This cast indicates a fusiform turrited shell adorned by discontinuous varices; the spire is wanting; it also shows that the shell was transversely ribbed and corrugated; the outer lip was strongly plicato-dentate internally; the aperture rather small; canal moderately long.

Regional to global high-resolution correlation and timing is critical when attempting to answer important geological questions, such as the greenhouse to icehouse transition that occurred during the Eocene–Oligocene boundary transition. Timing of these events on a global scale can only be answered using correlation among many sections, and multiple correlation proxies, including biostratigraphy, lithostratigraphy, geochemistry and geophysical methods. Here we present litho- and biostratigraphy for five successions located in the southeastern USA. To broaden the scope of correlation, we also employ carbon and oxygen stable isotope and magnetic susceptibility (χ) data to interpret these sections regionally, and correlate to the Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) near Massignano in central Italy. Our results indicate that approaching the Eocene–Oligocene boundary, climate warmed slightly, but then δ18O data exhibit an abrupt c. +5 ‰ positive shift towards cooling that reached a maximum c. 1 m below the boundary at St Stephens Quarry, Alabama. This shift was accompanied by a c. −3 ‰ negative shift in δ13C interpreted to indicate environmental changes associated with the onset of the Eocene–Oligocene boundary planktonic foraminiferal extinction event. The observed cold pulse may be responsible for the final extinction of Hantkeninidae, used to define the beginning of the Rupelian Stage. Immediately preceding the boundary, Hantkeninidae species dropped significantly in abundance and size (pre-extinction dwarfing occurring before the final Eocene–Oligocene extinctions), and these changes may be the reason for inconsistencies in past Eocene–Oligocene boundary placement in the southeastern USA.

The Ediacaran–Cambrian (E-C) transition (∼542–517 Ma) witnessed the rapid evolution of Cambrian animals, which was accompanied by carbon cycling anomalies and a significant increase in the concentration of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere. The mechanisms stimulating the evolution of complex eukaryotes, however, remain problematic, especially concerning the link between biological evolution and contemporaneous changes in the oceanic environment. In this study, integrated δ13Ccarb–δ13Corg–δ15N compositions were analysed from the YD-4 core samples to understand redox fluctuations and nitrogen cycling of the middle Yangtze Block across the E-C transition. Two negative δ13Ccarb excursions (N1 and N2) and a positive δ13Ccarb excursion (P1) are identified from the studied samples and are supposedly of primary origin. Constrained by of the U-Pb age, biolithology and pattern of isotopic variation, N1, P1 and N2 are comparable to the Basal Cambrian Carbon Isotope Excursion (BACE), Zhujiaqing Carbon Isotope Excursion (ZHUCE) and Shiyantou Carbon Isotope Excursion (SHICE). We interpreted the decreased δ15N values in this study as resulting from intensified atmospheric nitrogen fixation driven by enhanced denitrification associated with expanded marine anoxia, as well as partial ammonium assimilation, while increased δ15N values suggest weakened denitrification associated with an amplified oxic water mass. The temporal coincidence of N1 and N2, with two episodes of negative δ15N excursions, and of P1, with a positive δ15N excursion, suggests that variable oceanic redox conditions and nitrogen bioavailability may have influenced the evolution of the Cambrian eukaryote-dominated community.

Interactively processed Landsat MSS imagery has been used as an aid to studying the regional geology of approximately 10 800 km2 of terrain at the southeast margin of the Archaean Yilgarn Block in Western Australia. The technique proved successful in extending positions of known lithological contacts and lineaments into poorly exposed, inaccessible areas and in revealing new geological features, especially faults, previously unrecognized at ground level. During this investigation the distribution of granitoids and greenstones was more precisely defined, internal greenstone structures highlighted and three main fault trends were identified: (1) NW–NNW and (2) ENE, both within Archaean shield, and (3) NE–NNE within the transition to adjacent Proterozoic mobile belt. In order for the most information to be extracted from Landsat MSS images it is recommended that, whenever possible, image processing should follow ground-based studies as well as precede them, and that field geologist and Landsat specialist should work at the image processing system together.

In the following brief notice it is my wish to communicate to the Society a description of the physical properties and chemical composition of one of the geological specimens recently brought from the above group of islands.