Abstract Even though other sites (Pakefield and Happisburgh in East Anglia) have now provided the earliest evidence of humans in Britain through their tools, Boxgrove (Eartham Quarry) in West Sussex, South England still contains their oldest teeth and bones found so far in this country, which have been dated to Marine Isotope Stage 13, between 525 000 and 478 000 years ago. Prolific finds of flint tools and vertebrate remains (both large and small) have made Boxgrove internationally famous. Microfossils (foraminifera and ostracods), however, have formed the means by which the palaeoenvironment has been reconstructed, and this is narrated here from nearshore marine, through intertidal flats in a semi-enclosed bay to, on final regression, a grassland plain with a series of freshwater pools fed by springs emanating from the Chalk. These pools were the waterholes to which the animals were attracted, and therefore formed the hunting grounds for hominins. Palaeoclimatic reconstructions using the Mutual Ostracod Temperature Range (MOTR) method show that sustained human occupation occurred during a period when the region was colder in winter and may have experienced greater seasonal temperature variation than the present day.

Abstract Edward Heron-Allen, a lawyer by profession, was a true polymath with interests covering an extremely wide variety of topics. ‘The beauty and mystery of the foraminifera’, in particular, fascinated him and for nearly 50 years he worked on the group, for most of the time at the Natural History Museum, London, in an unpaid, unofficial capacity. During his scientific career, he published over 70 papers and obtained several fellowships, culminating in 1919 in his election to the Royal Society. Most of this work was undertaken with Arthur Earland (a senior Post Office official), until the collaboration sadly ended in acrimony in the early 1930s. He amassed a very fine collection of mostly recent species and probably one of the finest foraminiferal libraries and archives in the world, which he bequeathed to the Museum in 1926 (and subsequently). These are housed today in a room named in his honour and remain a great source of research potential.

Abstract The academic study of foraminifera began as the pursuit of the ‘gentleman naturalist’ in the nineteenth century, only becoming a professional occupation with the employment of micropalaeontologists by the (British) Geological Survey. The formal training of micropalaeontologists in British universities (and polytechnics) really began in the 1940s (post-World War ll) and much of this history can be traced back to Alan Wood and the employment predictions of F. R. S. Henson. Wood, either directly or indirectly, began the teaching of micropalaeontology at Imperial College (London), Aberystwyth and University College (London), and these three centres went on to develop and nurture the expertise we see in a wide range of schools and departments today. The rise, and fall, of MSc and MRes courses in UK geoscience departments is described, as well as the wide range of locations at which PhD training and research is undertaken. Much of this history can be related to the development of oil exploration, in the North Sea Basin and worldwide, and the need for suitably qualified personnel.

Abstract Dennis Curry was a most successful businessman and a generous philanthropist. He also led a double life as a geologist and palaeontologist. This appreciation of the man and the scientist is supported by recollections of two of his former colleagues at University College London, where he was Visiting Professor of Marine Geology. This is followed by a bibliography of approximately 130 geological papers on a range of topics - mirroring his wide interests - that he published either singly or co-authored over a 62-year period.

Abstract Dennis Curry was both a businessman and a geologist. He was Chairman of Currys for many years, a job that still allowed him to spend significant time on scientific research and fossil collecting. His achievements as a scientist were impressive, with more than 120 publications and various awards from the scientific community. His collection, containing in excess of 90000 molluscs, 700 micropalaeontological slides and other material, was donated to the Natural History Museum, London. The collection contains material from all over the world, but mostly from southern England and France. His family have made funds available to ensure proper curation of the collection. The material has been sorted, reboxed and organized, and is available to researchers.

Abstract A diverse and abundant Late Pleistocene pteropod (pelagic gastropod) fauna is described from marine cores near the island of Montserrat, Lesser Antilles. In several of the cores, there are ‘floods’ of pteropods at particular levels, usually associated with glacial periods within the Late Pleistocene. These levels of abundant pteropods appear to be of regional significance, having been reported from other locations in the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf Coast of Florida and other ocean basins. The concentrations appear to reflect the enhanced preservation of aragonite during cooler periods within the Pleistocene.

Abstract Fifteen nummulitid species are described from the Late Paleocene and Early Eocene of northern Oman. These comprise Operculina (five species), Assilina (one), Planocamerinoides (two), Ranikothalia (one), Nummulitoides (three), Palaeonummulites (one) and Chordoperculi-noides (two). The taxa Nummulitoides margaretae, Chordoperculinoides bermudezi, Palaeonum-mulites thalicus gwynae, Assilina ranikoti and Operculina libyca are recorded from the Middle East for the first time. Operculina canalifera and O. inaequilateralis are reassigned to Nummuli-toides; Operculina jiwani and Assilina dandotica are transferred to Planocamerinoides , and Rani-kothalia sahnii is placed in Chordoperculinoides . Some revisions to the generic classification are proposed, with these simple forms being removed to the Palaeonumulitinae, new subfamily herein, genera with lateral chamberlets being confined to the Nummulitinae, and genera with subdivided equatorial chambers being assigned to the Heterostegininae. Enrollment of the lamina and height of the coil (opening rate) is taken into account, as well as the presence or absence of vertical canals and the thickness of the marginal cord. On these grounds, a new genus, Caudrina (type species C. soldadensis) , is formally described to include sub-evolute descendants of involute Chordoperculinoides . Trabeculae and trabecular canals are redefined and the problem of their mis-identification in terms of presence/absence as a criterion in the systematics of the Nummulitidae is discussed. The biostratigraphical and palaeobiogeographical implications of this early nummulitid fauna are significant. The presence of Chordoperculinoides bermudezi in Oman is considered to be of particular importance, since it has previously been considered to be restricted to the Caribbean faunal province. The occurrence also of Ranikothalia nuttalli kohatica extends the geographical distribution of this taxon, which hitherto was only known from NW Pakistan, while Nummulitoides was previously only recorded with certainty from West Africa, Libya, Pakistan, the Pyrenees and from off western Ireland. Other taxa such as Assilina ranikoti and Palaeonummulites thalicus gwynae , and Operculina libyca , were previously only known from Pakistan and Libya, respectively. The fauna therefore shows a marked mixing of taxa from the Indian Subcontinent, the Mediterranean/North Atlantic and West African regions, as well as including a taxon previously considered endemic to the Caribbean. Forms with a massive marginal cord such as Chordoperculinoides, Ranikothalia and Nummuli-toides indicate an age close to the Paleocene-Eocene boundary (nannoplankton zones NP8– NP10) with Nummulitoides possibly ranging as high as top NP11. Assilina, Palaeonummulites and Planocamerinoides have a first occurrence in the latest Paleocene (within NP9/P5a). Most of the genera studied first appear in the Late Thanetian (NP8/P4b-c) and were probably derived from a tightly coiled ancestor of Palaeonummulites earlier in the Paleocene. Possible lines of descent between these genera are also discussed.

Abstract Larger foraminifera occur today in marine infra-littoral environments whose mean annual temperature (TAM) is at least 22-23 °C, and are situated in a circum-equatorial belt between latitudes 30° North and 30° South. Throughout the Middle Eocene (around 40 Ma), the carbonate platform, which lay along the whole length of the Atlantic front of Europe, supported diverse populations of larger foraminifera as far north as the Paris and Hampshire basins, which at that time were situated at latitude 42° North. Larger foraminifera only disappear around 45° North. During the same period, in the carbonate platform which borders the African and Madagascan shores, larger foraminifera were well diversified as far south as palaeolatitude 35° South, before diminishing and finally disappearing near 45° South. Thus in the Middle Eocene, the equatorial belt of near-surface warm waters lay between parallels 45° North and 45° South, and was therefore somewhat extended compared to the present day. In fact, it covered a distance of 1500 km, North to South. The global latitudinal thermal gradient, as a consequence, was very much reduced (in the order of 15-20 °C), and only contained three main climatic zones: an expanded equatorial belt (TAM > +22/23 °C), flanked by two circumpolar caps with a temperate climate. Abstract Résumé: Les grands Foraminifères se rencontrent actuellement dans les environnements marins infralittoraux dont la température moyenne annuelle (TAM) est au moins égale à +22/23 °C, et situés dans la ceinture équatoriale circumterrestre comprise entre les latitudes 30° nord et 30° sud. Au cours de l'Éocène moyen (vers 40 Ma), la plate-forme carbonatée qui s'étend le long de la façade atlantique de l'Europe héberge de grands Foraminifères formant des associations diversifiées jusque dans les Bassins de Paris et du Hampshire, situés à l'époque à la latitude 42° nord. Plus au nord, les grands Foraminiféres se font rares et disparaissent vers le parallèle 45°. Pendant la même période, dans la plate-forme carbonatée qui borde les littoraux africain et malgache, les grands Foraminifères sont bien diversifiés jusque vers la paléolatitude 35° sud. Ils diminuent ensuite pour disparaître vers le parallèle 45°. Ainsi, à l'Eocène moyen, la ceinture équatoriale d'eaux superficielles chaudes, comprise entre les parallèles 45° nord et 45° sud, est dilatée par rapport à l'actuelle. Elle déborde de quelques 1.500 km à la fois en direction du nord et en direction du sud. Le gradient thermique global latitudinal très réduit (de l'ordre de 15 à 20 °C) n'autorise que trois zones climatiques majeures: une ceinture équatoriale (TAM > +22/23 °C) dilatée et flanquée de deux calottes circumpolaires au climat tempéré.

Abstract The English Channel is a shallow epicontinental sea, linking the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. It is an excellent example of a tidally dominated shallow marine system, with limited sediment sources and extensive reworking of a relatively thin sediment cover. It is bordered and floored by a range of rock types, ranging from Palaeozoic to Tertiary in age. It has a variety of coastlines, including cliffs, rias, estuaries and coastal sediment accumulations, ranging from gravel and sand beaches with aeolian dunes to broad intertidal flats. The sediment is supplied by (i) rivers, with the French side of the system dominating the fluviatile sediment supply; (ii) erosion of cliffs and wave-cut platforms, which again is more important along the French coast; (iii) reworking of the sea floor; (iv) the breakdown ofbenthonic skeletal-debris, which is particularly important in the WSW towards the open ocean; and (v) some input (mainly of biogenic planktonic origin) from the Atlantic Ocean. The system loses fine-grained sediment to the Atlantic Ocean in the WSW and the North Sea to the ENE and as a result of estuarine infilling. Anthropogenic changes are caused mainly by large-scale dredging of coarser-grained material for the construction industry, and within some of the estuaries (e.g. in the west of England) are the dumping sites of mining waste. The area is dominated by strong tidal currents and by waves that originate mainly from the WSW and which only affect the shallow water areas during storms. The central area of the Channel is covered by coarse-grained material, since the finer fractions have been scoured away by the tidal action; this has been identified as a 'bedload parting zone'. Wide areas are covered by sand-sized sediments, fashioned into a variety of bedforms: ripples, sandwaves, longitudinal bed-forms and sandbanks. Fine-grained sediments are confined to coastal embayments, rias, estuaries and open-coast intertidal flats. A thin superficial blanket of Holocene sediment covers an important unconformity whose final development occurred during and succeeding the Flandrian Transgression. If this is preserved, it will form an interesting sequence of deposits where the facies distribution is dominated by oceanographic processes and not merely by water depth and proximity to the coastline.

Abstract Strontium-isotope stratigraphy (SIS) is a means of dating and correlating marine sediments through measurement of the 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratio in well-preserved marine minerals contained within them. The method can also determine the duration of hiatuses, distinguish marine from non-marine environments, and provide some control of the correctness of age models derived by independent means for sedimentary sections. This chapter provides an introduction to the use of SIS and gives examples to illustrate such uses.

Abstract Mammals from strata immediately underlying and overlying the Grande Coupure in the Hampshire Basin, UK, are described or reviewed. Precise superposed mammaliferous horizons are documented and the stratigraphy of older less precise records is assessed. The following species group taxa are described for the first time in the UK: Amphiperatherium minutum, A. exile, Peratherium cf. perrierense, Bransatoglis planus, Butseloglis micio, Theridomys bonduelli, Isoptychus margaritae, Pseudoltinomys cuvieri, Tetracus aff. nanus, Myxomygale cf. antiqua, Hyaenodon cf. dubius, Amphicynodon? sp., Plagiolophus major and Ronzotherium cf. romani . The main systematic innovations are as follows. The post-Grande Coupure record of Perather-ium cf. perrierense shows this species to range into the Oligocene, later than its supposed descendant P. cayluxi , with which it is tentatively concluded instead to have a sister relationship. Pre-Grande Coupure Glamys fordi represents the earliest record of the species; its morphology shows no increased similarity to its primitive sister species G. devoogdi , supporting the clado-genetic model for Glamys species. Intraspecific variation and the previously unknown upper fourth deciduous premolar are documented in the rodent Theridomys bonduelli , thanks to the discovery of the first substantial assemblage of the species. A first lower premolar is tentatively recognized for the mole Myxomygale , which if correctly associated suggests placement in the tribe Scaptonychini rather than Urotrichini, where it is usually classified. If the tentative identification to M. antiqua is correct, upper teeth are recorded for the first time in this species. An ulna is tentatively attributed to the oldest known mole Eotalpa . The occurrence of Leptadapis in the upper Hamstead Member is the first post-Grande Coupure adapid and the youngest member of the family Adapidae in Europe. The recent synonymy of Elomeryx porcinus with E. crispus is discounted and the former species resurrected. Diplopus is once more considered closely related to Elomeryx and returned from the Choeropotamidae to the Anthracotheriidae. In addition to the established dental differences, the subspecies Palaeotherium muehlbergi muehlbergi is shown to be distinguished from P. m. thaleri by having a shallower narial incision. The dimensions of Plagiolophus minor from the lower Hamstead Member imply a more complex pattern of relationships with its immediate relatives than the single-lineage model so far proposed. Plagiolophus major is distinguished from P. fraasi on proportional dimensions of M 3 and tentatively on crown height and position of the preorbital fossa. Implications for European Paleogene biostratigraphy are as follows. Reference level MP20 is difficult to identify without the terminal subspecies of Palaeotherium medium and P. curtum . The upper limit of the Palaeotherium curtumfrohnstettense–P . medium suevicum Biozone in the UK is raised to a position within the Hamstead Member. A significant and eventful timespan is concluded to be represented by the lowest European reference level above the Grande Coupure (MP21), which would be best resolved by conventional biostratigraphic subdivision. The distancing of Elomeryx crispus from E. porcinus means that the former may not be an early herald of the Grande Coupure.

Abstract Sampling Bracklesham Group sediments of the WhitecliffBay (Isle of Wight) succession has led to the discovery of an assemblage of marine diatoms in a series of clays previously thought to be barren of microfossils. Although preserved as pyritized steinkerns, there is enough detail present to enable identification to generic and even species level in nearly all cases. The flora includes the stratigraphically restricted species Brightwellia hyperborea Grunow, Aulacodis-cus singiliewskyanus Barker & Meakin and Aulacodiscus subexcavatus Hustedt, which allow the assemblage to be placed within the Triceratium kanayae Diatom Zone of the Middle Eocene. This is equivalent to Calcareous Nannoplankton Zone NP15 and confirms a Lutetian age. The assemblage is dominated by the large centric species Fenestrella antiqua (Grunow) Swatman, previously unknown from strata later than earliest Eocene age in NW Europe, and this occurrence thus extends the range of this species. The diatoms include both low-latitude planktic species and more cosmopolitan coastal and nearshore taxa, attesting to strong connections to both southerly, warmer waters as well as to the north and east. Palaeoecological evidence from the diatom assemblage suggests the presence of water stratification, with eutrophic, nutrient-enriched surface water conditions encouraging the blooming of centric diatoms. This event may coincide with a worldwide increase in biogenic silica, coincident with a pulse of cooling and sea-level lowstand, all of which are related to the initiation of thermohaline circulation, as Antarctica split away from Australia and began to cool down. Mass sedimentation of the diatoms occurred at the end of this period, as improved water circulation led to mixing of the water mass and the return of larger calcareous benthic foraminifera. The presence of relatively nearshore, fairly shallow conditions during deposition of the diatomac-eous interval is indicated by the presence of several benthic diatom genera such as Aulacodiscus and Triceratium .

Abstract The recovery of well-preserved microfossil remains, both as flint meal faunas and from ‘rotten flints’, intrigued Dennis Curry to such a degree that he set about thoroughly investigating their occurrences, which were otherwise largely overlooked by other micropalaeontologists. His analyses were quantitative and from geographically widespread locations, lending them a significance that is still valid. His results proved that a greater abundance of planktonic foraminif-eral taxa is seen in flint meals when compared with ‘normal’ chalk samples from the same strati-graphic levels and that higher abundances are recorded from the Yorkshire samples when compared with those from southern England. He speculated on the factors causing differential preservation between chalk and flint meal microfaunas, the origins of flint and also on the strati-graphic and palaeogeographic distribution of planktonic foraminifera. Similarly, analysis of Upper Cretaceous foraminiferal associations derived from ‘rotten flints’ obtained from Palaeogene sediments helped him to formulate his ideas on the post-Cretaceous erosion of Upper Cretaceous Chalks around southern England. Curry's 1982 hypothesis that the greater abundance of micro-fauna in flint meals results from selective preservation has proved to be correct. The selective replacement of microfossils, and particularly foraminifera, is the earliest stage of flint formation and predates a phase of large-scale carbonate dissolution and opal-CT lepisphere precipitation and subsequent cementation with interstitial chalcedony. Hence, variably silicified microfossils are preserved in the poorly silicified chalks associated with flint meals and particularly in carious flints, where the preserved fauna is protected from any subsequent dissolution that affected the host sediment.

Abstract Detailed logging ofkey outcrops and boreholes in the mainly nearshore and marginalmarine sediments of the Colwell Bay Member has enabled regional correlations to be established. The Colwell Bay Member comprises a single depositional sequence, based by a combined sequence boundary and transgressive surface and terminated by a second sequence boundary. Regionally developed omission surfaces delimit five parasequences within the Colwell Bay Member. Environmentally controlled mollusc assemblages indicate progressive SW-to-NE progradation of marginal-marine environments within each parasequence. Previous interpretations of the Solent Group as deposited in a narrow embayment of the proto-English Channel are evaluated and rejected. It is interpreted as a remnant of a wide area of coastal and near-coastal sediments, deposited in a wide embayment of the southern North Sea Basin, now largely removed by mid-Tertiary uplift and erosion.