M. Griffin (Division Paleozoologia Invertebrados, Museo de la Plata, Argentin) and P. Bouchet (Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris) have kindly brought to my attention the fact that the genus name Taniella Kase (1990, p. 573; type species Taniella japonica Kase, 1990) is preoccupied by Taniella Finlay and Marwick, 1937, p. 48 (type species Natica notocenica Finlay, 1924). Consequently, a new name, Tanimasanoria, is proposed as a replacement for Taniella Kase, 1990. It is named in honor of Masanori Tani, for years of collecting the Izumi gastropods.

Two cupressocrinitids (Crinoidea, Eucladida) from the famous crinoid collection of Dr. Ludwig J.T. Schultze deposited in the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) are revised in the present study: Cupressocrinites hybridus n. comb. and Halocrinites minor n. comb. The rare C. hybridus has a stratigraphically and regionally restricted occurrence at the Eifelian–Givetian boundary of the Hillesheim Syncline (Eifel, Rhenish Massif, Germany), but the more common H. minor occurs supraregionally from the Eifelian to the Frasnian (Middle to Upper Devonian). Both cupressocrinitids are redescribed on the basis of the type material stored in the MCZ. In addition, the rare Halocrinites heinorum n. sp. from the Eifelian–Givetian boundary beds and lower Givetian of the Eifel (Rhenish Massif, Germany) is described, and Encrinus townsendi (König, 1825) is questionably reassigned to Robustocrinites: R.(?) townsendi n. comb. Pre- and postmortem ossicular modifications of the studied cupressocrinitid skeletons are also discussed.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/4598e1fa-8ca5-4160-8fee-6e8c6d444115

UUID: http://zoobank.org/bae1f4cb-c5c1-4dfd-85e2-22bfc929e4a0

The Cincinnatian (Katian) of the Cincinnati Tri-State area is widely regarded as one of the most fossiliferous sections known (Meyer and Davis, 2009). Echinoderms from these strata include well-described asteroids, crinoids, cyclocystoids, edrioasteroids, glyptocystoids, mitrates, and ophiuroids. John Pope discovered a partially articulated echinoderm in float from the Fairview Formation that does not correspond to any known Cincinnatian echinoderm. Although mentioned in Ubaghs (1966, as a presumable personal communication from Pope, 1960), Haude and Langenstrassen (1976), Reich (2001), and Reich and Haude (2004), this specimen at the Cincinnati Museum Center (CMCPIP 51316) has neither been described nor illustrated; yet, these authors attributed it to Volchovia Hecker, 1938 in the Class Ophiocistioidea. Questions swirl around this fossil: what is its complete morphology; does it belong to Volchovia; whether or not it can be assigned to Volchovia, is it an ophiocistioid? The first step to understand this enigmatic echinoderm is to illustrate and describe the specimen, which is the objective of this note.

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.

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.

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.”

The extensive fauna of vertebrates from the Lower Devonian Water Canyon Formation of Utah was initially reported and described by Branson and Mehl (1930, 1931), and subsequently described in detail by Denison (1952, 1953, 1958, 1967). A major part of the fauna consists of heterostracans, particularly pteraspidids (Denison, 1953, 1967), and to date six species are known from the Water Canyon Formation. This fauna comes from the upper Emsian and is similar in age to that of the Beartooth Butte Formation of Wyoming and Montana, and also to faunas recently reported from Nevada and California (Elliott, 1989; Ilyes and Elliott, 1991, 1992).

Murthya, a new ostracode genus of Cytherinae, is proposed for the species previously described as Leptocythere chadopadiensis Lyubimova and Guha from the Lower Miocene beds of Kachchh District, India. The genus also occurs in the Lower Miocene beds of Saurashtra, Quilon, and Thanjavur.

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.

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.