A Wuchiapingian (Late Permian) brachiopod fauna from an exotic block in the Indus–Tsangpo suture zone, southern Tibet, and its palaeobiogeographical and tectonic implications

A brachiopod fauna including 19 species of 17 genera from an exotic block in the Indus–Tsangpo suture zone in southern Tibet is described and illustrated. The brachiopod fauna is dominated by Martinia elegans and two new taxa: Jinomarginifera lhazeensis gen. et sp. nov. and Zhejiangospirifer giganteus sp. nov. The fauna is closely comparable with those from the middle and upper parts of the Wargal Formation and the Chhidru Formation in the Salt Range of Pakistan, the Chitichun Limestone in southern Tibet, and the Basleo area of West Timor, and these correlations suggest a Wuchiapingian age. The fauna exhibits substantial links with both peri–Gondwanan and Cathaysian faunas, which may imply that it is a seamount biota originally located in the southern margin of the Neotethys during the Late Permian, and was later (in the early Cenozoic) displaced and became sandwiched into younger marine deposits in the collision process between India and Eurasia.

Developing a rural and regional science challenge to utilise community and industry-based partnerships

Interest and participation in science in schools has been declining for many years and there is a genuine need to rejuvenate interest in science at the high school level. One possible solution is the completion of challenging science projects which fulfill an authentic purpose in the community. This paper discusses the results of ongoing research into the establishment of a rural and regional Science Challenge which makes use of partnerships with local industries and community groups to encourage the development of authentic science projects. In the development of the Science Challenge, many issues are emerging in relation to teachers' work, resources, administration and school cultures. This paper reports on the preliminary findings and indicates directions for the future.

Late palaeozoic global changes affecting high-latitude environments and biotas : an introduction

The Late Palaeozoic Ice Age (LPIA), spanning approximately from ~320 Ma (Serpukhovian, late Mississippian) to 290 Ma (mid-Sakmarian, Early Permian), represents the vegetated Earth’s largest and most long-lasting regime of severe and multiple glaciations, involving processes and patterns probably comparable to those of the Last Ice Age. Accompanying the LPIA occurred a number of broadly synchronous global environmental and biotic changes. These global changes, as briefly reviewed and summarized in this introductory paper, comprised (but are not limited to) the following: massive continental reorganization in the lead up to the final assembly of Pangea resulting in profound changes in global palaeogeography, palaeoceanography and palaeobiogeogarphy; substantially lowered global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations (pCO₂), coupled with an unprecedented increase in atmospheric oxygen concentrations reaching Earth's all-time high in its last 600 million year history; sharp global temperature and sea-level drops (albeit with considerable spatial and temporal variability throughout the ice age); and apparently a prolonged period of global sluggish macro-evolution with both low extinction and origination rates compared to other times. In the aftermath of the LPIA, the world's climate entered into a transitional climate phase through the late Early to Middle Permian before its transformation into a greenhouse state towards the end-Permian. In recent years, considerable amount of data and interpretations have been published concerning the physical evidence in support of the LPIA, its broad timeframe and eustatic and ecosystem responses from the lower latitudes, but relatively less attention has been drawn to the impact of the ice age on late Palaeozoic high-latitude environments and biotas. It is with this mission in mind that we have organized this special issue, with the central focus on late Palaeozoic high latitude regions of both hemispheres, that is, Gondwana and northern Eurasia. Our aim is to gather a set of papers that not only document the physical environmental changes that had occurred in the polar regions of Gondwana and northern Eurasia during the LPIA, but also review on the biotic responses at different taxonomic, ecological and spatial scales to these physical changes in a refined chronological timeframe.

This introductory paper is designed to provide a global context for the special issue, with a brief review of key late Palaeozoic global environmental changes (including: changes in global land-sea configurations, atmospheric chemistry, global climate regimes, global ocean circulation patterns and sea levels) and large -scale biotic (biogeographic and evolutionary) responses, followed by a summary of what we see as unresolved scientific issues and various working hypotheses concerning late Palaeozoic global changes and, in particular, the LPIA, as a possible reference to future research.

Γεννημένος Δύο Φορές: η Dionysos Films και η Δημιουργία ενός Ελληνικού Κινηματογραφικού Κυκλώματος στην Αυστραλία

Από τα τέλη της δεκαετίας του ’40 μέχρι τα τέλη της δεκαετίας του ’70, το κέντρο και τα περίχωρα της Μελβούρνης στέγασαν ένα δυναμικό ελληνικό κινηματογραφικό κύκλωμα τριάντα περίπου διαφορετικών αιθουσών, οι οποίες λειτούργησαν υπό την εποπτεία ενός μικρού αριθμού καθετοποιημένων επιχειρήσεων προβολής/διανομής. Η Dionysos Films ήταν ανάμεσα στις πρώτες ελληνικές εταιρείες προβολής/διανομής που ιδρύθηκαν στην Αυστραλία και που από το 1949 ως το 1956 έδρασε χωρίς σημαντικό ανταγωνισμό, διαμορφώνοντας το πλαίσιο για ένα ελληνικό κινηματογραφικό κύκλωμα της διασποράς που εκτεινόταν από την επαρχιακή και μητροπολιτική Αυστραλία ως τη Νέα Ζηλανδία. Το παρόν άρθρο αναμετρά τη σκιά που έριξε η Dionysos Films (και ο χαρισματικός της ιδιοκτήτης Stathis Raftopoulos) στην ιστορία των κινηματογραφικών εμπειριών των Ελλήνων των Αντιπόδων καθώς και τις επιπτώσεις που έχει αυτή η ανεξερεύνητη πτυχή της αυστραλιανής, αλλά και της ελληνικής κινηματογραφικής ιστορίας, στον τρόπο που αντιλαμβανόμαστε τις εθνικές κινηματογραφίες των δύο χωρών.