The biomass within two Early Pennsylvanian (Langsettian [Westphalian A] equivalent) penecontemporaneous swamp communities was sampled quantitatively to obtain an estimate of the taxonomic contribution to each assemblage. Blocks of organic-rich shale were removed from a clastic parting within the Black Creek Coal, and ∼0.5-m² siltstone quadrats were chain-sawed from a clastic swamp community directly above the Bear Creek Coal. Bedding planes were exposed, and the surface areas for each taxon per bedding surface were measured and used as proxies for biomass contribution in each locality. Biomass over a combined area of 5.47 m² was assessed for the Black Creek Coal parting; biomass covering an area of 9.70 m² was evaluated for the assemblage preserved above the Bear Creek coal. In addition to calculating standard diversity indices, this data set was analyzed using cluster analyses and non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) to differentiate variations within the general flora.

Low species diversity characterizes both floras. Diversity indices for both assemblages are very similar, indicating essentially no difference in assemblage composition, despite the difference in edaphic conditions. The Bear Creek Coal wetlands show greater variation in species content, while the mineral-enhanced peat of the Black Creek Coal overlaps this species diversity within a slightly more restricted range of variation. Cluster analysis produced 5 stable clusters, whereas three dimensions of the NMDS analysis provided the best fit to explain the variation among the samples. The dimensions are interpreted as representing abundance of (1) arborescent lycopsids, (2) arborescent and climbing sphenopsids, and (3) pteridosperms. The plant community preserved within the clastic parting of the Black Creek Coal is comparable to that of the community found above the Bear Creek Coal. Hence, vegetation that colonized mineral-substrate soils in Early Pennsylvanian coastal lowlands, whether in peat or non-peat accumulating settings, are very similar. The dominance of pteridosperms in these depositional regimes appears to remain stable throughout the Early and Middle Pennsylvanian and portends community replacements in the Late Westphalian D some 8–10 million years later.

A quantitative palynological study of the Paleocene/Eocene transition in western Venezuela was undertaken to detect and analyze possible cyclic patterns. Two different methodologies were used, palynocycles and ecologs, and their results are compared. A total of 237 outcrop samples from three formations deposited in continental to coastal environments were analyzed for pollen and fern spores.

Several palynological cycles are recorded and correlated with third-order global eustatic cycles. A high-frequency cyclicity of ca. 220,000-year period also was found. Both methodologies recorded the same cyclic patterns and can be considered complementary. Ecologs are easier to use, but have less interpretative potential. Palynocycles are more complex, but also more descriptive and help detect small hiatuses. Diversity values reach maxima at cycle boundaries and their minima in the middle of cycles. This distribution has been interpreted in terms of different palynomorph sources under conditions of high and low sea level. During the Paleocene/Eocene transition, diversity shows a constant ascending trend, probably due to a long-term, worldwide climatic warming.

Thirty-five azooxanthellate (non-photosynthetic) corals belonging to 18 species were collected at sites ranging from the Norwegian Sea to the Antarctic and of depths ranging from 10 to 5220 m. All specimens showed distinct, well-defined linear correlations between carbonate oxygen and carbon isotopic composition, with slopes ranging from 0.23 to 0.67 (mean 0.45 ± 0.9) and linear correlation r² values that averaged 0.89. These pronounced isotopic disequilibria have, to date, rendered azooxanthellate corals unsuitable for use in paleothermometry. Most, but not all, of the heaviest skeletal δ¹⁸O values reached or approached equilibrium. If the isotopically-heavy ends of the δ¹⁸O vs δ¹³C regression lines reliably approximated isotopic equilibrium with seawater, these values could be used to estimate the temperature of the water in which the coral grew. The δ¹³C values of the heavy ends of each line, however, were always depleted compared to carbon isotopic equilibrium with ambient bicarbonate by varying amounts.

Despite the disequilibria, a reliable method for obtaining paleotemperature data was obtained. It was found that, if a δ¹⁸O vs δ¹³C regression line from an individual coral could be generated, the δ¹⁸O_arag value corresponding to δ¹³C_arag = δ¹³C_water and corrected for δ¹⁸O_water was a linear function of temperature: δ¹⁸O = −0.25 T(°C) 4.97.

Bryozoan skeletons are a dominant constituent of cool-water carbonate sediments in the Cenozoic of southern Australia. The primary substrate on much of the modern continental shelf is loose sediment that is reworked intermittently to 200 m water depth by storm waves. Availability of stable substrate is a limiting factor in the modern distribution of bryozoans in this setting. As a result, a significant proportion of the sedimentologically important modern bryozoans (30–250 m water depth) live attached to sessile, benthic invertebrate hosts that possess organic or spicular skeletons. Hosts such as hydroids, ascidian tunicates, sponges, soft worm tubes, octocorals, and other lightly-calcified and articulated bryozoans provide ephemeral substrates; after death, host skeletons disarticulate and decay, leaving little or no body fossil record.

The calcareous sediments produced by these epizoic bryozoans from ephemeral substrates result in loose particles that rarely preserve substratal relationships, but potentially retain diagnostic basal attachment morphologies. Although the best known examples of epizoic carbonate production on ephemeral substrates are from the southern Australian margin, this may be an important phenomenon both globally and in the fossil record. Bryozoan sediment production from epizoans on ephemeral substrates would seem, however, to have a scant record prior to the Cretaceous.

Analysis of fifty-eight paleosol trace fossil assemblages, ranging from the Triassic to the Recent, allows refinement of continental ichnofacies models and the proposal of a Coprinisphaera ichnofacies. The Coprinisphaera ichnofacies consists of trace fossils of bees, wasps, ants, beetles, termites, and other unassigned insects. Meniscate burrows, mammal caves, and rhizoliths also may be present. This ichnofacies is named after the dung beetle nest Coprinisphaera, the most common component of this archetypal assemblage. In mature paleosols, the Coprinisphaera ichnofacies has moderate to relatively high trace fossil diversity and high abundance. Ethologically, this assemblage is dominated by nesting traces (calichnia) and exhibits a relatively complex tiering pattern, reflecting variable depths of emplacement of hymenopterous, termite, and dung beetle nests. Common components include the bee cells Celliforma, Uruguay, Ellipsoideichnus, Palmiraichnus, and Rosellichnus; the wasp nest Chubutolithes; the ant traces Attaichnus and Parowanichnus, and other beetle traces, such as Monesichnus, Fontanai, and Teisseirei. Termite nests may occur, but are less common components of the Coprinisphaera ichnofacies.

The Coprinisphaera ichnofacies fulfills all the requirements to qualify as a Seilacherian or archetypal ichnofacies, namely recurrence in time and space, and distinct paleoenvironmental implications. Proposal of the Coprinisphaera ichnofacies is based on the analysis of twenty-eight cases, ranging from the? Late Cretaceous to the Recent. The Coprinisphaera chnofacies characterizes paleosols developed in paleoecosystems of herbaceous communities. These herbaceous communities range from dry-and-cold to humid-and-warm climates. More detailed paleoclimatological inferences can be obtained by evaluating the relative abundance of the various traces within the assemblage. A dominance of hymenopterous traces would indicate drier conditions, whereas the presence of termite nests would indicate more humid. The Coprinisphaera ichnofacies occurs in paleosols developed in various depositional systems subject to subaerial exposure, such as alluvial plains, desiccated floodplains, crevasse splays, levees, abandoned point bars, and vegetated eolian environments. This and other potential terrestrial ichnofacies are controlled by ecological parameters (e.g., vegetation, climate, and soil) rather than by depositional processes. The association of fossil insect nests indicates the extent of soil development and, consequently, such ichnofossils are one of the best indicators of paleosols.

The previously proposed Termitichnus ichnofacies was defined to include all paleosol trace fossil assemblages. However, the available information indicates that terrestrial environments are far more complex. Therefore, it is suggested that the Termitichnus ichnofacies as presently defined be abandoned because it does not reflect the diversity of paleosol settings and fails to provide significant paleoecologic information. Formal definition of a Termitichnus ichnofacies in a more restricted sense, to include assemblag

From its inception during the early Miocene, the Suez Rift has been dominated by marine sedimentation. New high-resolution biostratigraphic and sedimentologic analyses of synrift deposits have resulted in the recognition of late Burdigalian-early Langhian brackish water and lacustrine deposits in the Wadi Abu Gaada-Gebel Gushia area, Sinai Peninsula. The Abu Gaada section is unique because: (1) it is an anomalously thick section of non-calcareous shale and mudstone in the Lagia Member of the Ayun Musa Formation; and (2) the mudstones contain an abundant microflora consisting of marine and nonmarine diatoms and freshwater algae that indicate they were deposited in a freshwater to brackish water environment. The abundant freshwater and shallow marine algae include the nonmarine diatoms Aulacoseira Thwaites, Fragilaria construens (Ehrenberg) Grunow, Synedra ulna (Nitzsch) Ehrenberg, and SurrirellaTurpin, as well as the freshwater algae Botryococcus Kutzing and Pediastrum Meyen. Shallow marine diatoms are represented by Actinoptychus Ehrenberg, Actinocyclus ehrenbergii Ralfs, Paralia sulcata (Ehrenberg) Cleve, Rhaphoneis Ehrenberg, and HyalodiscusEhrenberg. Correlations with other coeval stratigraphic sections in the Sinai Peninsula indicate that brackish water and lacustrine deposition was localized in the Wadi Abu Gaada-Gebel Gushia area. This is explained by uplift and tilting of the bounding faults separating the Wadi Abu Gaada-Gebel Gushia block from adjacent rift blocks where normal marine conditions prevailed. The increased freshwater influence was the result of a rising water table during a period of rising sea level. As transgression continued, the barrier that separated the Wadi Abu Gaada depression from marine waters was eventually breached. Brackish water then filled the depression. Eventually a hypersaline lagoon formed in what previously had been a fresh waterlake, depositing the Markha Anhydrite. Correlative brackish water/lacustrine shales also have been found in the subsurface of the Gulf of Suez and thin coeval deposits are present on its southwestern margin. This reflects that the local occurence of these depositional environments was controlled by structural reorganization of fault blocks in the Suez Rift in response to the “mid-clysmic” tectonic event.

Short stratigraphic sections in apparently monotonous strata pose several challenges to high-resolution (<1 m) correlation. A lack of distinctive marker horizons can prevent obvious visual correlations between the sections. The stratigraphic shortness of the outcrops further reduces the likelihood of any given section having a recognizable marker horizon. The Upper Ordovician Kope Formation of the Cincinnati, Ohio, area exhibits both of these problems and correlation within the Kope has not been accomplished easily, to date. However, cross-correlation of meter-scale cycles in the Kope can be used to identify potential correlations of small outcrops to larger, well-described outcrops. If multiple correlations are equally plausible, large-scale faunal transitions among facies fossils can then be used to select the best correlation. In this pilot study, two sections separated by 9 km are correlated successfully using these methodologies, which show promise for the correlation of numerous outcrops in the Cincinnati area. In addition, the methods described here may be applied easily to other areas of limited outcrop in which the rocks are so complexly cyclic that they, likewise, appear to be monotonous.