oriented shortening events: (1) two phases of differently directed indentation (first to the N, then to the NE) and (2) indenter movement to the NE with simultaneous counter-clockwise rotation. However, the experiment in which the moving indenter is simultaneously rotated produces the most suitable model. The counter-clockwise rotation of the material is only possible in front of both sides of the convex indenter in this model. The results of the analogue modelling also prove that rotation of the ALCAPA block started after formation of the Magura nappe (the innermost nappe of the Western Outer Carpathians).

Graptolites are common fossils in Early Palaeozoic strata, but little is known of their soft-part anatomy. However, we report a long-overlooked specimen of Dicranograptus aff. ramosus from Late Ordovician strata of southern Scotland that preserves a strongly polymorphic, recalcitrant, organic-walled network hitherto unseen in graptoloid graptolites. This network displays three morphologies: proximally, a strap-like pattern, likely of flattened tubes; these transform distally into isolated, hourglass-shaped structures; then, yet more distally, revert to a (simpler) strap-like pattern. The network most likely represents a stolon-like system, hitherto unknown in graptoloids, that connected individual zooids. Its alternative interpretation, as colonial xenobionts that infested a graptoloid colony and mimicked its architecture, is considered less likely on taphonomic and palaeobiological grounds. Such polymorphism is not known in non-graptolite pterobranchs, which are less diverse and morphologically more conservative: a division of labour between graptoloid zooids for such functions as feeding, breeding and rhabdosome construction may have been the key to their remarkable evolutionary success.

Geochemical (δ13C, δ18O and Mn) compositions of Lower Jurassic shallow-water carbonates cropping out in Croatia were analyzed to elucidate the impact of the early Toarcian oceanic anoxic event (T-OAE) on the Adriatic Carbonate Platform (AdCP). The bulk-rock carbon-isotope records through the studied sections (Velebit-A, Velebit-B and Gornje Jelenje) are characterized by two significant excursions: (i) an initial positive trend interrupted by a pronounced negative shift (c. 2.5‰) that is followed by (ii) an increasing trend of positive values (up to 4.5‰). A comparison with δ13C trends obtained from well-calibrated sections from other localities in Europe shows that the overall character of the early Toarcian negative excursion is clearly reproduced in the curves derived from Croatian shallow-water deposits, which helps to date the sequences and reinforces the global character of the carbon-cycle perturbation. Lower Jurassic sedimentary successions in the studied area show a gradual deepening trend corresponding to deposition of the Toarcian spotted limestones. Assuming that the distinctive negative excursion in the carbon-isotope curves is synchronous across the AdCP, the contact between the spotted limestones and the underlying beds rich in lithiotid bivalves appears to be diachronous within the study area. The Mn record through the Croatian Velebit-A section and, in particular, the rise in concentration (up to 100 ppm) coinciding with the beginning of the δ13Ccarb positive shift, reflects a change in the redox conditions in seawater that allowed diagenetic incorporation of reduced manganese into the calcite structure of the carbonate sediment during the onset of the T-OAE.

The Gardar Rift in southern Greenland developed within Palaeoproterozoic rocks of the Ketilidian orogen, near its boundary with the Archaean craton. The Eriksfjord Formation was deposited at c. 1.3 Ga on a basement of c. 1.8 Ga Julianehåb I-type granite. Detrital zircons from the lower sandstone units shows a range of ages and εHf compatible with proto sources within the Archaean craton and the Nagssugtoquidian mobile belt north and east of the craton; zircons that can be attributed to juvenile Ketilidian sources are less abundant. This suggests a predominance of distant sources, probably by recycling of older and no longer preserved cover strata. A significant fraction of c. 1300 Ma zircons have εHf between 0 and −38. Rather than originating from a hitherto unknown igneous body within the Gardar Rift, these are interpreted as Palaeoproterozoic to late Archaean zircons that have lost radiogenic lead during diagenesis and post-depositional thermal alteration related to Gardar magmatism. Although the sediments originate from sources within Greenland, the age and initial Hf isotope distribution of Palaeoproterozoic and Archaean zircons mimics that of granitoids from the Fennoscandian Shield. This may reflect parallel evolution and possible long-range exchange of detritus in Proterozoic supercontinent settings. The lesson to be learned is that detrital zircon age data should not be used to constrain the age of sedimentary deposition unless the post-depositional history is well understood, and that recycling of old sediments, long-range transport and parallel evolution of different continents make detrital zircons unreliable indicators of provenance.

Normalograptus kufraensis sp. nov. occurs as monospecific assemblages in the Tanezzuft Formation at the western margin of the Kufra Basin (Jabal Eghei), southern Libya. These graptolites have parallel-sided rhabdosomes with long, straight virgellae, climacograptid thecae and a full straight median septum. N. kufraensis is intermediate between Ordovician graptolites from the N. angustus (Perner) lineage and the younger sister species N. ajjeri (Legrand) and N. arrikini Legrand. N. kufraensis differs from these taxa as follows: it is broader than N. angustus; it has greater thecal spacing than N. ajjeri or N. arrikini. A table comparing measurements of N. kufraensis with 44 other Normalograptus taxa differentiates it from other members of this morphologically conservative group. Even though N. angustus and N. ajjeri are very long-ranging graptolites, a stratophenetic approach suggests that the specimens from Jabal Eghei may be of late Hirnantian or younger age. The faunal composition and preservation suggests these graptolites occupied the ‘cratonic invader’ biotope. The stratigraphic succession records deglacial flooding and fluctuating of redox in the Tanezzuft Formation, with the graptolites indicating a short-lived interval of anoxia.

The Silurian reefs off Saaremaa in the Baltic Sea were studied by means of high-resolution seismic reflection profiling. The abundance and diversity of the reefs increases off Saaremaa concomitantly with the deepening of the Baltic Silurian Basin towards Gotland. The peak of the reefs around Saaremaa occurred during the Middle Wenlock. The reef facies retreated further off Saaremaa during the Late Wenlock, became episodically restored around the island during the early Ludlow and finally ceased during the late Ludlow. A similar SW–NE–SW migration of reefs reflects an alternating transgressive–regressive pattern in the nearshore shallow shelf environment, where already minor sea-level fluctuations strongly influenced the conditions for reef growth. During the early Wenlock, a bathymetric break with a large barrier-reef-like structure divided the shallow shelf offshore Saaremaa facially into back-reef and southerly sloping fore-reef areas. The width of this SW-migrating barrier (c. 8 km) and the extent of reef bodies within it (c. 4 km) are the largest known in the Baltic region. During the Silurian, the reefs between Saaremaa and Gotland were flourishing to a much larger extent than is visible today. The primary Silurian reef pattern was increasingly destroyed towards Gotland by later erosion. This has resulted in a large area void of Wenlock reefs off northern Gotland. Off southern Gotland, the narrow conical low-energy deeper-water reefs prevail, as the wave-agitated shallow-water facies with larger and lenticular Wenlock and Ludlow reefs are largely eroded around the Gotland Deep.

The Valpelline unit is a large slice of continental crust constituting the Austroalpine Dent Blanche nappe (NW Italy). The pre-Alpine evolution of this unit holds important clues about the Palaeozoic crustal structure at the northern margin of the Adria continent, about the history of rifting in the Alpine region, and thus about the thermomechanical conditions that preceded the Alpine convergent evolution. Several stages of the deformation history and of partial re-equilibration were identified, combining meso- and micro-structural analyses with thermobarometry. Reconstructed pre-Alpine P–T–t–d paths demonstrate that the Valpelline unit experienced an early stage at pressures between 4.5 and 6.5 kbar followed by migmatite formation. A subsequent stage reached amphibolite to granulite facies conditions. This stage was associated with the development of the most penetrative fabrics affecting all of the Valpelline lithotypes. The pre-Alpine evolution ended with a weak deformation associated with a local mineral-chemical re-equilibration under greenschist facies conditions at ≈ 4 kbar and T < 450°C. A Permo-Mesozoic lithospheric extension is thought to be responsible for asthenosphere upwelling, thereby causing high temperature metamorphism at medium pressure and widespread partial melting, which led to upper crustal magmatic activity.

A series of very wide (up to 15 km) raised shore platforms in the Scottish Hebrides are identified and described for the first time and are considered part of a high rock platform shoreline in the western isles of Scotland described by W. B. Wright in his classic Geological Magazine paper a century ago as a ‘preglacial’ feature. Subsequent interpretations suggesting that the platforms were produced during the Pleistocene are rejected here in favour of a speculative hypothesis that the features are part of the well-known strandflat that is extensively developed across large areas of the northern hemisphere. It is argued that the Scottish strandflat developed during the Pliocene and was later subjected to extensive Pleistocene glacial erosion such that only a few areas of platform have survived in the Scottish Inner Hebrides (ice-proximal) while they are well-preserved in the Outer Hebrides (ice-distal). Support for a Pliocene hypothesis is provided by the marine oxygen isotope record for this time interval which points to prolonged periods of relative sea level stability as would be required for the production of such wide features. This hypothesis for the formation of a Scottish strandflat not only provides an elegant explanation for the origin and age of the raised rock platform fragments that occur throughout the western isles of Scotland, but it may also have relevance for other coastal areas of the northern hemisphere (e.g. Norway, Greenland, Alaska) where the strandflat is a well-developed feature.

A large heterocoelous cervical vertebra from the Late Cretaceous of Cruzy (Hérault, southern France) is described and referred to the giant bird Gargantuavis philoinos Buffetaut & Le Loeuff, 1998, confirming its avian nature. Gargantuavis appears to have been a long-necked bird with possibly a relatively small skull. Derived features such as heterocoely suggest that Gargantuavis was an advanced ornithuromorph, close to ornithurines.

Amphibolites and metapelites exposed in the Zanhuang metamorphic complex situated in the south-middle section of the Trans-North China Orogen (TNCO) underwent upper-amphibolite-facies metamorphism and record clockwise P–T paths including retrograde isothermal decompression. High-resolution zircon U–Pb geochronological analyses indicate that the metamorphic peak occurred during ~ 1840–1860 Ma, which is in accordance with the ubiquitous metamorphic ages of ~ 1850 Ma retrieved by miscellaneous geochronologic methods throughout the metamorphic terranes of the northern TNCO, confirming that the south-middle section of the TNCO was involved in the amalgamation of the Eastern and Western Blocks of the North China Craton during the Palaeoproterozoic.

A single specimen of a new species of the synziphosurine Kasibelinurus Pickett, 1993 is described from the Lower Devonian (Lochkovian) Xiaxishancun Formation of Yunnan Province, China. The new species, K. yueya sp. nov., extends the geographic extent of the family Kasibelinuridae from the Australian palaeocontinent to the South China palaeocontinent, and the stratigraphic range back some 50 Ma from Late to Early Devonian.

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

The tectonic origin of pre-Devonian rocks of Svalbard has long been a matter of debate. In particular, the origin and assemblage of pre-Devonian rocks of western Spitsbergen, including a blueschist-eclogite complex in Oscar II Land, are enigmatic. We present detrital zircon U–Pb LA-ICP-MS data from six Mesoproterozoic to Carboniferous samples and one U–Pb TIMS zircon age from an orthogneiss from Oscar II Land in order to discuss tectonic models for this region. Variable proportions of Palaeo- to Neoproterozoic detritus dominate the metasedimentary samples. The orthogneiss has an intrusion age of 927 ± 3 Ma. Comparison with detrital zircon age spectra from other units of similar depositional age within the North Atlantic region indicates that Oscar II Land experienced the following tectonic history: (1) the latest Mesoproterozoic sequence was part of a successor basin which originated close to the Grenvillian–Sveconorwegian orogen, and which was intruded by c. 980–920 Ma plutons; (2) the Neoproterozoic sediments were deposited in a large-scale basin which stretched along the Baltoscandian margin; (3) the eclogite-blueschist complex and the overlying Ordovician–Silurian sediments probably formed to the north of the Grampian/Taconian arc; (4) strike-slip movements assembled the western coast of Spitsbergen outside of, and prior to, the main Scandian collision; and (5) the remaining parts of Svalbard were assembled by strike-slip movements during the Devonian. Our study confirms previous models of complex Caledonian terrane amalgamation with contrasting tectonic histories for the different pre-Devonian terranes of Svalbard and particularly highlights the non-Laurentian origin of Oscar II Land.

A new sea spider (Arthropoda: Pycnogonida) from the Lower Devonian Hunsrück Slate (Germany) is described as Pentapantopus vogteli gen. et sp. nov. This is the fifth pycnogonid species known from this exceptional fossil Lagerstätte. The most conspicuous character of the new species is the presence of five pairs of walking legs. This character, in concert with a reduced abdomen, indicates a phylogenetic position of P. vogteli among the crown group pycnogonids. P. vogteli extends the knowledge of fossil pycnogonid body plans and underlines the significance of the Hunsrück Slate, as this locality shows the highest diversity of sea spiders for the entire fossil record so far.