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.     

Glass and glass production in the Oman peninsula in antiquity reconsidered – chemical and mineralogical investigation of sands

A batch of green‐ and amber‐coloured glass chunks and unguentaria dating from the first century CE was found in 2007 at Dibba al Hisn, a site on the Arabian Sea coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Its elemental and isotopic composition revealed the glass to be of a previously unknown plant ash glass type, different from known contemporary Roman, Mesopotamian, and Indian glass. The Sr isotopic composition of the glass corresponds to locally available plants, pointing to the possible existence of a first‐century CE local glass production centre. To explore this possibility, sands from around the UAE were analysed to establish their suitability for glass making and correspondence with the Dibba finds. This paper presents the results of the elemental analysis of fourteen sands. The analysis, performed using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP‐OES), revealed all sands to be rich in lime and alumina. X‐ray diffraction revealed the presence of calcite and other carbonate minerals, as well as antigorite and quartz. Comparison of the sand compositions to average first‐century CE non‐Roman glass found at Dibba showed them to be unsuitable as raw material for producing the glass of Dibba. The evidence thus identifies this glass batch as imported, contrary to what was suggested before. This paper also reviews the occurrence of thick‐walled unguentaria in the region.     

Book reviews

Bernard Arps (ed.). Performance in Java and Bali: studies of narrative, theatre, music, and dance,xi, 244 pp. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1993. £10.

C.D. Grijns. Jakarta Malay: a multidimensional approach to spatial variation. 2 vols.: xx, 292 pp.; vi, 161 pp., 35 maps. Leiden: KITLV Press, 1991. (Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal‐, Land‐ en Volkenkunde, 149.) Guilders 100.     

Book reviews

THE FRAGILE BLOSSOM: CRISIS AND CHANGE IN JAPAN. Zbigniew Brzezinski. New York, Harper and Row, 1972. 06–010468–6. xii, 153 pp. $US5.95.

THE SOUTHERN EXPANSION OF THE CHINESE PEOPLE: ‘SOUTHERN FIELDS AND SOUTHERN OCEAN’. C. P. FitzGerald. Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1972. 07081–0220–4. xxi, 230 pp. $7.50.

IN SEARCH OF SOUTHEAST ASIA. David Joel Steinberg (ed.). Praeger, New York, 1971. 522 pp. $820 paper.

SUPER POWERS AND WORLD ORDER. Carsten Holbraad (ed.). Australian National University Press, 1971. 0–7081–0264–6. ix, 161 pp. $6.95.

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY: REFLECTIONS ON SURVIVAL AND STABILITY. Kenneth J. Twitchett (ed.). Oxford University Press, London, 1971. 148 pp. $3.40 paper.

THE MASS MEDIA IN AUSTRALIA: USE AND EVALUATION. J S. Western and Colin A. Hughes. University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia, 1971. 0–7022–0720–9. 178 pp. $6.50.

WE TOOK THEIR ORDERS AND ARE DEAD. Shirley Cass, Ros Cheney, David Malouf and Michael Wilding (eds.). Ure Smith, Sydney, 1971. 0–7254–0070–6. 256 pp. $1.75.

AUSTRALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: THE DIARIES OF R. G. CASEY 1951–60. T. B. Millar (ed.). Collins, Sydney, 1972. 0–00–211001–6. 352 pp. $7.95.

AUSTRALIA AND THE UNITED STATES. Norman Harper (ed.). Nelson, Sydney, 1971. 17–004929–9. 274 pp. $5.95 hard cover, $3.25 paper.

PACIFIC POLITIES. I F. Nicholson and Colin A. Hughes (eds.). Pitman Pacific Books, Carlton, 1972. 0–85896–072–9. 286 pp. $8 hard cover, $4.50 paper.

SIR WILLIAM MACGREGOR. Roger Joyce. Oxford University Press. Melbourne, 1971. pp. XVI, 484. $15.00.

COLONIAL ISSUES IN BRITISH POLITICS 1945–61. David Goldsworthy. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1971. 425 pp. $14.00.

ECONOMIC REGULATION OF THE WORLD'S AIRLINES: A POLITICAL ANALYSIS. William E. O'Connor. Praeger, New York, 1971. xii, 189 pp. $US 15.00.

TOWARD FULL EMPLOYMENT: A PROGRAMME FOR COLOMBIA. International Labour Office, Geneva, 1970. 471 pp. US$4.00, 16 SwFr, $1.60 paper.     

Reviews

GOEBBELS AND NATIONAL SOCIALIST PROPAGANDA 1925–1945. Ernest K. Bramsted. London, The Cresset Press; East Lansing, Michigan State University Press, 1965, Pp. xxxvii + 488. $12.50 (U.S.).

AUSTRIA, GERMANY, AND THE ANSCHLUSS, 1931–38; Jürgen Gehl. London, Oxford University Press, 1963. Pp. x + 212. 49/9d. (Australian).

RUSSIA AFTER KHRUSHCHEV. Robert Conquest. London, Pall Mall, 1965. Pp. 267. $6.60 Australian.

BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN. J. S. Roucek and K. V. Lottich. Caxton Press, Caldwell (Idaho, U.S.A.), 1964. Pp. 631. $8.95 (U.S.).

EAST WEST TRADE. A SYMPOSIUM. Philip E. Uren (ed.). Toronto, Canadian Institute of International Affairs, 1966. Pp. 181. Hard cover, $3.00. Paperback, $2.00 (Canadian).

SOUTHEAST ASIA'S SECOND FRONT. THE POWER STRUGGLE IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. Arnold Brackman. New York, Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., 1966. Pp. xv + 341. $7.00 (Australian).

THE DIMENSIONS OF CONFLICT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA. Bernard K. Gordon. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice‐Hall, Inc., 1966. Pp. xiv + 201. $2.70 (Australian).

FUNDAMENTALS OF GUERILLA WARFARE. Abdul Haris Nosution. London, Pall Mall Press, 1965. Pp. 324. $4.25 (Australian).

FROM ENMITY TO ALLIANCE. U.S.‐AUSTRALIAN RELATIONS, 1931–1941. Raymond A. Esthus. Melbourne University Press, 1965. Pp. xii + 180. 45/‐ Australian.

AUSTRALIAN CITIZEN. HERBERT BROOKES 1867–1963. Rohan Rivett. Melbourne University Press. London and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1965. Pp. xiv + 218. 65/‐ Australian.

AUSTRALIA AND THE MONARCHY. A SYMPOSIUM. Geoffrey Dutton (ed.). Melbourne, Sun Books, 1966. Pp. 182. $1.00 Australian.

CANADA'S ROLE AS A MIDDLE POWER. J. King Gordon (ed.). Contemporary Affairs Series No. 35, Toronto, The Canadian Institute of International Affairs, 1966. Pp. xiv + 212. Can. $3.50 hard cover, $2.00 paperback.     

Book reviews

Analysing Polycentrism—An Extended Review

J. D. B. Miller and T. H. Rigby, eds.: The Disintegrating Monolith — Pluralist Trends in the Communist World, Australian National University, Canberra, 1965, pp. 264 + xiii, $6.

I.W.W. Advice to Shearers: “Give the warm weather and the blow flies a chance.”

I. Turner: Industrial Labour and Politics, Australian National University, Canberra, 1965, pp. 272, $5.25.     

Re-Politicising Poverty: Relational Re-conceptualisations of Impoverishment

This collection of essays extends cross-disciplinary conversations between co-authors that began as part of a podcast series by the Relational Poverty Network, “New Poverty Politics for Changing Times”. The authors engage impoverishment as a relation, as an outcome of intersecting political projects of racialised oppression, political-economic injustice and socio-legal control. Across various sites, the collection’s essays trace poverty politics, providing conjunctural and multi-scalar analyses that illuminate the operations of power in producing impoverishment. They direct our attention beyond topics typically associated with poverty studies, showing how processes such as bordering, migrant illegality, racial capitalism and caring community politics intersect in poverty politics today. Our introductory essay argues for a relational poverty analysis that addresses the entanglements of cultural politics, those that produce classificatory schemes, together with political-economic processes that produce various forms of poverty politics in the current conjuncture. We chart thinkable and unthinkable poverty politics across the collection’s essays in order to analyse current hegemonic formations of poverty governance as well as alternative imaginations and actions that are resisting and reworking relations of impoverishment. Ultimately, this collection expands vocabularies and analytical repertoires for understanding the ongoing ways in which impoverishment is produced and resisted, positing relationality as key to re-politicising poverty towards a more just future.