The new farreid hexactinellid sponge Hormathospongia dictyota new genus and new species, is described from the upper Santonian Dobbins Shale Member of the Forbes Formation of the Upper Cretaceous Great Valley Sequence from the west side of the Sacramento Valley, northwest of Sacramento. The relatively simple skeleton is composed of quadrangularly arranged hexactines with overlapping rays, an arrangement strikingly similar to the skeletal structure of early Paleozoic reticulosid hexactinellids. However, the California Cretaceous sponges clearly show those spicules embedded in siliceous beams that are united to form a solid dictyonal skeletal framework of only a single layer of regular mesh. Such an occurrence and stratigraphic relationships suggests that the dictyonine sponges had their origin from the simply spiculed reticulosid hexactinellids rather than from the more complex dictyosponges.

Heliolitine corals are closely associated with lithistid sponge-dominated reef mounds in Ludlow carbonate ramp facies on Somerset Island. The corals occur abundantly in argillaceous, fossiliferous wackestone immediately flanking and capping the reef mounds, less commonly in calcilutite mudstone within the reef mounds, and with sharply decreasing abundance in nodular argillaceous wackestone to mudstone away from the reef mounds. Exhaustive field collection, and systematic study that included biometric analysis of collected assemblages, indicates that ten heliolitine species are present, including the new species Heliolites furyi, H. garnieri, and H. greineri, and two unidentified species, Heliolites sp. A, and Podollites? sp. The occurrence of H. subdecipiens Klaamann, 1984, H. tchernyshevi Bondarenko, 1966, H. cf. H. rariformis Tchi, 1976, Stelliporella cf. S. podolica Bondarenko, 1971, and Squameolites anomalus Tchi, 1976 indicates an affinity with Eurasian rather than North American faunas of equivalent age. Many new species have been ascribed to Stelliporella since the mid-1970s; most lack the diagnostic axial structures of the genus and are more appropriately regarded as belonging to Heliolites. Newly defined structures termed septal florets occur commonly in H. garnieri and very rarely in three other species of Heliolites. Effective taxonomic use of septal development requires very careful study because of the degree of intraspecific and intracolony variation in some species.

Continental slope facies in eastern New York have the most diverse small shelly faunas known in Laurentian late Early Cambrian strata. Diversity of a lower Elliptocephala asaphoides assemblage, the oldest body fauna in the Taconic allochthon, reflects turbidity current exhumation, transport, and deposition of phosphatized fossil hash in a proximal facies of the Browns Pond Formation. Phosphatization is linked to the first of two Olenellus Chron intervals with a thickened dysaerobic water mass on the slope. This interval of increased rate of sea-level rise corresponds to development of extensive carbonate belts and onlap of dark shales (e.g., Forteau and lower Kinzers formations) on the east Laurentian shelf.

The assemblage includes two trilobites, archaeocyathan fragments, echinoderm debris, the first edrioasteriod from east Laurentia, and 26 small shelly fossil species. New taxa are Asperconella new genus and Stenotheca taconica new species (helcionellids); Mackinnonia obliqua new species (pararostroconch); Conotheca laurentiensis new species, Insolitotheca new genus, and Petasotheca minuta new genus and species (hyoliths); and Plinthokonion? psamminon new species (agglutinated problematicum).

Rare patellogastropod limpets are described from the Cenomanian to Campanian (Cretaceous) age sediments in Hokkaido, northern Japan and Sakhalin, eastern Russia. Shell structure analysis has revealed the presence of five shell structure groups within six species, permitting the allocation of three of the species identified to modern clades. However, the other three species recorded belong to shell-structure groups not known at the present day. The species described in this paper are Patella soyaensis new species, Patella sp., Patelloida obirensis new species, ?Patelloida miyauchii new species, an indeterminate species of the Lottiinae, and an indeterminate species and belonging to an unknown family. Two species are recognized as belonging to the Patellidae and three species to the Lottiidae, demonstrating that two of the three major families found to inhabit present-day rocky shore environments already existed in the Cretaceous. The discovery of two Patella species belonging to a modern clade found in South Africa indicates that the fossil record of the clade dates back more than 80 Ma and the distribution of the clade has changed markedly since that time. The occurrence of Patelloida from the northwestern Pacific further elucidates the worldwide distribution for this genus during the Cretaceous.

Twenty-four species of pteropods are described from the Pliocene Miyazaki Group in the Tsuma-Takanabe district, Miyazaki Prefecture, southwest Japan. Five are new: Clio shibatai new species, Cuvierina miyazakiensis new species, Cavolinia floridana japonica new subspecies, C. itoigawai new species, and C. vendryesiana hyugaensis new subspecies.

The pteropod fauna of the two lower members of the Miyazaki Group consists largely of extinct species. Whereas more than one-half of the species of the two upper members are extant.

Twelve species, Limacina sp., Clio hataii (Noda, 1972), C. shibatai new species, Cuvierina miyazakiensis new species, Bowdenatheca? sp., Diacria digitata subsp. indet., Cavolinia floridana japonica new subspecies, C. cf. C. gypsorum (Bellardi, 1873), C. itoigawai new species, C. mexicana (Collins, 1934), C. rattonei Simonelli, 1896, and C. vendryesiana hyugaensis new subspecies seem to serve as good index fossils for the Pliocene.

Two previously undescribed species of Bivalvia of Eocene age are herein tentatively considered to belong to the family Lucinidae because of their ligament areas and elongated anterior adductor scars. Both species are elongate for a lucinid, have edentulous hinges, striated muscle scars, and are placed in the new genus Cryptolucina. Both are found in the Humptulips Formation of middle to late Eocene age in western Washington, and both Cryptolucina megadyseides new species and C. elassodyseides new species are associated with deep-water, cold-seep limestone. Cryptolucina megadyseides is also associated with turbiditic mudstone.

The description of a specimen of Aturia coxi from the uppermost Miocene of central Japan provides additional data on this poorly known Neogene species. Aturia coxi Miller is the youngest representative of this nautiloid genus, which is known from the middle to upper Miocene formations of the Indo-Western Pacific and became extinct at the end of Miocene. In addition to the presence of Aturia coxi, the abundance of tropical and subtropical benthic molluscs indicates that tropical molluscan faunas invaded mid-latitude waters around Japan in the latest Miocene. The extinction of Aturia and other Miocene molluscan genera marks the end of the Miocene Epoch.

The base of the Paleocene Hornerstown Formation at the Inversand pit and certain other localities in New Jersey yields a diverse phosphatised fauna of Maastrichtian age, including the ammonites Pachydsicus (Neodesmoceras) mokotibensis Collignon, 1952, Sphenodiscus lobatus (Tuomey, 1854), Baculites spp., and Eubaculites carinatus (Morton, 1834). S. lobatus is known from the older Red Bank Sand and Tinton Sand in New Jersey; the other species are known only from the basal Hornerstown. Occurrences at the Inversand pit are regarded as either reworked or remainié, although details of Cretaceous/Paleocene boundary events have been destroyed by pervasive burrowing that pipes the Hornerstown down into the underlying Navesink Formation.

Shelf-derived limestone boulders in debris flows of the Cow Head Group, western Newfoundland, have yielded rich mid- to Upper Cambrian trilobite faunas. The agnostoid component of Marjuman boulders consists of 23 species assigned to 11 genera; Kormagnostus boltoni and Kormagnostus? copelandi are new. Cladistic parsimony analysis of the Ptychagnostidae Kobayashi reduces this family to 3 genera: Ptychagnostus Jaekel, Pseudophalacroma Pokrovskaya and Lejopyge Hawle and Corda; Ptychagnostus includes three non-obligate subgenera: P. (Ptychagnostus) (= Tomagnostus Howell); P. (Goniagnostus) Howell and P. (Aotagnostus) öpik (= Myrmecomimus öpik). Correlation with zonations established in northern Canada and Utah indicates that the Cow Head Group includes a nearly complete sequence of agnostoid faunas from the mid-Cambrian Ptychagnostus gibbus Zone to the Upper Marjuman Cedaria brevifrons Zone.

Lower Miocene rocks of the uppermost part of the Pysht Formation and the overlying Clallam Formation on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington have yielded rare fossils of a small crab, Cancer (Metacarcinus) starri, new species. This is the second lower Miocene record of the genus Cancer and the oldest of the subgenus Metacarcinus.

Species of the late Osagean and early Meramecian primitive cladid crinoid genera Atelestocrinus, Barycrinus, Cestocrinus, Costalocrinus, Cyathocrinites, Meniscocrinus n. gen., Parisocrinus, Pellecrinus, and Saccosomopsis from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee are reviewed, redescribed, and redefined from study of type material, museum collections, and field collections. Nomenclatural and systematic acts include the following: 1) Barycrinus spurius (Hall, 1858) is a senior synonym of Cyathocrinus tumidus Hall, 1858, C. protuberans Hall, 1858, and B. mammatus Meek and Worthen, 1873; 2) B. rhombiferus (Owen and Shumard, 1852a) is a senior synonym of C. sculptilis Hall, 1860, C. thomae Hall, 1860, C. hoveyi Hall, 1861a, C. wachsmuthi Meek and Worthen, 1861, B. herculeus Meek and Worthen, 1868, B. pentagonus Meek and Worthen, 1873, B. striatus Worthen, 1875, B. boonvillensis Miller, 1891b, B. formosus Miller and Gurley, 1894, B. washingtonensis Miller and Gurley, 1895, and B. elrodi Miller and Gurley, 1896a; 3) B. magister (Hall, 1858) is a senior synonym of C. solidus Hall, 1861a and B. magnificus Meek and Worthen, 1868; 4) B. stellatus (Hall, 1858) is a senior synonym of C. bullatus Hall, 1858, C. angulatus Meek and Worthen, 1860, C. quinquelobus Meek and Worthen, 1865, and B. astericus Van Sant, 1964; 5) B. crassibrachiatus (Hall, 1860) is a senior synonym of B. princeps Miller and Gurley, 1890a; 6) B. geometricus Meek and Worthen, 1873, is considered a nomen dubium; 7) B. benedicti (Miller, 1891a) is considered a nomen dubium; 8) Cyathocrinus signatus Miller and Gurley, 1894, is assigned to Cestocrinus and is a senior synonym of Cestocrinus striatus Kirk, 1940; 9) Cyathocrinites iowensis (Owen and Shumard, 1850) is a senior synonym of C. malvaceus Hall, 1858, C. divaricatus Hall, 1858, C. rotundatus Hall, 1858, C. viminalis Hall, 1861a, C. parvibrachiatus Hall, 1861a, C. hamiltonensis Worthen, 1882, C. nodosus Wachsmuth and Springer, 1890, C. brevisacculus Wachsmuth and Springer, 1890, C. opimus Miller and Gurley, 1890a, and C. gurleyi Miller, 1891a; 10) C. kelloggi (White, 1862) is a senior synonym of C. subtumidus Meek and Worthen, 1865; 11) C. farleyi (Meek and Worthen, 1866b) is a senior synonym of C. andersoni Miller and Gurley, 1894, C. granulosus Rowley, 1902, and C. snivelyi Rowley, 1902; 12) C. harrodi (Wachsmuth and Springer, 1880) is a senior synonym of C. boonvillensis Miller, 1891b, C. gorbyi Miller, 1892b, and C. astralus Kammer, 1984; 13) Meniscocrinus n. gen. is described and M. magnitubus n. sp. is assigned to this new genus; 14) C. labyrinthicus Miller, 1891a, is assigned to Parisocrinus; 15) C. intermedius Hall, 1858, is assigned to Pellecrinus; and 16) C. insperatus Lyon, 1869, is assigned to Saccosomopsis and is a senior synonym of C.? poterium Meek and Worthen, 1870.

Jamaica has the best-known fauna of fossil crinoids of the Antillean islands. Two Cretaceous species have been reexamined on the basis of new material. Lower Cretaceous Apiocrinites sp., previously referred to Austinocrinus n. sp. and first documented from a short pluricolumnal, is now known from brachials and further fragments of column. This is the first millericrinid, and only the second non-isocrinid stalked crinoid, to be identified from the Jamaican and Antillean fossil record. Other ossicles may be derived from the cirri of a comatulid. Applinocrinus cretacea (Bather) is well known from the upper Senonian of England, North America and the West Indies, although Caribbean specimens have not been figured previously. Functional interpretations of the mode of life of Applinocrinus suggest that it was a benthic crinoid, presumably with arms. It lived embedded in the sediment.

The Survey Peak Formation (350 m thick) consists of calcareous shale, mudstone, siltstone, and limestone-pebble conglomerate, and is formally divided into four revised members, successively: Basal Silty Member, Putty Shale Member, Middle Carbonate Member, and Upper Carbonate Member. The Wilcox Pass section, Jasper National Park, Alberta, provides a standard stratigraphic section for the southern Canadian Rocky Mountains and yielded over 4,500 conodonts from 87 samples which are of high species diversity, moderately well preserved, with a conodont Color Alteration Index (CAI) value of 3. Over 50 multielement species representing some 20 genera are identified, and most are illustrated. Conodont zones recognized in the four members include: Basal Silty Member—Eoconodontus notchpeakensis, Cordylodus proavus, C. caboti, C. intermedins, and C. lindstromi; Putty Shale Member—lower C. angulatus; Middle Carbonate Member—upper C. angulatus and coeval Rossodus manitouensis, Colaptoconus priscus (new) and Scolopodus cf. S. rex; Upper Carbonate Member—Striatodontus lanceolatus-S. striatus. In total, ten conodont lineage and assemblage zones are recognized within the Survey Peak Formation. Most can now be precisely correlated with trilobite faunas and acritarch microfloras described from this section, and with conodont zones established for the Great Basin area, Utah-Nevada, and for western Newfoundland. The Survey Peak Formation is of uppermost Cambrian to lower Ibexian (Tremadoc) in age with the Cambrian-Ordovician boundary placed between 26 and 29 m above the base of the formation in the Basal Silty Member.

The silurian graptoloid genus Globosograptus was erected by Boucek and Přibyl (in Přibyl 1948, p. 37), who selected as type species Monograptus wimani Bouček, 1932. As noted by Bulman and Rickards in the Treatise (Bulman 1970, p. V155), Globosograptus “was based on the silhouette appearance of a slender Llandovery species on which the thecae possess a long prothecal portion, no thecal overlap, and a seemingly enrolled methathecal portion. The nature of this enrollment is indefinite … The genus has no precise significance and its application is quite impracticable.”