Upper Jurassic sediments from the Inner Moray Basin have been analysed using a variety of organic geochemical techniques. Shales belonging to the Kimmeridge Clay and Heather/Brora Formations may be readily distinguished using molecular parameters, bulk geochemical data and the results of transmitted light kerogen microscopy. Oxfordian sediments are characteristically more organic lean and sulphur poor than their ?Volgian - Kimmeridgian counterparts; they also contain a more significant terrestrially derived organic matter component. Lipid fractions in the remainder of the succession are typically dominated by the products of marine algal phytoplankton and bacteria. Detailed investigation of the distribution of biological marker compounds indicates that the nuclear demethylated hopanes are confined exclusively to sediments of ?Volgian - Kimmeridgian age in this basin. This feature, together with other more subtle, non-source specific variations may be attributed to a decrease in the dissolved oxygen content of the water column throughout the Upper Jurassic. All maturity measurements concur that in this region the Upper Jurassic sediments are insufficiently mature to have generated or expelled significant volumes of petroleum at any stage throughout their geological history. A range of maturities is nevertheless recognized which permits a ranking of the individual wells, and indicates that shales overlying the Beatrice reservoir have experienced the greatest thermal stress. A marked discrepancy in the maturities of contemporaneous sediments from two groups of wells presently at the same burial depth, has also been identified. This is largely consistent with the observed variation in geothermal gradients and the distribution of Kimmeridgian sands across the basin. Kinetic modelling using the biological marker maturity parameters has established that in the west 1km of sediment has been removed following Tertiary inversion of the basin. Results indicate that in the east, a figure of 700-800m is more appropriate. Potential source rock lithologies from the margins of the basin have also been examined. These included the Jurassic sediments in the Helmsdale outlier and Middle Devonian lacustrine laminites from Caithness. A Middle Devonian component to the Beatrice crude is strongly suggested by the similarity of their steroid alkane distributions.

No / The Covesea Caves, located on the coast of the Moray Firth in northeastern Scotland, are a series of archaeological cave sites that are hypothesized to be part of a larger mortuary complex used during the Late Prehistoric period. Although much attention has been given to the unusual assemblage of human remains recovered from these sites, there has been less analysis undertaken on the vast amount of archaeofauna from the caves. This is in the process of being rectified through the recent work of the Covesea Cave Project, under direction of Ian Armit and Lindsey Büster and currently being undertaken at the University of Bradford. This report details attempts to confirm species identifications for several faunal bones of interest through various methodologies; unfortunately, not all of the attempts were successful. However, identifications are confirmed for two avian bones using comparative osteological analysis at the Avian Anatomical Collection at the Natural History Museum at Tring, United Kingdom. These species are placed in context through consideration of previous excavations at the Covesea Caves, as well as recent literature on ornithological analyses of ritual and funerary sites in Later Prehistoric Britain.