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Some calamitean plants from the Lower Carboniferous of Scotland

Material of the plant previously known as Protocalamites pettycurensis Scott is described, and evidence is given for its identity with Archaeocalamites goeppertii Solms. New information has been obtained concerning the nodal structure, the root-bearing stems, and root system of the plant. A new petrified cone species (Protocalamostachys pettycurensis sp. nov.), probably borne on Archaeocalamites goeppertii stems, is described.

Late Jurassic mammalian fossils in the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge

The collection of the Sedgwick Museum contains three mammalian fossils found in the Late Jurassic Purbeck Beds: dentaries of Trioracodon ferox and Spalacotherium tricuspidens and a fragment of a skull of Peralestes longirostris. The dentary of Trioracodon was discovered in 1933. The other two fossils, part of the Brodie collection, demonstrate that the postcanine dentitions of Spalacotherium and Peralestes consist of three premolars and seven molars. Phascolestes dubius is shown to be a junior synonym of Peralestes longirostris.

The ecology and stratigraphical distribution of the invertebrate fauna of the Great Estuarine Series

The invertebrate macrofauna of the Great Estuarine Series is reviewed, with special reference to the ecological inferences which can be drawn from it. Evidence from modern relatives, and from association with other fossils, is used to deduce the probable ecological preferences, especially of salinity, of each of the common species. The stratigraphical distribution of the fauna among the formations of the Series is comprehensively described for the first time. Unio andersoni sp. nov. is described and figured.

Microbiological colonization and attack on some Carboniferous miospores

The paper describes Palynomorphites diversiformis gen. et sp. nov., a saprophytic organism thought to be related to the Fungi, and which is responsible for some part of the microbiological attack on Carboniferous miospores. The different organization of this attack on several groups of miospores of widely varied structural characteristics is described. The miospores were preserved in a chert band within the Upper Oil Shale Group of the Calciferous Sandstone Series of Scotland at a horizon considered on the evidence of goniatites to be of Upper Visean age.

The recognition of salinity-controlled mollusc assemblages in the Great Estuarine Series (Middle Jurassic) of the Inner Hebrides

The Great Estuarine Series was deposited in large, shallow lagoons. Its abundant molluscan faunas are restricted to very few genera and species, several of which are similar to modern fresh- and brackish-water forms. Consideration of the nature and history of the brackish-water fauna, together with direct comparison with the modern brackish-water environments of the Texas coast, results in an interpretation of the faunas as being controlled very largely by salinity variations in time. The salinities ranged from freshwater to fully marine, but were usually intermediate.

On the structure of leaves of Rhabdotaenia Pant from the Raniganj coalfield, India

A new species of Rhabdotaenia Pant (R. fibrosa) and additional details of epidermal structure of Rhabdotaenia danaeoides (Royle) Pant, based on a number of leaf fragments, collected from the Raniganj coalfield, India, are described. It is pointed out that these two species and R. harkinii Pant, are all structurally distinct.
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