Fossils from the Emigrant Formation of Nevada are rare despite the geologic time (uppermost Lower Cambrian to Lower Ordovician) represented by the 700 m thick sequence of deeper water, fine-grained clastics and carbonates. This report documents trilobites from the Elvinia Biozone from this formation in the Goldfield Hills, Nevada. Previously, trilobites and inarticulate brachiopods from the Emigrant Formation have been reported from the lowermost and uppermost portions. in the lower portion, trilobites from the Olenellus Biozone (Dyeran Stage, “Lower” Cambrian) occur in the basal few meters, and are overlain by 15 m of mudstones containing the Eokochaspis nodosa, Amecephalus arrojosensis, and Oryctocephalus indicus biozones (Lin and Knox, 2001; Sundberg and McCollum, 2003) of the lower Delamaran Stage (“Middle” Cambrian, Fig. 1). Collections above the lower mudstones include the Glossopleura Biozone of the Delamaran Stage, Ehmaniella? Biozone of the Topazan Stage, and the Ptychagnostus atavus and Cedaria selwyni biozones of the Marjuman Stage (unpublished data). the only other fossil remains that have been reported include a possible Elvinia Biozone fossil from the middle portion of the formation (McCollum and Sundberg, 2000) and Saukia Biozone fossils from the upper portion of the formation (Albers and Stewart, 1972; unpublished data). Lower Ordovician conodonts have also been found in the upper portion of the formation (M. Miller, personal commun. to L. McCollum, 2003).

Gastropods of the southwestern Atlantic genus Antistreptus Dall, 1902 from extant and Neogene deposits are reviewed. Fossil specimens come from the Punta Entrada Member of the Monte León Formation (50°21′25.4″S, 68°53′05.9″W). Extant samples are from museum collections and two expeditions on board the R/V “Puerto Deseado” to Burdwood Bank (54°13.934′S, 66°30.997′W) and surroundings. Dissection of soft parts and study of the type material of A. magellanicus Dall, 1902, Euthria (Glypteuthria) contraria Strebel, 1908, and A. rolani Castellanos, 1986 reveal that the latter two nominal species are synonymous. Neogene material assigned to the same genus could not be distinguished as a different species. According to the stratigraphic occurrence of the fossil material, the life-span of the genus Antistreptus Dall, 1902 and the species A. magellanicus Dall, 1902 is ~22 Myr, similar to that of the bivalve Cyclochlamys argentina Pastorino and Griffin, 2018.

The benthic, free-living oyster Texigryphaea was the dominant constituent of many late Albian marine communities in the Texas and southern Western Interior regions. Large topotypic assemblages of three common lower–middle Washita Group species (T. navia and T. pitcheri in Oklahoma and T. tucumcarii in New Mexico) each display considerable morphological variation in valve shape and the proportions and expression of various features. Variation within an assemblage is partly due to ontogenetic changes but is mainly ecophenotypic, with local variation in nature of substrate, water turbulence, length of attachment time, and other factors influencing the final morphology of the mature shell. The T. navia assemblage is distinct in several important morphological characters from the other species, and the differences become more pronounced with growth. Texigryphaea navia appears to have been adapted to relatively firm substrates in moderately agitated conditions, in contrast to the other species, which occupied softer substrates in quieter environments. The essentially contemporaneous T. pitcheri and T. tucumcarii assemblages display much overlap in all measured dimensions of the left valve and in the range of intergrading morphs that compose each assemblage. Accordingly, T. tucumcarii is considered a synonym of T. pitcheri, representing populations of that species that lived in the West Texas-New Mexico area and developed only minor differences from the eastern populations. Within the T. navia topotypic assemblage are specimens intermediate between T. navia and T. pitcheri, and the eastern and western T. pitcheri assemblages contain forms apparently transitional to two other species, T. washitaensis and T. belviderensis. Ecophenotypic variation in the T. pitcheri assemblages appears to be greater than that in European Jurassic Gryphaea species and mirrors to some extent phyletic variation in European Jurassic Gryphaea lineages.

Sertulaster keslingi new genus new species (Palaeasteridae) and Delicaster hotchkissi new species (Permasteridae) are asteroid echinoderms described, respectively, from the Ordovician and Carboniferous of eastern North America. The new genus and species help to document diversity within taxa of lower rank. S. keslingi is similar to the Early Ordovician Eriaster Blake and Guensburg, 2005 but exhibits less differentiation of the skeletal elements from beyond the ambulacral column, that of the so-called extraxial skeleton, whereas the comparatively robust construction of Delicaster hotchkissi clearly departs from that of the type species, D. enigmaticus (Kesling, 1967). Small sample sizes and incomplete exposure of available specimens illustrate ambiguities typically encountered in the study of fossil asteroids.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/fb44075c-396b-4f95-b997-29cdf3c4f3c1

The trilobite fauna of the middle Silurian (Telychian to possibly earliest Sheinwoodian) Tomcat Creek limestone in the Broken River Province of north Queensland is dominated by the suborder Illaenina, including illaenimorphs (Illaeninae and Bumastinae) and members of the Scutelluidae. Scutelluidae are most diverse, with eight genera, of which Dolabrapex, Iotoryx, Perizostra, and Quintonia are new. Perizostra is the first scutelluid with a cephalon that may be described as of phacomorph appearance. Illaenimorphs are represented by three genera, including Opsypharus, which is regarded as a senior synonym of Paracybantyx but distinct from Failleana with which it has been placed in synonymy by some authors. Thirteen species are new: Cybantyx? ergodes, Opsypharus pandanensis, Australoscutellum talenti, Dolabrapex acomus, Illaenoscutellum psephos, Iotoryx clarksoni, Japonoscutellum mawsonae, J. drakton, J. fractum, Kosovopeltis avita, Perizostra campbelli, Quintonia arata, and Q. pavo. A species of Stenoparia is placed in open nomenclature. The species of Australoscutellum, Illaenoscutellum, and possibly Kosovopeltis are the oldest known representatives of those genera. These genera and Japonoscutellum are also common in faunas from limestones of Wenlock to Ludlow age in central western New South Wales, reflecting the similarity in lithofacies. The monotypic Late Ordovician genus Craigheadia, which has been regarded as a scutelluid, belongs to the Lichidae and is probably a junior synonym of Leiolichas.

In a series of recent papers, colleagues and I (Milner, 1994; Carroll, 1998; Anderson, 2002, 2003a, 2003b; Anderson et al., 2003) have revised Aïstopoda, a collection of elongate, limbless tetrapods from the Paleozoic of Euramerica. Aïstopods are part of a larger, monophyletic assemblage of tetrapods known as lepospondyls, which are proving to be critical to understanding the early evolution of amniotes and are possibly related to the origins of some, or all, modern amphibians (Carroll, 1995, 2000a, 2000b; Laurin and Reisz, 1997, 1999; Laurin, 1998; Anderson, 2001; Ruta et al., 2003; Vallin and Laurin, 2004).

The family Cardiliidae has been scarcely studied. It was historically placed in the superfamily Mactroidea. Members of this family are characterized by a cordiform shell with a typical mactrid hinge, posterior adductor muscle placed into a myophore and three ornamental areas on the external surface of the shell. Six extant and 14 exclusively fossil species have been previously mentioned in the literature as belonging to the genus Cardilia. The geographical distribution, stratigraphic range, type material and type locality of each extant and fossil species are provided. In this work, four extant species and 11 exclusively fossil species belonging to the genus Cardilia are recognized. Extant species are from the western Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean and eastern Atlantic Ocean, while fossil taxa are recorded from deposits of middle Eocene to late Pliocene in Europe and Asia,. One of them is formally described herein as Cardilia edwardsi new species.

Toriyama and Kanmera (1968), in one of their studies of fusulines from the Rat Buri Limestone, Thailand, proposed two Permian fusuline foraminifer genera, Thailandina and Neothailandina. Based on these two genera they established the subfamily Thailandininae and placed it in the family Neoschwagerinidae. the tests of these genera are invariably replaced by secondary mineralization to a finegrained mosaic calcite such as seen in specimens of Staffellidae. the thailandinid wall was apparently originally composed of a tectum and keriotheca.

This is the first of two comprehensive taxonomic works on the early Miocene (ca. 23–20 Ma) bryozoan fauna associated with coral reefs from the Siamaná Formation, in the remote region of Cocinetas Basin in the La Guajira Peninsula, northern Colombia, southern Caribbean. Fifteen bryozoan species in 11 families are described, comprising two cyclostomes and 13 cheilostomes. Two cheilostome genera and seven species are new: Antropora guajirensis n. sp., Calpensia caribensis n. sp., Atoichos magnus n. gen. n. sp., Gymnophorella hadra n. gen. n. sp., Cribrilaria multicostata n. sp., Cribrilaria nixor n. sp., and Figularia bragai n. sp. Eight species are identified only at genus level and remain in open nomenclature. Of the species found, 27% have erect colonies and 73% encrusting colonies. Both types contributed to the reef framework and produced sediment. The observed bryozoan diversity was higher in the barrier reefs than in the lagoonal patch reefs.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/5c8468ef-31b0-4e7e-ba93-60a2e2f30b76.

A diverse and well-preserved radiolarian assemblage from the Malongulli Formation, New South Wales, Australia, contains 13 species representing 10 genera and six families. One new genus, Wiradjuri, is introduced to accommodate pre-Devonian single-shelled entactiniid taxa, and one new species, Secuicollacta malongulliensis, is recorded together with some previously described forms. The microstructures of the “rotasphaerid structure/primary unit” and the “ectopic spicule” are investigated to validate their roles as fundamental units in the Secuicollactidae, together with comprehensive documentation of the previously enigmatic Pseudorotasphaera internal skeleton.

The results of this investigation suggest that, among all radiolarian genera that survived the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction event (LOME) and transitioned into the Silurian, Secuicollacta, Haplotaeniatum, and Palaeoephippium maintained stable body plans during the transition and were more successfully established. The selective advantages these lineages had during the LOME were most likely spontaneous outcomes of the mode of structural development involving sequential skeletogenesis and a tendency to evolve toward simpler body plans.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/264c026f-35af-4025-a4f7-de8f9a91f8b9

Distortion of the paleontologic literature in most of the 450 papers bearing V. J. Gupta as author or co-author during the past 30 years has been documented by Agarwal and Singh (1981), Talent (1989a, 1989b, 1989c, 1990a, 1990b, 1990c, in press), Talent et al. (1988, 1989, 1990, 1991), Ahluwalia (1989), Bassi (1989, 1990), Brock et al. (1991), and Radhakrishna (1991). Replies to the charges of fabrication and distortion by Gupta (1989, 1990a, 1990b) were futile attempts to distract the reader, rather than to provide information to refute the charges.

The genus Ardea includes all living species of large herons. Brodkorb (1963) listed five fossil species of Ardea, and only one fossil species has since been described. Of these six, only two are unquestionably members of the genus Ardea. Ardea brunhuberi von Ammon, 1918, from the Upper Miocene Brown Coal Formation, Württemburg, Germany, was moved by Brodkorb (1980) to the Phalacrocoracidae as Phalacrocorax brunhuberi. Brodkorb (1980) considered A. lignitum Giebel, 1860, from the Sarmatian Brown Coal of Rippersroda, Thuringia, Germany, to be a large owl in the genus Bubo. Olson (1985) similarly regards A. perplexa from the Astaracian of Sansan, France, to be a large owl, possibly in the genus Bubo. The type of Ardea aureliensis Milne-Edwards, 1871, from the Oreleanian of Suevres, France, has never been illustrated or restudied and its affinities need to be confirmed (Olson, 1985). The valid fossil species are Ardea polkensis Brodkorb, 1955, from the late Hemphillian Bone Valley Mining District, Florida, and A. howardae Brodkorb, 1980, from the Plio/Pleistocene Shungura Formation, Omo Basin, Ethiopia. A large species of Ardea is also known from the late Clarendonian Love Bone Bed local fauna, Florida, but is based on material too fragmentary for specific identification (Becker, 1985). This note reports the earliest certain occurrence of Ardea now known.

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.

Ninety-one specimens of Pentremites Say from the Mississippian Chesterian display color patterns. The darker color patterns represent a thin veneer of pigmented calcite which is barely visible on a polished surface or thin section, but which can be removed with dilute hydrochloric acid. Preservation appears to be best in specimens from shallow marine clays and shales. The patterns represent four color patterns, each consisting of different shades of calcite, and ranging in color from tan to black. Color patterns generally, but not always, cross growth lines. Type 1 has arched chevron patterns on the deltoids, horizontal lines on the radials, and triangular bands on the basals. Type 2 has darkened deltoids or concave chevrons on the deltoids and darkened areas concentric to the radials, and sometimes alternating light and dark bands conforming to growth lines on the radials. Type 3 has sloping lines crossing the radials, concave chevrons on the deltoids, and darkened areas on the lower radials, concentric to the ambulacra and on the basals. Type 4 has dark dots concentric to the lower ambulacra, arched chevrons on the deltoids and transverse lines abutting the radials and on the basals. The color patterns are original and may have been exposed on the outside of the integument.

Disrupted conodont bedding plane assemblages are described from two laterally equivalent mudstone core samples of the Lower Mississippian upper shale member of the Bakken Formation in the subsurface of southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan. The core bedding plane conodont assemblage representing the bispathodid biofacies from southeastern Alberta (Locality 1) shows little evidence of winnowing. Thus, this assemblage, along with collections of discrete conodont elements, is a potential source of data for reconstructing paleoecology and taphonomy as well as for testing apparatus reconstructions. The assemblage representing the siphonodellid biofacies from the southwestern Saskatchewan core (Locality 2) shows evidence of a greater degree of breakage and winnowing of elements, making it less suitable as a source of data. Postmortem compaction of mudstones and processing methods also affect the preservation of the conodont elements, due to breakage along lines of fracture in the elements. An apparatus reconstruction is proposed for Prioniodina aff. P. curvidens.

Six stratigraphically distinct trilobite faunas are recognized in the Lower Mississippian strata of the central United States. These faunas range in age from earliest Kinderhookian to Meramecian, and are, in ascending order: Pudoproetus missouriensis, Comptonaspis swallowi, Proetides insignis-Perexigupyge, Breviphillipsia semiteretis, Exochops portlockii, and Hesslerides bufo. Trilobite species diversity waxed and waned through the early Mississippian of the central United States, but reached its maximum during the late Kinderhookian within the Comptonaspis swallowi fauna. the Comptonaspis swallowi, Breviphillipsia semiteretis, and Exochops portlockii faunas of the mid-continent can be correlated with the C. swallowi, B. semiteretis, and Hesslerides arcentensis faunas of the Caballero and Lake Valley Formations of New Mexico. the vertical distribution, composition, and diversity variations among individual faunas suggest that they are evolutionarily discrete and therefore of biostratigraphic utility. Their stratigraphic distribution appears to be controlled by sea level and climatic fluctuations.

New Osagean trilobites identified and described are Exochops burlingtonensis n. sp. and Richterella carteri n. sp. from the Burlington Formation of Missouri, Australosutura osagensis n. sp. from the Keokuk Limestone of Missouri and the Arcente and Dona Ana Members of the Lake Valley Formation of New Mexico, and Spergenaspis boonensis n. sp. from the Boone Formation of Oklahoma.

In 1992 Sander described in this journal a find of the ichthyosaurian genus Cymbospondylus from the Middle Triassic of Spitsbergen. At the time of publication, the specimen illustrated in figures 2-4 (Sander, 1992) and five associated elements (not figured) were housed at the Paleontological Institute and Museum of the University of Zürich (PIMUZ A/III 496 and PIMUZ A/III 647-651). These specimens were later donated by their collector and owner Professor Hans-Joachim Schweitzer (Bonn) to the Paleontological Museum of the University of Oslo (PMO), where they are now stored under the following numbers:

• PMO 162.003 (=PIMUZ A/III 496, figs. 2-4 in Sander, 1992)

• PMO 162.004 (=PIMUZ A/III 647)

• PMO 162.005 (=PIMUZ A/III 648)

• PMO 162.006 (=PIMUZ A/III 649)

• PMO 162.007 (=PIMUZ A/III 650)

• PMO 162.008 (=PIMUZ A/III 651)

Larvae of sea urchins, brittle stars, and allies are common, ecologically important, and diverse members of marine ecosystems in all of the world's oceans today. In contrast to modern representatives, the fossil record of echinoderm larvae is poorly known. This study reports the first ophiopluteus skeleton from Cretaceous sediments worldwide, obtained from chalky sediment of the Isle of Wolin, NW Poland. The evidence presented here, that it is possible to isolate fossil echinoderm larval skeletons from rocks, indicates a hidden diversity of such fragile fossils and thus the possibility of direct geological recording.