Heliolitid corals and their competitors: a case study from the Wellin patch reefs, Middle Devonian, Belgium

peer reviewedWellin patch reefs are small Upper Eifelian build?ups within the fine?grained argillaceous limestone of the Hanonet Formation. Whereas the reefs themselves are not well exposed, their fossil assemblage is accessible in the hills near the town of Wellin, approximately 40xA0km SE of Dinant in Belgium. It is especially rich in massive stromatoporoids, heliolitids and other tabulate corals. They exhibit predominantly domical and bulbous morphologies. This paper focuses primarily on the palaeoautoecology of the heliolitid corals and their relationships with other organisms. Cases of mutual overgrowth between heliolitids, other corals and stromatoporids suggest a high degree of competition for space on the reefs, possibly related to the scarcity of hard substrates. Coral and stromatoporoid growth forms, as well as the prevalence of micritic matrix, point to a relatively low energy environment. However, abundant growth interruption surfaces, sediment intercalations and rejuvenations of corals suggest episodically increased hydrodynamic regime and sediment supply. It is inferred that the patch reefs developed in a relatively shallow environment, where the reefal assemblage was regularly affected by storms. Heliolitids exhibited high sediment tolerance and relied on passive sediment removal for survival. They also could regenerate effectively and commonly overgrew their epibionts, after the colony’s growth was hampered by the sediment. This is recorded in extremely abundant growth interruption surfaces, which allow the analysis of the impact of sediment influxes on the heliolitid corals. ? 2021 Lethaia Foundation. Published by John Wiley & Sons Lt

‘The small Domestic & conversation style’: David Allan and Scottish portraiture in the Late Eighteenth Century

This article focuses on two conversation pieces by the eighteenth-century Scottish artist David Allan: The Family of the 4th Duke of Atholl (1780) and Sir James Grant (1785). One of the most vital characteristics of the conversation piece was its delineation of customary detail: the ‘mode & manner of the time & habits’, to use George Vertue’s phrase. These paintings feature detailed description of Highland costume, Highland custom and Highland country – and, in so doing, provide invaluable insights into the rapidly evolving, increasingly romanticized image of the Highlands in the later eighteenth century. They offer distinct views into the changing connotations of tartan and Highland custom in the decades following the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, the place of these cultural nationalist signs within the ‘concentric loyalties’ of Scots in this period and the relationship between Highlandism and values associated with the Union