The turtles of the Purbeck Limestone Group of Dorset, southern England

The turtles from the Purbeck Limestone are revised and it is concluded that there are four shell-based cryptodire species present, namely Pleurosternon bullockii, ‘Glyptops’typocardium comb. nov., Helochelydra anglica comb. nov.,Hylaeochelys latiscutata. There is also one skull-based species, Dorsetochelys delairi, which may prove to be the skull of ‘Glyptops’, Hylaeochelys or an unknown shell-type. All other taxa are junior synonyms except ‘Chelone’obovata Owen, 1842 and Tretosternon punctatum Owen, 1842 which are nomina dubia, the material being unfigured and either lost or incorrectly associated. Other taxonomic conclusions are that (1) because Tretosternon is a nomen dubium, the next senior name for this Purbeck–Wealden genus is Helochelydra Nopcsa, 1928; (2) ‘Pleurosternon’typocardium and ‘Glyptops’ruetimeyeri are synonymous, the senior combination being ‘Glyptops’typocardium; (3) the Purbeck ‘Tretosternon’ material is combined with the holotype and only specimen of Platychelys? anglica as Helochelydra anglica comb. nov.; (4) Hylaeochelys emarginata and H. sollasi are junior synonyms of Hylaeochelys latiscutata; (5) one of Owen's ‘lost’ syntypes of ‘Tretosternon punctatum’ has been recognised and is a plastron of Hylaeochelys latiscutata

The Sea and Eternal Summer: Science Fiction, Futurology and Climate Change

This paper will be concerned to analyse what is almost certainly the earliest Australian climate change dystopia. In 1985 George Turner published a short story, The Fittest, in which he began to explore the fictional possibilities of the effects of global warming. He quickly expanded this story into a full-length novel published as The Sea and Summer in Britain and as Drowning Towers in the United States. The Sea and Summer is set mainly in Melbourne, a vividly described, particular place, terrifyingly transformed into the utterly unfamiliar. Turner’s core narrative describes a world of mass unemployment and social polarisation, in which rising sea levels have inundated the Bayside suburbs; the poor ‘Swill’ live in high-rise tower blocks, the lower floors of which are progressively submerged; the wealthier ‘Sweet’ in suburbia on higher ground. The paper will argue that Turner’s novel is long overdue a positive critical re-evaluation.

The tetrapod Caerorhachis bairdi Holmes and Carroll from the Lower Carboniferous of Scotland

The tetrapod Caerorhachis bairdi, probably from the Pendleian Limestone Coal Group in the Scottish Midland Valley, is redi agnosed and redescribed, and its affinities are discussed. Caerorachis was originally interpreted as a temnospondyl amphibian, based on characters that are now regarded as primitive for tetrapods, or of uncertain polarity. Several features of Caerorhachis (e.g. gastrocentrous vertebrae, curved trunk ribs, reduced dorsal iliac blade, L-shaped tarsal intermedium) are observed in certain primitive amniotes. In particular, Caerorhachis resembles ‘anthracosaurs’, generally considered to be among the most primitive of stem-group amniotes. The phylogenetic position of Caerorhachis is considered in the light of recently published cladistic analyses of Palaeozoic tetrapods. Most analyses place Caerorhachis at the base of, or within, ‘anthra- cosaurs’. When multiple, equally parsimonious solutions are found, its ‘anthracosaur’ affinities are shown in at least some trees, and are supported by several informative and, generally, highly consistent characters. Alternative phylogenetic placements (e.g. sister taxon to temnospondyls) are usually less well corroborated. If the fundamental evolutionary split of most early tetrapods into stem-group lissamphibians (e.g. temnospondyl s) and stem-group amniotes (e.g. ‘anthracosaurs’) is accepted, then the revised interpretation of Caerorhachi s sheds light on near-ancestral conditions for Amniota

Philanthropy in Brazil Report

This report on Brazilian philanthropy is part of a larger study by Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace (PSJP), started in 2016, to review the current state of philanthropy in emerging economies and the role philanthropy is playing in the world today. This is the fourth report from the study, which will eventually form part of the Philanthropy Bridge Series

The Global Landscape of Philanthropy - Russian Version

From a description of various forms of individual giving to the growing importance of community philanthropy and structured, institutional giving, the current report is an effort to bring back the diversity of the field of philanthropy at the center of the debate, by drawing a comprehensive and provocative picture of current trends and challenges of the field. The report also raises some of the questions and issues most critical and central to its development – from technology and shrinking civic space to power dynamics within philanthropy practice and concepts, to the evolving role and form of philanthropy infrastructure