Digital Commons Network^™

The Paleoceanography Of The Jurassic Western Interior Seaway, Richard Reynolds, Rhodri Jerrett, Marc Davies, Uwe Balthasar, Gregory Price

Faculty of Science and Engineering Datasets

Supplimentry material for the paper: The Paleoceanography of the Jurassic Western Interior Seaway

Paleoenvironmental Fluctuations Across The Mid-Late Jurassic, Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, Richard Reynolds, Terry Poulton, Rhodri Jerrett, Marc Davies, Gregory Price

Faculty of Science and Engineering Datasets

Supplimentry material for the paper: Paleoenvironmental fluctuations across the Mid-Late Jurassic, Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin

Hydrothermal Bond Reordering Recorded In Jurassic Belemnites And Oysters From The Swift Formation, Montana, Usa, Richard Reynolds, Jessica Berry, Rhodri Jerrett, Marc Davies, Alina Marca, Richmal Paxton, Gregory Price

Faculty of Science and Engineering Datasets

Supplimentry material for the paper: Hydrothermal Bond Reordering Recorded in Jurassic Belemnites and Oysters from the Swift Formation, Montana, USA

Demand-Side Measures Improve Long-Term Resilience To Supply Shocks Beyond Emergencies, Caroline Zimm, Benigna Boza-Kiss, Shonali Pachauri, Diana Uerge-Vorsatz, Souran Chatterjee, Alessio Mastrucci, Jihoon Min, Sascha Nick, Johannes Thema, Frauke Wiese, Bas Van Ruijven, Elena Verdolini, Carina Zell-Ziegler

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Recent energy supply disruptions have prompted some governments to deploy demand-side measures as emergency responses. These crises reveal that systems built on high and inflexible energy and material demand are structurally exposed to shocks. This vulnerability is rooted in earlier political, infrastructural, and economic choices that locked societies into resource-intensive mobility, housing, and production. Crises are not only moments requiring rapid response; they are junctures where structural weaknesses become available for reform. We argue that demand-side measures are essential for reducing the immediate pain of crises and for reconfiguring provisioning systems toward lasting resilience. Drawing on examples spanning oil, electricity, …

Multilayered Childhood Adversity And Mortality: A Population-Based Cohort Study Of 1.2 Million Individuals, Naja Hulvej Rod, Signe Kær Bennetsen, Leonie K. Elsenburg, Clive E. Sabel, David Taylor–Robinson, Dora Kovacs, Adrian G. Zucco, Tjeerd Rudmer De Vries

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Background: Childhood adversity is multi-layered, extending beyond the family to include broader neighbourhood and health contexts. We aimed to investigate how these multiple layers of childhood adversity relate to the risk of death in young adulthood. Methods: Children were followed from birth into young adulthood (16–42 years) using nationwide register data on multi-layered childhood adversity and mortality. Individual adversity included perinatal adversity (preterm or small-for-gestational-age) and mental and physical health-service use. Family adversity included five distinct groups using group-based multi-trajectory modelling based on 12 adversities. Neighbourhood adversity included material deprivation in small-area geographical zones. We evaluated associations of these layers …

Nurture: A Heart–Head–Hands–Feet Curriculum Framework For Sustainable Food Systems And Planetary Health Education, Liza Barbour, Devinia Wainwright, Sarah Browne, Clare Pettinger, Jessica Wegener, Tracy Everitt, Liesel Carlsson

School of Health Professions

Introduction: Nutrition and dietetics professionals are vital to food systems transformation; however, the integration of sustainable food systems and planetary health curricula in tertiary education remains inadequate. This article presents the NURTURE framework, a curriculum tool designed in collaboration with an Indigenous artist to support educators in preparing future professionals to address global planetary crises.Methods: The framework organises 35 curriculum concepts previously identified by stakeholders across 27 countries as relevant for entry-level nutrition and dietetics professionals. Drawing on holistic educational models and Indigenous worldviews that emphasise the interconnected relationships between humans and nature, researchers mapped the concepts to four domains …

Forging Possibilities From Crisis: Radical Hope Through Grassroots Action In The Philippines, Justin See, Kaira Zoe Alburo-Canete, Pamela Gloria Cajilig, Ginbert Permejo Cuaton, Mona Nasser, Olivia Alma Sicam, Ara Joy Pacoma

Peninsula Dental School

As climate change intensifies, cultivating hope has become critical for sustaining possibilities and collective action. However, existing scholarship on hope remains predominantly Eurocentric and theoretical, offering limited empirical attention to how hope is generated and sustained through everyday actions in the Global South. This paper addresses this gap by examining four grassroots initiatives in the Philippines engaged in environmental advocacy, post-disaster recovery, youth empowerment, and speculative design. Drawing on fieldwork conducted between 2017 and 2024 and guided by the framework of radical hope, we analyse how a climate politics of hope is enacted in practice. Our findings reveal three dynamics …

Global, Regional, And National Prevalence Of Second-Hand Smoke And Attributable Disease Burden In 204 Countries And Territories, 1990–2023: A Systematic Analysis For The Global Burden Of Disease Study 2023, Gbd 2023 Second-Hand Smoke Collaborators, Debasish Kar

Peninsula Medical School

SummaryBackground Second-hand smoke (SHS) exposure remains a major source of morbidity and mortality among nonsmokers. This study presents the first dedicated Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD)publication to systematically quantify SHS prevalence and evaluate its effect as a global risk factor across a broaderrange of outcomes.Methods Using the GBD 2023 comparative risk assessment framework, we estimated SHS exposure prevalence andattributable disease burden across 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2023, stratified by age and sex. Exposureestimates were derived by synthesising population-based surveys and household composition data throughspatiotemporal Gaussian process regression. Relative risks for nine health …

Whose Neighbourhood: A Study Of Early Challenges And Opportunities In Delivering Pride In Place, Katharine Willis, Kasper De Graaf

School of Art, Design and Architecture

’Whose neighbourhood?‘ examines the early challenges and opportunities in delivering the Government’s Pride in Place programme and asks what is needed to turn the devolution of funding into genuine community power.Pride in Place provides 284 neighbourhoods across the UK with up to £20 million each in funding and support over ten years, with local communities intended to play the leading role in deciding how that investment is used. The report welcomes the scale, duration and community-led ambition of the programme, but finds that there remains a significant gap between that ambition and the practical capability needed to deliver it — …

Paragliding The Cliff Edge: Introducing Open Mic Studies. A Creative Response To Navigating The Post-18 Landscape For Young Adults With Send., James Tarling, Charlie Robinson, Nick Hall, Sammy Shepherd

Plymouth Interdisciplinary Education Open Journal

This conceptual article investigates novel ways of thinking about Open Mic Nights (OMN) – performance spaces understood as free, community arts and performance opportunities where the members of the public are welcome to perform music, poetry and comedy in front of an audience. For the purposes of this article, music-related OMN that take place in pubs or community centres are discussed.

The article is intended to be a primer for OMN studies that offers new and emerging trailheads for future research and discussion. Its central focus is how OMN may benefit the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) community with …

Quality Reveals What Quantity Conceals: Deceptive Equity Patterns In Urban Green Space Distribution, Zheng Xian, Yoshiharu Suzuki, Kun Liu, Clive E. Sabel, Naoki Nakaya, Atsushi Hozawa, Tomoki Nakaya

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Equitable provision of urban green space depends on how green space exposure is measured, yet aggregate, quantity-focused metrics can mask disparities in quality. We introduce the concept of deceptive equity, in which apparent distributional fairness conceals substantive inequality, and test it across 344 postcode areas in Sendai, Japan. Across three dimensions — ecological (NDVI), perceptual (Green View Index) and service provision (accessible park count) — we paired a quantity indicator with a quality indicator. A quantity–quality divergence emerged in every dimension: wherever a quality indicator showed a significant socioeconomic gradient it favoured affluent areas, whereas the corresponding quantity indicators were …

Psychotropic Medication Prescribing To Children And Young People Mental Health Inpatient Services: An English National Study, David Branford, Anne Webster, Marinos Kyriakopoulos, Shermin Imran, Prathiba Chitsabesan, Tina Irani, Teresa Randon, Kirsten Peebles, Rohit Shankar

Peninsula Medical School

Background:Mental disorders frequently begin in childhood or adolescence. Worldwide, psychotropics are commonly prescribed for under-18s to stabilise behaviour, mood or thoughts. Psychotropics could cause long-term effects on children and young people (CYP) health, growth and development. There is a knowledge gap about psychotropic prescribing in CYP mental health inpatient units.Aims:To understand and compare psychotropic prescribing patterns in England mental health inpatient units for CYPs and to solicit CYP and their parents’ and carers’ views of it.Method:A national Quality Improvement programme authorised by National Health Service (NHS) England invited all English CYP mental health inpatient units to participate. The programme included …

An Interdisciplinary Approach To Sampling Hard Rock Cores Of The Oceanic Crust For Microbiological And Biogeochemical Research, William J. Brazelton, Oscar Cavazos, Jordyn A. Robare, Gordon Southam, Johanna Suhonen, Fengping Wang, Susan Q. Lang, Andrew Mccaig, Peter Blum, Natsue Abe, Remi Coltat, Jeremy R. Deans, Kristin L. Dickerson, Marguerite Godard, Barbara E. John, Frieder Klein, Rebecca Kuehn, Kuan-Yu Lin, C. Johan Lissenberg, Haiyang Liu, Ethan L. Lopes, Toshio Nozaka, Andrew J. Parsons, Vamdev Pathak, Mark K. Reagan, C. Geoffrey Wheat

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Studying life in the deep, rocky subseafloor involves many layers of technological and methodological challenges, and each drilling project or expedition must make a series of choices to address these challenges. We report on the workflow for sampling hard rock cores for microbiological and biogeochemical research that was developed and optimized during International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 399. All steps of the workflow, including selection of the sample and its shipboard homogenization and subsampling for specific analyses, were designed to maximize the potential for interdisciplinary collaborations and syntheses of results. Furthermore, multiple strategies to minimize and detect potential microbial …

Large-Scale Dna Barcoding Reveals Highly Distinct Insect Distribution Patterns Across Costa Rican Ecosystems, José A. Hernández Ugalde, Daniel H. Janzen, Winnie Hallwachs, Bert Kohlmann, Paul D.N. Hebert, Brian V. Brown, James Whitfield, José. L. Fernández-Triana, Roberto Fernández Ugalde, Eugenie Phillips Rodriguez, Ronald Zúñiga, M. Alex Smith, Dirk Steinke, Michael Sharky, Donald Quicke, Ramya Manjunath, Robert Puschendorf

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Although insects are fundamental to understanding and conserving global biodiversity, they are vastly understudied. Here, we present a national inventory of Costa Rican insects based upon 3.78 million DNA barcodes representing 152 891 Barcode Index Numbers (BINs, proxies for species) from 28 localities sampled from 2017 to 2023 through the national BioAlfa program of Costa Rica. Although only 3.6% of BINs are linked to Linnean species, barcode-based community analyses revealed strong, consistent ecogeographic structure. Clustering of BIN data using bootstrapped Jaccard distances revealed seven distinct mainland assemblages and a distinct island cluster, shaped primarily by Costa Rica’s mountain ranges, elevation, …

Tidally Driven Topographic Eddies Exploited By Manta Feeding Aggregations, Harvey Cairns, Daniel Conley, Christopher Stokes, Tim Scott, Philip Hosegood

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

The seasonal feeding aggregations of reef manta rays (Mobula alfredi) in Hanifaru Bay, Maldives, are the largest known of their kind, yet the mechanisms facilitating this phenomenon remain poorly understood. Understanding these drivers is crucial for effective conservation and management, as protecting key foraging habitats requires knowledge of the physical processes influencing prey availability. While previous studies highlight the role of zooplankton in attracting manta, the oceanographic mechanisms responsible for concentrating prey within the bay remain hypothesised but unproven. Specifically, the influence of eddy dynamics, tidal forcing, and regional circulation on zooplankton distribution has not been thoroughly examined.A …

A Tropically Hot Late Jurassic North American Sundance Sea: Evidence For The Oxfordian Warm Interval, R. W. Reynolds, R. Jerrett, A. Marca, M. Davies, S. M. Bernasconi, R. B. Paxton, G. Nowell, P. Dennis, U. Balthasar, G. D. Price

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The Late Jurassic greenhouse climate was characterized by elevated atmospheric CO₂ (pCO₂) at 600–1,000 ppm and sea-surface temperatures substantially warmer than today. These conditions peaked during the Oxfordian, when extensive epicontinental seaways, including the North American Sundance Sea, dominated mid-latitude paleoceanography. We present clumped isotope (Δ₄₇) and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr analyses of Oxfordian belemnite and Gryphaea fossils from the Sundance Sea to reconstruct paleotemperatures (tΔ₄₇) and assess the balance between open ocean and terrestrial inputs. The data reveal (a) a mean tΔ₄₇ of 30.6°C (±1.6 1SE), or 27.6°C (±1.6 1SE) if …

Airport Coopetition And Spatial Heterogeneity In China: A Two-Regime Spatial Econometric Analysis, Zhen Wu, Polin Lai, Saeyeon Roh, Jeong Hugh Han

Plymouth Business School

The development of aeronautical infrastructure and the rise of low-cost carriers have substantially increased the demand for air travel. Moreover, airport development is shaped by spatial heterogeneity factors such as environmental conditions, regulatory frameworks, and socioeconomic variables, which complicate coopetitive interactions within the aviation network. To examine these phenomena, a dual-regime spatial econometric model utilizing different spatial weight matrices has been constructed. The model captures asymmetries in airport coopetition by analyzing variations in spatial autoregressive coefficients across regimes and identifies the spatial heterogeneity factors that drive these asymmetric relationships. Analyzing data from 48 major Chinese airports over 22 years reveals …

Organising, Sustaining, Experiencing And Integrating Mental Health Crisis Care For Children And Young People: Qualitative Findings From Eight Contrasting Case Studies In England And Wales [Version 1; Peer Review: Awaiting Peer Review], Clare Bennett, Leanne Sawle, Claire Fraser, Rachael Vaughan, Steven Pryjmachuk, Iain Mcmillan, Aled Jones, Euan Hails, Nicola Bennett, Martin Elliott, Mair Elliott, Ben Hannigan, Williams Jessy

School of Nursing and Midwifery

BackgroundCrisis services are an important part of the system of mental health care for children and young people (CYP), but little is known about them or the experiences of CYP and families. This article reports findings from a normalisation process theory (NPT)-informed sequential mixed methods study, comprising three work packages (WPs), which set out to generate new knowledge in this area.MethodsApproaches to CYP crisis care across England and Wales were mapped in WP1 using survey design. Previously reported findings from this WP point to heterogeneity in service types and interventions. In WP2 eight contrasting services (five in England, three in …

Delivering Participatory Food Systems Research In Our Own Communities: Reflections About Co-Production By Community Food Researchers And Community Partners, Bramble Gardiner, Maria Roughton, Lisa Howard, Louise Hunt, Clare Pettinger, Nisa Unis

School of Health Professions

This article offers insights into delivering co-production in community settings, from the perspectives of engaged citizens and community partners. It adds to scholarship addressing epistemic justice issues that the experiences of engaged citizens are rarely explored.The engaged citizens are community collaborators in FoodSEqual (a UKRI-funded transdisciplinary project aiming to co-produce solutions to food system inequality in four UK locations). During FoodSEqual’s delivery, it became clear contextual factors and practical delivery varied. To support shared learning, an in-person reflective session was held using the ‘open space method’ (Involve, n.d) (participants: Community Food Researchers (CFRs) (n=14), community coordinators (n=6)). Four key themes …

Delivering Participatory Food Systems Research In Our Own Communities: Reflections About Co-Production By Community Food Researchers And Community Partners, Bramble H. Gardiner, Maria Roughton, Lisa Howard, Louise Hunt, Unis Nisa, Clare Pettinger

School of Health Professions

This article offers insights into delivering co-production in community settings, from the perspectives of engaged citizens and community partners. It adds to scholarship addressing epistemic justice issues that the experiences of engaged citizens are rarely explored. The engaged citizens are community collaborators in FoodSEqual (a UKRI-funded transdisciplinary project aiming to co-produce solutions to food system inequality in four UK locations). During FoodSEqual’s delivery, it became clear contextual factors and practical delivery varied. To support shared learning, an in-person reflective session was held using the ‘open space method’ (Involve, n.d.) (participants: Community Food Researchers (CFRs) (n = 14), community coordinators (n …

Correlating High-Resolution Terrestrial Organic Carbon Isotope Records Across The Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary, Gregory D. Price, Rhodri M. Jerrett, Lauren K. O'Connor, Emily Dearing Crampton-Flood, Bart E. Van Dongen, Sabine K. Lengger, Marc Davies

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (∼66 million years ago) represents the most recent mass extinction event when an estimated 75% of all species became extinct, including all non-avian dinosaurs. Here we focus on the stable carbon isotope (δ¹³C) analysis of coal and coaly sediments across the terrestrial K/Pg boundary from 10 sites, between 42 and 64°N, USA and Canada. Our δ¹³C data set shows a statistically significant positive correlation with paleolatitude that we interpret as a consequence of our lower latitude sites being relatively warmer and more humid than our higher latitude sites. Temporally, our data indicates that …

How To Engage With, And Have Impact On, Marine Governance: A Practical Guide For Early-Career Researchers, Denis B. Karcher, Christopher Cvitanovic, Melanie C. Austen, Aislinn F. Dunne, Louisa Evans, Rebecca Gruby, Nicole Malinconico, Shannon Mclaughlin, E. J. Milner-Gulland, Nathalie A. Steins

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Early-career researchers (ECRs) are at the forefront of producing the knowledge and solutions needed to address contemporary ocean challenges. Their work is often highly inter- and transdisciplinary, generating insights that are critical for informed decision-making, and effective and equitable marine governance. Yet, despite this potential for impact, many ECRs lack access to the tools, training, and institutional support necessary to engage meaningfully with governance processes. Such structural complexities are further compounded by practical constraints that ECRs experience such as short project timelines and limited networks, making engagement with governance particularly intimidating and/or difficult for ECRs. This commentary seeks to empower …

Early Insights On Delivering Pride In Place, Katharine Willis, Kasper De Graaf

School of Art, Design and Architecture

This paper presents early-stage insights from a research study commissioned by Key Cities (KC) and carried out by the Key Cities Innovation Network (KCIN) in partnership with the Centre for Place at the University of Plymouth. The study examines the implementation and early delivery of the Government’s flagship Pride in Place (PiP) Programme across a representative sample of Phase 1 and Phase 2 neighbourhoods within the Key Cities network.Findings are drawn from interviews with Members of Parliament and local authority representatives in six selected PiP neighbourhoods. At the time of writing, fieldwork in five of the six case-study areas has …

Programmes That Integrate Parenting Support And Financial Well-Being Support: A Systematic Scoping Review, Eleanor F. Bryant, Morwenna Rogers, Amy Bond, Georgia Smith, Rebecca Summers, James Hall, Kristin Liabo, Iain Lang, Vashti Berry, Nick Axford

Peninsula Medical School

Childhood experiences of economic disadvantage have harmful and long-lasting effects on child health. Early intervention can reduce some harms but it is unclear whether addressing economic disadvantage alongside psychosocial support yields additional benefits. This systematic scoping review aimed to identify evaluated programmes that integrate parenting support (PS) and financial well-being support (FWbS) for parents of children aged 0–19. The objectives were to describe programmes, relevant components, evaluation designs and impact on outcomes, and to consider if any programmes merit replication and testing in a UK context. Outcome or implementation evaluations of integrated PS and FWbS programmes published in English were …

Crowd-Sourced Glacier Mapping As A Tool For Enhancing Climate Literacy And Data Generation, Caroline Clason, Sally Rangecroft, Shaun Lewin, Gina Kallis, Tom Mullier, Will Blake, Iain Stewart

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Citizen science approaches are increasingly used to support data generation and public engagement across the environmental sciences, yet their wider pedagogical value within physical geography remains underexamined. To explore the value of mapping-based citizen science for both glaciological investigation and geographical learning, we developed GlacierMap, an interactive online tool enabling participants to map glacier change in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca over a 34-year period. GlacierMap was designed not only to assess the feasibility and value of crowd-sourced glacier mapping, but also as a vehicle to support experiential learning of the trends in, and impacts of, tropical mountain glacier retreat. Participants mapped …

Examining The Role Of Physical Illustrations Within The Home To Represent Our Connections With The Climate Emergency And Its Potential For Climate Action, Devon Tipping

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

In a time of upheaval and rapid change individuals and society arechallenged emotionally, often expressed as anxiety and a sense of powerlessness.This is particularly relevant in terms of environmental issues and in the context ofthe climate emergency which has contributed to a rise in eco-anxiety. Within thiscontext, illustration can offer valuable tools to inspire climate action. Artwork, acommon feature in most homes, is often viewed daily, yet can it serve a purposebeyond decoration?The project, Floriography, explored how images within domestic spaces can fosterclimate awareness. The focus was to engage people who may find climateconversations overwhelming, using illustration to introduce these …

Transforming Urban Food Systems: Could Food Democracy And Food Citizenship Be Advanced By Personal And Community Impacts Of Co-Production Processes?, Bramble Gardiner, Mary Hickson, Louise Hunt, Amanda Haslam-Lucas, Barbara Diouri, Joanna Ruminska, Laura Dunn, Yve Ashton, Clare Pettinger

School of Health Professions

For complex challenges like food systems transformation, scholars suggest co-production involving multiple actors including citizens is essential. Additionally, some argue for a transformation towards ‘food democracy’. This vision aims for food system decision making to be shared across diverse actors, and people to move from being consumers to citizens (food citizenship). Urban food policy initiatives are examples of innovation in food democracy and food citizenship, but delivering authentic participation is an ongoing challenge and the impacts on those engaged have rarely been studied. Furthermore, personal transformations are essential for societal transformations and similarly receive minimal focus. The need for development …

A Taxonomy Of Children And Young People's Social Prescribing Models: A Multi-Site Implementation Case Study In England, Vashti Berry, Siobhan Mitchell, Joe Coombes, Marcello Bertotti, Daniel Hayes, Lucy Cartwright, Kerryn Husk

Peninsula Medical School

Introduction.Social prescribing for children and young people (CYP) is expanding across England, yet there is limited understanding of how local services interpret and configure its core components—individual need, referrer, linking function and community activity—particularly for CYP presenting with mental health difficulties.Methods.Using a multi-site case study design, we examined five CYP-focused social prescribing pathways selected for their diversity of institutional anchors and implementation maturity. Data collection included pathway visualization with site leads and 34 semi-structured interviews with referrers, link workers, managers and practitioners. Thematic analysis was used to compare pathway structures and functions across cases to support development of an empirically …

Epidermicin Ni01 Demonstrates Potent In Vivo Activity In A Murine Model Of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Skin Infection, Vicky Bennett, Gordon Barker, Andrew Sharp, Victoria L. Birkett, Jennifer Williams, Pani Tourlomousis, Mathew Upton

School of Biomedical Sciences

Objectives: In the UK, over 16% of antibiotic prescriptions are for skin infections. New approaches are required to treat and prevent such infections, and new therapeutic modalities should be investigated. Epidermicin NI01 is a first-in-class bacteriocin with potent activity and a novel mode of action against MRSA and Streptococci, leading causes of community and healthcare acquired skin infections and a significant burden of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The activity of NI01 in a model of MRSA skin infection was assessed during this study. Methods: Immunosuppressed male CD1 mice were wounded dorsally using tape-stripping and S. aureus strain USA300 was topically applied. …

Monospecific Mass Occurrence Of The Dimerelloid Brachiopod Halorella Amphitoma In A Shallow Marine Environment Of The Late Triassic Dachstein Platform (Bakony Mountains, Hungary), Tamás Müller, Attila Vörös, János Haas, Tamás Budai, Clemens V. Ullmann, Gregory D. Price, József Pálfy

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Dimerelloid brachiopods with patchy but cosmopolitan geographical distribution, including the Late Triassic (Norian) Halorella amphitoma, offer a unique opportunity to identify and reconstruct specific palaeo-microenvironments in the geological past. The group and this species are commonly associated with hydrocarbon seepage in Palaeozoic and Mesozoic records. In addition, mass occurrences of H. amphitoma are also known from neptunian dykes and palaeokarst cavities on the vast Late Triassic Dachstein carbonate platform. It has been suggested that the shells were either washed into these structures or the animals were living directly there in a dark environment, but normal marine conditions were implied for …