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Located on the northern coast of Santa Maria Island (Azores Archipelago, central North Atlantic), the Lagoinhas section preserves a carbonate buildup correlated with Marine Isotope Substage (MIS) 5e, the warmest interval of the Last Interglacial. The buildup is formed mainly by crustose coralline algae (CCA) identified as Spongites sp., and some subordinate crusts of Lithophyllum sp. and Neogoniolithon sp., as well as cf. Titanoderma sp. Extant CCA buildups are not recorded in the archipelago. Herein, we describe in detail the morphological and taphonomical features of the Lagoinhas CCA buildup and interpret the environment in which it grew. Additionally, this buildup is compared with another of similar age, exposed in the Prainha-Praia do Calhau section on the island's opposite southern coast. The hydrodynamic regime appears to play a crucial role in the development of Azorean CCA buildups during the MIS 5e. We thank Direccao Regional da Ciência e Tecnologia (Regional Government of the Azores), FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) of the Portuguese Government, and Camara Municipal de Vila do Porto for financial support. We also acknowledge the field assistance of Camara Municipal de Vila do Porto. We are grateful to the organizers and participants of the 16 editions of the International Workshop Palaeontology in Atlantic Islands who helped with fieldwork (2002 2020). A.C.R. was supported by a grant SFRH/BPD/117810/2016 from FCT (Fundação para Ciência e Tecnologia), Portugal. S.P.A. and R.S.R. acknowledge their research contracts (IF/00465/2015 and IF/01641/2015, respectively) funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT). C.S.M. is benefiting from a PhD grant M3.1.a/F/100/2015 from Fundo Regional para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FRCT). This work was supported by FEDER funds through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness Factors -COMPETE, by Portuguese National Funds through FCT under the projects UID/BIA/50027/2013, UID/BIA/00329/2013-2023, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006821, PLATMAR (PTDC/GEO-GEO/0051/2014) and under DRCT-M1.1.a/005/Funcionamento-C-/2016 (CIBIO-A) project from FRCT, and by FEDER funds (in 85%) and by funds of the Regional Government of the Azores (15%) trough Programa Operacional Acores 2020, in the scope of the projects "AZORESBIOPORTAL -PORBIOTA": ACORES-01-0145FEDER-000072 and VRPROTO -Virtual Reality PROTOtype: the geological history of "Pedra-que-pica": ACORES-01-0145-FEDER000078. A.U. benefited from additional support by the Jagiellonian University. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The Turonian–Coniacian continental fossil record in Europe is scarce. Here we present a new fossil assemblage of early Coniacian age that was systematically collected from the coal-bearing Gosau Group of the Tiefengraben locality near St. Wolfgang, Austria. The diverse assemblage is composed of at least 60 taxa including sporomorphs and Normapolles-related pollen, seeds and leaves of angiosperms and gymnosperms, charophytes, gastropods, bivalves, ostracods, termites, fishes, crocodiles and dinosaurs. Concerning charophytes, ostracods, gastropods, crocodiles and dinosaurs, the discovered specimens either extend the temporal and spatial range of specific groups (in some cases as possible relict forms) or suggest the occurrence of new taxa. The discovered remains of algae, molluscs, ostracods, calcareous nannofossils and lepisosteid fish represent a mixed faunal assemblage from different palaeohabitats, from marginal marine to low salinity and freshwater or terrestrial environments. As Normapolles-related angiosperm plants dominate the flora with a relatively high number of dentate leaves, a slightly cooler microenvironment compared to other Turonian–Coniacian Central European localities is indicated. The characteristically grooved crocodylian teeth of Tiefengraben differ from the previously known Upper Cretaceous European crocodyliform teeth and suggest a more diverse crocodyliform fauna in the region. Dinosaurs are represented by teeth of at least three different theropods, the largest of which is referred here to as basal tetanurans. The fossil assemblage of this early Gosau Group occurrence is of great importance for our understanding of the continental floristic and faunistic composition of the western Tethyan archipelago during the Cenomanian–Campanian gap.

The bowl-shaped trace fossil Piscichnus waitemata Gregory 1991 appears in Pliocene sandstones from Santa Maria Island (Azores Archipelago), extensively excavated during a stage of island evolution when the volcanic edifice was a guyot (flat-topped seamount) isolated in the NE Atlantic. The host sediments were deposited at depths from the intertidal zone to fair-weather wave base in a tropical climate under the influence of periodic storms and hurricanes. The traces were produced by ray fishes hunting for polychaetes, crustaceans and bivalves living in the sediment, similar to present-day nearshore, warm waters in the Azores, Baja California Sur (Mexico), and New Zealand, from which examples of feeding depressions are drawn (incipient Piscichnus). While P. waitemata is abundantly present in planar sediments on top of the guyot, far fewer trace fossils occur in sandstone deposited on the guyot's margins. Presumably, the different densities of ray holes in the two sedimentary bodies were a response to lesser availability of prey, lower seawater temperatures (due to greater depths), and a more dynamic environment in which life conditions were less favorable. Moreover, the potential preservation of bowl-shaped depressions was lower in this setting, given the steepness of the seafloor, stronger currents, and constant sediment mobility. The top of the guyot was a more favorable habitat, refuge and/or nursery ground for many ray fishes. Measurement of the diameters of the ray holes indicate three distinct size classes, which may suggest that several species were responsible for their formation.

Pliocene body fossils from Santa Maria Island, Azores, have been studied for decades, but only more recently have ichnofossils received their due attention. Calcareous Pliocene deposits from the Baia de Nossa Senhora section contain numerous, diverse, well-preserved natural casts of invertebrate borings. The study of this type of fossils adds to knowledge on the dispersal of benthic faunas across oceans to volcanic oceanic islands. The borings belong to seven ichnogenera and twenty-two ichnotaxa at the ichnospecies level with more than half pertaining to Entobia, which is produced by clionaid sponges. Other borings found were produced by bivalves (Gastrochaenolites), polychaete worms (Caulostrepsis and Maeandropolydora), sipunculid worms (Trypanites), phoronid worms (Talpina) and ctenostome bryozoans (Iramena). The occurrence, ichnogeny, distribution and preservational state of the borings suggest that the bearing bioclasts have been exposed for several years on the sea floor. The borings derive from different bathymetric zones on the shelf, and their formation took place during several bioerosional phases. The association of borings belongs to the Entobia ichnofacies, which is typical of carbonate rocky shores, and shows close similarity to those described from the Paratethys, Mediterranean and partly the eastern Atlantic regions. This fits the idea that most of the Neogene shallow-water marine fauna in the Azores is biogeographically related to the eastern Atlantic shores.

Hazards and disasters have occurred throughout Earth's History and thus the geological record is an important resource for understanding future hazards and disasters and its Impact. The Earth Science Group (ESG) of the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF) carried out a “Hazard and Disaster Event Survey” to identify Earth Science collections in European museums that represent hazards and disasters throughout the geological record, and recent times. The aim is to use the collections within the survey as an educational and research resource that promotes the importance of museum collections for understanding past and future hazard and disaster events. The survey pinpointed a wide variety of hazards (e.g. earthquakes, volcanism, floods, impact events, etc.), representing a vast time span in Earth’s history (Proterozoic to Holocene), that are documented in the collections of the participating museums. Each hazard and disaster event has been described in terms of how each is preserved (e.g. fossil record or rock record), spatial scale, impact on life and biodiversity, and geological age. The results were published in Research ideas and outcomes journal RIO (https://riojournal.com/article/34087/) as seven examples, which include well-known and less-known events from the survey that have contributed to our understanding of hazard and disaster processes and their impact on life and biodiversity. For better visualisation and education purposes we also created and specialised website, which will be launched during summer 2019. In the presentation we will talk about general conclusions and lessons learnt from the “Hazard and Disaster Event Survey”.

The family Strombidae is one of the twenty-three families and subfamilies of gastropods associated with tropical environmental conditions, and therefore useful as a biogeographical and paleoclimatic proxy. Today, the strombid genus Persististrombus is represented in the NE Atlantic by a single species restricted to the tropical Mauritanian–Senegalese Province. This work reports the occurrence of Persististrombus coronatus from the lower Pliocene of Santa Maria Island in the Azores Archipelago. Based on this occurrence, and on the Mio-Pliocene fossil record of the NE Atlantic oceanic islands, paleoclimatological considerations are discussed, which allow, for the first time, to include the Azores and the other Macaronesian islands in a wider context of the NE Atlantic paleobiogeographical molluscan provinces. Late Miocene to present day molluscan biogeographic units, ranging in latitude from 60°N down to 17°S, are here defined and the boundaries of the proposed climatic zones are outlined. We suggest that during the upper Miocene–lower Pliocene, the paleoclimate at Santa Maria Island was drastically different from that seen at those latitudes today, with mean annual sea surface temperatures (SSTs) about 3.7 °C to 6.3 °C higher than the present-day 20.6 °C, and with mean monthly SSTs ranging from 20 °C to 28 °C, with six months with mean SSTs over 24 °C, conditions typical of a tropical setting.

Massive fossil shell accumulations require particular conditions to be formed and may provide valuable insights into the sedimentary environments favouring such concentrations. Shallow-water shell beds appear to be particularly rare on reefless volcanic oceanic islands on account of narrow, steep and highly-energetic insular shelves where the potential for preservation is limited. The occurrence of an exceptional coquina (Pedra-que-pica) within the Miocene–Pliocene deposits of Santa Maria Island (Azores), therefore provides a rare opportunity to understand the conditions that led to the formation and preservation of a massive shell bed at mid-ocean insular setting. This study provides a detailed analysis regarding a 10–11-m-thick bivalve-dominated fossil assemblage exposed at Pedra-que-pica on Santa Maria Island in the Azores. Integration of taphonomical, palaeoecological and sedimentological observations are used to reconstruct the genesis of the coquina bed and related events, and to discuss why such exceptional sedimentary bodies are so rare on shelves around reefless volcanic oceanic islands. The sequence at Pedra-que-pica demonstrates a complex succession of sedimentary environments in response to the drowning of an existing coastline during a period of rapid sea-level rise. The Pedra-que-pica shell bed incorporates storm-related materials and possible debris falls that originated nearby in a shallow and highly productive carbonate factory. Deposition took place below fair-weather wave base, at around 50 m depth, as inferred from the overlying volcanic succession. The preservation of this coquina was favoured by deposition on a platform laterally protected by a rocky spur, combined with rapid burial by water-settled volcanic tuffs and subsequent volcanic effusive sequences. The recent exhumation of the deposit is the result of island uplift and subsequent erosion.

The origin of the Paleontological Collection of the Upper Austrian State Museum goes back to the 1830s. Historically subordinate to mineralogy and petrology, today’s Paleontological Collection is the largest and scientifically most important of the three subunits of the museum’s Geoscience Collections. Fossils from the Upper Austrian part of the Mesozoic Northern Limestone Alps, especially Triassic ammonoids, and from the Cenozoic Alpine Foreland Basin, in particular marine and terrestrial mammals, form the backbone of the collection.

Ten new species belonging to three new genera ( Atlantisina gen. nov., Bathycyclopora gen. nov., Calvetopora gen. nov.) of umbonulomorph bryozoans from northeastern Atlantic seamounts, islands, and the continental slope are introduced. We furthermore erect the new family Atlantisinidae fam. nov. for these genera. Eight new species belong to the new genus Atlantisina : Atlantisina atlantis gen. et sp. nov. (type species), A. acantha gen. et sp. nov., A. gorringensis gen. et sp. nov., A. inarmata gen. et sp. nov., A. lionensis gen. et sp. nov., A. meteor gen. et sp. nov., A. seinensis gen. et sp. nov., and A. tricornis gen. et sp. nov. The genus Bathycyclopora gen. nov. is introduced for ? Phylactella vibraculata Calvet from the Azores, and also includes Bathycyclopora suroiti gen. et sp. nov. The type species of Calvetopora gen. nov. is Lepralia inflata Calvet from the Gulf of Cadiz; this genus also includes Calvetopora otapostasis gen. et sp. nov. and another species left in open nomenclature. Of the 13 species described herein, 11 occur on seamounts and islands, and nine species are endemic to a single seamount, island or station. The present results show that bryozoans provide striking examples of the function of seamounts as areas of endemism, most likely intrinsically linked to the low dispersal abilities of bryozoan larvae.

Pywackia baileyi Landing in Landing et al., 2010, from the upper Cambrian Yudachica Member of Oaxaca State, southern Mexico, consists of small, phosphatic, proximally tapering cylindrical rods covered by shallow polygonal calices. The bryozoan-like morphology of this fossil prompted its interpretation as the first bryozoan known from the Cambrian. However, restudy of some of the original material, employing scanning electron microscopy for the first time, questions the assignment of Pywackia to the Bryozoa. Striking similarities between Pywackia and the modern pennatulacean octocoral Lituaria lead to an alternative hypothesis interpreting Pywackia an early fossil octocoral. While Pywackia is probably not a true pennatulacean, a group with a definitive fossil record stretching back only to the Late Cretaceous, it can be envisaged as having had a similar skeletal structure and ecology to Lituaria, the rods representing mineralized axes of tiny colonies that lived with their proximal ends buried in the sediment and distal ends covered by feeding polyps. Landing et al. (2010) considered the phosphatic composition of Pywackia specimens to be the result of diagenetic replacement, but the evidence is equivocal. If Pywackia had a primary phosphatic skeleton, this would support the hypothesized existence of phosphatic biomineralization early in the evolutionary history of Cnidaria, as well as providing further evidence that Pywackia is not a bryozoan.

The fossil sirenian material from the upper Oligocene Linz Sands of Upper Austria is reviewed and re-described in detail following a recent approach on the invalidity of the genus Halitherium Kaup, 1838. This morphological study provides the first evidence for the synonymy of “Halitherium” cristolii Fitzinger 1842, “H.” abeli Spillmann, 1959 and “H.” pergense (Toula, 1899), supporting the hypothesis that only a single species inhabited the late Oligocene shores of present-day Upper Austria. In the course of the taxonomic revision of the “Halitherium” species-complex, this taxon is now assigned to the new genus Lentiarenium Voss gen. nov. It represents a more derived sirenian compared to Eocene and early Oligocene taxa distributed across Central Europe and North Africa, which is in accordance with the stratigraphical data. An updated inventory list of all identifiable and referable skeletal material is provided, including a detailed synonymy list for the new taxonomic combination.

The two odontocete taxa Squalodon grateloupii and Patriocetus ehrlichii, both the type species of their respective genera, have been at the centre of a great deal of taxonomic confusion. Originally regarded to be conspecific, these two taxa have been the subject of a bewildering taxonomic debate lasting for more than a century, which recently led to the suggestion to abandon these widely used names and replace S. grateloupii with the similar, yet independently and later proposed name S. gratelupi as the type species of Squalodon. Here, we attempt to summarise the events leading to the current confused situation in the hope of resolving this issue once and for all and argue that the name Squalodon grateloupii, as originally proposed, should be reinstated.

Located at the interface between land and sea, marl prairies are sensitive to changes in water balance and useful recorders of climate and sea-level changes. Palustrine carbonate in marl prairies precipitates in temporary, barely flooded grasslands within microbial mats. Despite the special mode of carbonate production, descriptions of the sedimentary facies are exceptional and cursory because marl prairies are so far reported only from the recent of the Everglades (Florida, USA), where they produce an unspectacular calcite mud. We present a Pleistocene Everglades-type marl prairie from coastal Tanzania as the first fossil example. The unique preservation and high productivity (two times higher than in the Everglades) of the periphyton community in this marl prairie is due to increased calcification of coccoid and filamentous cyanobacteria. The excellent preservation allows us to characterize a marl prairie facies in great detail for the first time. Facies analyses of the sediments reveal a transition from tidal to terrestrial settings that started at ca. 44 14 C ka in response to eustatic sea-level fall and coastal tectonic uplift. The resultant drop of the groundwater table triggered the development of the marl prairie. The decline of the marl prairie was initiated at ca. 33 14 C ka due to the onset of the Last Glacial Aridity Maximum in equatorial East Africa.

Shallow marine gastropod assemblages from Chattian, Aquitanian and Burdigalian sections in the Indian Kutch Basin are described. They provide insight into the composition and biogeographic relations of the gastropod assemblages at this junction between the Western Tethys and Proto-Indo-Pacific Ocean. For the first time, an improved biostratigraphy allows a clear separation of the assemblages, especially for the hitherto undifferentiated Early Miocene faunas. Throughout the Oligocene, about one-third of the species are also frequently found in the Western Tethys, documenting a passable Tethyan Seaway for nearshore molluscs. A considerable provincialism is evident as well. The expected turnover during the Early Miocene, due to the closing of the Tethyan Seaway, is reflected in the Miocene assemblages. Surprisingly, however, the cut appears very early, i.e. already during the Aquitanian, when the West–East interrelation drops to zero despite the passage having been open during this interval. In contrast, the Burdigalian assemblages witness a minor re-appearance of Western Tethys taxa, suggesting the re-establishment of rather ineffective migration pathways prior to the final closure of the Tethyan Seaway. Cerithium bermotiense and Lyria (Indolyria) maniyaraensis are introduced as new species.

Considering the diversity and abundance of larger foraminifera examined from a wide range of Late Oligocene to Early Miocene palaeoenvironments in the Tethyan Seaway, encrusting bryozoans make extremely little use of their tests as substratum. Significant encrustations by bryozoans were exclusively found on large (o c. 6 cm), undulating tests of Lepidocyclina spp., on which, however, a remarkable 34 taxa of encrusting bryozoans were recorded. This shallow-water fauna of Chattian age was analyzed in respect of the bryozoan taxa present, colony growth type, and mode of budding, colony size, as well as onset of reproduction. Taxic and morphological similarities between the fossil assemblage and modern faunas encrusting mobile substrata indicate a long history of bryozoans as part of the interstitial habitat, while the tests of certain larger foraminifera may have played a significant role in the evolution of shallow-water bryozoans by providing substrata for encrusting species in otherwise unfavorable environments.

Sessile barnacle assemblages, dominated by Concavus concavus (Bronn) and Balanus perforatus Bruguiere, are very abundant in the Lower Pliocene deposits of the Almeria-Nijar and Carboneras basins (southeastern Spain). They occur in shallow-coastal siliciclastic and mixed siliciclastic-carbonate sediments, forming dense concentrations in two contexts: (1) sheltered shallow-marine depressions and (2) the mouth of distributary channels feeding a delta lobe. Extensive colonization took place during periods of quiescence with a high nutrient and food supply inducing the formation of hummocks. Crowding of high morphotypes was presumably triggered by a high larval supply and recruitment rate. The barnacles are exceptionally well preserved, often as in situ clusters, many with opercula, and include a range of ontogenetic stages with some specimens preserving original colouration. Good preservation is probably due to sudden burial without further reworking.

Rhodoliths are a common producer of carbonates on modern and ancient shelves worldwide, and there is growing evidence that they thrive on volcanic insular shelves. However, little is still known on how rhodoliths cope with the demands of this particularly dynamic environment. In this study, the focus is placed on fossil rhodoliths from a Pliocene sequence at Santa Maria Island, Azores, in order to gain further insight into the life cycle (and death) of rhodoliths living within a mid-ocean active volcanic setting. These rhodoliths occur as a massive accumulation within a larger submarine volcano-sedimentary sequence that was studied from the macro- to the micro-scale in order to reconstruct the paleoenvironmental conditions under which the rhodolith accumulation was deposited and buried. All fossil rhodoliths from this setting are multi-specific and demonstrate robust growth forms with a lumpy morphology. Moreover, taphonomical analyses show the succession of several destructive events during rhodolith growth, suggesting life under a highly dynamic system prior to stabilization and burial. The rhodoliths therefore tell a story of an eventful life, with multiple transport and growth stages, owing to the environment in which they lived. Transport and deposition to their final resting place was storm-associated, as supported by the general sedimentary sequence. In particular, the sequence features an amalgamation of tempestites deposited under increasing water depths, sediment aggradation, and before burial by volcanic activity. This transgressive trend is also attested by the overall characteristics of the volcano-sedimentary succession, which exhibits the transition to subaerial environment in excess of 100 m above the rhodolith bed.

Extensive terrestrial exchanges were initiated by the closure of the Tethyan Seaway during the Early Miocene. Proboscideans are among the most prominent African immigrants, which arrived in Eurasia about 19 Ma ago via the ‘‘Gomphotherium Landbridge’’. Several distinct waves of continental migrations, however, document that the formation of this landbridge was a multiphase process. Until the closure, a marine faunal exchange was enabled via the Mesopotamian Trough and the Zagros Basin, as reflected by contributions of Indonesian corals in the Iranian basins and by the occurrence of ‘‘western’’ gastropods in Pakistan and India. Nevertheless, the emergence of the landbridge was preceded in the marine biosphere by first biogeographic divergences on both sides of the seaway already during Oligocene times (e.g. within the tridacnines and strombids). Around the closure event, the breakdown of biogeographic relations was near-complete and the Proto-Mediterranean faunas bear little in common with those of the Indo-West Pacific Region (IWPR). Some of the discussed examples suggest that the Western Tethys Region (WTR) had acted as centre of origin and diversity during Oligocene and Early Miocene times. After the closure of the seaway, this centre had shifted to the southeast, heralding the enormous biodiversity of the modern IWPR. Some originally WTR elements managed to follow this shift and formed the Miocene stock for the modern IWPR faunas. In contrast, the marine fauna in the Mediterranean cul-de-sac suffered strong impoverishment due to the Miocene cooling, the Messinian Salinity Crisis and the late Pliocene and Pleistocene glacials – a fact which might explain the receptivity of the Mediterranean Sea for Lessepsian migrants. This synthesis tries to document the practical problem of recognising biogeographic patterns despite the heterochronous developments in different systematic groups, which, in addition, are often obscured by a stratigraphically incomplete and geographically patchy fossil record. r 2007 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

In the central Iranian Esfahan-Sirjan and Qom basins sedimentation of the Oligo-/Miocene Qom Formation took place on extensive mixed carbonate–siliciclastic ramps. During this time, both basins were positioned at the Eurasian margin of the Tethyan Seaway, which connected the western and eastern regions of the Tethys Ocean at least until the late Burdigalian. During the so-called Terminal Tethyan Event the Tethyan Seaway was then closed due to the collision of the African/Arabian and Iranian/Eurasian plates. Facies analysis of the sedimentary record of both basins indicates paleoenvironments ranging from terrestrial to open marine settings, including mangrove, restricted inner shelf lagoon, seagrass meadow, reefal, and deeper offshore environments. Recognition of eight depositional sequences and elaboration of an integrated biostratigraphic framework (calcareous nannoplankton, planktic and larger benthic foraminifers, gastropods, and pectinids) allow us to construct a basin-spanning stratigraphy. The assignment of the recognized sea-level lowstands to the Ru 3 to Bur 3 lowstands of the global sea-level curve enables a comparison with time-equivalent sections from the Zagros Basin, which was part of the African/Arabian Plate on the opposing southern margin of the Tethyan Seaway. The so calibrated sections display restrictions of the Tethyan Seaway and interruption of the south Iranian gateways between the Qom Basin and the Proto-Indopacific in relation to ongoing plate collision during the early Burdigalian.

Fossil and Recent specimens of the Mediterranean bryozoan Myriapora truncata show considerable intra- and intercolonial differences in branch diameter and zooid size. Statistically significant variability occurs within colonies, between colonies within sites, and between sampled sites, while the presence of intracolonial variability clearly shows that branch diameter is largely controlled by environmental parameters. The three structural traits measured (branch diameter, zooid size and zooid depth) do not correlate, thus indicating a disconnection between the controls on overall zooid size and branch diameter. Possible environmental parameters that may have an influence on morphology are temperature, food supply or current energy. Whereas current energy has an effect on the colony branching pattern (branch spacing), there are indications that temperature may be the main, but not the only, parameter controlling zooid size, and it is suggested that food supply largely determines the branch diameter in M. truncata. However, the identification of the decisive factors and quantification of the relationships between environmental and morphological change is beyond the scope of this study. The results nevertheless show that, if the control factors of morphological variability can be ascertained in Recent M. truncata, this species may prove to be an indicator of environmental conditions and their change at different spatial and temporal scales in Cenozoic to Recent Mediterranean habitats.

This paper describes and illustrates a diverse parautochthonous macrofauna from a single Upper Burdigalian (lower Ottnangian) horizon at Gurlarn in Lower Bavaria (SE Germany). In total, 80 different taxa are recorded in specific or open nomenclature; some 50 % of these taxa are bryozoans, followed by bivalves (16 taxa), cirripedes (7 taxa), echinoderms, corals (5 taxa each), brachiopods, fish (4 taxa each), serpulids, and gastropods (3 taxa each). The presence of additional organisms was documented by actualistic comparison based on indirect evidence such as drillholes, bite marks, and specialized growth forms of bryozoan colonies. Analysis of autand synecological indicators suggests that the fauna thrived in a near-shore shallow marine setting at a water depth of 5-20 m. Based on particular faunal elements and overall faunal composition we hypothesize that the environment is characterized by three distinct but interfingering habitats, i.e. (1) rocky slopes and boulders, (2) seagrass meadows, and (3) bryozoan meadows. Because similar, albeit less wellpreserved, faunas occur at several localities along the northern coast of the early Ottnangian Molasse Sea, the parautochthonous assemblage from Gurlarn provides an excellent example for the structure of these typical biota.

The Madeira-Tore Rise, located ∼700 km off the NW African coast, forms a prominent ridge in the east Atlantic. The age and origin of the rise are controversial. This study presents major and trace element, Sr, Nd, Pb, Hf isotope and 40Ar/39Ar age determinations from volcanic rocks dredged from different sites along the rise. In addition, isotopic compositions of rock samples from Great Meteor Seamount in the central Atlantic are presented. The new radiometric and paleontologically constrained ages identify two major episodes of volcanism: The first is the base of the rise (circa 80 to >95 Ma) and the second is seamounts on the rise (0.5–16 Ma). It is proposed that interaction of the Canary hot spot with the Mid-Atlantic spreading center formed the deep basement of the Madeira-Tore Rise and the J-Anomaly Ridge west of the Atlantic spreading center in the Mid-Cretaceous. Age and geochemical data and plate tectonic reconstructions suggest, however, that the recovered Late Cretaceous volcanic rocks represent late stage volcanism from the time when the Madeira-Tore Rise was still close to the Canary hot spot. Long after moving away from the influence of the Canary hot spot, the Madeira-Tore Rise was overprinted by late Cenozoic volcanism. Miocene to Pleistocene volcanism at the northern end of the rise can be best explained by decompression mantle melting beneath extensional sectors of the Azores-Gibraltar Fracture Zone (African-Eurasian plate boundary). The geochemical compositions of these volcanic rocks suggest that the magmas were variably contaminated by enriched material within or derived by melting of enriched material underplated at the base of the lithosphere, possibly originating from the Cretaceous Canary plume. Alternatively, these late Cenozoic volcanic rocks may have derived from decompression melting of enriched pyroxenitic/eclogitic material in the upper mantle. Isotopically more depleted Pliocene to Pleistocene volcanism at the southern end of the Madeira-Tore Rise may be related to the nearby Madeira hot spot.

Pirabasoporella gen. nov. is introduced for three new bryozoan species from the Early Miocene of the tropical western Atlantic. The genus is placed in the family Jaculinidae Zabala, a peculiar group of cheilostome bryozoans characterised by reticulate colonies formed by uni- or biserial branches that are connected by kenozooidal struts. This colonial morphology superficially resembles colonies of the Paleozoic order Fenestrata (Stenolaemata) and some Recent Cyclostomata. As jaculinid colonies are anchored to soft sediments via rhizoids, however, they differ in life habit from Paleozoic and modern fenestrate colonies, which are firmly attached to stable substrata by an encrusting base. The three new species are Pirabasoporella atalaiaensis n. sp. from the Brazilian Pirabas Formation, Pirabasoporella baitoae n. sp. from the Baitoa Formation (Dominican Republic), and Pirabasoporella chipolae n. sp. from the Floridan Chipola Formation. Their presence in the Early Miocene western Atlantic represents the earliest record of Jaculinidae, and suggests that the origin of the family, the only living species of which are known from the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea, extends well into the Paleogene. The Jaculinidae is here transferred from the lepraliomorph superfamily Schizoporelloidea Jullien to the umbonulomorph Lepralielloidea Vigneaux owing to the partly umbonuloid frontal shield and non-schizoporelloid ovicell.