Journal and Proceedings of
The Royal Society of New South Wales
Volume 108 Parts 3 and 4 [Issued December, 1975]
CONTENTS
AUTHORS & TITLES
Crewther, W.G. and Lennox, W.G. Wool Research in the Division of protein
Chemistry, C.S.I.R.O.
PAGES
Johnson, Brian D., The Garra Formation (Early Devonian) at Wellington, N.S.W.
Golding, H.G. and Ray, A.S., Hydrothermal Ca-Al Silicates in Ophiolitic Rocks near
Coolac, N.S.W.
Bean, Judith M., Petrology and Petrochemistry of Igneous Rocks in the Mullaley Area
of New South Wales
Pickett, John, Continental Reconstructions and the Distribution of Coral Faunas
during the Silurian
Morgan, Roger, Some Early Cretaceous Organic-Walled Microplankton from the
Great Australian Basin, Australia
Campbell, K.S.W., The Functional Anatomy of Phacopid Trilobites: Musculature and
Eyes
[Clarke Memorial Lecture, 1975]
Malcolm, H.D.R., Bud Failure of Stone Fruits—Some Changes in Development and
Chemical Composition of the Flower Buds of Peach (Primus persica L. Batch)
111-118
96-110
119-130
131-146
147-156
157-167
168-188
189-202
Vol 108 parts 3-4, pp.95-110
Wool Research in the Division of Protein Chemistry, CSIRO
W.G. Crewther and F.G. Lennox
[Invited Paper]
Abstract. Research in the Division of Protein Chemistry, CSIRO, relating to the biosynthesis,
structure and chemistry of the wool fibre and to the mechanisms involved in chemical
processing of wool has been reviewed. In some instances it has been necessary to refer to related
studies in other laboratories.
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Vol 108 parts 3-4, pp.111-118
The Garra Formation (Early Devonian) at Wellington, N.S.W.
Brian D. Johnson
Abstract. Andesitic volcanics, often regarded as Ordovician, but here referred to the Early
Devonian Cuga Burga Volcanics, outcrop in a much faulted, north plunging anticline in the
Wellington Caves area. The volcanics are overlain by the Garra Formation. The latter
commences with an apparently transgressive sequence of volcanically derived sediments grading
from conglomerates and siltstones through to marine shales and these in turn into limestones at
the base of a carbonate sequence some 970 metres in thickness. It is contended that a complete
sequence of the Garra Formation exists in the Wellington area and that this can be informally
divided into 20 units. After the initial transgressive phase, subtidal marine carbonates were
deposited on a shallow platform; the upper half of the formation is characterized by extensive
sabkha style deposition on intertidal and supratidal flats. Conodonts indicate correlation of the
basal Garra limestones with the limestones at the base of the Mandagery Park Formation (late
Lochkovian-early Praguian).
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Vol 108 parts 3-4, pp.119-130
Hydrothermal Ca-Al Silicates in Ophiolitic Rocks Near Coolac, N.S.W.
H.G. Golding and A.S. Ray
Abstract The modes of occurrence and diagnostic properties of hydrothermal grossular, chrome
grossular, vesuvianite, prehnite and monoclinic and orthorhombic epidote minerals, from Coolac
ophiolites are described. The Fe content of the prehnite and chemical analyses of zoisite
concentrates, are reported. Differential thermograms of the Coolac vesuvianite and prehnite
differ from those of the same minerals from other geologic environments. A distinctive habit of
zoisite is recorded. Most of the observed garnet and vesuvianite occur in rodingitic enclosures
within serpentinized peridotite. The prehnite and most of the zoisite occur in segregations at
junctions of ultramafic with other rocks. The formation of these minerals may partly pre-date
emplacement of the ophiolites at a continent margin. Additionally, the mineral sequence:
epidote→clinozoisite→orthorhombic epidote group minerals→grossular and/or vesuvianite
apparently registers increasing stratigraphic depth in the mafic part of the ophiolite suite and may
indicate sub-sea-floor metamorphism.
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Vol 108 parts 3-4, pp.131-146
Petrology and Petrochemistry of Igneous Rocks in the Mullaley Area of New
South Wales
Judith M. Bean
Abstract. Division of igneous rocks in the Mullaley area into six groups (Bean, 1974), is further
supported by petrological, mineralogical and chemical data. The Garrawilla Volcanics comprise a
mildly alkaline, low-K, high-Fe lineage, similar to the mildly alkaline Hawaiian lineage, except for
higher Fe2O3:FeO+Fe2O3 ratios. The latter reflect a build up of volatiles in the more felsic
Garrawilla lavas with the result that all rocks more evolved than hawaiites are either vesicular or
pyroclastic.
The Nombi Extrusives are moderately strongly undersaturated, low-K rocks which differ
markedly from Hawaiian basanites in their low-Al values.
The Glenrowan Intrusive lineage is a mildly undersaturated, moderately high-K, low-Al, low
Fe2O3:FeO lineage. The range in chemistry of the rocks is proposed as the result of fractionation,
initially deep within the crust (Pin situ within the sills.
The Napperby Limburgite, by virtue of its strong degree of undersaturation and high-K content,
is a unique rock type in the area. The mildly undersaturated Tambar Trachybasalt is also unique
in its high-K, low-Na, high-Al composition.
The Bulga Complex is comprised of the more evolved members of a mildly undersaturated,
moderately high-to high-K, low Fe2O3:FeO lineage. The phonolites and phonolitic trachytes
represent dual differentiation trends—one towards strong Na- and ne-enrichment, the other
towards K-enrichment; similar trends have been observed in the alkaline sequences of Gough
Island (Le Maitre, 1962) and Nandewar Volcano (Abbott, 1969).
Factors which may have been significant in genesis of the lineages are briefly discussed.
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Vol 108 parts 3-4, pp.147-156
Continental Reconstructions and the Distribution of Coral Faunas during the
Silurian
John Pickett
Presidential Address delivered to the Royal Society of New South Wales at Science House,
Gloucester Street, Sydney on April 2, 1975
Introduction
Modern theories of sea-floor spreading have given tremendous impetus to the elaboration of
proposals for past configurations of continental masses ; palaeomagnetic studies have resulted in
the production of an increasing number of palaeogeographic maps. This paper takes three of
these maps and examines them in relation to the distribution of coral faunas of the Silurian
period, with a view to both pointing out possible deficiencies in the reconstructions and to
determining possible regional distribution patterns or faunal provinces.
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Vol 108 parts 3-4, pp.157-167
Some Early Cretaceous Organic-walled Microplankton from the Great
Australian Basin, Australia
Roger Morgan
Abstract. Four new genera and seven new species of organic-walled microplankton are
described. Two genera and five species are fossil dinollagellate cysts, and two monospecific
genera are of uncertain biological origin. The dinofiagellates Diconodinium davidii, Spinidinium boydii
and Bourkidinium granulatum and the acritarch Nummus monoculatus are useful biostratigraphic
forms in the marine part of the section. The dinoflagellates Fusiformacysta salasii and Batiacasphaera
macrogranulata and the acritarch Microfasta evansii are useful biostratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental indicators in the non-marine and transgressional part of the sequence.
The archeopyle problem in Diconodinium is discussed, and some specimens previously assigned to
D. multispinum (Deflandre and Cookson) are redescribed. The generic description of Batiacasphaera
is emended to expand the range of ornament types.
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Vol 108 parts 3-4, pp.168-188
The Functional Anatomy of Phacopid Trilobites: Musculature and Eyes
K. S. W. Campbell
The Clarke Memorial Lecture, delivered before the Royal Society of New South Wales, 10 July,
1975
Mr. President, members and friends of the Society.
I first heard the name W. B. Clarke when, as a student studying a course entitled “Major
Geological Problems”. I had to read a paper by W. H. Bryan on “The relationship of the
Australian continent to the Pacific ocean—now and in the past”. This was the Clarke Memorial
Lecture for 1944. It is a little dated now, but not all that much. It was good stuff, and like all
good stuff it has grown old with dignity and grace. One hopes that contemporary students of
geotectonics are encouraged to read it, for it provides a fine historical perspective. I count it a
privilege to be allowed to follow in the train of the men and women who, in honouring the
memory of W. B. Clarke, have made contributions of this kind to geological science in Australia.
Unlike most previous lecturers I am not attempting a subject of regional or global sweep, but
rather I am going to the opposite extreme to examine some aspects of the functional biology of a
family of fossils. In doing this I am conscious that I have Clarke’s approval. He is justly
remembered for his regional geological histories and his major work on “The Sedimentary
Formations of New South Wales” in which he used fossil data to solve geological problems. But
not only did he respect his fossils for their geological information content—he really loved them.
What other explanation can there be for the fact that he sketched 2000 specimens before sending
them off to Europe for professional attention? And being a man of wide scientific and humane
education as well as Christian conviction, who can doubt that he reflected long and hard upon
the significance of the detail he was recording? Tonight I would like to continue such reflection.
One is continually impressed by the extent to which uniformitarianism of a particularly narrow
kind dominates studies of the functional anatomy of fossils. At its crudest the question is put in
the form—Do related living organisms show soft anatomy comparable to that being postulated?
If the answer is negative, then the postulate is assumed to be incorrect. In this form the
argument is obviously absurd. Animals in the past must have been uncannily like their living
relatives for it to make sense, and evolution must have been a curiously restricted process, failing
to produce new anatomy once a basic pattern was established. Uniformitarianism has to be
applied in a much broader way, emphasis being placed on the application of physical and
chemical principles to observed fossil structures, as well as on comparisons with particular
anatomical structures in living forms. I suspect that if this is done the evolutionary process will
be found to have produced a wealth of organisms utilizing methods and materials long since
discarded, and we will abandon the tendency, so common at present, to force fossils into the
categories established for recent organisms.
In support of this contention an examination of the trilobite family Phacopidae has been
undertaken. Discoveries of several kinds in the past decade have made it possible to take a new
look at the muscular, visual, alimentary, chemosensory and tactosensory systems of this group.
Of these I will deal with the first two only.
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Vol 108 parts 3-4, pp.189-202
Bud Failure of Stonefruits – Some Changes in Development and Chemical
Composition of the Flower Buds of Peach (Prunus persica L. Batsch)
H.D.R. Malcolm
Abstract. Because the failure of reproductive buds of peach increases in their developmental
stages from differentiation to bud-burst, its incidence appears to relate neither to stage of
development nor to chilling. Measurements of bud volume, weight, water, respiration and the
contents of nitrogen, sugar, protein and amino acids showed that only respiration increased
whilst most others decreased following intermediate fluctuation with the onset of failure.
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