Seventy-five samples from the classic sections through the historical type area of the Ashgill Series in the Cautley district and along Pus Gill in the Cross Fell Inlier have been examined for chitinozoans. The results of this study allowed the recognition of five internationally recognized biozones and the definition of two new Avalonian chitinozoan zones. From bottom upwards, these are: the Fungochitina spinifera, the Tanuchitina bergstroemi?, the Conochitina rugata, the Spinachitina fossensis, the Bursachitina umbilicata sp. n., the Ancyrochitina merga and the Belonechitina postrobusta zones. One new species is described: Bursachitina umbilicata sp. n. This biozonation enables a correlation between the Cautley district and the Baltoscandia and Gondwana palaeocontinents based on chitinozoans. The Baltoscandic chitinozoan zones are, therefore, now better correlated with the British chronostratigraphical scheme, which is still widely used. It is stratigraphically significant that the base of the Ashgill in its type area does not fall within the Tanuchitina bergstroemi Zone, as widely believed before, but in the Fungochitina spinifera Zone. In addition, chitinozoans from the Onnian (Caradoc) section of the Cross Fell Inlier provide a link with the type Caradoc section in Shropshire.

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Physical models of graptolites have been constructed for a range of morphologies, with emphasis on planar, multiramous forms. The models are life size and have the density of a living graptolite, based on the now-established collagenous nature of the periderm and unavoidable assumptions about the amount of extrathecal tissue present in the living colony. These models have been used to test the two main hypotheses of graptolite life habit developed by Bulman, Rickards, Kirk, and others. Testing of graptoloid models in water suggests that many rhabdosome shapes were designed for passive rotation within the water column. This is caused in the models by a variety of modifications, including changes in thecal and stipe orientation, alterations of colony shape and the addition of vanes and hooks. Rotation would only have been useful when the rhabdosome was in directional motion and the frequency of such modifications seems anomalous if no such movement occurred. Thus movement by some means is required, either passively, by changes in buoyancy, or by automobility. Spiralling action would increase the harvesting path of an individual living on a planar, multiramous colony, making this a theoretically advantageous mode of life for the morphology. It would prevent the individual zooids of scandent biserial and uniserial colonies from feeding from the same narrow band of water.

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A description is given of three transects through the Silurian strata of Cerro del Fuerte, San Juan Province, Argentina. All are in the Precordillera structural belt; the Silurian strata probably have conformable boundaries with the Ordovician and Devonian, and there is a regional angular unconformity at the base of the Carboniferous. The Silurian includes two formations, the La Chilca below and the Los Espejos above. Both formations exhibit a coarsening upwards sequence: the Los Espejos Formation spans the Wenlock, Ludlow and, probably, Piidoli epochs, the first being of relatively fine sediments and the latter two of coarser sediments. The third transect also includes Devonian sediments which seem to represent, albeit incompletely, a third coarsening upwards cycle. The graptolite faunas have been extensively collected and form the basis of the systematic section of the paper. Late Ordovician, Llandovery and Ludlow faunas are described.