Large iron deposits formed episodically in the Archaean oceans. Experimental data and geochemical modelling suggest that green rust was an important contributor to the formation of these deposits and the Archaean iron cycle in general.

Analysis of exceptionally preserved fossils of the Cambrian hyolith Haplophrentis leads to a proposed evolutionary relationship with Lophophorata, the group containing brachiopods and phoronids, on the basis of a newly described tentacular feeding apparatus.

Simulations of Pluto suggest that the sharp ridges in the Tartarus Dorsa region of Pluto are penitentes that formed over the past tens of millions of years.

The chimaeroids are one of the four principal divisions of the living jawed vertebrates and their evolutionary origins have been hard to discern; here, the study of a skull of the extinct shark Dwykaselachus shows that the chimaeroids nest among the once fairly common and widespread symmoriiforms.

Pressure during subduction is thought to reduce porosity and restrict water escape from the slab. Thermodynamic modelling shows that channel networks, which grow around local chemical heterogeneities, can help drain the subducting plate.