Shallow marine deposits characterize the upper Albian – lower Cenomanian deposits of Northern Algeria. In Djebel Azzeddine (Ouled Nail Mounts), the corresponding sediments have been subdivided into three distinctive units A to C. The first discovered ammonite fauna from the Bou Saada area allowed the attribution of a part of the mid-Cretaceous post-Continental Intercalaire deposits to the upper Albian. The ammonite-bearing level indicates a maximum flooding surface and could be correlated with similar levels from Northern Algeria. The studied succession is characterized by a low ichnodiversity containing eight ichnotaxa with abundant Thalassinoides, common Skolithos, and rare Gyrolithes, Oichnus, Planolites and cf. Tisoa. This ichnoassemblage is dominated by domichnion, fodinichnion and praedichnion trace fossils, and is attributed to the Skolithos and Glossifungites ichnofacies. These traces are produced mainly by decapod crustaceans, polychaetes and naticid gastropods. The sedimentological and ichnological data suggest shoreface to backshore environments with mixed tide/storm energy, and long subaerial exposures indicated by Lofer cyclothems in the lowermost part and dinosaur footprints in the upper part of the section.

This paper focuses on traces of drilling predation in the middle Miocene gastropod assemblage of the Zaprešić Brijeg locality, Croatia, which provides further insight into the palaeoecology of the south-western margin of the Pannonian Basin System during the Badenian. The analyzed gastropod shells were collected in the first half of the 20th century, and are housed in the Croatian Natural History Museum (CNHM) in Zagreb. The CNHM Zaprešić Brijeg collections contain 11063 gastropod shells, of which 1024 have been identified as drilled (9.3% of the sample), with 633 successfully drilled, 113 unsuccessfully drilled, and 278 multiply drilled shells. The most represented families are Potamididae, Nassariidae, Clavatulidae, Turritellidae, Cerithiidae, Muricidae and Naticidae. The gastropod families Naticidae and Muricidae are recognized as the probable predators based on the shape of the drill holes. Middle Miocene (Badenian) gastropods drilling frequency at Zaprešić Brijeg is 5.72%, which is lower than the recorded Badenian gastropods drilling frequency in the Central Paratethys, while the overall gastropod prey effectiveness from the studied locality (15.15%) is higher than the average of the neighbouring Badenian localities in the Central Paratethys. Among the most represented gastropods at this locality, the highest drilling frequency occurs in the infaunal suspension feeders Turritellidae (14.45%), which mostly show traces of the naticid drilling.

Viviparus beds are sediments deposited in lacustrine and fluvial freshwater environments (Lake Slavonia) during the Pliocene and the earliest Pleistocene. A detailed field study and mineralogical, petrographic and chemical analyses were carried out to determine their composition and origin in the area of Vukomeričke Gorice, Central Croatia. Viviparus beds are characterized by the vertical and lateral exchange of mineralogically and chemically mature pelites and sands. Pelitic sediments consist mainly of detrital quartz, calcite, dolomite and feldspar grains, with smectite as the most common clay mineral. Quartz and the most resistant lithic fragments dominate the sandy detritus. The composition of the sediments indicates their origin from the recycled orogen, while their textural immaturity suggests a short transport distance. Most of the material was re-deposited from the underlying Upper Miocene sediments, originally of Alpine provenance. A lesser proportion originated from Palaeogene sediments, Triassic carbonate rocks, basic or acidic magmatic rocks and metamorphites. The Medvednica and Žumberak Mts. were the most important source areas, while a smaller proportion of the material could have come from the Moslavačka gora Mt. and Banovina region. The uniform composition of the Viviparus beds over the entire vertical distribution of the sediments clearly indicates that the source areas did not change during their deposition. A significant change from the texturally and compositionally mature Upper Miocene clastic detritus of alpine origin, to the texturally immature material of the Viviparus beds of local origin is a consequence of compression and inversion of the previously extensional basin resulting in the uplifting and erosion of the mountains within the SW part of the Pannonian Basin System.

Krk Island located in the Dinaric karst is characterized by somehow contradictory, yet undefined depressions of linear geometry. A comprehensive spatial analysis considering over 900 linear features has served as a testing ground for revealing the specific circumstances required for the occurrence of linear morphology on the surface of rather pure karst typically characterized by dolines. Morphologic characteristics, spatial distribution and direct field evidence imply that linear features of different appearance are the outcome of, to the different stages reshaped, karstified, lithologic and tectonic structures. Due to specific regional climate conditions, they have been subsequently modified by the sporadic, fluvial processes of different degrees of intensity. Recently, such linear features hold dry valley- or dry gorge-like appearance. This example from the Dinarides gives the insight into possible circumstances that may cause a temporal surface runoff and consequentially result in the existence of an apparent fluvial surface morphology even in rather pure karst conditions. This knowledge is valuable for understanding other karst areas expressing temporal fluvial activity or imprints of past fluvial processes.

The most recent major earthquake series struck near Petrinja (December 29th 2020 M 6.2), and triggered extensive ground failures in the wider area of Petrinja, Sisak and Glina. Coseismic ground failures including subsidence dolines, liquefaction and landslides have been documented over a large area by various experts and teams. These data are stored in the newly created inventory, which is openly presented in this paper. This inventory is administered and updated by the Croatian Geological Survey, and will be available online via a Web Map Service (WMS) (www.hgi-cgs.hr). The aim of the inventory is to not only provide data for the development of susceptibility maps and more detailed exploration for possible remediation measures, but also to define the priorities for immediate action. The earthquake triggered the rapid development of dropout dolines which endanger the local populations of the villages of Mečenčani and Borojevići. This is still an ongoing process in the vicinity of the houses and therefore in-situ exploration started immediately. Liquefaction related to alluvial sediments of the Sava, Kupa and Glina rivers occurred almost exclusively in loose and pure sands, and was accompanied by sand boils, subsidence and lateral spreading. Liquefaction also presents a greater hazard because settlement of houses and river embankments occurred. Lateral spreading caused failures of river flood embankments and natural river banks. According to the data known to date, the majority of the coseismic landslides were reactivated with minor displacements. Despite that, it has been recognised that houses at the edge, or in landslide colluvium suffered greater damage than other houses located outside the landslide impact zone.

An upper Campanian to upper Oligocene stratigraphic succession has been examined from six deep exploration wells in the Palmyrides area of Syria. Most of the sedimentary succession contains rich and well to moderately preserved planktonic foraminiferal assemblages that enable successful age determination. The upper Campanian and Maastrichtian planktonic fauna is highly diverse with domination of warm water taxa such as Globotruncana aegyptiaca, Gansserina gansseri, Globotruncanella havanensis, Globotruncanita angulata and Pseudotextularia elegans. The most dramatic turnover occurred across the Cretaceous/Palaeocene boundary when most planktonic foraminiferal species became extinct. The oldest Palaeocene planktonic foraminiferal assemblage, rich in the number of specimens, but not very diverse, includes the following species: Eoglobigerina eobulloides, Globanomalina archeocompressa, Chiloguembelina morsei, Woodringina claytonensis and Parasubbotina pseudobulloides. The late Palaeocene is marked by origination of the morozovellids, acarininids and globanomalinids, while the early Eocene is characterized by a tropical assemblage, dominated by muricate species, and by intensive speciation of Acarinina and Subbotina in the latest part. Most of these species continue into the middle Eocene and become a significant component of the planktonic community. The middle Eocene is characterized by intensive speciation and domination of warm water genera such as Acarinina, Morozovelloides, and to a lesser degree Turborotalia, Globigerinatheka and Hantkenina. The middle/late Eocene boundary is marked by double extinction of the last muricate taxa Acarinina mcgowrani and Morozovelloides crasssatus, which indicate a variable climate, water column instability, and loss of surface habitats. In contrast, Turborotalia and Globigerinateheka become more important in the late Eocene. The Eocene/Oligocene boundary is marked by the extinction of most warm water taxa including Turborotalia cerroazulensis group, Hantkenina, Globigerinatheka and some subbotinids. The beginning of the early Oligocene is indicated by the domination of cool water taxa such as Dentoglobigerina, Globorotaloides, Tenuitella and Chiloguembelina. Speciation of the spinose surface dweller Ciperoella ciperoensis group reflects warming in the late Oligocene. The combined observations of lithology with the diversity and composition of planktonic foraminifera assemblages indicate that the Palmyrides area in Syria was a Tethyan bioprovince with a tropical to subtropical climate from the late Campanian to the end of the Eocene with deposition in deep sea environments (upper bathyal to outer shelf). In contrast, Oligocene deposits and their microfossil content suggest temperate to warm climate conditions and sedimentation in middle to inner shelf environments.

The main purpose of this contribution is to develop realistic prediction digital soil maps in order to increase their visuality, and to evaluate and compare the performance of different modeling techniques: a) Kriging, b) Artificial Neural Network – Multilayer Perceptron (ANN-MLP) and c) Multiple Polynomial Regressions (MPR). The following criteria were used to determine selection of the testing site for the modeling: (1) intensive metal ore mining and metallurgical processing; (2) geomorphological natural features; (3) regular geological setting, and (4) the remaining minefields. The success of Digital Soil Mapping and the plausibility of prediction maps increases with the availability of spatial data, the availability of computing power for processing data, the development of data-mining tools, geographical information systems (GIS) and numerous applications beyond geostatistics. Advanced prediction modeling techniques, ANN-MLP and MPR include geospatial parameters sourced from Digital Elevation Models (DEM), land use and remote sensing, applied in combination with costly and time-consuming soil measurements, developed and finally incorporated into the models of spatial distribution in the form of 2D or 3D maps. Innovative approaches to modeling assist us in the reconstruction of different processes that impact the entire study area, simultaneously. This holistic approach represents a novelty in contamination mapping and develops prediction models to help in the reconstruction of main distribution pathways, to assess the real size of the affected area as well as improving the data interpretation.

This study is focused on cave bears from the Grotta del Bandito (Cuneo Province, Piedmont Region, Northern Italy), especially their teeth.The morphodynamic analyses have been elaborated and compared with other cave bears from Northern Italy, and other cave bear taxa from particular European sites.The Grotta del Bandito bears are similar in size to other cave bears from Italy, and no differences were observed with the other cave bear species or subspecies (e.g.U. ingressus, U. s. ladinicus, U. s. eremus).Thus their inclusion in the U. gr.spelaeus is the most appropriate classification, and they show a simpler dental surface than the "modern" cave bears (i.e.ingressus).The question of whether a single species of spelaeus lived in North Italy, is also introduced.In fact, the differences in size are probably the result of population variability, and no clear evidence of other spelaeoid species and/or subspecies, i.e. ingressus, s. ladinicus and s. eremus, was discovered.

In biostratigraphic research of the Upper Miocene of the Pannonian Basin System, one of the frequently detected and important ostracod genera is Hemicytheria. Among more than 20 species of this genus, Hemicytheria setosa is present in sandy facies of the Lake Pannon sediments in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The aims of this study were to describe sexual dimorphism and differences between left and right valve morphology in Hemicytheria setosa. Landmark based geometric morphometrics is applied on the grounds of existence of the homologue pattern of the fossae and pore conuli on the valve surface of this group of ostracods. Significant differences between the sexes and between the left and right valves are detected in the present study. The obtained results indicate that applied methods and chosen landmarks could be useful in the studies of valve ornamentation-variation in fossil and recent Ostracoda.