An asteroid (Echinodermata) faunule of four taxa representing three surviving families and a probable fourth is described from the Barremian (Early Cretaceous) of Morocco, northwest Africa. The four together suggest limited morphologic evolution since the Cretaceous but biogeographic and depth patterns have changed. Marocaster coronatus n. gen. n. sp. (Valvatida, Goniasteridae) combines apparent derived features of the dorsal disk and superomarginal shape with more stemward expressions of the abactinal ossicles. Betelgeusia orientalis n. sp. is a fourth Mesozoic occurrence of the Radiasteridae (Paxillosida), the new species similar to earlier occurrences from the Middle Jurassic of India, the Early Cretaceous of Texas, and the Late Cretaceous of Europe. Reported modern occurrences of the family are few, widely scattered, and limited to deeper water; the extinct species together testify to a once-broader familial distribution. Dipsacaster africanus n. sp., a member of the Astropectinidae (Paxillosida), is remarkably similar to extant congeners. Dipsacaster today is widely distributed in the Pacific Ocean but occurrences in the Atlantic are few. Because of preservation, a single small specimen of the Zoroasteridae? (Forcipulatida) cannot be identified with certainty. Extant zoroasterids are deep-water in distribution, although shallow-water Eocene representatives are known.

Until recently considered a rare Appalachian Basin endemic, Pennoceras Miller and Unklesbay, 1942 has emerged as one of the most widespread and locally abundant ammonoids in the lower Missourian of the Midcontinent (Boardman et al., 1994). Here we document the first Midcontinent record of the type species of Pennoceras, P. seamani Miller and Unklesbay, 1942, from the Hushpuckney Shale equivalent in southeastern Kansas. Additional, previously undescribed species of Pennoceras from the Exline Limestone and Mound City Shale equivalents in Oklahoma and southeastern Kansas are described as Pennoceras bennisoni new species and Pennoceras heckeli new species. Discovery of these ancestral species provides clarification on the derivation and early history of Pennoceras and provides a possible link to the Desmoinesian Wiedeyoceratidae.

Trilobites previously assigned to the Entomaspididae Ulrich in Bridge, 1931 are common in Laurentian strata assigned to the upper Sunwaptan Stage of the Upper Cambrian. Most species are poorly known, and typically only sparse cranidial data are available. Large silicified samples from the Lava Dam Member of the Notch Peak Formation, western Utah, contain three new species for which cranidia, librigenae, thoracic segments, and pygidia are known. the species permit clarification of the morphology and affinities of previously described taxa from elsewhere. They are referred to Notchpeakia n. gen. (type species: N. milleri n. sp.) which, in addition to the type includes N. taylori n. sp., N. notchpeakensis n. sp., N. cherrycreekensis n. sp., and N. varga (Westrop, 1986). the “entomaspidid” trilobites are assigned to the traditionally post-Cambrian Harpetidae Hawle and Corda, 1847.

The Upper Devonian sedimentary sequences of Central Armenia, which mainly consist of shallow water, mixed carbonate-siliciclastic deposits, contain abundant and diverse brachiopods that are dominated by spiriferides. Based on newly collected material from the lower Famennian Aramazdospirifer orbelianus brachiopod zone (coeval to the Palmatolepis crepida conodont zone) of Armenia, we here introduce two new cyrtospiriferid genera and fully document their type species, including their intraspecific variability. Pentagonospirifer n. gen. is a monospecific genus assigned to the subfamily Cyrtospiriferinae that is currently known only from the lower Famennian of Armenia; it is likely that its type species, P. abrahamyanae n. sp., evolved from the species Cyrtospirifer verneuili sensu Abrahamyan, known from the Frasnian and lower Famennian of Armenia. The second new genus, Tornatospirifer n. gen., is assigned to the subfamily Cyrtiopsinae and defined on the basis of one of the most biostratigraphically valuable cyrtospiriferid species, namely T. armenicus n. comb., described previously from the lower Famennian Aramazdospirifer orbelianus Zone of Armenia. It is likely that it evolved from a Frasnian ancestral stock of Tiocyrspis Sartenaer, known from northwestern Europe, which probably migrated during the early Frasnian to the north Gondwanan margin. A neotype is selected for Abrahamyan's species because the type material is lost. Epibionts (Cornulites, Hederella) attached to brachiopods are also documented for the first time from the Upper Devonian of Armenia.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/923d232f-cd6a-48bb-8a05-27c689058b65.

In the paper by J. Keith Rigby (1991) in the January issue of the Journal, the Hungry Hollow Formation of southwestern Ontario is correlated with the basal Ludlowvillian Centerfield Limestone of New York. The new species of heteractinid sponge described in the paper was thus considered to be older than the designated type species of his new genus Gondekia, which is from the middle Ludlowvillian Wanakah Shale. The correlation was referred to as that of Rickard (1984) and was consistent with others going back several decades. It was also included in subsequent correlations based on conodont biostratigraphy (Johnson et al., 1985; Sparling, 1985) that are otherwise largely at odds with Rickard's conclusions. However, Brett and Baird (1985) provided convincing evidence that the Centerfield is a regressive unit between shales representing deeper water sedimentation, whereas the Hungry Hollow appears to be the basal unit of a transgressive sequence of strata and thus unlikely to be of the same age. Evidence for this was supplied by Landing and Brett (1987), who described a previously unrecognized disconformity beneath the Hungry Hollow and noted its regional significance. They also reported finding a single specimen of the conodont Polygnathus timorensis in the Hungry Hollow. This is the guide fossil for the Lower varcus Subzone, to which the Centerfield has been assigned, so placement of both units in at least the same conodont subzone was justified at that time.

Phosphatic microfossils including probable microvertebrates occur in the Early and Middle Ordovician rocks of Wisconsin. The eight types described here include the probable ostracoderm Anatolepis, and six unidentified but possible vertebrate fragments as well as the palaeoscolecid worm Milaculum. These fossils are rare, but at two localities several specimens per kg were recovered over significant stratigraphic intervals. The high concentration of certain fossils in the lower part of the Galena Group suggests that there is stratigraphic value in their description. Identification of similar material or of articulated assemblages of these fossils may eventually lead to identification of biologic affinities.

Three localities in the Çankırı Basin—Kale Tepe 1 (KT1), Kale Tepe 2 (KT2), and Mahmutlar—yielded reliably documented rodent and lagomorph assemblages. These are in the Akkaşdağı Formation, which covers large areas in the central and southern parts of this basin in Central Anatolia. The widening of the Kirikkale-Çorum highway produced fresh outcrops that allowed for the discovery of fossiliferous levels in a well-controlled stratigraphy. The assemblages from all three localities are dominated by muroid rodents (Apodemus gorafensis Ruiz Bustos et al., 1984; A. gudrunae van de Weerd, 1976; A. dominans Kretzoi, 1959; Micromys sp. indet.; Allocricetus sp. indet.; Pseudomeriones sp. indet.; Cricetidae gen. indet. sp. indet.; Mimomys sp. indet.) in addition to a glirid (Dryomimus cf. D. eliomyoides Kretzoi, 1959), an eomyid (Keramidomys aff. K. ermannorum Daxner-Höck and Höck, 2009), two ochotonids (Prolagus sorbinii Masini, 1989; Ochotonoma sp. indet.) and one leporid. KT1 and KT2 yielded two large species of Apodemus (A. gorafensis; A. gudrunae) that are typical for the late Miocene/early Pliocene transition in southern Europe, and they are known in Greece and Turkey in localities dated to the latest Miocene, i.e., MN 13 mammalian zone. The occurrence of A. dominans and a rooted arvicolid similar to Mimomys davakosi van de Weerd, 1979 suggests correlation of Mahmutlar to the early Pliocene, or early MN 15 zone. An abundance of muroid rodents in these assemblages indicates woodlands and areas covered by grasses and shrubs, whereas early Pliocene deposits at Mahmutlar provided pollen of abundant herbaceous and shrub elements. Most rodents and lagomorphs from Kale Tepe and Mahmutlar are known in southern European bioprovinces, whereas some elements (Pseudomeriones Schaub, 1934; Ochotonoma Sen, 1998) indicate Asiatic affinities.

Storeacolumnella hudsonensis is described as a new genus and species of encrusting, colonial organism that lived in an intertidal, rocky-shore environment. The fossil was discovered in the basal beds of the Upper Ordovician Port Nelson Formation at a coastal outcrop on Hudson Bay near Churchill, Manitoba. Showing some possible characteristics of sponges and other possible characteristics of calcaerous green algae, this matlike organism is considered nonetheless to have uncertain taxonomic affinities. It consists of cylinder-shaped columns, each with an internal system of star-shaped filaments or spicules as viewed in transverse section. The cylinders stand vertical in longitudinal section and are densely packed together to form a mat. The hard substrate to which the mat is attached consists of a boulder eroded from the Precambrian Churchill Quartzite. Maximum colony size observed in a single example exhibits a diameter of not less than 80 mm and maximum thickness of 5.85 mm.

An exceptionally well-preserved silicified bivalve from the Upper Permian of Texas is described and assigned to a new genus and species, Cassiavellia galtarae, placed in the family Bakevelliidae. The species represents one of the earliest and best characterized unequivocal occurrences of the multivincular ligament in the superfamily Pterioidea. The silicified material provides a wealth of information on the morphology of inadequately known Paleozoic pterioideans, including hitherto undescribed aspects of the larval shell, auricular sulcus, muscle scars, and dental ontogeny. The discovery of the condyle-fossa complex on the anteroventral shell margin, a feature previously undescibed in Bivalvia, raises the question of the homology and taxonomic significance of the problematic subumbonal ridge-like structures in Pterioidea. In life, C. galtarae was probably an epifaunal right-pleurothetic bivalve, byssally attached to hard or raised flexible substrata. In addition to C. galtarae, another new species, C. nadkevnae, is placed in Cassiavellia.

The new genus Iberostomata (Bryozoa, Ptilodictyina) from the Cystoid Limestone Formation in the Iberian Chains (NE Spain) is here described and its phylogenetic relationships analyzed using cladistic methods. Twenty-eight identifying characters used in traditional systematics have been codified for nine ptilodictyine families, two timanodictyine families and 34 ptilodictyine genera. The results obtained in this analysis place the new genus Iberostomata and the genus Stellatodictya, traditionally included in the family Ptilodictyidae, in the family Rhinidictyidae, question the validity of the family Intraporidae, question the assignment of Amurodictya and Astrovidictya to the family Stictoporellidae, as well as the assignment of the genera Junggarotrypa, Goniotrypa, and Prophyllodictya to the family Rhinidictyidae, and place the family Phragmopheridae in a uncertain systematic position.

Nanobamus macrorhinus Schoch and Milner, 2014 is a small amphibamiform temnospondyl from the early Permian Arroyo Formation of Texas. It is most readily characterized by an elongate and partially subdivided naris. This condition is superficially reminiscent of that seen in the coeval trematopids, the group to which N. macrorhinus was originally referred to under an interpretation of the holotype as a larval form. This was discounted by later workers, but the amphibamiform affinities of the specimen were not formalized until recently. The specimen has never been described in the context of its amphibamiform affinities and remains poorly characterized, never having been sampled in a phylogenetic analysis. Here we present a complete, updated osteological description of N. macrorhinus, including an improved characterization of its unique mosaic of plesiomorphic and apomorphic features and clarification of the taxon's autapomorphies. Our analysis of the taxon's phylogenetic position within Amphibamiformes shows that N. macrorhinus was recovered as diverging after basal amphibamiforms, e.g., the micropholids, and before derived amphibamiforms, e.g., the amphibamids. This is supported by the unique mixture of retained plesiomorphies, e.g., nonforeshortened postparietals and an oval choana, and apomorphies, e.g., a narrow interorbital region and slender palatal rami of the pterygoid. These results reflect the complexity of terrestrial amphibamiform diversity and provide further insight into the evolutionary history of the lissamphibian stem in terrestrial environments.

The recent description of the nevadioid trilobite Buenellus chilhoweensis Webster and Hageman, 2018 established the presence of early Cambrian Montezuman Stage (Cambrian Series 2, Stage 3) faunas in the Murray Shale of Chilhowee Mountain, Tennessee. The description recognized the oldest known age-diagnostic Cambrian trilobite from the Laurentian margin of the former Iapetus Ocean since Buenellus Blaker, 1988 is known otherwise only from the Sirius Passet Lagerstätte on the Innuitian margin of North Greenland. The bivalved arthropods Isoxys chilhoweanus Walcott, 1890 and Indota tennesseensis (Resser, 1938a) have also been described from the Murray Shale, but hyolithids appear to be the dominant body fossils in terms of diversity and abundance. Although poorly preserved, the hyolithids occurring together with Buenellus chilhoweensis are described to improve understanding of the Murray Shale biota. The hyolith assemblages of the Murray Shale and Sirius Passet Lagerstätte are not closely similar, although the poor preservation of both hinders comparison.

The base of the Emsian, which is defined by the first appearance of the conodont Polygnathus kitabicus, has never been successfully demonstrated in the South China Block (including Guangxi and eastern Yunnan). As a result, we studied conodonts from the lowermost part of the Shizhou Member of the Yukiang Formation at the Dacun-1 section in the Liujing area, Guangxi. This new investigation has revealed a conodont fauna only consisting of Polygnathus pireneae, P. sokolovi, P. kitabicus, P. sp. and Pandorinellina exigua philipi, which can be assigned to the uppermost part of the pireneae Zone and the lowermost part of the kitabicus Zone in ascending order. The Pragian/Emsian boundary at the Dacun-1 section is located in the highest thick-bedded limestone bed that can be observed in the lowermost part of the Shizhou Member. Therefore, this is the first time that the lower boundary of the Emsian defined by the lowest occurrence of P. kitabicus is reported in the South China Block. However, the scarcity of suitable limestone samples for conodont analysis in the middle and upper parts of the Shizhou Member precludes definitive identification of the upper boundary of the kitabicus Zone in the Liujing area.

The Wenlock (middle Silurian) Eramosa Lagerstätte of the Bruce Peninsula, Ontario, Canada, is becoming known for its rich and diverse faunas, different preservational styles, and a combination of soft-body preservation associated with shelly body and trace fossils. Sampling for scolecodonts—the jaws of polychaete annelids—has yielded unique material. Hindenites parkheadensis new species is described from abundant specimens, including apparatuses, from a monospecific fauna that has allowed the complete dorsal maxillary apparatus to be reconstructed. The new species was recovered by acid digestion of carbonates, which are interpreted as having been deposited in shallow, marginally marine environments; the species may become a useful paleoenvironmental indicator, and the occurrence of Hindenites at Park Head, Ontario, is the first record of the genus outside of Baltoscandia. Bedding-plane material from Wiarton, Ontario, reveals a more diverse fauna of seven to nine additional polychaete taxa, most belonging to Kettnerites and Oenonites. Strata at Wiarton are interpreted as having been deposited in environments with good water circulation and open-marine conditions. The faunal composition of Eramosa polychaetes varied between localities of the Lagerstätte outcrop belt, supporting previous interpretations of differences in environment and/or taphonomic history. The relative abundance of scolecodonts suggests that jaw-bearing polychaetes played a significant role in the biotas that are now preserved in the Eramosa Lagerstätte. Moreover, the results underpin the notion that different polychaete species had variable environmental preferences and tolerances during the Silurian, and that polychaetaspids and paulinitids formed two of the most common and widely distributed families.

Fieldwork conducted in the Wasatch Formation in and around Fossil Butte has yielded a diverse assemblage of early Eocene vertebrates. Fossil vertebrates are distributed through three discrete stratigraphic intervals within the uppermost 180 m of the main body of the Wasatch Formation underlying the Green River Formation. These assemblages were derived primarily from fluvial overbank mudstone units overprinted with variably well-developed paleosols. The lowest (20 m) and highest (60 m) sections are characterized by less mature and more hydromorphic paleosols, whereas the middle section (100 m) is typified by more mature paleosols and more abundant channel sandstones.

The combined assemblages contain at least 46 species of mammals. Faunal characteristics include high abundances of equid perissodactyls and a relatively high abundance and diversity of notharctines primates, an apparent absence of omomyid primates, relatively high rodent diversity, and relatively diverse and abundant artiodactyls. One new genus (Eoictops new genus) and three new species (Eoictops novaceki new species, Palaeosinopa lacus new species, and ?Notoparamys blochi new species) are included in the Fossil Butte assemblage. Also recorded are late occurrences of two hyopsodontid condylarths and an early occurrence of a rare phenacodontid condylarth. The relatively high abundances of equids and notharctines suggest that vertebrate samples were derived from relatively open paleohabitats that included forested areas along water courses.

All three assemblages contain characteristic Lysitean (Wasatchian biochron Wa-6) elements, but the occurrence of the palaeotheriid perissodactyl Lambdotherium in the uppermost horizon indicates a Lostcabinian (Wa-7) age for at least the top of the Wasatch Formation. The overlying predominantly fish-bearing Fossil Butte Member of the Green River Formation also contains Lambdotherium and is therefore Wa-7 in age as well.

Seven species of cornulitids, one unidentified tubicolous shell, and the problematic bryozoan Lagenosypho Spandel, 1898 are here described from the Katian of Baltica. Three new species—Cornulites lindae new species, Cornulites meidlai new species, and Conchicolites kroegeri new species—are described. The unidentified tubicolous organism has punctate shell structure and setae-like structures that can best be affiliated with lophophorates. The Hirmuse fauna indicates that the diversity and number of cornulitids in the Ordovician of Baltica has been underestimated and it is likely that the Baltic cornulitid fauna was as diverse and abundant as the fauna of Laurentia. Clay mud-bottom environments supported the highest cornulitid diversity in the Late Ordovician of Baltica. The occurrence of intermediate forms indicates that some tentaculitid characters, e.g., regular annulation and a nearly straight shell, which were thought to be apomorphies of free-living tentaculitids, were actually inherited from ancestral cornulitids. The cornulitid fauna of the Late Ordovician of Laurentia somewhat resembles the cornulitid fauna of the Late Ordovician of Baltica, but there are fewer common faunal elements between Gondwana and Baltica.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/cc704237-b578-4d06-a8ed-8457ca3ce972

The Bridgeboro Limestone, a rhodolith- and coral-bearing limestone in southwestern Georgia, has been assigned to the Vicksburgian Stage (Lower Oligocene) of the Gulf Coast based on the occurrence of the bivalves Chlamys (Anatipopecten) anatipes (Morton) and C. (Lyropecten) duncanensis Mansfield. This assignment is further substantiated by the recent recognition of the distinctive bryozoan Tubucellaria vicksburgica Canu and Bassler. The Bridgeboro also contains the larger foraminifera Lepidocyclina (Lepidocyclina) mantelli (Morton), L. (Nephrolepidina) yurnagunensis Cushman, and L. (Eulepidina) undosa Cushman, an assemblage indicative of the Lepidocylina (s.s.) subzone of the Eulepidina Zone of Early Oligocene age. These foraminifera are also characteristic of the Duncan Church beds of the Florida panhandle, and an assemblage of isolepidine and eulepidine Lepidocyclina also occurs in the Glendon Limestone of Alabama. On the basis of larger foraminifera, macroin vertebrates, and physical stratigraphic relationships, we propose that the Bridgeboro, Duncan Church, and Glendon are biostratigraphically and lithostratigraphically correlative. The Glendon Limestone has been previously assigned to nannoplankton zone NP22, and also occurs within the Cassigerinella chipolensis–Pseudohastigerina micra planktonic foraminiferal zone, both of Early Oligocene age. Based on correlation with the Glendon, the age of the Bridgeboro is thus Early Oligocene (Rupelian), middle Vicksburgian.

Exceptionally preserved fossil eggs and embryos provide critical information regarding paleoembryogenesis, reproductive strategies, and the early ontogeny of early arthropods, but the rarity of preservation of both eggs and egg-bearing organisms in situ limits their use in detailed evolutionary developmental (evo-devo) studies. Burgess Shale-type deposits preserve rare instances of egg-bearing arthropods as carbonaceous compressions; however, the eggs are usually poorly preserved with no compelling evidence of embryos. We describe the first record of a brooding specimen of Waptia cf. W. fieldensis from the Spence Shale, a Cambrian (Wuliuan Stage) Burgess Shale-type deposit in northeastern Utah and southeastern Idaho. This is the first record of an egg-bearing arthropod from the Spence Shale and it exhibits two distinct modes of preservation among eggs within the single clutch: carbonization and phosphatization. Unlike the egg-bearing Burgess Shale specimens, many eggs of this Utah specimen are also preserved three-dimensionally. In addition, synchrotron radiation X-ray tomographic microscopy reveals internal distributions of mineral phases, along with potential remnants of the egg membrane and attachment structures, but, as in the Burgess Shale, no explicit traces of developing embryos. The distinct modes of preservation highlight the existence of diagenetic microenvironments within some eggs, but not in others during fossilization.

The proboscidean Gomphotherium is reported here from the Alajuela Formation of Panama. Gomphotherium was widespread throughout Holarctica during the Miocene, and the Panama fossil represents the extreme southernmost occurrence of this genus in the New World. Allocation of the Panama Gomphotherium to a valid species is impossible given both the fragmentary material represented and the taxonomic complexity of species assigned to this genus. In North America, Gomphotherium has a relatively long biochronological range from the middle Miocene (~15 Ma) to early Pliocene (~5 Ma). Based on morphological comparisons, the Panama Gomphotherium is either middle Miocene, thus representing the earliest-known entry of this genus into Central America, or late Miocene/early Pliocene, which challenges the currently accepted middle Miocene age of the Alajuela Formation as it has been previously reported from Panama.