Analysis of Explorers' Records of Aboriginal Landscape Burning in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia

The accounts of explorers and colonists in the Kimberley region of Western Australia were searched to find records of landscape burning by Aborigines. Analyses of these records provide estimates of the spatial and temporal patterns of fire across the region in historic times. The seasonality of fire varied across the region. In northern parts of the Kimberley landscape fire was recorded from May to October with peak levels in June and September. In southern parts of the region there are records of burning as early as February and March, through to August but no records of fire were made in late dry season months. Modern fire regimes were compared with historic by superimposing the routes taken by five explorers over a modern fire history map derived from satellite imagery. Tallies of the number of modern fires that intersect the explorer's daily and monthly route were compared with actual observations of fire made by the explorers in historic times. The results indicate an increase in early dry season fires and the overall frequency of fires across the region in modern times. Explorers' accounts were also examined to derive further information regarding Aboriginal landscape burning in different environments and to distinguish landscape burning from other uses of fire such as smoke signals and cooking fires.     

Placocystella in the Early Devonian (Lochkovian) of central Victoria

Jell, P.A., 2013. Placocystella in the Early Devonian (Lochkovian) of central Victoria. Alcheringa, 567–569. ISSN 0311–5518.

The South African allanicytidiid mitrate carpoid Placocystella africana (Reed) is recorded for the first time from Australasia having been collected from a Lochkovian bed of the Humevale Formation at Mooroolbark in eastern Melbourne. The Southern Hemisphere Allanicytidiidae incorporating five monospecific genera in Brazil, South Africa, Tasmania, Victoria and New Zealand is now known to have a species in common between South Africa and Victoria. The previously suggested synonymy of these five is revised to accept Placocystella, Tasmanicytidium, Allanicytidium and Australocystis (but not Notocarpos) as synonymous so that the family contains Placocystella with four species and monospecific Notocarpos.

Peter A. Jell [p.jell@uq.edu.au], School of Earth Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia Queensland 4072, Australia. Received 10.4.2013; revised 6.6.2013; accepted 17.6.2013.     

Cretaceous foraminiferal biostratigraphy of Queensland

The distribution of foraminiferids within Aptian-Albian marine deposits of the Laura, Carpentaria, Eromanga, and Surat Basins in Queensland is described. The foraminiferal distribution patterns are largely a reflection of environmental differences which existed within the basins. Among the benthonic foraminiferids, two major faunal associations are recognized: the Ammobaculites association reflecting hyposaline, cool, shallow water conditions; and the Marssonella association indicating normal marine, open continental shelf environments. As the faunal content of these associations is markedly different, separate time-stratigraphic zonations are proposed: the Ammobaculites association is divided into the Textularia cushmani zone (early Aptian), T. cushmani-Bigenerina pitmani zone (late Aptian), B. pitmani zone (late Aptian), B. pitmani-Riyadhella crespinae zone (early Albian), and R. crespinae zone (early-late Albian); the Marssonella association contains the Anomalinoides intermedia zone (early-middle Albian in Queensland), and the A. cenomanica zone (late Albian in Queensland). Planktonic foraminiferids, which occur with both benthonic associations, are used to correlate the benthonic zonal schemes, and are themselves zoned separately: Hedbergella planispira zone (early-middle Albian), H. infracretacea zone (middle-early late Albian), and the H. delrioensis zone (late Albian). International stage correlations are based on certain foraminiferids and associated ammonites.

The distribution of foraminiferids in Queensland during the late Early Cretaceous suggests that 1, climate exerted a uniform influence over the region; 2, cool, hyposaline, shallow water conditions prevailed over much of Queensland; 3, open marine shelf conditions (of normal salinity) existed during the Albian in the Laura and northeastern Carpentaria Basins; and 4, during the Albian, at least, there was a northern seaway to the open ocean.     

Ordovician biostratigraphy of the Canning Basin,Western Australia

Six biostratigraphically distinct faunas based largely on trilobites and graptolites are defined from the Lower to Middle Ordovician limestone, sandstone and shale sequence of the Canning Basin. They range in age from the Tremadoc (fauna 1), through the Arenig (faunas 2, 3) to the Llanvirn (faunas 4–6).     

Large freshwater plesiosaurian from the Cretaceous (Aptian) of Australia

Benson, R.B.J., Fitzgerald, E.M.G., Rich, T.H. & Vickers-Rich, P., 2013. Large freshwater plesiosaurian from the Cretaceous (Aptian) of Australia. Alcheringa 37, 1–6. ISSN 0311-5518

We report a large plesiosaurian tooth from the freshwater early–middle Aptian (Early Cretaceous) Eumeralla Formation of Victoria, Australia. This, combined with records of smaller plesiosaurian teeth with an alternative morphology, provides evidence for a multitaxic freshwater plesiosaurian assemblage. Dental and body size differences suggest ecological partitioning of sympatric freshwater plesiosaurians analogous to that in modern freshwater odontocete cetaceans. The evolutionarily plastic body plan of Plesiosauria may have facilitated niche differentiation and helped them to exclude ichthyosaurs from freshwater environments during the Mesozoic. However, confirmation of this hypothesis requires the discovery of more complete remains.

Roger B.J. Benson [roger.benson@earth.ox.ac.uk], Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3AN, UK; Erich M.G. Fitzgerald [efitzgerald@museum.vic.gov.au], Thomas H. Rich [trich@museum.vic.gov.au], Museum Victoria, GPO Box 666, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia; Thomas H. Rich and Patricia Vickers-Rich [pat.rich@monash.edu], School of Geosciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia. Received 30.10.2012; revised 27.1.2013; accepted 31.1.2013.     

A reappraisal of Neocalamites and Schizoneura (fossil Equisetales) based on material from the Triassic of East Antarctica

Sphenophytes are a common floral element in the Triassic of Gondwana. Most sphenophyte compression fossils have been conventionally assigned to a few, presumably very widespread species of Neocalamites based on vegetative features of the stems (or pith casts) and the foliage. During recent decades, however, new reports on morphological and anatomical details of some of these fossils have cast doubt on the systematic affinities of many Gondwanan Triassic sphenophytes. Here we describe Neocalamites suberosus (Artabe & Zamuner) nov. comb. et emend. and Schizoneura africana Feistmantel emend. from several Triassic deposits in the central Transantarctic Mountains and Victoria Land, East Antarctica. The material enables a critical reevaluation of morphological and anatomical features that have been historically used to define the two genera, including leaf-base morphology, degree of leaf fusion, stem vasculature and vallecular canals, and features of the nodal diaphragm. The diagnoses of Neocalamites and Schizoneura are emended so that they more accurately reflect recent advances in our understanding of the anatomy and ontogeny of these plants.

[Benjamin Bomfleur [bbomfleur@ku]edu], Rudolph Serbet [serbet@ku.edu], Edith L. Taylor [etaylor@ku.edu] and Thomas N. Taylor [tntaylor@ku.edu], Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA; Ignacio H. Escapa [iescapa@mef.org.ar], CONICET—Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio, Trelew, Chubut 9100, Argentina. Received 4.7.2012; revised 22.12.2012; accepted 7.1.2013.

Bomfleur, B., Escapa, I.H., Serbet, R., Taylor, E.L. & Taylor, T.N., 2013. A reappraisal of Neocalamites and Schizoneura (fossil Equisetales) based on material from the Triassic of East Antarctica. Alcheringa 37, 1–17. ISSN 0311-5518.     

谈民办学校教师队伍建设的有效管理策略

人们常说：“名师成就名校,名校培育名师”。民办学校的发展关键在教师,教师的成长必然是一所学校的立校、强校、兴校之本。本文结合学校实际和管理实践,从以人为本,实现教师管理理念创新;创设平台,实现教师管理手段创新;激发潜能,实现教师管理机制创新,这三方面阐述了教师队伍建设的有效管理策略。力求通过教师队伍建设的管理创新,促进学校可持续性的发展。     

Shackleton Limestone archaeocyaths

A new monotypic genus of cheirurine trilobite, Azyptyx, is described based on the new species A. toongabbiensis from Early Devonian (late Lochkovian) limestones of the Wurutwun Formation near Toongabbie, Victoria. A feature of the genus that is unusual for the subfamily is a continuous basal glabellar furrow (S1) that does not normally meet the occipital furrow medially.     

Early Cretaceous polar biotas of Victoria,southeastern Australia—an overview of research to date

Poropat, S.F., Martin, S.K., Tosolini, A.-M.P., Wagstaff, B.E, Bean, L.B., Kear, B.P., Vickers-Rich, P. &; Rich, T.H., May 2018. Early Cretaceous polar biotas of Victoria, southeastern Australia—an overview of research to date. Alcheringa 42, 158–230. ISSN 0311-5518.

Although Cretaceous fossils (coal excluded) from Victoria, Australia, were first reported in the 1850s, it was not until the 1950s that detailed studies of these fossils were undertaken. Numerous fossil localities have been identified in Victoria since the 1960s, including the Koonwarra Fossil Bed (Strzelecki Group) near Leongatha, the Dinosaur Cove and Eric the Red West sites (Otway Group) at Cape Otway, and the Flat Rocks site (Strzelecki Group) near Cape Paterson. Systematic exploration over the past five decades has resulted in the collection of thousands of fossils representing various plants, invertebrates and vertebrates. Some of the best-preserved and most diverse Hauterivian–Barremian floral assemblages in Australia derive from outcrops of the lower Strzelecki Group in the Gippsland Basin. The slightly younger Koonwarra Fossil Bed (Aptian) is a Konservat-Lagerstätte that also preserves abundant plants, including one of the oldest known flowers. In addition, insects, crustaceans (including the only syncaridans known from Australia between the Triassic and the present), arachnids (including Australia’s only known opilione), the stratigraphically youngest xiphosurans from Australia, bryozoans, unionoid molluscs and a rich assemblage of actinopterygian fish are known from the Koonwarra Fossil Bed. The oldest known—and only Mesozoic—fossil feathers from the Australian continent constitute the only evidence for tetrapods at Koonwarra. By contrast, the Barremian–Aptian-aged deposits at the Flat Rocks site, and the Aptian–Albian-aged strata at the Dinosaur Cove and Eric the Red West sites, are all dominated by tetrapod fossils, with actinopterygians and dipnoans relatively rare. Small ornithopod (=basal neornithischian) dinosaurs are numerically common, known from four partial skeletons and a multitude of isolated bones. Aquatic meiolaniform turtles constitute another prominent faunal element, represented by numerous isolated bones and articulated carapaces and plastrons. More than 50 specimens—mostly lower jaws—evince a high diversity of mammals, including monotremes, a multituberculate and several enigmatic ausktribosphenids. Relatively minor components of these fossil assemblages are diverse theropods (including birds), rare ankylosaurs and ceratopsians, pterosaurs, non-marine plesiosaurs and a lepidosaur. In the older strata of the upper Strzelecki Group, temnospondyl amphibians—the youngest known worldwide—are a conspicuous component of the fauna, whereas crocodylomorphs appear to be present only in up-sequence deposits of the Otway Group. Invertebrates are uncommon, although decapod crustaceans and unionoid bivalves have been described. Collectively, the Early Cretaceous biota of Victoria provides insights into a unique Mesozoic high-latitude palaeoenvironment and elucidates both palaeoclimatic and palaeobiogeographic changes throughout more than 25 million years of geological time.

Stephen F. Poropat*? [sporopat@swin.edu.au; stephenfporopat@gmail.com], Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, John St, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia; Sarah K. Martin*? [sarah.martin@dmirs.wa.gov.au; martin.sarahk@gmail.com] Geological Survey of Western Australia, 100 Plain St, East Perth, Western Australia 6004, Australia; Anne-Marie P. Tosolini [a.tosolini@unimelb.edu.au] and Barbara E. Wagstaff [wagstaff@unimelb.edu.au] School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia; Lynne B. Bean [lynne.bean@anu.edu.au] Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Acton, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2001, Australia; Benjamin P. Kear [benjamin.kear@em.uu.se] Museum of Evolution, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 16, Uppsala SE-752 36, Sweden; Patricia Vickers-Rich§ [prich@swin.edu.au; pat.rich@monash.edu] Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, John St, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia; Thomas H. Rich [trich@museum.vic.gov.au] Museum Victoria, PO Box 666, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia. *These authors contributed equally to this work. ?Also affiliated with: Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History, Lot 1 Dinosaur Drive, PO Box 408, Winton, Queensland 4735, Australia. ?Also affiliated with: Earth and Planetary Sciences, Western Australian Museum, Welshpool, Western Australia 6101, Australia. §Also affiliated with: School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia.     

The first fossil sea turtles (Testudines: Cheloniidae) from the Cenozoic of Australia

An isolated dentary and costal identified as cf. Pacifichelys and Cheloniidae indet., respectively, are described from the upper Miocene–lower Pliocene Black Rock Sandstone of Beaumaris, Victoria, Australia. These remains represent the first fossil evidence of sea turtles from the Cenozoic of Australia. Neither of the fossils can be referred to living genera, indicating that extinct cheloniids occurred in southeast Australian coastal waters for at least part of the late Neogene. Thus, the taxonomic composition of the current sea turtle fauna of Australia was apparently established within the last five to six million years.