Reregulating for Freshwater Enclosure: A State of Exception in Canterbury,Aotearoa New Zealand

In this paper, we argue that democracy is increasingly indistinguishable from authoritarianism, in a process that is entangled with neoliberalisms. To build this argument, we examine a case study of central government intervention in regional environmental decision making in Aotearoa New Zealand through the lens of Agamben's “state of exception”. The intervention—unprecedented and unconstitutional—squeezed democratic spaces for decision making about freshwater and sought to smooth the way for capital accumulation. The audacity of government actions indicate, we argue, an abandonment of efforts to disguise neoliberal encroachments on democracy, known as the double truth tactic. Yet we also argue that in identifying this as a state of exception, we can examine it as part of a process and therefore demonstrate the possibilities for counter‐hegemonic actions to emerge.     

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.     

Early Aptian (Early Cretaceous) freshwater bivalves from the Australian–Antarctic rift,southeast Victoria

The brissid echinoid Schizobrissus insignis (Duncan &; Sladen, 1883) is described from the Fulra Limestone (late middle Eocene), in Kachchh, India. Formerly assigned to Peripneustes or to Meoma it is shown that the species possesses a complete subanal fasciole throughout ontogeny, a characteristic feature of Schizobrissus. Eocene species of Schizobrissus and Meoma show several morphological similarities, but diverged during the late Paleogene and early Neogene.     

Adaptations to life in freshwater for Mioceratodus gregoryi,a lungfish from Redbank Plains,an Eocene locality in southeast Queensland,Australia

Kemp, A., December 2017. Adaptations to life in freshwater for Mioceratodus gregoryi, a lungfish from Redbank Plains, an Eocene locality in southeast Queensland, Australia. Alcheringa 42, 306–311. ISSN 0311-5518

Few Cenozoic lungfish fossils consist of articulated, associated bones and tooth plates. Mioceratodus gregoryi from the Paleogene (Eocene) deposit of the Redbank Plains Formation in southeast Queensland is unusual in this respect because the fossil includes tooth plates and elements of the skull. An analysis of the material and reconstruction of the skull and associated skeletal material provides new insights into the fish and its environment. The fish has a mandible with a wide separation between the lower tooth-bearing bones, and a strong ceratohyal bone. This suggests that, like the extant Australian lungfish, Neoceratodus forsteri, the fossil fish had a moveable basihyal that could be inserted between the prearticular bones to seal the oral cavity. This would have allowed the fish to draw food, air and water into the mouth, and dig holes by sucking mud into the oral cavity and blowing it out again, all useful attributes for a fish that lived in a shallow freshwater lake. The living Australian lungfish has similar structures in the mandible and hyoid apparatus, and performs comparable actions. The occipital ribs, also preserved in the Redbank Plains fossil, are embedded in hypaxial muscles and not moveable. It is unlikely that these ribs have any influence on the suctorial process in these two species.

Anne Kemp [a.kemp@griffith.edu.au] Environmental Futures Centre, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan, Brisbane, Queensland 4111, Australia.     

Regional and Thematic Index, 2002-2007

A U.S.-based political scientist specializing in the complexities of international freshwater basins considers the role of two fundamental factors (geography and relative power) in the study of hydro-politics. Conventional analyses claim that in asymmetric contexts the more powerful state (in relative power terms) is able to dictate the status quo. Arguing, however, that such traditional (and even some critical) analyses tend to downplay the importance of geography, the author investigates how a state's physical position along a river may provide an otherwise weaker riparian state the means to challenge the status quo. The paper considers three cases (Tigris-Euphrates, Nile, and Aral Sea basins) with lessons for the study of power in hydro-politics.     

Revision of two relic actinopterygians from the Middle or Upper Jurassic Karabastau Formation,Karatau Range,Kazakhstan

Three hundred and forty-six articulated fossil specimens of two species from the Middle or Upper Jurassic Karabastau Formation of the Karatau Range (Kazakhstan, Asia) were studied to revise two little-known palaeonisciform fish: Pteroniscus turkestanensis and Morrolepis aniscowitchi. Detailed morphological analysis shows that P. turkestanensis, Daqingshaniscus longiventralis and Uighuroniscidae form a closely related group. They are far more distantly related to the Palaeoniscidae than previously inferred. The first detailed scanning electron microscopy of the unique scale cover of M. aniscowitchi is presented. Morrolepis is found to be devoid of denticles on the surface of the bones, scales and lepidotrichia—so far considered to be a key coccolepidid characteristic. However, it bears exceptionally robust lateral line scales. Comparison of the axial skeletons of M. aniscowitchi and Morrolepis andrewsi reveals their close affinities within Coccolepididae. The axial skeleton, despite its rare preservation in palaeonisciforms, may be taxonomically informative, at least at the family level. The Karatau palaeonisciforms, being among the youngest examples of basal actinopterygians (persisting in Asia through the late Mesozoic), possess a set of conservative morphological characters that suggest they were relictual taxa by Jurassic times, thus highlighting some freshwater systems as refuges for plesiomorphic taxa.     

On the pharyngeal tooth remains of crucian and common carp from the neolithic Tianluoshan site,Zhejiang Province,China, with remarks on the relationship between freshwater fishing and rice cultivation in the Neolithic Age

The pharyngeal tooth remains of crucian and common carp from the Tinaluoshan site of the Hemudu Cultural Stage, Zhejiang Province, China, were analysed. The body‐lengths (BLs) of the fish were estimated from tooth size and plotted as bar diagrams. Based on these, we infer that Neolithic dwellers used gill nets to efficiently catch fish of a specific size during the breeding season. The BL distribution of common carp there is similar to those from Jomon sites in Japan, and we therefore infer that the technology for controlling water for rice cultivation in paddy fields had not yet been developed. The abundance of tooth remains of crucian carp unearthed at the Tianluoshan site is reminiscent of similar finds in Western Japan, and we thus infer that the culture trait of utilizing crucian carp as a major protein resource was distributed from the Yangtze River basin to Western Japan. Analysis of pharyngeal tooth remains of carp at various Japanese archaeological sites shows that freshwater fishing was conducted quite differently before and after the establishment of paddy fields. With this fact in mind, one of the present authors tried to model the development of freshwater fishing, with reference to the relation of fishing to rice cultivation (Nakajima, 2010 ). In Phase I, artisanal fishing became an active and technically developed endeavour, and people began to cultivate rice at fishing site. In Phase II, people began to cultivate rice purposefully in irrigated paddy fields while also fishing there. Comparing the present results of the pharyngeal tooth remains from the Tianluoshan site with those from the Jomon Period, we see that the Tianluoshan site was in the same stage as the end of Phase I in Japan, which rice cultivation was done as a supplementary activity at fishing site. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Palaeo‐formation water evolution in the Latrobe aquifer,Gippsland Basin,south‐eastern Australia continental shelf

Offshore fresh or brackish groundwater has been observed around the globe and represents an interesting but unusual freshwater reserve. Formation waters in sedimentary basins evolve at geological time through fluid–rock interactions and water movements in aquifers. However, the mechanism and timing of freshwater displacing and mixing with pre‐existing formation water offshore under the seafloor has not been investigated in many cases. The growing need for developing freshwater resources in deeper parts of sedimentary basins that have not been economic or technically feasible in the past, may potentially lead to an increasing conflict with petroleum production or injection of carbon dioxide. For being able to assess and mitigate possible impacts of fluid production or injection on groundwater flow and quality, a better understanding of the natural history of the interaction between fresh meteoric water and deep basin formation water is necessary. A low‐salinity wedge of meteoric origin with less than 5000 ppm currently extends to about 20 km offshore in the confined Latrobe aquifer in the Gippsland Basin (Australia). The Latrobe aquifer is a freshwater resource in the onshore, hosts major petroleum reservoirs and has been considered for carbon dioxide storage in the offshore parts of the basin. The objective of this study is to constrain the evolution of formation water in the Latrobe aquifer by investigating the water naturally trapped in fluid inclusions during burial. The measured palaeo‐salinities from onshore and offshore rock samples have a minimum of about 12 500 ppm (NaCl equivalent) and a maximum of about 50 000 ppm. Most of the salinities are in the 32 000–35 000 ppm range. There is no evidence for freshwater in fluid inclusions and the variation in palaeo‐salinity across the basin is consistent with the palaeogeography of deposition of the sedimentary rocks. The current low‐salinity water wedge must have started to form recently after most of the diagenetic processes that led to the trapping of water in fluid inclusions happened. The minimum homogenisation temperatures (T_h) recorded are consistent with current formation temperature. However, they are generally higher than present day suggesting that hotter temperatures were attained in the past. The T_h and salinity data together suggest that the fluid inclusions record the diagenetic modification of connate water to higher salinities over a time period that was accompanied by an increase in temperature, consistent with a westward palaeo‐fluid flow from the deeper part of the basin through the aquifer. Subsequent pore‐water evolution from palaeo‐ to current day conditions is consistent with an influx of fresher and cooler meteoric water into the Latrobe Group. The meteoric recharge originates from the area of the Baragwanath anticline in the onshore part of the basin where the Latrobe Group subcrops at high elevations.     

Refit and Oxygen Isotope Analysis of Freshwater Mussel Shells from the Tillar Farms Site (3DR30), Southeast Arkansas

ABSTRACT

We investigate the link between the consumption of foodstuffs, excavation of a large pit, and disposal of waste at the Tillar Farms site (3DR30), southeast Arkansas, using refit and oxygen isotope analyses of well-preserved freshwater mussel shells from Feature 1. Only 0.13% of 7,408 valves analyzed were unidentifiable to species.The refit analysis produced 460 refits across 23 species and strongly indicates that the shell midden represents a single episode of shellfish gathering, consumption, and discard. Oxygen isotope analysis of five randomly selected shells are used as a test of the refit results. δ¹⁸O values from the five archaeological shells are compared to modern control samples of live-collected specimens from Bayou Bartholomew in winter of 2011. Refit analysis suggests the accumulation of mussel shells occurred quickly, likely as a result of one collection, consumption, and discard event. δ¹⁸O values suggest this activity took place during a single winter season.