Olenellid trilobites from the lower Cambrian of the Iberian Peninsula are very scarce and poorly studied, making them difficult to compare with defined species and to include in biostratigraphic and paleobiogeographic analyses. Based on newly collected specimens, we revise the species ‘Callavia? lotzei’ Richter and Richter, 1941 from the ‘Cumbres beds’ of Cumbres de San Bartolomé and the ‘Herrerías shale’ of Cañaveral de León, Sierra del Bujo, and Hinojales (Huelva, Spain), and ‘Paradoxides choffati’ Delgado, 1904 from the Vila Boim Formation of Elvas (Portugal). The new material indicates that Callavia? lotzei is a junior synonym of ‘P. choffati.’ The Iberian species are here assigned to Callavia Matthew, 1897, for which morphological characters are reassessed, offering a valuable opportunity to discuss characters previously misinterpreted for this genus. Traditionally assigned to the Olenelloidea Walcott, 1890, Callavia lacks some of the diagnostic characters of this superfamily and is here assigned to Judomioidea Repina, 1979. A new diagnosis for this genus is provided, and Sdzuyomia Lieberman, 2001 is considered to represent a junior synonym of Callavia. The genus Callavia is distributed across the western margin of Gondwana, from the western Mediterranean region (Iberia and Morocco) throughout all the Avalonia sectors (UK, eastern Newfoundland, and Massachusetts). Its presence in Iberia supports the faunal links between the West Gondwana domain and Avalonia during Cambrian Series 2. The Iberian records of Callavia choffati are assigned to the middle part of the regional Marianian Stage (uppermost Cambrian Stage 3 to the lowermost Cambrian Stage 4) and correlates with the Callavia Biozone of Avalonia (lower Branchian Series).

We study the largest exposed example of an early Cambrian palaeokarst, associated with laterites and developed during rifting of the Ossa–Morena Zone. The lithostratigraphy, biostratigraphy, facies and the genesis reflect episodes of sea-level fall (Cerro del Hierro Regression) related to tectonic events and palaeoclimate. This palaeokarst can be primarily considered as the result of early Cambrian polyphase karstification in an extensional tectonic regime, later modified by Neogene–Quaternary geomorphological processes. The event may correlate with other regressive events of a similar age in Spain, Italy, United Kingdom, South America and Australia. This episode also has local names (e.g. Cerro del Hierro Regression in the Mediterranean region; Woodlands Regression in the UK). It is sometimes accompanied by additional karst development outside of Spain that is compared and interpreted in a global context.

New atopid trilobites are described from the early Cambrian Cumbres beds and Herrerías shale of northern Huelva Province (Andalusia, Spain) and are dated as middle–late Marianian (Cambrian Series 2, Stage 4). New specimens of Atops calanus Richter and Richter, 1941 are described and the Laurentian species Pseudatops reticulatus (Walcott, 1890b) is recognized for the first time in the Mediterranean subprovince. The associated trilobite assemblage studied herein suggests an age close to the base of Cambrian Stage 4.

Over the centuries, Spanish historiography has attached great importance to the wars that Octavian launched at the start of the last third of the 1st c. B.C. against the population in the north of the Iberian peninsula. In this way he intended to bring an end to the long conquest of Iberia that had begun two centuries earlier in the hegemonic struggle with Carthage. Although the wars previously attracted the attention of European scholars, today they play little part in the historiography of the Early Roman Empire and even less in the biographies of Augustus, who suffered some of his worst military fortunes in this war, putting his very life in danger (Suet., Aug. 29.3 and 81.1; Hor., Carm. 3.14; Dio 53.25.5-7; Oros. 6.21.4). Even Departments of Ancient History in Spanish universities have failed to progress beyond well-worn exegesis of the written sources. This is because until just two decades ago all the information came from two historical sources: Florus and Orosius, on the one hand, and Dio Cassius, on the other (the relevant books of Livy being lost). Although they stress the importance of the conflict, these sources are excessively laconic; they have also been subjected to erudite speculations about place-names that have turned the military campaigns into a series of historiographic fictions.1

Evidence of herbivory on Laurasian Nymphaeaceae leaves from Lower Cretaceous (Upper Albian) deposits is presented for the first time. The types of damage on leaves consist of both hole feeding and margin feeding, which were found on foliar remains of the taxa Ploufolia cerciforme and Aquatifolia cf. fluitans. Within the first category of damage, the Damage Type 78 (DT78) type on Ploufolia leaves and type DT02 on Aquatifolia foliar lamina were recorded. The second category of damage has only been identified in Ploufolia leaves, and it corresponds to type DT12. The subsequent palaeoichnologic interpretation made it possible to compare these records with damage caused by the extant water lily pest to make a possible palaeoecological interpretation.

A multidisciplinary study from a number of drilled cores in the Guadalquivir estuary has made possible to identify as many as three extreme wave events and their facies in the 4th millennium BP (A: ~ 4000 cal yr BP, B: ~ 3550 cal yr BP, and C: ~ 3150 cal yr BP). These events, which caused strong erosion in the Guadalquivir sandy barrier and in the neighboring aeolian systems of El Abalario, brought about significant paleogeographical changes that may have affected human settlements established in the area during the Neolithic and Copper Age periods and during the Middle Bronze Age. The three events can be spatially correlated and their facies differentiated from more proximal to more distal from the coastline. The most proximal facies is characterized by a massive accumulation of shells, a sandy or sandy–muddy matrix, an erosive base, a highly diverse mixture of species (marine and estuarine), and lithoclasts. The most distal facies presents a muddy–sandy matrix, dominance of estuarine fauna, shell accumulation, presence of terrestrial species, mudpebbles, pebbles in a clayey matrix, and bioturbation. The evidence presented will further advance scientific knowledge about the impact of extreme wave events on coastal areas in SW Iberia and NW Africa.

Two distinct Pleistocene assemblages from SE Santiago Island are comparable to modern analogues elsewhere in the Cape Verde Islands. A low-diversity Siderastrea radians assemblage lived atop basalt knobs surrounded by sand on a slope below a cliff. A Millepora alcicornis–Megabalanus azoricus assemblage occupied the cliff. The latter was a typical rocky-shore assemblage from a high-energy setting below the tidal zone. Bioerosion structures in basalt produced by Circolites kotoncensis and Gastrochaenolites isp. also occur there. Despite extensive studies on local limestone deposits in 1832 and 1836, lack of exposure prevented Darwin from seeing these fossils.

Commission 51 met on 18 August 2006. President Karen Meech chaired the meeting and there were 16 members present, including vice-president Alan Boss, and OC member David Morrison.