An exceptionally well-preserved specimen of Leptochiton sp. attached to a brachiopod valve is described from the early Eocene beds of the La Meseta Formation, Seymour Island. It records the first fossil Polyplacophora from Antarctica. The small specimen has eight imbricating valves, rounded lateral margins, ribs of fine granules, and growth marks in all valves. It strongly resembles extant Antarctic and South American species of Leptochiton Gray. The record of articulate valves in fossil Polyplacophora is rare and requires exceptional preservational conditions. Leptochiton sp. is associated with well preserved bryozoans, brachiopods, asterozoan echinoids, and serpulids, among other organisms that inhabited hard substrates in normal marine conditions, and probably lived attached to the side walls of an incised valley eroded in Cretaceous sediments. The well-preserved fossils were probably removed from their attachment site during storm events and, after a short transportation, rapidly buried within the early Eocene valley-fill deposits. The fossil-bearing beds are included in the Telm 2 or Acantilados Allomember of the La Meseta Formation.

The genus Plicoplasia Boucot, 1959 (type species P. cooperi Boucot, 1959), embraces certain Lower Devonian brachiopods of the subfamily Ambocoeliinae, family Ambocoeliidae. The geographic range of Plicoplasia includes North America (Eastern Americas Realm) and South America and South Africa (Malvinokaffric Realm).

Conodonts from two localities on the western shore of Alberto Island, southeastern Alaska, include Polygnathus alexanderensis n. sp., P. angustipennatus, P. borealis n. sp., P. praetrigonicus n. sp., P. robusticostatus, P. pseudofoliatus, P. linguiformis linguiformis gamma form of Bultynck, P. parawebbi beta form of Chatterton, P. angusticostatus, P. costatus costatus, Polygnathus sp. B of Savage, 1977, Tortodus kockelianus australis, and T. kockelianus kockelianus. The faunas are considered to be of middle to late Eifelian (kockelianus Zone) age. On Prince of Wales Island, just north of Staney Creek, exposures of Wadleigh Limestone include the conodonts Polygnathus trigonicus, P. kennettensis, P. alexanderensis, P. angustipennatus, P. parawebbi beta form, P. eiflius, P. linguiformis linguiformis gamma form, P. borealis, P. angusticostatus, P. robusticostatus, P. costatus costatus, P. pseudofoliatus, Tortodus kockelianus australis, and T. kockelianus kockelianus, also suggesting a middle to late Eifelian (kockelianus Zone) age. Conodonts from the west end of the easternmost of the Alberto Islands include Polygnathus linguiformis linguiformis gamma form, P. parawebbi beta form, P. xylus ensensis, and Ozarkodina brevis, indicating a late Eifelian to early Givetian (ensensis to varcus Zones) age. The presence of Polygnathus kennettensis, P. parawebbi beta form, and P. borealis suggests a biogeographic affinity with other parts of western North America during Eifelian time.

Numerous specimens of the neritid gastropod Nerita (Bajanerita) n. subgen. californiensis (White, 1885) are present in the Upper Cretaceous Rosario Formation at Punta Banda, Baja California, Mexico (Figure 1). Marincovich (1975) assigned these strata to a Late Campanian to Early Maastrichtian age. The strata contain extensive biostromal deposits of the caprinid rudistid bivalve Coralliochama orcutti White, 1885, that probably lived below mean wave base in a shallow-water, low-energy environment periodically affected by storm waves or currents (Marincovich, 1975). The nearby shoreline was apparently defined by steep wave-washed bedrock cliffs and local pocket beaches that formed along the margin of a forearc basin (Yeo, 1984). Scattered about in the sandstone matrix among the rudistid remains are the small-sized specimens of N. (B.) californiensis, which commonly weather out as resistant, complete shells on the surface of the rock. Saul (1970) concluded that the neritid and other shallow-water gastropods at Punta Banda accumulated in sediment-trapping depressions within the Coralliochama buildups. These gastropods had originally roamed over the algal pastures of these buildups. The color patterns preserved on many of the specimens of N. (B.) californiensis also provide evidence that the depth of water was shallow and within the photic zone. Furthermore, Sohl (1971) reported that Campanian and Maastrichtian gastropod assemblages of the Baja California region are mostly associated with rudist buildups, and warm-water rocky intertidal neritids are among the dominant faunal elements. Lowenstam and Epstein (1959), using oxygen-isotope studies of an ammonite, suggested that the Punta Banda rudistids lived at a marginally tropical temperature of about 19°C.

Although past authors have regarded the Carydiidae as a European family, six species of Carydium are reported here from the Devonian of eastern North America. Two of these belong to a single morphocline common in the Hamilton shales; another (Carydium clarkei) is new. Due to lack of well preserved hinges most of these species were earlier placed in Nucula because serrations or striations on dental elements were mistaken for a taxodont dentition.

New data require modification of carydiid phylogenies of earlier authors. 1) Two independent pre-Devonian derivations from Lyrodesma are inferred. 2) Noradonta shergoldi, a carydiid-like lyrodesmatid from the Ordovician of Australia, is recognized as an important phyletic link between the Carydiidae and the Lyrodesmatidae. 3) The previous view of three distinct lineages within Carydium is not supported. Anamorphic data suggest as few as two main lineages and show two of the hinge types to be homeomorphic grades appearing separately or within one or the other of the main lineages.

Though too young to be directly involved in the early diversification of the Bivalvia, the actinodont, subheterodont, and pseudotaxodont hinge morphologies of Carydium supply models for the origin of heterodont and taxodont hinges. Anamorphic and other evidence suggests that both are iterative types, and fundamental differences between them may be few. Hence, their preeminence as diagnostic criteria among higher taxa is diminished.

Sphinctozoans are the most abundant hypercalcified sponge group within the Late Triassic shallow water carbonates of the Tethyan realm. They have been described from numerous localities of western Tethys (European region) and northern Tethys (Pamir Mountains), but relatively little is known about Triassic sphinctozoans and hypercalcified sponges from the southern and eastern areas of the Tethyan realm (Senowbari-Daryan and García-Bellido, 2002). The discovery of new, well-preserved sphinctozoan material is an important addition to knowledge of the sponge fauna of the region. Bernecker (1996) and Senowbari-Daryan et al. (1999) reported on some Late Triassic sphinctozoans and other hypercalcified sponges from Oman in the Arabian Peninsula, but no other data are available from the south-central portion of Tethys along the north margin of Gondwana. Elliott (1963) described a small, chambered organism from the Paleocene of northern Iraq as a sphinctozoan sponge (Calymenospongia kurdistanens), but this has a maximum diameter of 0.72 mm and appears to be an agglutinated foraminifer, not a sponge (Senowbari-Daryan and García-Bellido, 2002). Hajarispongia osmani n. gen. and sp., the first sphinctozoan sponge reported from the United Arab Emirates, is a multibranched sphinctozoan with large areas of exterior wall surface exposed and positioned so that it can be longitudinally sectioned along three branches, cut in oriented sections, and examined externally as well as internally. The combination of characters present in this sponge shows the need for describing an additional genus of sphinctozoan sponges and revising sponges previously placed in the genus Colospongia (Laube, 1865). The classification of hypercalcified sponges proposed by Finks and Rigby (2004) is used for description of sponges in this paper. Morphological terms conform to the terminology presented in Kaesler (2004) and illustrated by Rigby and Potter (1986), of which the following terms are of special importance in the description and study of Hajarispongia: 1) cribribulla—inward facing, blisterlike sieve at the inner end of an exaulos; 2) cribripore—small pores in sievelike cribribulla; and, 3) exaulos—spoutlike tube in sponge wall.

Extinct organisms with no close analogs and only distant living relatives are especially difficult subjects for paleobiological interpretation. Graptolites, especially the derived planktic Graptoloidea, are among this group of enigmatic fossils. Although the Pterobranchia are widely regarded as a sister group to graptolites, their entirely benthic, loosely organized colonies provide a poor analog for the mobile, highly integrated graptoloid colonies with their complex geometries. As a consequence, many basic features of zooid form and function are unknown. Under these circumstances, particularly troubling features—that is, features that do not readily fit into our simple models—may provide critical data with which to reform the models. It is with this hope that we describe here new observations of some graptolite specimens of the genus Appendispinograptus (Li Zhi-Ming and Li Da-Qing, 1985) and suggest a model for their function.

The fossil brachiopods of the Caribbean region are reasonably well known following publication of Cooper's (1979) monograph; however, the Jamaican fauna was not considered in this volume. Until recently, only Trechmann (1927, 1930) had described and figured fossil brachiopods from the island. Harper (1993; Harper and Donovan, 1990) has recently revised Trechmann's identifications and added to the still small faunal list, which includes two Cretaceous and 11 Cenozoic species (excluding those discussed below). Further specimens continue to be found and the present communication is a description of a significant collection of small terebratellaceans from the top of the Paleocene to Eocene Richmond Formation of eastern Jamaica. One of the two species described herein was originally recognized on the basis of three brachial valves as Argyrotheca sp. 1 in Harper (1993). The availability of superior material has confirmed the uniqueness of this species and has permitted adequate description and diagnosis. All specimens described herein are deposited in the James Mitchell Museum of University College, Galway (JMM), and the British Museum (Natural History), London (BMNH).

A neptunoceratid cephalopod, Texanoceras jacksboroensis n. gen. n. sp., is described from the Virgilian (Upper Pennsylvanian) Graham and Caddo Creek Formations in Texas, North America. The family Neptunoceratidae was previously represented by a single genus, Tetrapleuroceras. This new material provides important emendations to the diagnostic concept of the enigmatic family including shell orientation, mature modification and siphuncular structure. Although higher taxonomic position of Neptunoceratidae is difficult to determine at present, morphologic similarities between the family and the orthoceratid (?) family Brachycycloceratidae are discussed.

We describe two new genera of Triassic Aviculopectinoidea: Cristaflabellum n. gen., which is biconvex and has a strongly plicate shell, and Globodiscus n. gen., which is equiconvex and externally smooth or nearly so. Globodiscus contains the new species G. kiliani n. gen. n. sp. and G. vinzenti n. gen. n. sp. In order to make the taxonomic concept of the superfamily Aviculopectinoidea more consistent with that of its sister group Pectinoidea (scallops), we use tribes rather than families or subfamilies for accommodating the new taxa. Cristaflabellum is placed in the tribe Antijanirini (previously family Antijaniridae), whereas Globodiscus is made the type genus of the new tribe Globodiscini. Both tribes are placed within the family Aviculopectinidae, which is revised to include both equiconvex and inequiconvex taxa. We suggest that tribes are a more appropriate taxonomic rank for many of the previously erected species-poor families and subfamilies of Aviculopectinoidea.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/d143663a-9016-459f-8e24-660102adcf6a

New parasitoid wasps of the family Braconidae are documented from Eocene Baltic and Rovno ambers. A new fossil genus belonging to the braconid subfamily Exothecinae, Palaeocolastes n. gen., with its type species P. bruesi n. sp., is described and illustrated from Baltic amber. This represents the first reliable fossil record for a member of Exothecinae. Two additional new species from Baltic amber are also described: Ascogaster (Syntaphus) latitibialis n. sp. (Cheloninae) and Meteorus arasnitsyni n. sp. (Euphorinae). Another fossil species, Microtypus eocenus n. sp. (Microtypinae), is described from coeval Rovno amber (Ukraine), representing the first braconid species described from this deposit. A new record of a female of Diospilites brevicornis Brues, 1933 (Diospilitinae) from Baltic amber, together with variation of some diagnostic features of the species and redescription of its subfamily and genus, are also provided.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/656cb1a3-b9cf-4696-ae24-0d4df9545101.

Examination of collections from the Falkland Islands and South Africa shows that Chonetes falklandicus Morris and Sharpe, 1846, is a true Chonetes and is probably conspecific with Chonetes (Pleurochonetes) lauriata Isaacson, 1977, from Bolivia. Notiochonetes skottsbergi (Clarke, 1913) is quite different from C. falklandicus but is often associated with it in Malvinokaffric Realm Lower Devonian deposits.

The septate, lamellose, spiriferacean brachiopod genus Tylothyris North, 1920, is considered to be a delthyridid of the subfamily Tylothyridinae Carter, 1972. Herein, the diagnosis of the Tylothyridinae is emended to include forms with micro-ornament, and with a myophragm or median septum on the floor of the pedicle valve.

For the first time, Tylothyris is formally reported from the Traverse Group rocks of Michigan, Givetian through early Frasnian in age. Two species of the genus occur in the Traverse Group. The first, T. subvaricosa (Hall and Whitfield, 1872), previously described by Stainbrook (1943) from the Cedar Valley Limestone of Iowa, is also known from the Milwaukee Formation of Wisconsin and the Mineola Limestone of Missouri. Tylothyris randalia Stainbrook, 1943, also from the Cedar Valley Limestone, is considered to be synonymous with T. subvaricosa. In the Traverse Group, T. subvaricosa occurs in the Bell Shale, Rockport Quarry Limestone, Ferron Point Formation, Genshaw Formation, Alpena Limestone, Gravel Point Formation, Norway Point Formation, and Potter Farm Formation. The second species, T. rockportensis n. sp., occurs only in the Rockport Quarry Limestone, and appears to be endemic to the Michigan Basin.

Tylothyris is considered to have originated in the Illinois area during the late Eifelian, then to have migrated to the Michigan area by the early Givetian. With the onset of Taghanic Onlap during the late Givetian, the genus dispersed from its Illinois–Michigan area of origin, becoming distributed across much of North America during the Frasnian and Famennian, and becoming essentially cosmopolitan in distribution during the Tournaisian. Tylothyris apparently became extinct by the end of the Visean.

One new calcareous nannofossil genus Senilatus; four new calcareous nannofossil species Calculites favosus, Lithraphidites? charactozorro Self-Trail and Pospichal, Rucinolithus oriens, and Watznaueria bybelliae; and one new combination, Senilatus zipperum n. gen. and comb., are described from Upper Cretaceous (upper Campanian to Maastrichtian) sediments of east-central South Carolina. These new species were described from five coreholes located in marine coastal plain deposits. There is evidence that the presence of one species, Senilatus zipperum, is indicative of nearshore, restricted environments. Scanning electron and light microscope pictures are provided for two species, Cretarhabdus multicavus Bukry, 1969 and Retemediaformis teneraretis Varol, 1991, that have previously been documented only with the transmission electron microscope. The ranges of these two species have been extended beyond those stated in the original descriptions.

The record of Middle Ordovician (Oretanian, ca. Darriwilian 2) hyolithids from the Ossa Morena Zone of the Iberian Massif in southwestern Spain is increased with the recognition of Robardetlites sevillanus n. gen. n. sp., Andalucilites parvulus n. gen. n. sp., Pauxillites desolatus n. sp., Leolites malinkyi Marek and Gutiérrez-Marco n. sp., and Cavernolites sp. in that region. Andalucilites n. gen. and Robardetlites n. gen. are endemic whereas the other genera are known from coeval strata in the Barrandian region in central Europe, France, and Morocco, giving this assemblage a decidedly “Mediterranean province” character. The discovery of Pauxillites, Leolites, and Cavernolites in Iberia extends their geographic ranges to that region, and Leolites from this area extends its stratigraphic range downward, making its occurrence in Iberia the oldest known for that genus.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/f5b29223-6dac-4c7e-8851-551e634da667

A new ichnospecies, Glossifungites gingrasi n. isp., is described from multiple locations in basal sand-filled coastal plain distributary channels of the Turonian (Upper Cretaceous) Ferron Sandstone (central Utah). Glossifungites gingrasi n. isp. is attributed to the ichnogenus Glossifungites based on the presence of scratch imprints, passive fill, and a tongue-shaped structure, yet the new ichnospecies is distinct because it displays transverse bioglyphs that run perpendicular to the planiform structure, which contrasts to the axis parallel bioglyphs present in the ichnospecies G. saxicava. The transverse arrangement of ornamentation exhibited by G. gingrasi n. isp. is observed in modern subaqueous insect burrows produced by mayfly and chironomid larvae, and constitutes a way to differentiate insect-generated burrows from structures produced by crustaceans that are known to create other Glossifungites ichnospecies. Differentiating insect- from crustacean-generated burrows is significant because it provides a way to distinguish bioturbation by marine-recruited fauna from that produced by freshwater fauna in the rock record, making G. gingrasi n. isp. a valuable ichnological tool for paleoenvironmental and stratigraphic interpretation. While G. gingrasi n. isp. may represent a burrow created by a variety of filter-feeding subaqueous insects, the large size of G. gingrasi n. isp. in the Ferron Sandstone suggests that the largest specimens are probable mayfly burrows and supports the assertion that burrowing mayflies (e.g., Polymitarcyidae and Ephemeridae) adapted to domicile filter-feeding during or prior to the Turonian.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/a033b22f-bf09-481a-975e-3a1b096154cc

Four trepostome bryozoan species are described from the Upper Triassic of New Caledonia. They include one new genus Metastenodiscus n. gen. The studied fauna shows strong paleobiogeographic relations to New Zealand and less so to Japan. Morphological similarities between Middle Paleozoic and Triassic trepostome bryozoans (e.g., abundant diaphragms) are explained by homeomorphy.

The Neognathodus Index (NI) is developed as a primary biostratigraphic indicator for the Desmoinesian Series of the Illinois Basin in Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky. It is based on the gradual evolutionary morphotypic variations of P1 elements of named species of Neognathodus Dunn, 1970. The NI analyses and zonations presented herein are constructed from 472 productive conodont samples from 105 different localities. NIs for the Illinois Basin show morphologic drift in Indiana from the Perth Limestone Member of the Staunton Formation (NI = 2.03) to the Velpen Limestone and Mecca Quarry Shale members of the Linton Formation (NI = 5.04) followed by stability through the Alum Cave (NI = 4.83). Further morphologic drift then occurred through the Providence Limestone Member of the Dugger Formation (NI = 5.43) and continued through the West Franklin Limestone Member of the Shelburn Formation (NI = 6.32) until the extinction of Neognathodus at the end of Desmoinesian. The patterns of drift and stability translate to Neognathodus biozones and are supported by Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests of standardized Neognathodus morphotype distributions. Localized NI variations are due to morphologic shifts and differential evolution in response to localized environmental conditions. Examination of the NI differences in the states of Illinois, Kentucky, and Indiana reflect similar morphologic simplification of the P1 element from Perth to Velpen and Mecca Quarry in Indiana (NI = 2.03–5.04) and from Seville to Brereton in Illinois and Kentucky (NI = 2.80–5.00). Post-Brereton in Illinois and Kentucky (NI = 5.00–5.65) and post-Providence in Indiana (NI = 5.43–6.32) saw progressive P1 simplification, but it was much more pronounced in Indiana.