The lower Cambrian Lagerstätte of Sirius Passet, Peary Land, North Greenland, is one of the oldest of the Phanerozoic exceptionally preserved biotas. The Lagerstätte evidences the escalation of numbers of new body plans and life modes that formed the basis for a modern, functionally tiered ecosystem. The fauna is dominated by predators, infaunal, benthic and pelagic, and the presence of abundant nekton, including large sweep-net feeders, suggests an ecosystem rich in nutrients. Recent discoveries have helped reconstruct digestive systems and their contents, muscle fibres, and visual and nervous systems for a number of taxa. New collections have confirmed the complex combination of taphonomic pathways associated with the biota and its potentially substantial biodiversity. These complex animal-based communities within the Buen Formation were associated with microbial matgrounds, now preserved in black mudstones deposited below storm wave base that provide insight into the shift from late Neoproterozoic (Ediacaran) to Cambrian substrates and communities. Moreover, the encasing sediment holds important data on the palaeoenvironment and the water-column chemistry, suggesting that these animal-based communities developed in conditions with very low oxygen concentrations.

As a result of a lithological, sedimentological and biostratigraphic study of well sections from the Danish sector of the North Sea, including some recently drilled exploration wells on the Ringkøbing–Fyn High, the lithostratigraphic framework for the siliciclastic Palaeogene to Lower Neogene sediments of the Danish sector of the North Sea is revised. The sediment package from the top of the Chalk Group to the base of the Nordland Group is subdivided into seven formations containing eleven new members. The existing Våle, Lista, Sele, Fur, Balder, Horda and Lark Formations of previously published lithostratigraphic schemes are adequate for a subdivision of the Danish sector at formation level. Bor is a new sandstone member of the Våle Formation. The Lista Formation is subdivided into three new mudstone members: Vile, Ve and Bue, and three new sandstone members: Tyr, Idun and Rind. Kolga is a new sandstone member of the Sele Formation. Hefring is a new sandstone member of the Horda Formation. Freja and Dufa are two new sandstone members of the Lark Formation. Danish reference sections are established for the formations, and the descriptions of their lithology, biostratigraphy, age and palaeoenvironmental setting are updated.

The early Eocene (c. 56 - 48 million years ago) experienced some of the highest global temperatures in Earth’s history since the Mesozoic, with no polar ice. Reports of contradictory ice-rafted erratics and cold water glendonites in the higher latitudes have been largely dismissed due to ambiguity of the significance of these purported cold-climate indicators. Here we apply clumped isotope paleothermometry to a traditionally qualitative abiotic proxy, glendonite calcite, to generate quantitative temperature estimates for northern mid-latitude bottom waters. Our data show that the glendonites of the Danish Basin formed in waters below 5 °C, at water depths of <300 m. Such near-freezing temperatures have not previously been reconstructed from proxy data for anywhere on the early Eocene Earth, and these data therefore suggest that regionalised cool episodes punctuated the background warmth of the early Eocene, likely linked to eruptive phases of the North Atlantic Igneous Province.

Meso-Cenozoic evidence suggests links between changes in the expression of orbital changes and millennia-scale climatic- and biotic variations, but proof for such shifts in orbital cyclicity farther back in geological time is lacking. Here, we report a 469-million-year-old Palaeozoic energy transfer from precession to 405 kyr eccentricity cycles that coincides with the start of the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE). Based on an early Middle Ordovician astronomically calibrated cyclostratigraphic framework we find this orbital change to succeed the onset of icehouse conditions by 200,000 years, suggesting a climatic origin. Recently, this icehouse was postulated to be facilitated by extra-terrestrial dust associated with an asteroid breakup. Our timescale, however, shows the meteor bombardment to post-date the icehouse by 800,000 years, instead pausing the GOBE 600,000 years after its initiation. Resolving Milankovitch cyclicity in deep time thus suggests universal orbital control in modulating climate, and maybe even biodiversity accumulation, through geological time.