Humans influence sediment transportation and deposition in two major ways; direct and indirect. Direct interventions often lead to the creation of artificial ground through activities such as the removal, transport and processing of minerals, waste disposal and urbanisation. Global estimates suggest that the deliberate annual shift of material by humans exceeds that of transport by rivers to the oceans by almost a factor of three. Indirect interventions include changes to natural sedimentation patterns and rates due to dam construction, agricultural processes including ploughing and change in vegetation patterns. Human impact from local to global scales is significant. In Great Britain, cities such as York preserve archaeological, cultural deposits and structures beneath modern constructions. In many industrial cities, widespread artificial ground and wastes are preserved, generated and reworked by successive changes in the use and development of the land over many hundreds of years.

In a time of increasing global chemical, biological and physical anthropogenic impact, do these processes, landforms and sediments provide a geological and archaeological record within a proposed new Epoch of time, the Anthropocene? If so, how likely is it that these anthropogenic strata and landforms will remain preserved and identifiable? And finally, if preserved, would they create a stratigraphically recognisable horizon, sufficiently distinct from the Holocene in the geological record?

Summary Programme of the Yorkshire Geological Society for the remainder of 2012

Saturday 10th March, University of Leeds: Joint meeting with British Cave Research Association and Leeds Geological Association: "23rd BCRA Cave Science Symposium"

Sunday 27th May: Yorkshire Geology Month Field Meeting: "Permian carbonates in North-East England": Leaders: Mike Mawson and Noel Worley

Saturday & Sunday 23rd & 24th June, Field Meeting: Weekend programme to visit sites on the newly mapped BGS Hexham Sheet: Leaders: Dr David Millwards and BGS staff

Sunday 22nd July (date to be confirmed), Field Meeting: Ketton Quarry (Rutland) - Middle Jurassic Sequence: Leader: Dr Peter del Strother

Provisional: August/September Field Meeting: "Foundations of the North Pennines: 50 years on from the Rookhope Borehole": Leaders: Brian Yound and Friends of Killhope members

Friday 5th - Sunday 7th October - 3 day programme including provisional field meeting: "Sediments and Ecosystems - a celebration of continuing geology at Hull University", joint meeting with Hull Geological Society

Saturday 3rd or Saturday 10 November, British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Notts.: Provisional topic: "Mountains - all mountain chains are different, some examples"; joint meeting with East Midlands Geological Society

Saturday 1st December, Wakefield or Leeds: Celebration of the 175th Anniversary of the first meeting of the Society, including Annual General Meeting and 2nd Presidential Address of Dr Noel Worley

23rd British Cave Research Association Cave Science Symposium, Joint Meeting with the Yorkshire Geological Society and Leeds Geological Association, Leeds, Saturday 10th March 2012

The British Cave Research Association is pleased to confirm that its next one-day annual Cave Science Symposium will be held at the School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds (www.see.leeds.ac.uk) on Saturday 10 March 2012. This will be a joint meeting with the Yorkshire Geological Society (www.yorksgeolsoc.org.uk) and the Leeds Geological Association (www.leedsga.org.uk) and will be hosted by Professor Simon Bottrell and Phil Murphy of the University of Leeds. Presentations are invited on any cave science topic. Those that fall within one of the four BCRA cave science themes (speleogenesis, cave archaeology and palaeontology, cave biology and cave technology) will be especially welcome (see the cave science policy via www.bcra.org.uk/detail/cstri_info.html), as will those from undergraduates and other students.

This year’s partial theme will be ‘Cave science in the Yorkshire Dales’ (including relationships between karst and mineralisation and possible hypogene speleogenesis) and it is hoped to devote half the Symposium to this topic. Full papers are not required, but related submissions to Cave and Karst Science are also invited. To offer a verbal or poster presentation or a demonstration, please contact the lecture secretary, Dr. Trevor Faulkner, by email at: t.faulkner [at] bcra.org.uk or, for initial queries, by telephone at: +44 (0)1625 531558. Titles and abstracts of up to one side of A4 should be sent as Word files by email by Friday 6 January 2012. These should include full first names, contact details and affiliations of all authors, with presenters underlined, and may be ‘extended’ to include references. Talks will probably be allocated 15–20 minutes, and poster presentations 3–5 minutes.

 The Symposium will provide much of interest for academic and amateur scientists and for enquiring cavers. Registration will take place at the start of the meeting and is not required in advance. A £5 admission charge will cover the full programme and refreshments, with free entry to members of the sponsor organisations. Later visits to University departments will also be arranged. Further information, including directions to the venue, will be provided in the 3^rd BCRA Circular and YGS Circular 571 in February 2012 and on both the BCRA and YGS websites.   

Proceedings now fully digitised from vol. 1 (1839) to vol. 58 Pt.3 (May 2011) with free online access to individual YGS members

Instructions for YGS member access to the Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 1839 to 2011 in the Lyell Collection

This notice contains important information that will enable you to access the online.  Please make sure that you retain the address label from the envelope containing this Circular –
this contains your YGS membership number, which you will need to activate your subscription.

Contents and Abstracts

A. Snelling, D. Bates and J. Zalasiewicz: Graptolite studies in honour of Barrie Rickards (1938-2009): an introduction

ABSTRACT: Barrie Rickards was a fisherman, biographer and, most pertinently in this context, a teacher of geology and palaeontology. As a fisherman, especially of pike, he was almost legendary, writing many books on the subject including some regarded as classics within the angling community. As a teacher of geology and palaeontology, he was known for his inspirational qualities in the field (and could, almost to the end, outpace his young protégés across hill and valley). In the narrower world of palaeontology, he was one of the world's leading researchers on those graceful, useful, but equally bizarre and baffling fossils, the graptolites.

D. Bates, A. Kozlowska, D. Chmielarz and A. Lenz: Excessive thickening of the cortical layer in graptolites

ABSTRACT: A number of graptolites with thickened periderm, both dendroids and graptoloids, have been examined with the SEM. The thickening is by the deposition of layers of ectocortical tissue, clearly as bandages in the graptoloids. In Colonograptus colonus and some ‘diplograptids’, the thickening is most pronounced in the proximal regions of the rhabdosome, and can lead to the partial or complete occlusion of the aperture of the sicula and proximal thecae, as well as thickening the virgella. This thickening is interpreted as an adaptation connected with an extra gerontic production of cortex, which might have served as a reinforcement of the rhabdosome, or as an adaptation to modify or retain, the centre of gravity in the water column, or both. In Amphigraptus sp. the thickening appears to be common, and is concentrated on the dorsal side of the stipes. In Dendrograptus sp. thickening is also common: the main branches become excessively thickened, uniformly around the stipes, the side branches less thickened. In Cyrtograptus, thickening is rare, and appears to be gerontic, with the exception of a new form tentatively identified as Cyrtograptus in which thickening is uniform throughout the rhabdosome, and may have been formed initially. In Colonograptus and several ‘diplograptids’, the thickened proximal part shows it is much heavier than the distal part, suggesting a downwards vertical direction of the proximal end. In Amphigraptus the asymmetrical thickening suggests an orientation with the ventral side uppermost.

R. A. Fortey: A critical graptolite correlation into the Lower Ordovician of Gondwana

ABSTRACT: The early Ordovician was a time of maximum faunal provinciality. Correlation between strata deposited at low palaeolatitudes and those deposited close to the Ordovician pole in Gondwana is accordingly particularly difficult. The graptolite used to define the base of the internationally accepted Floian Stage, Tetragraptus approximatus, is essentially a lower latitude species. The discovery of a closely related and coeval species, T. akzharensis, in the early Ordovician of the Montagne Noire is reported. It occurs at the same level as the acme of the trilobite Taihungshania miqueli. The new record permits a direct tie with the earliest part of the Floian Stage and the shelly faunas typical of much of western Gondwana.

D. Goldman, C. E. Mitchell, M. J. Melchin, J. Fan, S.-E. Wu and H. D. Sheets: Biogeography and Mass Extinction: Extirpation and re-invasion of Normalograptus species (Graptolithina) in the Late Ordovician Palaeotropics

ABSTRACT: Normalograptids constitute a distinctive but not easily identified group of derived axonophorans. A new study of Normalograptus morphology indicates that many Late Ordovician taxa previously identified as Normalograptus are actually referable to Styracograptus and related climacograptoids. These re-identifications have led to the recognition of a complex biogeographic history among normalograptids and their descendants, including an interesting pattern that had previously been overlooked – a late Katian disappearance of Normalograptus from the palaeotropics. Normalograptid palaeogeographic distribution in the Ordovician appears to comprise 5 main phases: (1) evolutionary origin probably in relatively high palaeolatitudes in the early to mid Darriwilian; (2) spread to global distribution in later Darriwilian time; (3) retreat from most low palaeolatitude regions during the early Katian, with perhaps a slightly delayed retreat from Laurentia; (4) a complete extirpation from the low palaeolatitudes by the mid Katian (Ea4); (5) reinvasion of the low palaeolatitudes that accompanies the remarkable ecological and evolutionary replacement of the Diplograptina by species of Normalograptus and their descendants during the latest Katian–early Hirnantian. We propose two sets of hypotheses to explain Late Ordovician Normalograptus distribution. First, given the low species diversity of Normalograptus, we suggest as a null hypothesis that the disappearance of normalograptids from low palaeolatitudes during the late Sandbian and early Katian as simply a stochastic outcome – a small clade simply went extinct by chance alone. The alternative is that the loss of Normalograptus species reflects some form of extinction for cause, either: (1) competitive exclusion; or (2) an inability to adapt to changing environmental conditions. In the case of the competitive exclusion hypothesis, the most likely competitors are species of the Diplograptina.

M. P. Howe: GrapEl - a simple spreadsheet application for managing and disseminating graptolite biozonal range chart data

ABSTRACT: Biostratigraphical data frequently consist of tables indicating the presence, absence or relative abundance of taxa in a sequence of rock units or time units such as biozones or various chronostratigraphic units. Spreadsheet programs provide a simple means for managing this data and can be used for archiving and disseminating it, in addition to manipulating it. A simple spreadsheet (‘GrapEl’) is used to link the biozonal ranges of graptolite taxa to illustrations of representative or type specimens. Use of the filtering function enables the rapid selection of species from particular biozones, or species belonging to particular genera, and is intended to assist workers with a limited working knowledge of the faunas concerned. This approach is briefly compared to other uses of spreadsheets and databases in the management, analysis and distribution of graptolite biostratigraphical data.

J. Loxton, M. J. Melchin, C. E. Mitchell and S. J. H. Senior: Ontogeny and Astogeny of the Graptolite Genus Appendispinograptus (Li and Li, 1985)

ABSTRACT: Graptolites of the genus Appendispinograptus feature prominently in Late Ordovician biostratigraphy and studies of biodiversity. Well-documented, but enigmatic, secondary structures extend along the basal spines in mature specimens of three of the four common late Katian species of the genus: A. supernus, A. longispinus, and A. venustus. Using SEM imaging of isolated, three-dimensional specimens of A. supernus, we provide a detailed description of its early growth, as well as confirm that its secondary structures are composed of hollow tubes extending from the sicular and thecal apertures (‘parasiculae’ and ‘parathecae’, respectively). We also describe a collection of Canadian (northern Yukon) appendispinograptids that possess a large heart-shaped, sheet-like basal structure. Detailed comparison (width, thecal length and thecal inclination) with immature specimens from our collection, as well as collections from Russia, China, and Nevada, identifies these specimens as A. leptothecalis, a species not previously known to exhibit any secondary spine modification. The observation of spine modification in A. leptothecalis allows previously unclassified specimens from China, Siberia, and Nevada to be assigned to this species, clarifying our understanding of appendispinograptid biogeography and diversity. However, these structures are difficult to explain functionally. Unlike structures found in other Appendispinograptus species, those in A. leptothecalis decrease usable thecal space, shift drag proximally, and provide no obvious feeding advantage.

A. A. Cullum and D. K. Loydel: The Rhuddanian/Aeronian transition in the Rheidol Gorge, mid Wales

ABSTRACT: Logs are presented through the upper Rhuddanian and lower Aeronian (Llandovery, Silurian) of the internationally important Rheidol Gorge section in Ceredigion, mid Wales. It is hoped that these will be of value to those engaged in future research on the section.

J. Maletz: Scandinavian Isograptids (Graptolithina, Isograptidae): Biostratigraphy and Taxonomy

ABSTRACT: The Lower–Middle Ordovician of Scandinavia is largely dominated by endemic Atlantic Province graptolite faunas, which are useful only for local biostratigraphy and paleoecology, but are difficult for correlation on an inter-continental scale. Isograptids, regarded as essential for inter-continental biostratigraphic correlations in the Lower–Middle Ordovician due to their wide palaeobiogeographic distribution, have rarely been recorded from the region. The Scandinavian Tøyen Shale and Bogo Shale formations bear a number of isograptids that range in age from the late Floian to the early Darriwilian, and these provide a good tool for inter-continental correlations of this interval. Isograptus caduceus norvegicus Monsen and Isograptus spinosus Spjeldnaes are interpreted as possible tetragraptid species. The following biostratigraphically important Isograptus species from Scandinavia are described as new: Isograptus spjeldnaesi n. sp., Isograptus rigidus n. sp. Isograptus mobergi n. sp. and Scandinavian zonal names in the Dapingian are revised accordingly.

M. J. Melchin, C. E. Mitchell, A. Naczk-Cameron, J. X. Fan and J. Loxton: Phylogeny and Adaptive Radiation of the Neograptina (Graptoloida) During the Hirnantian Mass Extinction and Silurian Recovery

ABSTRACT: Cladistic analysis of some Hirnantian (latest Ordovician) and Rhuddanian–Aeronian (early Silurian) biserial graptolites and basal monograptids has been undertaken in order to test hypotheses of the relationships among the Neograptina (‘normalograptids’ and their descendents) and to provide a phylogenetic framework for understanding the early Silurian adaptive radiation of graptoloids. It is clear that Silurian graptolite faunas are dominated by two major clades, here named the superfamilies Retiolitoidea and Monograptoidea. Several other lineages whose basal relationships are unresolved, including Normalograptus and Metaclimacograptus, persisted through much of the Llandovery. The Retiolitoidea includes some taxa previously assigned to the Normalograptidae, as well as petalolithids and retiolitids. The Monograptoidea includes akidograptids, dimorphograptids, the uniserial monograptids, as well as stem taxa previously regarded as normalograptids. Both of these major clades had their origins in Late Ordovician time and began their diversification within the Hirnantian–early Rhuddanian, in step with the two main phases of the Hirnantian Mass Extinction. The Neograptina also exhibit an additional interval of accelerated turnover in the Rhuddanian during which the characteristic Silurian fauna largely replaced the Hirnantian Neograptina. One new family, Neodiplograptidae, and four new genera are described: Avitograptus, Rickardsograptus, Korenograptus and Paramplexograptus.

L. A. Muir: An unusual specimen of Glyptograptus from Dob's Linn (Southern Uplands, Scotland), and a discussion of graptolite teratomorphies

ABSTRACT: A specimen of Glyptograptus from the Silurian of Dob's Linn is described that possessed a bifurcating virgula, with a biserial stipe along each virgula. The colony lived for some considerable time with this morphology, showing that at least some graptoloids could survive and grow with major modifications to the rhabdosome. The specimen is left under open nomenclature, but if further material is discovered it may be appropriate to name a new species. Growth abnormalities in graptolites are not common, but many examples of repaired damage, rhabdosome malformations, and abnormal growth of thecae, virgellae and virgulae are known. Growth abnormalities can provide important evidence about graptolite ecology, biology and evolution, and so should be described and illustrated whenever possible.

A.W.A.Rushton: Deflexed didymograptids from the Lower Ordovician Skiddaw Group of northern England

ABSTRACT: The type species of Corymbograptus, Didymograptus v-fractus, is discussed and a neotype is proposed. The zonal graptolites Didymograptus varicosus and D. deflexus, mainly from the Loweswater Formation of the Skiddaw Group succession, are discussed and illustrated as species of Baltograptus. Study of their proximal structure shows that the identification of D. varicosus in the Loweswater Formation is not correct, and the English specimens are here assigned to Baltograptus jacksoni sp. nov.

P. M. Sadler, R. A. Cooper and M. J. Melchin: Sequencing the graptoloid clade: building a global diversity curve from local range charts, regional composites and global time-lines

ABSTRACT: Even range charts from the best graptoloid-bearing sections can be improved by adding information from nearby sections. Traditionally this is achieved on a scale of discrete biozones. Zonal composites improve upon the taxon richness of individual sections but lose resolving power; they artificially cluster range-end events at zone boundaries. Graphical and numerical methods allow composite sections to be constructed on continuous scales that match or exceed the resolving power of individual sections. Using a database of 582 graptoloid-bearing sections that together preserve 2214 distinct graptoloid taxa, we show that constrained optimization algorithms can construct objective, reproducible, global time-lines for the entire Ordovician to early Devonian graptoloid clade. The underlying database of locally observed ranges allows standardization for sampling unevenness. The quality and geographic origins of support for composite taxon ranges are explicitly revealed. A high precision, interval-free, standing species richness curve derived by this approach reveals the diversity trajectory of the graptoloid clade and of the families of which it is composed. Major reorganizations of the clade at the family level took place after diversity minima in the late Darriwilian and Hirnantian. Glacial events recognized on sedimentological evidence coincide with diversity minima.

A. Snelling and J. Zalasiewicz: The evolutionary lineage of Petalolithus to Cephalograptus: evidence from Coalpit Bay, Northern Ireland

ABSTRACT: The evolution of graptolites is the basis upon which much of the Lower Palaeozoic is subdivided. Amongst the clearest evolutionary lineages within graptolites are those that show seemingly unidirectional trends in morphology, such as the sequence of stratigraphically successive taxa of Petalolithus and Cephalograptus, discussed here. Graptolite specimens collected in the 1960s from Coalpit Bay, Northern Ireland are consistent with the succession established in the Czech Republic by Boucek & Pribyl (1941) and Štorch (1998), and include the first UK records of P. aff. krizi. We recognise other intermediate forms within this lineage that may enable further subdivision of the convolutus Biozone.

J. Zalasiewicz, C. Russell, A. Snelling and M. Williams: The systematic relationship of the monograptid species acinaces Tornquist, 1899 and rheidolensis Jones, 1909

ABSTRACT: The relationship between the early Silurian (Rhuddanian) monograptid species rheidolensis Jones, 1909 and acinaces Törnquist, 1899 has been contentious, with debate as regards both their possible synonymy and their generic assignation. We have re-examined the type and associated material of rheidolensis, and conclude that this taxon is almost certainly a junior synonym of acinaces. Lacking ventral apertural processes, acinaces does not belong within Lagarograptus, as previously thought, but may be placed within Huttagraptus, as proposed by Koren' & Bjerreskov (1997). The confusion between these two taxa arose because the material that Jones assigned to rheidolensis includes two taxa, one representing non-topotype (and probably mis-localized) specimens of an undoubted Neolagarograptus. This is morphologically very similar to, and probably referable to, the late Aeronian species Neolagarograptus tenuis, the type material of which we show here to be tectonically distorted.

Special Offer on three new geological publications of the National Museum of Scotland and Geological Society of Edinburgh

The National Museum of Scotland has recently published three new geological guides in association with the Geological Society of Edinburgh, and is offering these post-free for orders received by 31st January 2012:

Preliminary programme

Three field days are planned, preceded by introductory talks on Thursday evening. Additionally, other visits and talks will be arranged each evening.

Thursday 21st June - evening:

Registration and introductory talks

Friday 22nd June:

The Quaternary development of Kingsdale. Leader: Tony Waltham

Drumlins at Ribblehead and the Whernside glacier. Leader: Wishart Mitchell

Archaeology, sediments and speleogenesis at Jubilee Cave and Victoria Cave. Leaders: Tom Lord and Phil Murphy

Friday evening - exhibition about Victoria Cave at the Museum of North Craven Life, Settle. Leader: Tom Lord

Saturday 23rd June

Archaeology of caves at Grange-over-Sands in Cumbria. Leaders: Hannah O'Regan and Ian Smith

Lowland limestone pavements and grike erratics in the Arnside and Silverdale AONB: Hale pavement and Gait Barrow. Leaders: Peter Standing and Helen Goldie

Sunday 24th June

Cosmogenic dates and pedestal studies from Norber and OSL dates from loess at Winskill. Leaders: Peter Wilson and Helen Goldie  

Recent palaeoecological and archaeological work in the Settle area.   

Accommodation: The meeting will be based at the Dalesbridge Centre, Austwick, near Settle, North Yorkshire. 

Further information from: Trevor Faulkner  (trevor[at]marblecaves.org.uk or Hannah O'Regan   H.J.O'Regan@ljmu.ac.uk

Collecting rocks, minerals and fossils is an exciting way to study the history of our world and is a rewarding hobby in itself. This course will show you - what to look for - where to go - how to collect safely - how to take care of your collection - where you can get help and advice on identifications Four Wednesday evenings from 7-30pm until 9-30pm at the University of Hull, Department of Geography and three half day field trips at weekends. Rocks and Fossils of the Yorkshire Coast The course will include four half days of fieldwork to study the rocks of the Early Jurassic, Middle Jurassic, Cretaceous and the Quaternary. We will see how changes to sea level and climate have produced the diversity of rocks and fossils we now see on our coastline. Course starts on Wednesday 18th July 2012 and is followed by four half day field trips at weekends.

For more information and a registration form please contact: Centre for Lifelong Learning, The University of Hull
49 Salmon Grove, Hull, HU6 7SZ. Tel. 01482 465415; e-mail Cll@Hull.ac.uk

Searchable Indexes to 138 years of the Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society (1837-1995) now available on line!

The Society has been publishing its Proceedings since 1837, and its many thousands of pages contain a great deal of original research and other unique material relating to the earth sciences, especially in respect of Yorshire and adjacent regions, both also nationally and internationally.  Complete reference sets of the PYGS are held by many leading regional and national libraries including the British Library, the Geological Society LIbrary, and the Society's own library, now part of the University of Leeds Library (which members of the Society can apply to use as a benefit of membership via the General Secretary of the Society).

Yorkshire Rocks and Landscape – the popular YGS Field Guide, Third Edition, is now available

Yorkshire, famed for its scenic beauty and its rich industrial heritage, contains some of the most interesting geology and scenery in England , from the moors to the coast, including the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors national parks. The influence of the geology on the landscape and on the industrial development in the region is profound.