Detailed remapping of the Palaeogene Ardnamurchan Centre 3 gabbros, NW Scotland, suggests that this classic sequence of ring-intrusions forms a composite layered lopolith. The area mapped by previous studies as the Great Eucrite gabbro intrusion comprises 70% by area of Centre 3. Field observations suggest that most of the other smaller ring-intrusions of Centre 3 (interior to the Great Eucrite) constitute either distinct petrological facies of the same intrusion, or included country-rock or peridotite blocks. These observations, together with syn-magmatically deformed inward-dipping modal layering, are used here to support the interpretation that significant central sagging occurred in the intrusion at a late stage in its crystallization history.

The Tiñu Formation of Oaxaca State is the only fossiliferous lower Palaeozoic unit between the Laurentian platform in northwest Mexico and Gondwanan successions in Andean South America. The Tiñu traditionally has been referred to the Lower Ordovician (Tremadoc) and regarded as having a provincially mixed fauna with Laurentian, Avalonian, and Gondwanan elements. Bio- and lithostratigraphic re-evaluation demonstrates that the Tiñu is a Gondwanan, passive margin succession. It includes a lower, thin (to 16 m), condensed, uppermost Cambrian Yudachica Member (new). The Yudachica nonconformably overlies middle Proterozoic basement as a result of very high late Late Cambrian eustatic levels. The Yudachica changes from storm-dominated, but slightly dysoxic, shelf facies (fossil hash limestone and shale) in the south to an upper slope facies with debris flows 50 km to the north. Three biostratigraphically distinct depositional sequences comprise the Yudachica. The Yudachica has Gondwanan-aspect trilobites with low-diversity conodonts characteristic of unrestricted marine/temperate facies. The upper Tiñu, or Río Salinas Member (new), is a Lower Ordovician (Tremadoc) depositional sequence that records strong early, but not earliest, Tremadoc eustatic rise marked by graptolite- and olenid-bearing dysoxic mudstones. Higher strata shoal upward into shell-hash limestones and proximal tempestite sandstones with upper lower Tremadocian unrestricted marine/temperate conodonts. New taxa include Orminskia rexroadae Landing gen. et sp. nov. from the Cordylodus andresi Zone; this euconodont is related to hyaline coniform genera best known from Ordovician tropical platform successions. Cornuodus? clarkei Landing sp. nov. resembles the coeval, upper lower Tremadoc tropical species Scalpellodus longipinnatus (Ji & Barnes).

Cretaceous mafic dykes in Fujian province, SE China provide an opportunity to examine the nature of their mantle source and the secular evolution of the Mesozoic lithospheric mantle beneath SE China. The mafic rocks have SiO2 ranging from 47.42 to 55.40 wt %, Al2O3 from 14.0 wt % to 20.4 wt %, CaO from 4.09 to 11.7 wt % and total alkaline (K2O+Na2O) from 2.15 wt % to 6.59 wt %. Two types are recognized based on their REE and primitive mantle-normalized trace element patterns. Type-A is the dominant Mesozoic mafic rock type in SE China and is characterized by enrichment of light rare earth elements (LREE) ((La/Yb)n = 2.85–19.0) and arc-like trace element geochemistry. Type-P has relatively flat REE patterns ((La/Yb)n = 1.68–3.43) and primitive mantle-like trace element patterns except for enrichment of Rb, Ba and Pb. Type-A samples show EMII signatures on the Sr-Nd isotopic diagram, whereas type-P rocks have high initial 143Nd/144Nd ratios (0.5126–0.5128) relative to the type-A rocks (143Nd/144Nd = 0.5124–0.5127). The type-A rocks have 207Pb/204Pb ranging from 15.47 to 15.67 and 206Pb/204Pb from 18.26 to 18.52. All the type-A rocks show a negative correlation between 143Nd/144Nd and 206Pb/204Pb ratios and a positive relationship between 87Sr/86Sr and 206Pb/204Pb ratios, indicating mixing of a depleted mantle source and an EMII component. Geochemical modelling shows that the parental magmas were formed by 5–15 % partial melting of a spinel lherzolite, and contaminated by less than 1 % melt derived from subducted sediment. The type-P magmas were derived from a mantle source unmodified by subduction components. The wide distribution of type-A dykes in SE China suggests that subduction-modified lithospheric mantle was extensive beneath the Cathaysia Block. Geochemical differences between Mesozoic and Cenozoic mafic rocks indicate that lithospheric thinning beneath SE China occurred in two episodes: firstly by heterogeneous modification by subducted components in early Mesozoic times, and later by chemical–mechanical erosion related to convective upwelling of the asthenosphere during Cenozoic times.

A lower Cambrian eodiscoid trilobite fauna and an associated holmiid trilobite, Holmia sp., are described from a bioclastic limestone at the top of the Torneträsk Formation in the Luobákti section, south of Lake Torneträsk, northern Sweden. Other associated polymerid trilobites include Orodes? lapponica and Strenuaeva inflata. The precise age of the trilobite fauna cannot be determined, but its generic composition and stratigraphical position at the top of the lower Cambrian suggest that it was recovered from the Ornamentaspis? linnarssoni Assemblage Zone. Two species of eodiscoids are present: Neocobboldia aff. dentata and Chelediscus acifer. The latter species is known previously from England and southeastern Newfoundland, and provides a novel link between upper lower Cambrian successions in Baltica and Avalonia.

Dating the pre-Middle Ordovician metavolcanic rocks and metagranites of the Ollo de Sapo Domain has, historically, been difficult because of the small compositional variation, the effects of the Variscan orogeny and, as revealed in this paper, the unusually high fraction of inherited zircon components. The first reliable zircon data (U–Pb ion microprobe and Pb–Pb stepwise evaporation) indicate that the Ollo de Sapo volcanism spanned 495±5 Ma to 483±3 Ma, and was followed by the intrusion of high-level granites from 483±3 Ma to 474±4 Ma. In both metavolcanic rocks and metagranites, no less than 70–80% of zircon grains are either totally Precambrian or contain a Precambrian core overgrown by a Cambro-Ordovician rim. About 80–90% of inherited zircons are Early Ediacaran (602–614 Ma) and derived from calc-alkaline intermediate to felsic igneous rocks generated at the end of the Pan-African arc–continent collision. In the Villadepera region, located to the west, both the metagranites and metavolcanic rocks also contain Meso-Archaean zircons (3.0–3.2 Ga) which ultimately originated from the West African Craton. In the Hiendelaencina region, located to the east, both the metagranites and metavolcanic rocks lack Meso-Archaean zircons, but they have two different inherited zircon populations, one Cryogenian (650–700 Ma) and the other Tonian (850–900 Ma), which suggest older-than-Ediacaran additional island-arc components. The different proportion of source components and the marked variation of the 87Sr/86Srinit. suggest, at least tentatively, that the across-arc polarity of the remnants of the Pan-African arc of Iberia trended east–west (with respect to the current coordinates) during Cambro-Ordovician times, and that the passive margin was situated to the west.

We review historical approaches to the systematics of Enantiornithes, the dominant birds of the second half of the Mesozoic, and describe the forelimb remains of a new Cretaceous euenantiornithine. This taxon is known on the basis of fossil specimens collected from southern France, Argentina and the United States; such a wide geographical distribution is uncharacteristic for Enantiornithes as most taxa are known from single localities. Fossils from the Massecaps locality close to the village of Cruzy (Hérault, southern France), in combination with elements from New Mexico (USA) and from the Argentine locality of El Brete (Salta Province) testify to the global distribution of large flighted euenantiornithine birds in the Late Cretaceous. We discuss the systematics and taxonomy of additional isolated bones of Enantiornithes that were collected from the Argentine El Brete locality in the 1970s; the presence of these flying birds in Cretaceous rocks on both sides of the equator, in both northern and southern hemispheres, further demonstrates the ubiquity of this avian lineage by the latter stages of the Mesozoic.

A dinoflagellate cyst record with strong Mediterranean/Lusitanian affinities is described from marine deposits of Eemian age (Last Interglacial; Late Pleistocene) at Ristinge Klint, Denmark, revealing new information about the hydrographic evolution of the southwestern Baltic Sea. A revised correlation of the pollen record at Ristinge Klint with that of the annually laminated site at Bispingen in northern Germany provides temporal control. Approximately the first quarter of Eemian time is represented. A marine ingression into a lake took place during the Quercus rise, about 300 years into the interglacial, and is marked by low (< c. 3 psu) salinities at the base of the Cyprina Clay that increased progressively. An abrupt and significant rise in the inflow of warm, saline waters from the North Sea occurred at about 750 years into the interglacial (the Corylus rise), and at about 1900 years into the interglacial, strongly stratified waters developed. Higher in the Cyprina Clay and continuing to its top, at nearly 3000 years into the interglacial, more open-marine waters are indicated, although fully marine conditions were not reached. The dinoflagellate record throughout the Cyprina Clay at Ristinge Klint is therefore one of increasing marine influence. Summer sea-surface temperatures approached, and may have exceeded, 26–28 °C during early Eemian time, indicating temperatures at least 5 °C warmer than at present. These warm conditions persisted to the top of the record at Ristinge Klint. No evidence exists at Ristinge Klint for the influence of Arctic watermasses, and the paucity of cold-water species throughout the section reflects mild winter temperatures in the southwestern Baltic Sea.

The new species Spiniferites ristingensis is formally described, and the name Operculodinium centrocarpum var. cezare de Vernal, Goyette & Rodrigues, 1989 is validated.

δ13Corg and TOC data are presented from the upper spiralis Biozone (Telychian, Llandovery, Silurian) through to the upper Sheinwoodian (Wenlock, Silurian) of the Banwy River section, Wales. In laminated hemipelagites from the Telychian, δ13Corg values rise through the upper lapworthi Biozone to a maximum in the lower insectus Biozone after which they decline slightly. The most conspicuous feature of the δ13Corg curve is the prolonged positive excursion in the Sheinwoodian, commencing in the upper murchisoni Biozone and ending in strata yielding Monograptus flexilis. This Sheinwoodian positive δ13C excursion in the Banwy River section correlates precisely with that recognized in the East Baltic. The interval with the highest δ13Corg values also records the highest TOC values, suggesting that for the Sheinwoodian at least burial of carbon may have contributed to the positive δ13C excursion. Bioturbated strata yield very low TOC values; whether the δ13Corg values from these beds reflect a primary signal or the result of biostratinomic or diagenetic modification is uncertain.

Jaw fragments bearing teeth from the Barremian of Boca do Chapim (Lisboa e Setubal Province, Portugal), originally considered as crocodilian and identified as Suchosaurus girardi by Sauvage, are redescribed and referred to the spinosaurid dinosaur Baryonyx, on the basis of comparison with Baryonyx walkeri, from the Barremian of England. This extends the geographical distribution of this unusual theropod genus to Portugal.

Baryonyx appears to have been a frequent component of Early Cretaceous dinosaur assemblages in the Iberian region, which may have formed a biogeographical ‘stepping-stone’ for baryonychine dispersal between Europe and Africa.