The presidential address for The Paleontological Society traditionally has been given on a topic in the president's own special area of research. This year I am breaking that tradition because there are serious matters concerning this Society that deserve widespread discussion.

Seven sedimentary facies have been identified in a 40-m-thick portion of the Kanawha Formation near Chelyan in southern West Virginia. Lithology, sedimentary and biogenic structures, body fossils, paleocurrent patterns, and facies geometry have been used to identify the following paleoenvironments: Facies 1, fluviodeltaic channels represented by thick, cross-stratified channel sandstone; Facies 2, crevasse splays and tidal creeks represented by thin, cross-stratified wedge and channel sandstone; Facies 3, coastal swamps and lakes represented by coal seat and carbonaceous shale; Facies 4, restricted bay and upper tidal flats represented by dark-gray shale, mudstone; Facies 5, interdistributary bays represented by olive-gray siltstone and shale with brachiopods; Facies 6, bay or tidal flat scour fills represented by sandy limestone with brachiopods and pelmatozoans; and Facies 7, low to mid tidal flats and distributary mouth bars represented by thinly interbedded, rippled sandstone and siltstone.

Trace fossils representing 17 ichnogenera are present with most being restricted to certain sedimentary facies. Three ichnoassemblages are recognized. 1) An annulated vertical burrow assemblage, consisting of arthropod(?) dwellings, occurs in an abandoned fluvial channel facies. 2) A Phycodes–Zoophycos assemblage is associated with dark-gray shales and mudstones of a restricted bay and/or upper tidal flat environment. Additional ichnogenera include Planolites and ?Conostichus. 3) An Olivellites assemblage with a high abundance and a high diversity of trace fossils occurs within a rippled sandstone/siltstone facies; trace fossils include (in order of abundance) Olivellites, Teichichnus, Planolites, Aulichnites, transversely ridged surface trails, Rosselia, Scolicia, Curvolithus, Helminthopsis, Tasmanadia, Petalichnus, Ancorichnus, and ?Asterosoma. The associated depositional environments are interpreted as low to mid tidal flats and possibly distributary mouth bars.

The occurrence of salinity-sensitive trace fossils such as the assemblages described herein within otherwise faunally barren intervals facilitates the recognition of marine-influenced coastal facies in which stenohaline or brackish body fossils are lacking.

The Upper Proterozoic (ca. 700–800 Ma old) Backlundtoppen Formation, northeastern Spitsbergen, preserves an abundant and varied record of ancient microbial life. Five distinctive microfossil assemblages occur in five equally distinct sedimentary settings; differences among the assemblages appear to reflect original ecological heterogeneity, although taphonomic circumstance may contribute to some distinctions. Microfossil assemblages occur in: oncolites, oolites, and pisolites; stratiform stromatolites and associated intraclastic rudites; partially silicified micrites; and siltites interbedded with quartz arenites. Individual assemblages contain one to eight differentiable taxa; a minimum of 17 distinct populations is present in the formation as a whole. Additional microbial community diversity can be inferred from the presence of domal, columnar, pseudocolumnar, and coniform stromatolites, none of which contains microfossils. On the basis of macrostructure, four stromatolite types appear to be present, but only three distinct mat-building communities can be inferred from microstructural features. Eohyella elongata n. sp., a euendolithic cyanobacterium found in silicified pisolites, is described as new.

A newly discovered assemblage of archaeocyathans, dominated by the unusual genus Retilamina, occurs in outcrops of the upper Harkless Formation in Esmeralda County, Nevada. These rock units have been correlated with the Saline Valley Formation in the Bonnia–Olenellus Zone (late Early Cambrian) of eastern California, making this the youngest known occurrence of archaeocyathans in the White–Inyo region.

Although the assemblage contains a variety of different organisms (including the alga Renalcis, trilobite and echinoderm debris, bivalves?, and Chancelloria spines), it is dominated by archaeocyathans. Diplocyathellus, a conical form with a complex inner wall, is the only genus of regular archaeocyathan in the assemblage. The irregular archaeocyathans Arrythmocricus and Metaldetes exhibit dendroid branching and cylindroconical morphologies, respectively. A third irregular, Retilamina debrennei n. sp., is an atypical archaeocyathan with a sheetlike or shallow convex dome morphology. Retilamina formed natural cavities that sheltered cryptobionts. Unlike coelobiont communities reported from other Lower Cambrian cavities where the diversity of the supported biota is relatively high, the Harkless cavities contain only the alga Renalcis. While the undersurfaces of Retilamina are consistently encrusted by Renalcis, the upper, exposed surfaces typically lack epibionts. Similar morphologies and associations for Retilamina have been reported from bioherms and biostromes from southern Labrador and western Newfoundland. Unlike most archaeocyathans, Retilamina had a solitary, free-lying life habit. Retilamina's broad base and low profile provided stability in episodically turbulent conditions or on biologically disturbed substrates.

This occurrence demonstrates that the disappearance of archaeocyathans from the stratigraphic record of the southern Great Basin in the late Early Cambrian is a paleoecological artifact. Archaeocyathans were extant in the region in the late Early Cambrian but the habitats conducive to archaeocyathan growth or preservation are, for the most part, not represented in the preserved strata.

Seymour Island, Antarctica (64°17'S), offers the first opportunity to examine the crisis at the end of the Cretaceous from the high southern latitudes. The K/T boundary sequence on Seymour Island consists of a nearly continuous sequence of siliciclastic sediments deposited in a mid-shelf environment. The faunal changes across the boundary occur through a 30-m interval with no single extinction horizon, in contrast to other well-studied K/T boundary sections. The “expanded” nature of the Seymour Island section makes placement of the K/T boundary difficult because boundary indicators such as planktic foraminifera, ammonites, and dinocysts disappear at different levels within the section.

This year (1989) marks the 100th anniversary of the Kansas Geological Survey's location at the University of Kansas. Perhaps no single name is as closely associated with the Survey as Raymond Cecil Moore, director of the Survey and state geologist of Kansas from 1916 to 1954 (Figure 1). Moore was, without doubt, the principal influence on the Survey's character and direction in the first half of the twentieth century, and he continued to be involved in the Survey and its research until his death in 1974. In spite of Moore's seminal influence at the Kansas Geological Survey and the University of Kansas, a formal memorial for Moore was never published and a bibliography of Moore's written works never compiled. Thus, the following memorial and bibliography are published to commemorate Moore, 100 years after the founding of the organization that he affected most significantly and to which he devoted so much of his time and talent, the Kansas Geological Survey.

The volcanosedimentary sequence of the Carolina slate belt in south-central North Carolina was long thought to be unfossiliferous; however, the 5,484–7,315 meters of dominantly evenly bedded siltstones and mudstones have recently yielded body fossils of the late Precambrian Ediacarian fauna and a Middle Cambrian trilobite assemblage. Ongoing stratigraphic studies in the Carolina slate belt of southern North Carolina have now revealed trace fossils representing the ichnotaxa Gordia arcuata?, ?Helminthopsis sp., Monocraterion sp., Neonerites biserialis, N. uniserialis, ?Neonerites sp., Planolites beverlyensis, P. montanus, ?Planolites sp., Syringomorpha nilssoni?,? Tomaculum sp., Torrowangea sp., and three additional indeterminate ichnogenera. These trace fossils, lacking ornamentation and complex patterns, compare favorably with ichnofossil assemblages from Late Proterozoic stratigraphic sequences (Ichnofossil Zone I) elsewhere and support the late Precambrian age interpretation for the Carolina slate belt in south-central North Carolina.

The sandstone facies of the Pliocene Rio Banano Formation of eastern Costa Rica contains benthic foraminifera indicative of an open marine, current-swept, neritic depositional environment. These sandstones and associated siltstones are placed in Zone N18 on the basis of overlapping ranges of planktonic foraminifera, particularly Globigerinoides obliquus extremus and G. ruber, and a short-ranging ostracode species, Radimella ovata. One hundred and eight species of benthic foraminifera have been identified from the formation. A multiple-group-component factor analysis of abundance distributions of several dominant or common species (Amphistegina gibbosa, Articulina mayori, Cassidulina laevigata, C. subglobosa, Cibicidoides floridanus, Elphidium discoidale, Hanzawaia concentrica, Pararotalia sarmientoi, Pseudononion basispinata, Quinqueloculina lamarckiana, Rosalina globularis, and Trifarina angulosa) in the type section aided in the recognition of three benthic foraminiferal assemblages related to environmental parameters. An open marine, shallow, sandy continental shelf environment is suggested by the first assemblage. This is considered the typical depositional environment of the unit. The second and the third assemblages, suggesting an inner littoral environment and the proximity to a reef, respectively, also indicate introduction of significant amount of transported material into the thanatotopes.

An investigation of middle Eocene calcareous nannofossils from Deep Sea Drilling Project Sites 162 and 361 has revealed a new species, Discoaster praebifax, and prompted the emendation of Discoaster bifax Bukry. Based on their morphologic similarities and stratigraphic relationship, D. praebifax is suggested to be the ancestor of D. bifax. Because the new species closely resembles D. bifax, the use of the latter as an index species for Subzone CP14a should be cautioned. The first occurrence of D. praebifax is, however, a potentially useful datum in Zone CP12.

The new thin-walled vasiform dictyospongid hexactinellid, Tiddalickia manitobensis, is described from the Ordovician Red River Formation at McBeth Point on Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba. Vertical spicule bundles are an outer? part of the wall and horizontal spicule bundles an inner? different level within the wall. Bundle quadrules are only half the size of those in Tiddalickia quadrata Rigby and Webby, 1988. A complete anthaspidellid lithistid, Aulocopella winnipegensis Rauff, 1895, is described from a glacial erratic recovered from near Reston, Manitoba.

The lowest Cambrian of Avalon, or Placentian Series, is a relatively thick sequence (1,400 m) in southeastern Newfoundland. A newly proposed body fossil zonation supplements an existing trace fossil zonation of the lower part of the Placentian Series and includes strata to the top of the sub-trilobitic Lower Cambrian.

The Sabellidites cambriensis Zone brackets the Precambrian–Cambrian boundary and comprises peritidal and wave-influenced subtidal facies deposited during deepening through the lower part of the Chapel Island Formation. Younger “Ladatheca” cylindrica Zone strata include the deepest facies of the Chapel Island Formation. The base of the overlying Watsonella crosbyi Zone (a post-Nemakit Daldyn and pre-Tommotian equivalent) is significantly diachronous because the diagnostic mollusks were preferentially preserved in pyritiferous offshore muds rather than in coeval nearshore muds. High diversity, upper Watsonella crosbyi Zone faunas (18 species) are limited to peritidal limestones of member 4 and are dominated by calcareous small shelly fossils. A thick interval (ca. 430 m) without body fossils and an important episode of block faulting that led to 750 m of differential erosion preceded deposition of the lower part of the Bonavista Group (=Sunnaginia imbricata Zone, an interval considered to be largely older than the Tommotian). Although much Early Cambrian time may be lost as a result of erosion at Random Formation–Bonavista Group unconformities, many Watsonella crosbyi Zone species reappear in the Sunnaginia imbricata Zone. Shoaling accompanied the immigration event defining the base of the Camenella baltica Zone, and an unconformity following regional offlap marks the top of the Placentian Series.

Calcareous, and not phosphatic, composition is most common in earliest Cambrian shelly remains. Little evidence suggests that a global, Precambrian–Cambrian boundary interval “phosphogenic” event either resulted in deposition of local phosphate deposits in the Tethyan region or had a role in the appearance of mineralized skeletons.

Twenty metazoans and problematica and an alga are illustrated from the Chapel Island Formation. Bemella? vonbitteri Landing n. sp. and Halkieria stonei Landing n. sp. are described. The monoplacophoran Archaeospira? avalonensis Landing n. sp. has right-and left-handed conchs comparable to those of Archaeospira (=Yangtzespira) from China. Anabarites is the senior generic synonym of Tiksitheca.

Middle and Late Permian sphinctozoan sponges described here are from the Middle Permian Maokou and the Upper Permian Wujiaping and Changxing Formations. Most are from near Xiangbo, northwestern Guangxi, but a few are from Upper Permain patch reefs from Laolongdong in eastern Sichuan. The new genera, the porate Imbricatocoelia and the aporate Glomocystospongia, are described, the latter as the type genus for the new family Glomocystospongiidae. New species described include Amblysiphonella specialis, Amblysiphonella spinosa, Amblysiphonella sp. A, Amblysiphonella sp. B, Colospongia maxima, Colospongia sp. A, Imbricatocoelia elongata, I. irregulara, I. obconica, I. paucipora, Neoguadalupia explanata, Subascosymplegma? paracatenulata, Rhabdactinia depressa, R. irregulara, R. squamula, Salzburgia nana, Glomocystospongia gracilis, Sollasia absita, and S. spheroida. New occurrences of Amblysiphonella merlai? Parona, 1933, Lichuanospongia typica Zhang, 1983, Polycystocoelia huajiapingensis Zhang, 1983, Intrasporeocoelia hubeiensis Fan and Zhang, 1985, Rhabdactinia columnaria Yabe and Sugiyama, 1934, Uvanella irregulara Ott, 1967, Stromatocoelia asiatica Zhang and Fan (in Fan and Zhang, 1985), and Tebagathalamia cylindricum Senowbari-Daryan and Rigby, 1988, are reported. The described assemblage represents the most diverse Permian sphinctozoan sponge fauna known from Asia.

A benthic foraminiferal fauna of 39 species was quantitatively examined from a late Pleistocene marine terrace deposit near Goleta, California. This foraminiferal fauna, dominated by Cribroelphidium microgranulosum, Buccella tenerrima, Buliminella elegantissima, and Cribroelphidium tumidum, is presently most common in cool, shallow (<12 m, but usually 0–5 m) subtidal environments north of Point Conception, California. This indicates slightly cooler water temperatures during the time of deposition than found near Goleta today, and agrees closely with the results of a previous paleoenvironmental interpretation of the section based on molluscan fossils.

In the El Castro Formation, cropping out on the Asturian coast of northern Spain, two fossiliferous horizons have been studied. Above the basal one, containing the Llandeilian brachiopods Tissintia cf. T. convergens and Howellites? sp., a new horizon of estimated Ashgillian age has been identified that has yielded the new brachiopod species Mcewanella vulcanica and Hesperinia asturica. The new species of Mcewanella, close to the Irish Rawtheyan Mcewanella dorsisulcata, is characterized by a great delay of the insertion of costellae, which gives many adults a strikingly costate ornament for this genus. Hesperinia was, up to now, poorly known from a small number of specimens from the Llanvirnian Tank Hill Formation in Nevada; thus, the new record, besides allowing a better understanding of the genus and its relationship with other oepikinids, extends its known time span to the Late Ordovician. These two species were dwellers on a low-energy bottom formed of loose sand and gravel supplied by nearby volcanic eruptions. The ash-flow depositional pattern of these sediments would have had lethal effects on the brachiopod communities, periodically causing their destruction. These species of the genera Mcewanella and Hesperinia are new representatives of the immigration of North American and Northern European warm-water faunas into the circumpolar Mediterranean Province during the Late Ordovician.

Elasmostoma bajaensis n. sp., a pharetronid calcareous sponge, is described from the lower Eocene (P8 or P9 Zone) portion of the Bateque Formation, Baja California Sur, Mexico. This is the first Tertiary record of this genus and its first Western Hemisphere occurrence. Elasmostoma has been previously reported only from Jurassic and Cretaceous strata of Western Europe.

The foraminiferal suborder Astrorhizina is reinstated for the typically monothalamous agglutinated taxa whose cementing material is solely organic, the suborder Haplophragmiina reinstated for multilocular agglutinated taxa with organic cement and simple to alveolar walls. The suborder Trochamminina is recognized for those with organic cement and simple agglutinated walls, and the suborder Textulariina is restricted to include only those with agglutinated walls containing biogenic calcareous cement, and typically canaliculate. In the latter suborder, the new genera Connemarella, type species Gaudryina rudis Wright, and Hemlebenia, type species Hemlebenia aptiensis n. sp., are described in the expanded family Pseudogaudryinidae, subfamily Pseudogaudryininae, whose geologic range thereby is extended into the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian).

Twenty-two species of Early Permian colonial rugose corals belonging to 12 genera from 10 locations in the Stikine River area in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, are described. These include three new species of Fomichevella (F. magna, F. southeri, F. bamberi); two species of Heintzella; five species of Heritschioides, of which three are new (H. bagleyae, H. garvinae, H. hoganae); two new species of Paraheritschioides (P. jennyi, P. wickenae); one new species questionably assigned to Kleopatrina (K.? stikinensis); two new species of Petalaxis (P. guaspariniae, P. neriae); and two new species of Lytvophyllum (L.? mongeri, L. wersoni). In addition, five new species assigned to five new genera are here named Eastonastraea complexa, Fedorowskiella simplex, Pararachnastraea lewisi, Stikineastraea thomasi, and Wilsonastraea rigbyi.

These corals occur in rocks forming part of the Stikine terrane, the largest tectonostratigraphic unit in western Canada. This coral fauna shows a very close affinity with that of the Lower Permian McCloud Limestone of the eastern Klamath Mountains of northern California, and there is some similarity to the Coyote Butte fauna of central Oregon. Several species compare most closely with species from Spitsbergen, but there are few similarities with any cratonal North American faunas and none with Tethyan faunas.

Sixteen genera and 27 species of Recent brachiopods are reported from the far southern Pacific Ocean and adjacent parts of the South Atlantic and southern Indian Ocean. These specimens extend the known geographic ranges of at least 10 species and the known bathymetric ranges of at least seven species. The new material gives greater support to the idea that many Recent brachiopod species have a wide geographic range and calls into question the very limited geographic ranges of many species known only from the fossil record. Puncta density appears to be a useful character for distinguishing Neothyris compressa and N. lenticularis. At least nine different types of geographic distribution are represented among the species studied for this paper. Areas of moderate depth on seamounts, particularly along oceanic ridges and on oceanic rises, may form important geographic areas of distribution, avenues of dispersal, and barriers to brachiopods. Four examples of polytypic species are cited. The new specimens lend additional support to the notion that one polytypic species of Liothyrella extends, with clinal morphological changes, from southernmost South America to Antarctica. Students of modern brachiopods are urged to consider large-scale geographic variation within species and not to hide it with finely delimited taxa. This approach has the potential to lead, in both modern and ancient brachiopods, to a taxonomy with fewer and more meaningful species and genera. Progenetic changes seem to be a common adaptive strategy in brachiopods on largely soft substrates and in deep water. The progenesis may be short term within a single species or long term involving evolution of new species and genera.