Abstract Women have taken on a range of roles in scientific societies since the early twentieth century. The oldest society dedicated to palaeontology, the Palaeontographical Society, was established in 1847 principally for the publication of monographs on British fossils. Since its foundation, women have been involved, initially as collectors and illustrators, then authors and latterly as elected members of council. Early contributors include well-known female scientists such as Gertrude Lilian Elles (1872–1960) and Ethel Mary Reader Wood (1871–1946), and the enigmatic ‘Miss Pike’. Although there have been female monograph authors and council members since 1901, their number has not risen significantly since the early twentieth century. The increased female presence on the Society's Council since 2009 is promising but, to date, there have been only four female vice-presidents and no female presidents in almost 175 years. Although things have undoubtedly improved since its founding, the Palaeontographical Society – like similar geosciences societies – still has some distance to travel to reach gender parity. This paper contributes to that process by recognizing the many talented women who have played formative roles in the development, and continued success, of this organization.

Abstract Connemara Marble, a well-known distinctive decorative stone from the west of Ireland, is herein proposed as a Global Heritage Stone Resource. Connemara Marble is a sillimanite-grade ophicarbonate, dominated by dolomite and calcite with varying proportions of serpentine, diopside, forsterite, tremolite clinochlore and phlogopite. The marble displays intricate corrugated layers that range in colour from white through sepias to various shades of green. These features impart unique characteristics that set the marble apart from other ornamental stones. Characteristics reflect amphibolite-grade metamorphism of an impure siliceous dolomitic limestone during the Grampian orogeny (475–463 Ma). Olivine, diopside, tremolite along with calcite and dolomite were formed during the peak of metamorphism which was followed by a later pervasive hydrothermal metamorphism that led to the extensive growth of serpentine after olivine and diopside. It has been used since Neolithic times, but has been quarried and fashioned in Connemara since the eighteenth century, and widely utilized in buildings in Ireland and the UK, for cladding, banisters, columns and church fittings. Later in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it was exported in large quantities to the USA for use in civic and educational buildings. Its many uses as an ornamental stone in the interiors of buildings and in Irish jewellery commands worldwide acclaim.

Abstract The palaeogeographical distributions of Early Palaeozoic bryozoan faunas are reviewed. Previous studies are examined and new databases have been assembled of the stratigraphical and geographical distribution of Ordovician and Silurian taxa. Analysis was carried out using cluster analysis based on Jaccard’s coefficient and paired group method, as well as principal coordinate analysis based on Jaccard’s coefficient, to examine the relationships between different localities. Bryozoan faunas increased in diversity throughout the Ordovician peaking with 133 genera during the Katian. In the earliest Ordovician provincialism is difficult to determine, but by the Darriwilian five distinct provinces developed, decreasing to four in the Sandbian. There was a decrease in provinciality throughout the Katian as faunas became less endemic, caused by the reduction of geographical barriers. Following the extinction of many genera at the end of the Ordovician, early Silurian faunas contain remnant taxa. Subsequently fenestrates began to dominate faunas. During the Llandovery bryozoans began to show distinct provincialism, but this declined during the Wenlock, only to re-emerge during the Ludlow. Late Silurian (Pridoli) faunas are sparse but nevertheless show possible division into two provinces.

Abstract When examining the work of women in geology during the 18th and 19th centuries, one can broadly, and perhaps crudely, divide those women with geological interests into two broad groups: firstly, the geological wife, sister, or daughter, and the museum assistant; and secondly the museum user, the academic and the museum research scientist. It was not until the close of the 19th century that women began to have a role, albeit minor, in museum education. Women typically were employed in the major national or university museums as preparators, illustrators or assistants, and this trend continued until the 1930s. These women received little academic credit for their research as it was frequently incorporated into the publications of the men for whom they worked. Adelaide Quisenberry worked for Ray Bassler at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, while Edith Goodyear was employed as an assistant to Edmund Garwood at University College, London. Edith later published an important paper in 1924, co-authored with Garwood. From 1964, Veronica Burns, a women of a very modest character, spent 17 years at Trinity College, Dublin, where as curator she diligently amassed many important specimens (some of which were used by colleagues in publications) and published two papers in her own right. By the 1930s, women were being appointed to serious research positions in some museums – among the earliest such appointment was that of Helen Muir-Wood, a specialist in Upper Palaeozoic brachiopods to the staff of the British Museum (Natural History). Anna Birchall Hastings was also appointed by the same institution to work on Recent bryozoans, but upon her marriage was required to relinquish her post, even though she had married a museum palaeontologist; he remained in post while she became a volunteer.

Abstract During current research being carried out into the role of women in the history of geological study in Ireland, interesting social and cultural factors are emerging. A list of people who contributed to data gathering, and the unravelling of the complexity of Ireland's geology would characteristically contain only male names. Yet when one begins to look more closely, important roles were played by women. The story is one of women carrying out many and varied supporting roles, including stone-workers, illustrators, tutors, assistants, collaborators, wives, mothers, and later, curators, cartographers and technicians. From 1950 onwards, women begin to occupy professional roles as geologists, particularly in the Geological Survey of Ireland, but more slowly in academic circles. This paper concentrates on women now deceased, who paved the way for others, and only briefly indicates their legacy with selected examples leading to the present day.

Abstract In the last four centuries geologists have traversed the globe, searching for economically important materials or simply to satisfy their intellectual curiosity. Geologists have often been at the vanguard of scientific exploration. The microscopist Robert Hooke explored the Isle of Wight, and Charles Darwin the Cape Verde islands and parts of South America. The volcanic wonders of Italy and central France attracted native and foreign visitors including Lyell and Murchison. The Tyrrell brothers faced great hardship in northern Canada, as did the actor and mineralogist Charles Lewis Giesecke in Greenland. The development of Sydney, Australia depended on finding limestone for building. French geologists relied on camels in the Sahara, and Grenville Cole trusted his tricycle to carry him across Europe. Four Centuries of Geological Travel: The Search for Knowledge on Foot, Bicycle, Sledge and Camel focuses on the complexities of geological exploration and will be of particular interest to Earth scientists, historians of science and to the general reader interested in science.

Abstract Grenville Arthur James Cole (1859–1924), Professor of Geology at the Royal College of Science for Ireland, was an avid cyclist and shared this passion with his wife Blanche. Born in London, Cole studied at the Royal School of Mines and lectured for a number of years at Bedford College for Ladies. Largely concurrent with his professorship he served as Director of the Geological Survey of Ireland at a time when it was in moderate decline. He undertook many cycling tours around continental Europe and Ireland. These trips were recounted in two early travel books. The Gypsy Road: a Journey from Krakow to Coblentz , published in 1894, provides a delightful account of a tour undertaken by him on a tricycle and his companion on a penny farthing, across what is now Poland, the Czech Republic, and eastern Germany. In a later slim volume entitled As We Ride , co-authored with his wife, a number of expeditions to France and the Balkans are eloquently described. Between 1902 and 1908 he organized a week-long geological excursion to various parts of Ireland for his students, and transport was by train and bicycle. His cycling trips provided him with the opportunity to collect research materials, make geological observations, and to photograph features of interest. Subsequently much of this material was used in his publications and in teaching. Cole's main academic studies were in igneous and metamorphic petrology. He valued and promoted fieldwork as an essential component of geological training. He was heavily involved with professional and amateur scientific societies, and was a prolific author of both academic and popular geological papers and books.

Abstract John Joly (1857–1933) was one of Ireland’s most eminent scientists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who made important discoveries in physics, geology and photography. He was also a respected and influential diplomat for Trinity College, Dublin, and various Irish organizations, including the Royal Dublin Society. Measuring the age of the Earth occupied his mind for some considerable time – a problem he was to address using a diverse range of methods. His sodium method of 1899, for which he is best known, was hailed by many as revolutionary, but it was later superseded by other techniques, including the utilization of radiometric dating methodologies. Although Joly himself carried out much research in this area, he never fully accepted the large age estimates that radioactivity yielded. Nevertheless, Joly’s work in geochronology was innovative and important, for it challenged earlier methods of arriving at the Earth’s age, particularly those of Lord Kelvin. Although his findings and conclusions were later discredited, he should be remembered for his valuable contribution to this important and fundamental debate in the geological sciences.