Assemblages of the boat-shaped bivalve Odontogryphaea thirsae (Gabb, 1861) from southwestern Alabama are used to define three ontogenetic growth stages that are bounded by major discontinuities in either mineral structure or growth-line prominence. Features of the larval and juvenile stages are described here for the first time and are compared with the well-known morphologic features that distinguish adults (late dissoconchs).

The larval stage is represented by prodissoconch valves which are about 0.4 mm in height with suborbicular outlines, commarginal striations, and ridge-like, opisthogyral beaks. The juvenile (early dissoconch) stage is expressed by dissoconch valves up to 19 mm in height with elliptical outlines (height > length), indistinct commarginal growth lines, flat commissural planes, and tiny attachment areas on left valves; the valve interiors exhibit a posterior adductor muscle scar, a resilifer, and chomata. The adult (late dissoconch) stage is characterized by dissoconch valves >19 mm in height with subtriangular outlines, prominent commarginal growth lines, wavy commissural planes, and a keel-like terebratuloid fold.

Paleonvironmental and stratigraphic studies of the diversely fossiliferous Odontogryphaea thirsae beds indicate 0. thirsae (Gabb, 1861) thrived in a shallow, normal-marine, tropical sea that extended from Texas to Georgia about 57 million years ago.

The Resource Teachers Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) program is a unique special education development in New Zealand. The aim of this program is the creation of a nation-wide network of more than 700 RTLB operating as itinerant consulting teachers providing support in inclusive classrooms. The principles underlying the program are described and an outline provided of the curriculum and methods of delivery. The program also acknowledges the need to address the important bi-cultural elements of New Zealand society. The paper reports on RTLB demographic profiles and the initial responses of teachers to their training. Preliminary indices of program effectiveness are also presented. The paper indicates ways in which the RTLB initiative is likely to develop and notes issues within the New Zealand education system that will both strengthen and constrain the overall development of the program.

Sediment-laden icebergs are rarely sighted in Antarctic waters. However, during the recent Deep Freeze 79-USCGC Glacier expedition to the George V Coast and the south-western Ross Sea, nine sediment-laden icebergs and several pieces of pack ice with surficial sediment layers were observed. These observations include basal debris zones, debris slumped on to glaciers and floating ice, and englacial debris believed to have been incorporated along shear zones.

Sediment samples collected from icebergs were texturally and mineralogically variable. Some were unsorted mixtures consisting of a wide variety of angular minerals and rock fragments; others consisted primarily of slate clasts, quartz sand, and rock flour.