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Beaconites is a trace-fossil name that has been adopted indiscriminantly for unlined, lined unwalled, thinly walled, and thickly walled, meniscate backfilled burrows. The confusion is further exacerbal by the inconsistent use of the terms 'wall' and 'lining'. A wall and a lining (a type of wall) are herein restricted to features actively constructed by the burrower, and are considered distinct from peripheral features produced by simple excavation or during locomotion. Differences in the type of meniscate backfilling are also recognized and may assist in the distinction of ichnotaxa.

• Read more about The ichnogenus Beaconites and its distinction from Ancorichnus and Taenidium

The upper Kimmeridgian lithographic limestones of Cerin, France, are lagoonal deposits, remarkable for the local occurrence of invertebrate burrows. Burrows are rare in the lower, well-laminated lithographic limestones, attesting to the absence of autochtonous benthic animals and, therefore, to the unfavourable life conditions on the lagoon floor. However, burrows are frequent in the upper lithographic limestones, the most abundant being Tubularina lithographica. These burrows are small, partly filled by pellets and were probably inhabited by intertidal polychaete worms.

• Read more about Ichnofabric from the Upper Jurassic lithographic limestone of Cerin, southeast France

High-resolution dinoflagellate cyst analysis of two DSDP holes and two British Geological Survey cores, from the drift ridges on the south-western and south-eastern flanks of the Rockall Plateau and the continental slope off western Scotland respectively, has yielded detailed cyst spectra across the glacial/ postglacial transition. These spectra illustrate clearly the substantial climatic and palaeoceanographic changes that have accompanied deglaciation over the last 13 Ka and the enigmatic short-term return to the cooler conditions of the Younger Dryas.

• Read more about Dinoflagellate cysts from the glacial/postglacial transition in the northeast Atlantic Ocean

Microscopic features of the regular simple, fibrous and non-denticular composite prismatic structures in twenty seven living and eight fossil bivalve species have been examined. Geometrical selection and reclination of prisms caused by competition for space were recognized in many species. The regular simple and non-denticular composite prisms are expressed as a product of aggregated spherulites, while the fibrous prisms as needle aggregates in druses. The main factor which causes geometrical selection of prisms is irregularity ol the settling time among prisms.

• Read more about Architectural constraints on the morphogenesis of prismatic structure in Bivalvia

The Barremian Leptoceratoidinae, a subfamily of small-sized heteromorph ammonites, are revised. Despite considerable differences in the mode of uncoiling, Leptoceratoidinae are considered to represent a monophyletic unit, defined by their small size, simplified suture-lines and ubiquitous Barremian age.

• Read more about The Leptoceratoidinae: small heteromorph ammonites from the Barremian

Seventy five per cent by weight of the > 2 mm carbonate fraction of Wadden Sea sediments consists of fragmented shells, thirty per cent > 8 mm and forty five per cent in the 2-8 mm fraction. Eiderducks (Somateria mollissima) feed mainly on mussels (Mytilus edulis) and cockles (Cerastoderma edule). Shells are crushed internally to fragments with a size-range from < 0-1 to 8 mm, twenty per cent were < 1 mm, sixty per cent 2-8 mm. One-third to one-half of the fragments in the 2-8 mm fraction in the sediments are due to eider predation alone.

• Read more about Eider, shelduck, and other predators, the main producers of shell fragments in the Wadden Sea: palaeoecological implications

The cheirolepidiaceous pollen-bearing cone Classostrobus comptonensis is redescribed on the basis of new material from the type locality. A different pollen-bearing cone from the same deposit is described as a new species of Masculostrobus. The numerous specimens display a range of variation which probably represents various degrees of maturity. The structure of this new species, which is typically coniferous, is closer to that found in Taxodiaceae or Araucariaceae than any other extant family. It cannot yet be attributed to any leafy shoot.

• Read more about A new coniferous male cone from the English Wealden and a discussion of pollination in the Cheirolepidiaecae [sic]

Patch reefs, up to 4 metres high and 8 metres across, grew amongst oolith shoals at the top of the Portland Limestone Formation (Portlandian, Upper Jurassic) on the Isle of Portland, southern England. Principal reef framebuilders, which provided between 55 and 70 per cent of the reef volume, were cementing bivalves, solenoporacean algae, and bryozoans. The remaining pore-space in the reef was filled by sediment, most of which is in the form of a precipitated peloidal cement.

• Read more about Growth and disintegration of bivalve-dominated patch reefs in the Upper Jurassic of southern England

The ostracod genus Krithe is investigated from Cainozoic deep water sediments of the North Atlantic region, mostly from ODP/DSDP cores, although other material is from short cores collected by various NATO vessels, and the geographical and stratigraphical occurrence of the principal species is detailed. The morphological features of the genus are described, and their relative utility in specific discrimination assessed. Of the seventeen species and subspecies described herein, eight have been previously described, five species (Krithe gobanensis, K. regulars, K. minima, K. aquilonia, K.

• Read more about The ostracod genus Krithe from the Tertiary and Quaternary of the North Atlantic

Saccocoma is the most numerous macrofossil in the Solnhofen Limestone but its study has been relatively neglected. Functional interpretations of the morphology and mode of life have been based on Jaekel's definitive paper (1892) in which the lifestyle of Saccocoma was considered to be pelagic. However, new morphological interpretations suggest that Saccocoma may have been benthic. This conflicts with the conventional interpretation of the Solnhofen environments which proposes that adverse conditions precluded colonization by benthos.

• Read more about Saccocoma: a benthic crinoid from the Jurassic Solnhofen Limestone, Germany