Microfossils from Neoproterozoic Supersequence 1 of the Officer Basin,Western Australia

The discovery of a rich assemblage of microfossils from the Neoproterozoic western Officer Basin (Centralian Superbasin) provides a more complete understanding of the biostratigraphy of this Basin. The microfossils are found in Supersequence 1 (～800 Ma) in Western Australia. The assemblages are comprised of acritarchs and cyanobacteria isolated by acid maceration from siliciclastics of the Browne (Madley), Hussar, Kanpa and Steptoe Formations. The distinctive acritarchs Cerebrosphaera buickii, Satka colonialica, Stictosphaeridium sinapticuliferum and Pterospermopsimorpha insolita are of particular interest in the Neoproterozoic. These taxa are found in similar depositional environments in Spitsbergen, Arizona, Canada and Siberia. This evidence, together with lithostratographic correlations, isotope chemostratigraphy, and sequence analysis contributes to the continuing development of Neoproterozoic stratigraphy.     

Shaping Public Perception: Polish Illustrated Press and the Image of Polish Naturalists Working in Latin America, 1844–1885

This article will investigate the ways in which Polish illustrated press contributed to communicating and reporting the work of Polish émigré naturalists working in Latin America to the Polish general public living in the Prussian, Russian and Austrian partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth 1844–1885. It examines the ways in which illustrations were used to shape the public's opinion about the significance of these migrants’ scientific achievements. The Polish illustrated press, its authors and editors were instrumental in shaping the public's perceptions of the reach of Polish scientists, and exploring their impact on broader scientific debates, thereby situating Polish people and their work in a global context. The didactic and opinion-making role of the illustrated press was highly influential among Polish audiences during this period, at a time when the survival of Polish identity, culture, language, and education was uncertain. Illustrated weeklies were one of the vectors through which high science was made accessible to the Polish public. A study of pictures in Polish illustrated press will help to explain how they contributed towards shaping the images in the public eye of naturalists’ scientific work, and discourses about science and its actors more broadly.     

Neoproterozoic microfossils from the Officer Basin,Western Australia

Microfossil assemblages are described from the early Neoproterozoic Madley and Browne Formations, western Officer Basin. One chert and eleven siliciclastic samples yielded microfossils. Myxococcoides cantabrigiensis occurs as pustular mats in the chert sample and Eomicrocystis malgica, Pterospermopsimorpha granulata, Skiagia sp. cf. S. pusilla, and undetermined species of Obruchevella, Heliconema, and Trachystrichosphaera are present in acid macerated samples. Leiosphaeridia spp. and Siphonophycus spp. are also found in fine-grained siliciclastic samples, with clusters of Synsphaeridium sp. in some samples. These findings enable a more substantial reconstruction of the palaeoenvironment of Supersequence 1 in the western Centralian Superbasin. The acanthomorph acritarchs are considered to be planktonic eucaryotes washed into environments which ranged from coastal sabkha through to tidal flats, which may be the source of the prokaryotic, benthic, matforming cyanobacteria.