The new invertebrate trace fossil from paleosols of the Bijori Formation, Palliedaphichnium gondwanicum new ichnogenus new ichnospecies, which belongs to an upper Permian Gondwana sequence of India, makes a significant contribution to the meager records of invertebrate trace fossils from Permian and Indian paleosols. This trace fossil attributed to Diplopoda and composed of tunnels and chambers filled with pellets is also an important addition to the scarce record of Permian millipedes. The abundance of plant remains in the same paleosol indicates that these millipedes probably fed on leaf litter as other fossil and extant representatives. Chambers and abundant pellets in burrows indicate adverse conditions on the surface, at least seasonally. This finding contributes to the emerging scenario of invertebrate ichnofaunas from paleosols and points to a successive dominance of millipedes during the Paleozoic, crayfishes and earthworms in the Mesozoic, and insects in the Cenozoic.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/4378c739-9bd1-4382-b084-e2176045e209

Paromomyidae are one of several families of plesiadapiforms that flourished during the Paleocene in North America soon after the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs some 66 million years ago. Although they are often among the best-represented plesiadapiforms in mammalian faunas in both North America and Europe, the early history of paromomyids is poorly understood, and their fossil record at higher latitudes is comparatively depauperate. We report here on the discovery of two new species of paromomyids from Paleocene deposits in southwestern Alberta: Edworthia greggi new species is the second known species of the basal paromomyid Edworthia Fox, Scott, and Rankin, 2010 whereas Ignacius glenbowensis new species is among the most abundantly represented species of Ignacius Matthew and Granger, 1921. These new discoveries document, for the first time, parts of the upper dentition of Edworthia, and the new species of Ignacius represents the first new, pre-Clarkforkian species of the genus to be described in nearly 100 years. A comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of nearly all known paromomyid taxa (including the new species described herein) recovered both species of Edworthia near the base of the paromomyid tree in a polytomy with Paromomys depressidens Gidley, 1923 and a paraphyletic Ignacius. The new paromomyids from Alberta not only increase the known taxonomic diversity of Edworthia and Ignacius but also add significantly to knowledge of the dental anatomy of these poorly known genera and further add to a uniquely Canadian complement of Paleocene plesiadapiforms.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/a2f31cfe-09b9-4168-b09f-9d0c3d0af342

Bryozoans are common and diverse in fossil and modern coral reefs. However, studies of bryozoans in ancient reefs are generally limited, and even less is known about fossil bryozoan faunas associated with coral reefs in the Caribbean region. This is the second contribution describing the bryozoan assemblage from the early Miocene (Aquitanian) reefs of the Siamaná Formation in the La Guajira Peninsula, southern Caribbean. Here, we describe and illustrate 17 species of ascophoran-grade cheilostomes, including one new genus and three new species, Ditaxiporina colombiana n. sp., Poricella paulae n. sp., and Cycloavicularia parva n. gen. n. sp. Of the remaining fourteen taxa left in open nomenclature, one is considered confer and three affinis to species previously described, one is identified at family level, and nine at genus level. The Siamaná bryozoan fauna differs in species and colony-form composition from those associated with other paleoenvironments from Oligocene and Miocene localities of North America, the Caribbean, and Brazil.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/043eadcf-0e39-4c1b-b207-f7628d6b5c84

A specimen of the unstalked Cretaceous crinoid Uintacrinus socialis Grinnell, 1876, has a theca with an anomalous appearance that may be attributed to either inaccurate regeneration or unusual taphonomy. The former would entail regeneration of brachials from pinnulars, and inaccurate regeneration of the arms themselves. The latter would imply that the theca was broken into at least three pieces, and then the pieces were rotated with respect to each other. The presence of broken plates and sediment in the line of breakage indicates that the specimen was broken after death, and the taphonomic explanation is favored. Of the hundreds of known specimens of this species, this is the only one with such an appearance.

The new thin-walled vasiform dictyospongid hexactinellid, Tiddalickia manitobensis, is described from the Ordovician Red River Formation at McBeth Point on Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba. Vertical spicule bundles are an outer? part of the wall and horizontal spicule bundles an inner? different level within the wall. Bundle quadrules are only half the size of those in Tiddalickia quadrata Rigby and Webby, 1988. A complete anthaspidellid lithistid, Aulocopella winnipegensis Rauff, 1895, is described from a glacial erratic recovered from near Reston, Manitoba.

West Falls Group strata (Chemung facies) of Upper Devonian (Frasnian) age in New York State reflect sedimentation on a storm dominated sandy shelf. Rugose corals occur in storm deposited coquinites rich in bioclastic debris and are abundant locally, although representing only three species, Tabulophyllum orientale (Stumm), Macgeea ponderosa Stumm, and Disphyllum caespitosum (Goldfuss). The Tabulophyllum and Macgeea species are both characterized by large amounts of stereome (biogenic calcite) in the apical part of the corallite, perhaps useful in stabilizing corallites in the sediment.

Triangulotarbus terrehautensis n. gen. and sp. is a Pennsylvanian phalangiotarbid (Arachnida) that occurs in the sandy shales of the lower Shelburn Formation, McLeansboro Group, Desmoinesian Series, above Coal VII (Danville Coal) of the Dugger Formation. Triangulotarbus terrehautensis is the youngest phalangiotarbid that has been collected in North America.

The editor of the Zoological Record has kindly informed me that the generic name Polysiphonia Finks, 1995, (class Calcarea, order Murrayonida, family Maeandrostiidae) (Finks, 1995, page 4) is preoccupied (Mrs. M. Joan Thorne, personal commun., 1996). I therefore rename it Polysiphonaria.

Gordonaster brassfieldensis is a new genus and species of Asteroidea (Echinodermata) described from the Lower Silurian Brassfield Formation of east-central Kentucky. Tentatively assigned to the poorly understood Palaeasteridae, Gordonaster shares much with Ordovician asteroids, yet it also exhibits apparent homoplasies that presage the post-Paleozoic crown group. Available specimens also indicate that the ontogenetic pattern of ossicular addition seen in the crown group was established during the Paleozoic.

Twenty-four species of pteropods are described from the Pliocene Miyazaki Group in the Tsuma-Takanabe district, Miyazaki Prefecture, southwest Japan. Five are new: Clio shibatai new species, Cuvierina miyazakiensis new species, Cavolinia floridana japonica new subspecies, C. itoigawai new species, and C. vendryesiana hyugaensis new subspecies.

The pteropod fauna of the two lower members of the Miyazaki Group consists largely of extinct species. Whereas more than one-half of the species of the two upper members are extant.

Twelve species, Limacina sp., Clio hataii (Noda, 1972), C. shibatai new species, Cuvierina miyazakiensis new species, Bowdenatheca? sp., Diacria digitata subsp. indet., Cavolinia floridana japonica new subspecies, C. cf. C. gypsorum (Bellardi, 1873), C. itoigawai new species, C. mexicana (Collins, 1934), C. rattonei Simonelli, 1896, and C. vendryesiana hyugaensis new subspecies seem to serve as good index fossils for the Pliocene.

The silurian graptoloid genus Globosograptus was erected by Boucek and Přibyl (in Přibyl 1948, p. 37), who selected as type species Monograptus wimani Bouček, 1932. As noted by Bulman and Rickards in the Treatise (Bulman 1970, p. V155), Globosograptus “was based on the silhouette appearance of a slender Llandovery species on which the thecae possess a long prothecal portion, no thecal overlap, and a seemingly enrolled methathecal portion. The nature of this enrollment is indefinite … The genus has no precise significance and its application is quite impracticable.”

Closterocrinus elongatus Hall, 1852, long assigned to the cladid inadunate crinoid family Ampheristocrinidae (=Euspirocrinidae), has been found to possess pinnulate biserial arms and a cup composed of four exsert basals, five radials, a primanal above the radial circlet, and fixed primibrachials and secundibrachials. Accordingly, this species is herein reassigned to the monobathrid camerate crinoid family Paramelocrinidae.

Cythere ikeyanoriyukii n. sp., an extant phytal ostracode genus, was obtained from the Middle Eocene McIntosh Formation in the Doty Hills, western Washington State, USA. It was associated with eleven taxa, which are extant phytal and shelfal genera such as Loxocorniculum, Xestoleberis, Ambostracon, Coquimba, and Acanthocythereis. The presence of Cythere in this assemblage is surprising and indicates that the first appearance of this genus was middle Eocene time at the latest, or at least 20 Ma earlier than previously thought. Cythere did not originate in the Pacific Ocean around Japan as previously thought, but instead must have migrated from the northeastern Pacific to the northwestern Pacific between middle Eocene and early Miocene time.

New and old species and genera of the family Guadalupiidae (spherulitic hypercalcified demosponges of the order Agelasida) are described or redescribed from the West Texas Permian. The entire family is reviewed and observations are made on the epibionts, growth patterns, functional morphology, ecological relationships, morphologic variability, modular structure, and evolutionary history of these largely reef-dwelling sponges. The stratigraphic distribution of species is also noted; many are limited and can define zones. The new genera Exovasa and Incisimura and the new species Guadalupia auricula, G. cupulosa, G. ramescens, G. microcamera, G. vasa, Cystothalamia megacysta, Lemonea simplex, Incisimura bella, and Exovasa cystauletoides are described. Almost all previously published taxa are redescribed and in some cases redefined. The Guadalupiidae are unique among hypercalcified sponges in having a modular thalamid layer (thalamidarium) covered on the exhalant surface by a non-modular stromatoporoid-like layer (trabecularium).