Outcrops of upper Miocene to upper Pliocene sediments in the Bocas del Toro Basin, Caribbean coast of western Panama, contain a record of the emergence of the southern Central American isthmus. Paleodepths and characteristics of past sedimentary regimes within the basin were determined from benthic foraminiferal species assemblages. The present Valiente Peninsula shallowed from upper bathyal depths of about 300–500 m to outer neritic depths of 150–200 m between latest Miocene (5.6–6.5 Ma) and middle Pliocene (3.5–3.6 Ma) times. Outer neritic assemblages from about 100–150 m paleodepth on the island of Escudo de Veraguas indicate negligible emergence through the late Pliocene, and their present sea-level altitude suggests rapid Quaternary shallowing. Middle neritic foraminiferal assemblages of Cayo Agua island shallowed from depths of about 40–80 m to 20–40 m between early (4.5–5.0 Ma) and middle (3.5–3.6 Ma) Pliocene times. Cayo Agua assemblages indicate establishment of a carbonate regime in the southwestern Caribbean region prior to complete closure of the Caribbean–East Pacific seaway around 3.5 Ma.

Limestones of Silurian age (late Llandovery–Ludlow) from the Heceta Formation of southeastern Alaska (Alexander terrane) yield a diverse assemblage of calcified microbial organisms. Fourteen taxa are described, including the cyanobacteria Girvanella and ?Hedstroemia, possible cyanobacteria Epiphyton, Ludlovia, and Renalcis, three species of “Solenopora,” and microproblematica Rothpletzella and Wetheredella. Diagnoses and descriptions are also given of the new epiphytacean genus Hecetaphyton n. gen. and new microproblematica genera Tuxekanella n. gen. and Sphaerina n. gen.

Silurian calcareous algae, cyanobacteria, and microproblematica are abundantly preserved in the Alexander terrane of southeastern Alaska. They represent a diverse population of calcified microbes that contributed to the formation of a variety of shallow- and deep-water carbonate deposits. Five associations are recognized on the basis of recurring groups of microbial taxa. These include a Girvanella-Tuxekanella association that formed oncoids and thick encrustations on skeletal grains in shelf environments. A Renalcis association predominated in a stromatoporoid-coral reef that developed at the incipient shelf margin on a crinoid-solenoporid shoal (“Solenopora” association). Other organic buildups are characterized by a Ludlovia association, which constructed skeletal stromatolite reefs, and by an Epiphyton-Sphaerina association that contributed to the formation of a stromatolitic mud mound. A mixed microbial assemblage reflects transport and mixing of shallow-water microbial biotas that were deposited by turbidity currents, debris flows, and slumps in a slope environment.

Chitinozoa have been recovered from three sections within the Garra Limestone in central New South Wales, Australia. A total of 31 species are identified and two new species, Angochitina hypenetes and Bursachitina mawsonae, are described. Three stratigraphically distinct assemblages from the late Lochkovian to the early Pragian are distinguished and compared with faunas of a similar age from Europe and northern Africa.

Small shelly fossils from the Wirrealpa and Aroona Creek Limestones, Flinders Ranges, and the temporally equivalent Ramsay Limestone, Yorke Peninsula, South Australia, are described and assessed. These formations, deposited during a widespread marine transgression, have traditionally been assigned an early Middle Cambrian age based on lateral facies relationships, lithostratigraphic interpretation, and age diagnostic trilobites. However, new data from regional sequence stratigraphy and mounting paleontological evidence suggest that a late Early Cambrian age (equivalent to the Toyonian Stage from the Siberian Platform) is more appropriate for these units. Twenty-four taxa, including a number of problematica, poriferans, coeloscleritophorans, palaeoscolecidans, “conodontomorphs,” hyolithelminthes, hyoliths, mollusks, and inarticulate brachiopods, are reported herein; many of these have not previously been reported from the Cambrian of South Australia. The enigmatic Chalasiocranos exquisitum n. gen. and sp., known from disarticulated tuberculate cone-shaped phosphatic sclerites, and Protomelission gatehousei n. gen. and sp., a problematic, perhaps colonial organism, known from phosphatic plates, are especially notable. The genus Kaimenella is formally included in the Palaeoscolecida, and two species (including K. dailyi n. sp.) are recognized.

The vermiform pedicle is one of the most distinctive organs of modern lingulids, but it is rarely preserved. Only two fossil specimens of lingulids with pedicle casts have been reported, one from the Ordovician and the other from the Devonian. No record of fossil pedicles of Lingulella and Lingulepis, the dominant Cambrian and Early Ordovician lingulids, is known. Fossil lingulids from the Lower Cambrian of Chengjiang County, Yunnan, suggest that the structure and function of the pedicle of the lingulids has not changed significantly from its first appearance. A comparison of fossil pedicle of lingulids from the Lower Cambrian, Chengjiang County (China), the Burgess Shale, Middle Cambrian, British Columbia (Canada), the Trenton Formation, Middle Ordovician, New York (U.S.A.), and the Devonian, Devonshire (England, U.K.) shows that the delthyrial area to which the pedicle muscles are attached was reduced in length through time until these muscles were completely embraced by the two valves.

Two species, Lingulella chengjiangensis n. sp. and Lingulepis malongensis Rong, are described.

An assemblage of 343 species of cryptic, shelled molluscs was identified in three large samples from shallow subtidal and intertidal shelter habitats under rubble and corals at Malololailai Fiji in 1983, 1984, and 1985. One species was a polyplacophoran, 273 were gastropods (38 families), and 69 were bivalves (21 families). Cryptic gastropods were more abundant than bivalves, but showed a reduction in abundance relative to bivalves from 1983 to 1985. The abundances of many cryptic molluscs show dramatic adjustments from 1983 to 1985, chiefly due to hurricanes in 1983 and 1985, showing a decrease in equitability with increased physical disturbance. The abundance and diversity of molluscan predators in the crypts means that predation in these habitats may be substantial.

The gastropod sample diversity showed the greatest change during the 1984 post-hurricane recovery period. The 1985 hurricanes affected the sample diversity by shifting the gastropod diversity closer to what it was after the 1983 hurricane. The bivalves underwent a similar shift in sample diversity, although larger numbers of individuals in proportionately more species survived the hurricanes.

The cryptic bivalves exploited space in new crypts, while maintaining their rate of increase in abundance in the recovery period after the 1983 hurricane and through the two hurricanes in 1985. The gastropods declined in abundance after the 1983 hurricane. They recovered after the 1985 hurricanes by doubling their abundance, showing that they could exploit new resources in crypts. This increase in the gastropod population was not proportional to the increase in available cryptic space. This may mean they were still recovering in August 1985, or they may have been unable to capture their portion of cryptic space in competition with other organisms during recovery.

The 1985 hurricanes did not have much effect on the overall molluscan diversity, a possible result of pruning by the 1983 hurricane of molluscs unable to survive storms. Because there was only a short interval between the hurricanes, many molluscs that survived the 1983 event were still in the population, so that the cryptic molluscs probably were better able to deal with the effects of the 1985 hurricanes than they would have been before the 1983 hurricane. The result was that the sample diversity after the 1983 hurricane increased during the recovery period but did not decline later even though the population was devastated by hurricanes in 1985. This lends support to intermediate disturbance models linking increasing or stable diversity with disturbances spaced at intervals allowing recovery.

A high-spired septate gastropod, Fletcherviewia septata n. gen. and sp., occurs in a distinctive faunule at the base of the Middle Devonian Fanning River Group, within the Burdekin Subprovince, near Townsville, North Queensland, Australia. This species is one of four large, thick-shelled gastropods associated with sandstone and sandstone–limestone facies; the sediments are interpreted as shallow marine, nearshore, mobile sand bars on a moderate-energy carbonate–clastic shelf. Strategies for the algalgrazing snails on the turbulent substrate are rolling for compact robust forms and anchoring, using the wide carina, for forms such as Fletcherviewia. Septation in Fletcherviewia is rationalized in terms of the ability to vacate early whorls, thus reducing body volume and avoiding any detrimental effect as a result of loss of early-formed whorls.

The oldest representative of the family Palaeozygopleuridae (Loxonematoidea, Gastropoda), Palaeozygopleura chlupaci n. sp., from the Lower Devonian (Lochkovian, Monograptus uniformis Zone) of Bohemia is described. Also, its higher taxonomic position and the relationship of the families Loxonematidae and Palaeozygopleuridae are discussed. The diagnoses of both families give no unambiguous criteria for their distinction and their revision is necessary. The gradual disappearance of the deep, asymmetrical sinus in the apertural lip during the phylogeny of loxonematoidean gastropods could probably occur by two different modes and it could be produced by other changes in the mantle cavity rather than by progressive loss of the right-hand ctenidium. The family Palaeozygopleuridae is considered to be polyphyletic and, thus, is an artificial group.

The Merchantville Formation of New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware yields a distinctive assemblage of upper lower Campanian ammonites: Pachydiscus (Pachydiscus) sp., Pseudoschloenbachia cf. P. chispaensis Adkins, 1929, Placenticeras placenta (DeKay, 1828), Texanites (Texanites) sp., Menabites (Delawarella) delawarensis (Morton, 1830c), M. (D.) vanuxemi (Morton, 1830c), Menabites (Bererella) sp., Submortoniceras punctatum Collignon, 1948, S. uddeni Young, 1963, Cryptotexanites paedomorphicus n. gen. and sp., Glyptoxoceras sp., Chesapeakella nodatum n. gen. and sp., Baculites haresi Reeside, 1927, and Scaphites (Scaphites) hippocrepis (DeKay, 1828) III of Cobban, 1969. Elements of the fauna occur in the Gulf Coast and Western Interior regions of the United States, in Western Europe, and in Madagascar and provide a basis for correlation at this level.

Carboniferous marine bivalves, especially those of early Late Carboniferous, are abundant and highly diversified in China. About 357 species, 76 genera in 29 families, of Carboniferous marine bivalves have been found from 103 localities throughout the country. This represents 83 percent of the genera (t = 92) and 85 percent of the families (t = 34) reported worldwide. These bivalve faunas are characterized by: 1) the high diversity of Aviculopectinidae and Myalinidae, in place of the highly diversified Pterineidae and Pterinopectinidae of the Devonian; 2) the presence of only three endemic genera (Cucullopsis, Palaeolucina, and Glyptoconcha); and 3) the endemic nature of most species, although some species are closely related to species in North America and Europe. The stratigraphic distribution of Carboniferous bivalves in the four faunal provinces of China is discussed stage by stage. All four faunal provinces of China had a close tie with the tropical to subtropical Tethys Realm during the Carboniferous. About 43.4 percent of the genera are epifauna with byssate attachment, which is almost four times more than the proportion present in living bivalve faunas.

The genus Cirquella is erected for small, smooth nevadiid trilobites that lack genal spines. The type species, C. nummularia, is associated with taxa in the Dogtooth Mountains, British Columbia, that belong to the Nevadella Zone. A second species, C. espinata, is described from the southern Canadian Rocky Mountains, where it is associated with the new archaeaspid genus Geraldinella. Strata in the latter locality can be physically correlated to documented strata of the Nevadella Zone. The same zone in Nevada contains C. nummularia?.

Pandorinellina? boucoti (Klapper) is based on material from the Lochkovian–Pragian (Devonian) section at Royal Creek, Yukon Territory, Canada, where it is found with species of the pesavis and sulcatus Zones. The species is also a rare element in the late Lochkovian–early Pragian faunas in the Toquima Range, central Nevada, where it is found within the same zones. Pandorinellina? boucoti has been recovered from 17 beds in sequence at the IK IV section in the McMonnigal Limestone and shows a morphologic change from a Pa element with a simple blade, small lateral lobes, and an enlarged triangular anterior denticle to a Pa element with ornamented pillars surmounting both platform lobes. The simple blade form is present in beds IK IV 21–16. The next overlying bed yields specimens with a single pillar-like enlargement of the larger platform lobe and a slight swelling on the smaller platform lobe. The following beds (IK IV 14–6) have only morphotypes with the pillar-like enlargement on both platform lobes.

This morphologic change effectively divides the upper pesavis Zone into two segments in the IK IV section. The rarity of this species, however, will probably limit the usefulness of the lineage in refined biostratigraphy and the sequence of morphotypes needs to be verified in other areas. Nevertheless, where present, P.? boucoti should improve the accuracy of correlation in the late Lochkovian and early Pragian.

The midgut of a new specimen of Typhloesus wellsi (Melton and Scott) from the Bear Gulch Member (Namurian, Montana) contains a complete, well-preserved apparatus of Kladognathus Rexroad. The apparatus comprises 2 Pa, 2 Pb, 1 Sa, 4 Sb, 4 Sc, and 2 M elements. Kladognathus and Oulodus angulatus (Hinde) are the only members of the Prioniodinida of which complete, well-preserved bedding plane assemblages are known. The arrangement of elements in these assemblages suggests that the prioniodinid Bauplan was similar to that of ozarkodinids.

Ceratodus diutinus, a new species of ceratodont lungfish similar to but not identical with Ceratodus kaupi Agassiz, 1838–1844, is described from the Lower Cretaceous Griman Creek Formation at Grawan and Lightning Ridge in northern New South Wales, Australia, and the Toolebuc Formation at Canary Station near Boulia in western Queensland. The species also occurred in one Late Oligocene–Middle Miocene deposit at North Prospect, Lake Pinpa, South Australia (Namba Formation). This is the first record from Australia of a species of Ceratodus similar to the Triassic ceratodonts of Europe. The Australian species lasted much longer than the related European species, C. kaupi, which is restricted to Triassic deposits.

New lower dental material of the fossil hyracoid mammal, Seggeurius amourensis Crochet, 1986, from Eocene deposits of the Southern Atlas in Algeria, has prompted a reevaluation of the genus. The dentition as a whole is first described in detail, thus providing a more precise characterization of the genus than has hitherto been available. Peculiarities, particularly in upper molar morphology, are sufficient to uphold a generic distinction. However, based largely on lower molar morphology Seggeurius amourensis is transferred from the subfamily Geniohyinae to Saghatheriinae. In the upper molars, absence of a postmetacrista and the presence of a preprotocrista continuous with the parastyle are interpreted as primitive features in hyracoids. In the lower molars, extreme reduction of the paracristid and the presence of a mesoconid are also considered primitive for hyracoids. These features together with small size, bunodonty, low crown height, and very simple premolar morphology indicate that Seggeurius amourensis is the most primitive hyrax yet recovered.

The university of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP), located on the Berkeley Campus, is a major repository of fossils and paleontological materials. The collection, one of the largest in the nation, originated in 1873 and has been added to continuously since then. In 1921, the Museum of Paleontology was officially initiated with an endowment though the generosity of Annie Alexander of Oakland, California (Grinnell, 1958). The UCMP collections are divided into four specimen collection management units and one collection of paleontological materials, such as rock, sediment, and amber samples, and various teaching collections. The specimen collection units are Fossil Prokaryotes and Protists, Fossil and Recent Invertebrates, Paleobotany and Palynology, and Vertebrate Paleontology. Each of these units has its own manager and each consists of hundreds of thousands of specimens or more and thousands of primary and secondary type specimens. The Museum is supported by the Annie Alexander Endowment and the University of California, Berkeley. It has a staff of 11, and a group of faculty curators, affiliate faculty curators from other University of California campuses, research associates, and associated graduate and undergraduate students. It is a general purpose research museum open to the scientific community and, although it does no formal instruction, it provides instructional exhibits and teaching collections at Berkeley and other campuses. It publishes Paleobios (ISSN 0031-0298), an occasional publication containing a variety of paleontological, peer-reviewed papers. UCMP is also involved in public and school activities at the Museum in Berkeley and at the University of California, Berkeley, Museum of Science, Art and Culture, at Blackhawk Plaza, Danville, California.

A suite of over 70 samples recovered from the tropical southwest Pacific Ocean and selected from the collection of Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) has been the basis of this author's current research. In the course of studying the Recent benthic foraminiferal faunas from these samples, a new species, also referable to a new genus, was identified in six of the samples.

Two new species of benthic foraminifera, Heronallenella boltovskoyi and Planulinoides srinivasani, are present at four Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) sites in the tropical Indian Ocean (Table 1 and Figure 1). Both species are rare, each constituting less than 1 percent of the assemblage (> 149 μm size fraction) in which it occurs. The former, belonging to a new genus, occurs in Pliocene to Holocene sediments of DSDP sites 219, 237, 238, and 253, whereas the latter is present in the late Pleistocene of sites 237 and 238. The stratigraphic placement of the samples is after Srinivasan and Singh (1989) for site 219 and after Gupta (1987) for sites 237, 238, and 253. The descriptions of the new taxa are given below; the suprageneric classification is taken from Loeblich and Tappan (1987).

During examination of the large ostracode assemblage collections at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Geology & Geophysics, Lower Hutt, New Zealand, a single specimen of unusual shape was encountered. So unusual is the crescentic outline and infolding of the entire shell periphery that assignment even to a phylum was difficult, and it was only upon scanning electron microscopic study that subcentral muscle scars were clearly observed and these enabled confident identification of the specimen as an ostracode. One specimen is not usually considered sufficient to propose a new taxon; however, in this case there is no doubt that this unique specimen clearly represents a new species, genus, and probably family of Ostracoda. A search for additional specimens from the type unit is underway, but has, as yet, been unsuccessful to find this rare intriguing ostracode. Unlike other unusual ostracodes described from the Southern Hemisphere such as the punciids, this specimen appears to have no similarity with Paleozoic taxa.