Abstract On May 6, 2004, the world of applied paleontology dimmed with the premature death of Garry D. Jones at the age of 51. Garry was a dynamo in oil industry biostratigraphy, moving it forward even during the difficult economic times of the 1990s. Garry received a Bachelor’s degree from Catawba College in North Carolina in 1974. He went on to study benthic foraminiferal ecology with Charlie Ross, receiving a Masters of Science degree from Western Washington University in 1977. Garry then returned to the East Coast, completing a Ph.D. under Fred Swain at the University of Delaware. Garry’s dissertation “Foraminiferal Paleontology and Geology of Lower Claibornian Rocks, Inner Coastal Plain, North Carolina” formed the basis of North Carolina Geological Survey Bulletin 8, published in 1983. In 1981 Garry joined UNOCAL as a research biostratigrapher in Brea, California. At UNOCAL he was an active participant in the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Integrated Ceno-zoic Biostratigraphy program and also the University of South Carolina’s Gulf of Mexico Foraminiferal Morphometrics and Isotope project. It was at Brea that Garry worked on North Sea data and published on a paleoecological model of late Paleocene agglutinated foraminifera using the paleo-slope transect approach. Using microfossils to solve geologic problems would be a continuing theme in Garry’s work. He wrote and coauthored many UNOCAL technical memoranda over the course of his career. In 1992 Garry moved to Lafayette, Louisiana, and plunged into Gulf Coast biostratigraphy with both feet. Garry built a strong network of experienced workers to quickly come up to speed on the massive knowledge base of the Gulf Coast Cenozoic. Geologic Problem Solving with Microfossils: A Volume in Honor of Garry D. Jones SEPM Special Publication No. 93, Copyright © 2009 SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology), ISBN 978-1-56576-137-7, p. 1–2.

Abstract Fuzzy c-means clustering (FCM) is an exploratory data-analysis method that identifies groups of samples with similar compositions. In spite of FCM being well established in the field of pattern recognition, to date it has had little application in biostratigraphy. In contrast to the hard clustering methods commonly used in biostratigraphy, FCM has the advantage that it can accommodate mixtures and/or gradations between clusters. This is an important feature for biostratigraphical data analysis because such data sets often include samples that are transitional between two or more “pure” faunal or floral assemblages. As an evaluation of FCM we used it to resolve Jurassic miospore and pollen biofacies from the Pentland, Fulmar, and Heather formations from two closely spaced wells in the Hawkins Field, Central North Sea, UK. These data were chosen because they contain a flora for which there is substantial paleoecological literature and, as such, would provide a suitable evaluation of the application of the FCM method to industrial biostratigraphical data. The results demonstrated that FCM could extract floral associations that were relatable to stratigraphy and sea-level changes. Fuzzy c-means produced a five-cluster (i.e., five assemblages) solution. We named each assemblage after the taxon that was dominant in the assemblage. The Cyathidites assemblage is stratigraphically distinct and restricted entirely to the nonmarine Pentland Formation. The remaining four assemblages (Perinopollenites elatoides, Lycopodiumsporites, Cerebropollenites mesozoicus , and Callialasporites) are ecologically distinct and occur primarily in the Fulmar and Heather formations. The P. elatoides assemblage is representative of lowstand regression. The C. mesozoicus assemblage is indicative of warmer, drier, possibly semiarid or seasonally arid climatic conditions. The Lycopodiumsporites assemblage is transitional between cooler, wetter to warmer, drier climatic conditions with the floral dominance of P. elatoides being replaced by C. mesozoicus . The Callialasporites assemblage is interpreted as representing warm, wet seasonal climatic conditions, possibly a back-mangrove biotope, with its maximum development occurring slightly above the maximum flooding surface. Ultimately, this succession of curves was used as a proxy for sea-level changes in the study area, enabling the recognition of maximum flooding surfaces, genetic sequences, and parasequences that improved inter-well correlation. Geologic Problem Solving with Microfossils: A Volume in Honor of Garry D. Jones SEPM Special Publication No. 93, Copyright © 2009 SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology), ISBN 978-1-56576-137-7, p. 9–20.

Abstract Foraminifera were of little interest in North America until 1923, when Joseph Cushman demonstrated how these microfossils could be used for subsurface geologic correlation. Word spread quickly throughout the oil industry and their sudden demand for foram workers prompted academia to provide the necessary training. For the next 60 years, industrial exploration and development played a major role in maintaining a large presence of foraminiferologists in California. Although the major oil companies employed most of them, a few found careers in the major universities or with the US Geological Survey. In the 1980s, the Californian oil industry became less reliant on biostratigraphy and the numbers of micropaleontologists rapidly declined. The heyday of foraminiferal micropaleontology had passed and by the time offshore exploration was abandoned in the early 1990s, few foraminiferologists remained in the state. Today only a handful of seasoned foraminiferologists can be found working in California.

Abstract The Northern Highland and Grampian terranes together comprise an extensive tract of structurally complex and generally high-grade metamorphic rocks within the Caledonian orogenic belt of Scotland ( Fig. 4.1 ). This part of the orogen is dominated by two thick sequences of mainly Neoproterozoic metasedimentary rocks. The older sequence comprises the Moine Supergroup of the Northern Highland terrane, and possibly also the Dava Succession of the Grampian terrane. Both were deposited between c. 1000 Ma and c. 870 Ma, and subsequently affected by a controversial Knoydartian tectonothermal event at c. 800 Ma. The younger Dalradian Supergroup of the Grampian terrane accumulated between c. 800 Ma and the Early Cambrian during the break-up of the late Precambrian supercontinent Rodinia and the formation of the Iapetus Ocean. Inliers of Archaean to Palaeoproterozoic orthogneisses ( Fig. 4.1 ) probably represent fragments of the Laurentian continental basement on which the Moine and Dalradian successions accumulated. Caledonian orogenesis in the North Atlantic region resulted from the closure of the Iapetus Ocean and the convergence of three crustal blocks: Laurentia, Baltica and Avalonia (Soper & Hutton 1984; Pickering et al. 1988; Soper et al. 1992b). Early orogenic activity along the Iapetan margin of Laurentia resulted from an arc-continent collision that occurred during initial ocean closure in the Early to Mid-Ordovician. This phase of the Caledonian orogenic cycle is known as the Grampian event and it affected both the Northern Highland and Grampian terranes. Ocean closure and final amalgamation of crustal blocks occurred in the Late Silurian