Designated terrains cretaces by d'Omalius d'Halloy in 1822, the System takes its name from creta, the Latin for chalk. This is the most conspicuous rock-type in Europe, and Cretaceous chalks are also known from parts of North America and Western Australia. The system is here divided into two and the term 'Middle Cretaceous' is not employed since it has no internationally agreed limits and is little used outside the Middle East. The Lower Cretaceous was formerly separated by some American authors as a distinct system, the Comanchean (from the town of Comanche, Texas). The Upper Cretaceous corresponds roughly to the Chalk Formation of earlier authors, chalk (Saxon cealc, German kalk, meaning lime) having been used as a geological term in England since the Middle Ages and in print from the time of Martin Lister (1684). Its white chalk cliffs gave England its first recorded name of "Albion". <...>

IGCP-350, "Cretaceous Environmental Change in East and South Asia", began in 1993 with the active participation of members from 12 countries. The first international organisational meting was held in Fukuoka, Japan, in November 1993, in order to establish a working framework for effective international cooperation, and to discuss the status of research in participating regions, and future project goals.

This meeting was attended by regional coordinators from eight countries, including some Japanese Cretaceous researchers. Presentations made by the regional coordinators were of sufficient interest and quality that it was decided to make them more widely available through this special issue of the project newsletter. Papers in this issue cover aspects of the Cretaceous geology in Australia, India, the Philippines, China, Korea, Japan, and the Russian Far East.