Abstract The Frasnian–Famennian Virgin Hills Formation represents fore-reef facies deposited as part of the extensive Late Devonian reef system that fringed the SW Kimberley Block in Western Australia. It contains a rich trilobite fauna dominated primarily by proetids and, to a lesser extent, harpetids, phacopids, scutelluids and odontopleurids. To date, 49 taxa have been described, 40 of these being restricted to the Frasnian. Herein five Frasnian taxa are described, three in open nomenclature, and two the new species Telopeltis intermedia and Otarion fugitivum . Evolutionary trends in the Virgin Hills trilobites are dominated by a reduction in body size and eye size and, to a lesser extent, a reduction in exoskeletal vaulting. Although recording no sedimentological signature, the fauna was strongly affected by the two globally recognized Kellwasser extinction events. The first, at the end of conodont Zone 12, affected taxa at the species and genus level. The second, within Zone 13b, had a much greater impact on the fauna, causing extinctions at the familial and ordinal levels. Evidence is presented to suggest that evolutionary trends in the trilobites during the late Frasnian reflect selection for forms adapted to low nutrient conditions. The two intensive Kellwasser extinction episodes may reflect periodic massive inputs of nutrients from the terrestrial into the shallow-marine environment.

Abstract The presence of fossil echinoids in archaeological sites in southern England that range from the Palaeolithic through the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages, Romano-British to Anglo-Saxon indicates that humans have long had a propensity for collecting these fossils. The palaeoethnological significance of fossil echinoids can be determined from a number of criteria. The fossils may occur with the dead, either in burials or cremations, or be associated with past activities of the living. These include presence on a flint worked as a tool; artificial alteration of the fossil; association with human habitation; or occurrence outside the area of natural geological occurrence. Their archaeological association provides an indication that these fossils have been collected by people for hundreds of thousands of years and, at times, attained a high degree of spiritual significance. Moreover, recent folklore associated with them, particularly their folk names, such as shepherd’s crowns, fairy loaves and thunderstones, provides a further insight into the myths that were associated with them. These indicate the use of fossil echinoids in both ‘Celtic’ and Norse mythologies where they played a role in resurrection myths. The occurrence of fossil echinoids in a medieval church is indicative of retention of ‘pagan’ belief systems in a Christian context.

Two species of echinoids are identified from the La Meseta Formation (Eocene) of Seymour Island, Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica. The occurrence of Stigmatopygus d’Orbigny in subunits Telm 5 and 7 extends its range upward from the Upper Cretaceous to the upper Eocene and represents the first recorded occurrence of the genus in Antarctica. The presence of Abatus Troschel in subunits 2, 5, and 7 are its first fossil records. The genus is currently found living off the coast of Antarctica. Both genera are known to be shallow-water dwellers. Abatus kieri n. sp. is described herein.