Cup nodes on Lochriea commutata Pa elements bear microsculpture fields composed of polygonal microsculpture. As Pa elements grow larger, the cup nodes and their microsculpture fields increase in size during early to middle growth. With subsequent growth, cup nodes may broaden transversely, split, fuse, or cease to broaden; similarly, their microsculpture fields may increase in size, split, or disappear as the element gets larger. The loss of microsculpture fields results in the loss of polygonal microsculpture.

The presence of polygonal microsculpture on the cup nodes of Pa elements of the holotype of Lochriea montanaensis Scott, 1942, on topotype Pa elements of L. commutata (Branson and Mehl, 1941), as well as on L. commutata Pa elements from diverse localities, suggests that this micromorphological feature cannot be used to distinguish them. Instead, these similarities support the practice of treating L. montanaensis as a junior synonym of L. commutata. The fact that cup node, microsculpture field, and polygonal microsculpture development are closely related to growth and ontogeny and are variable in the larger growth stages suggests that these morphological features should be used with caution in taxonomy. This lack of reliability contrasts with the taxonomic utility of pustulose micrornamentation on the homeomorphic Pa elements of the Permian genus Sweetognathus.

Three new species and one new subspecies of Streptognathodus were discovered during systematic stratigraphic study of conodonts from Virgilian cyclothems of Kansas. Streptognathodus bitteri n. sp. characterizes faunas from the middle of the Plattsmouth Limestone but ranges into the upper Wabaunsee Group. Streptognathodus brownvillensis n. sp. is restricted to the Brownville Limestone. Streptognathodus holtensis n. sp. occurs in the Holt Shale, as well as the Church, Burlingame, Wakarusa, and Elmont Limestones. A new subspecies of S. pawhuskaensis (S. pawhuskaensis deflectus) was recovered from the lower half of the Shawnee Group.

Three new species and genera of pteraspidids (Agnatha, Heterostraci), Tuberculaspis elyensis, Pirumaspis lancasteri, and Lamiaspis longiripa, are described from the Sevy Dolomite, east-central Nevada. They form part of a vertebrate fauna of typical Early Devonian aspect that indicates a correlation with previously described faunas from the Beartooth Butte and Water Canyon Formations of Utah and Wyoming, thus improving the known distribution and diversity of these faunas. Correlation with an accurately dated fauna in Death Valley, California, enables this fauna to be dated to the late Emsian (inversus–serotinus Zones).

Eutherian tarsal bones of Late Cretaceous age are reported for the first time from sedimentary beds intercalated with the Deccan Traps of peninsular India. The tarsal bones, represented mainly by calcanea and astragali, occur in association with dental elements of palaeoryctid mammals: Deccanolestes hislopi Prasad and Sahni and D. robustus Prasad, Jaeger, Sahni, Gheerbrant, and Khajuria. Two size variants in the tarsals correlate well with the teeth of D. hislopi and D. robustus. Morphologically, the tarsal complex of Deccanolestes is quite different from that of other Cretaceous eutherians for which the relevant anatomy is known (Protungulatum and Procerberus). Rather, the tarsals of Deccanolestes exhibit a close affinity to the tarsal morphology of Archonta. A large number of tarsal characters indicate a highly arboreal mode of life for these animals. Presence of such specialized animals as early as the Cretaceous suggests that mammals had already diversified their locomotor adaptations by this time.

In the past 25 years, I have regularly observed floating shells at various localities in the Dutch Wadden Sea. Such shells start to float with the incoming tide and with their concave side up. Bivalve shells float like a boat and are transported in this way over short distances (meters to tens of meters) towards the high tide line. In order to study this phenomenon in more detail, I selected a tidal flat bordering the southern part of Texel, the westernmost barrier island of the Wadden Sea. I visited this tidal flat daily during incoming tides from 8 to 18 October 1992. Presence or absence of floating shells on the incoming floodwater was noted over a stretch of about 250 m.

Ecphora is one of the most easily recognized gastropod genera in late Oligocene, Miocene, and Pliocene marine formations in the southeastern United States. Its generally large size, strong spiral ribs, and brown, calcitic exterior are much prized by fossil collectors. However, despite speculations by Petuch (1988), its evolutionary origins have remained obscure. The present shell microstructural and mineralogical evidence suggests that the earliest ecphoras were entirely aragonitic and that the thick calcitic outer layer of the later Miocene and Pliocene species originated as a thin calcitic crust on the crests of the ribs of a latest Oligocene or earliest Miocene species.