Just what was Surrey like 124 million years ago? This summer great excitement was expressed at the finding of a good portion of a megalosaur-like flesh-eating dinosaur well within the limit of the stockbroker belt. Life presumably in those early Cretaceous days in the Home Counties was less hectic - no mass day-return migration into the centre of the Thames basin, no mortgages. On the other hand 'Clawsí as has affectionately been nicknamed would have had to watch its big neighbours rather closely, for example Tyranosaurus Rex whose shear bulk and alleged ferocity has captured the imagination of twentieth century film makers. There would have been no shortage of prey for Claws including small herbivorous dinosaur, fish and possibly small mammals and as for the climate, Britain is thought to have been enjoying a sub-tropical phase. On the wider front an East-West split seemed imminent as the North Atlantic began to grow with all its tectonic and volcanic ramifications but Surrey then as now was little affected by northern rumblings!

The Work of Ice?

To our dismay, we note the passing of Agassiz Rock at Blackford Hill. Recently one could never be sure that scratches on the rock were really "the work of iceî for such details were obscured by the soot of many boy scoutsí bonfires. However the localityís significance in the history of Quaternary research in this country will not be forgotten for it is here that in 1840, in the company of Charles MacLaren, Editor of The Scotsman, the Swiss geologist Louis Agassiz pronounced the striations to be the work of land ice.

The Fossil Man

Readers who saw the BBC documentary on Stan Wood and his Carboniferous sharks - 'Stan, Stan, the Fossil Maní - will have been impressed at the energy and dedication of a true enthusiast at work. and who is a Fellow of the Society, demonstrated the fine preservation the palaeoniscid and crustacean fauna found at Bearsden and, clearly, the find is extremely important for morphological and palaeo-ecological reasons. Stan Woodís paper in Nature (Vol. 297, pp. 574-577, 1982) describes the discovery.

Outer Hebrides Data-bank

Another Fellow of the Society, Dr. Frank Rennie writes to say that he is co-ordinating the setting-up of a scientific data-bank of the Outer Hebrides and would welcome any information relating to scientific work carried out in the islands. The data-bank which will be regularly updated will be available for use by individuals and educational group. If you can help or would like to know more please write to Dr. Rennie c/o Hebridean Natural Environment Project, Hebrides Study Centre, Glen House Mill, Shawbost, Isle of Lewis.