Discovery of well-preserved specimens from the Nanba section in Yiyang, Hunan Province, in combination with a literature review, enabled us to re-evaluate and revise the graptolite genus Ancoragraptus. This is a genus of biradiate, multiramous anisograptids with horizontal to reclined rhabdosomes and free lower part of the metasicula and slightly isolated autothecal apertures. According to the revised definition, two species are included in Ancoragraptus, i.e., Ancoragraptus bulmani (Spjeldnæs, 1963) and Ancoragraptus psigraptoides Cho, Kim, and Jin, 2009. It is the first time that A. bulmani has been reported from China. The occurrences of Ancoragraptus reported worldwide are reviewed in the present study and found to be restricted to the lower upper Tremadocian. The restriction of Ancoragraptus in stratigraphical distribution makes it a taxon with a high potential for precise biostratigraphical correlation at both regional and global scale.

Seven previously unrecognized fusulinid species from Lower Permian (Wolfcampian and Leonardian) turbidites near Conglomerate Mesa in east-central California, four of which are named as new species, are here described and figured. the four new species are Schwagerina merriami, S. wildei, Parafusulina mackevetti, and Skinnerella rossi. These fusulinid species have close affinities to similar taxa in Texas and northeastern Nevada, and they are distinct from some other faunas of slightly different age in the Conglomerate Mesa area that are dominated by endemic species and other species with Eastern Klamath Mountains affinities.

Dr. Philippe Bouchet, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, kindly brought to my attention that the name Modestella Hautmann, 2001, which I introduced for a Triassic trigonoid bivalve genus (type species: Trigonia zlambachensis Haas, 1909), is preoccupied by Modestella Owen (in Casey), 1961 (Brachiopoda, Terebratulida). I therefore propose to replace Modestella Hautmann, 2001 by the new name Modesticoncha. The new name derives from the combination modestus (Latin) = modest, referring to the lack of ornamentation, and concha (Latin) = shell.

Stomatopods, or mantis shrimps, are malacostracan crustaceans. Known as “lean, mean, killing machines” (Watling et al., 2000, p. 1), modern stomatopods are obligate carnivores, feeding exclusively on live prey (Schram, 1986). Characteristically, their second thoracic appendages are enlarged to form powerful, raptorial claws. Modern stomatopods are divided into two broad functional groups based on the shape and usage of their raptorial claws: ‘spearing’ and ‘smashing’ stomatopods (Caldwell and Dingle, 1976).

Current usage as to the name of the type species of the eurypterid genus Acutiramus Ruedemann, 1935, violates Article 68 of the third edition of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (Ride et al., 1985; hereafter referred to as the Code). The history is recorded here, and the correct citation of the type species is given as the conclusion of this note. The pertinent sections of the Code are quoted for convenience of the reader.

The purpose of this note is to record the availability for research of highly fossiliferous sediment from a late Pleistocene terrestrial deposit in the Caribbean. The Red Hills Road cave in the parish of St. Andrew, northwest of Kingston, Jamaica (for more precise locality information, see Donovan et al., 1995, p. 12-15) is a late Pleistocene, essentially unstratified, cave deposit. The terrestrial fauna from this site includes diverse vertebrates (Savage, 1990; D.A. McFarlane and R.D.E. MacPhee, research in progress) and gastropods, associated with rare arthropods including millipedes (Donovan and Veltkamp, 1994), isopods, ostracodes and claws of non-marine crustaceans (J. S. H. Collins, research in progress).

The monoplacophoran genus Protoconus Stinchcomb, 1986, from the Upper Cambrian of the Ozark Uplift of Missouri, is a junior homonym of the monoplacophoran Protoconus Yü, 1979. Protoconus is a significant element in the pre-trilobite Lowermost Cambrian (Meishucan) beds of China (Yü, 1987). In consideration of this homonymy, it is proposed that Protoconus Stinchcomb, 1986, is changed and designated as Proteroconus.

A fragmentary and probably immature polyplacophoran shell from the Middle Triassic Germanic Muschelkalk is presented. Morphological peculiarities of the specimen are a stiff connection of the head valve to the adjoining intermediate valve and the presence of a yet undescribed brim-like shell constituent, informally called border-plate herein. The unusually well-preserved shell structure is discussed in detail comprising tegmentum, crossed-lamellar p. hypostracum and the (articulamental?) border-plate. Characteristics indicate a systematic position within the order Lepidopleurina.

In revising the subgenus Mclearnia Crickmay (1930), Kelly, Dhondt and Zakharov (1984) recommended that the spelling of the subgenus and species should be emended to Maclearnia maclearni. The latter authors had followed Recommendation III 21(a) of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (Stoll, 1964, p. 109), but this recommendation should be followed only in the formation of new names and not in revision of old names. Thus the emended name Maclearnia maclearni is unjustified and falls into the category of Article 33(ii) of the Code (Stoll, 1964, p. 37), becoming automatically a junior objective synonym of Mclearnia mclearni. The full revised name thus becomes Camptonectes (Mclearnia) mclearni (Crickmay, 1930).

The hypostome of Glyptambon Holloway, 1981, provides additional morphological evidence that this genus is more closely related to the Siluro-Devonian subfamily Dalmanitinae than to Ordovician “Mucronaspidinae.” New species of Glyptambon are G. amsdeni n. sp., from the Ludlow Brownsport Formation in west-central Tennessee, and G. gassi n. sp., from late Wenlock strata of the Racine Formation in Illinois.

Coccolithus crassus was described by Bramlette and Sullivan (1961) from the Lodo Formation of California. This species has a short stratigraphic range within the lower Eocene and its first occurrence is a marker for the CP10/CP11 zonal boundary in the widely used nannofossil zonation of Okada and Bukry (1980). Most nannofossil workers, however, do not report this index fossil, and the CP10/CP11 zonal boundary is often not determined. This is in contrast to the work of D. Bukry, who used the first occurrence of C. crassus for the CP10/CP11 boundary in virtually all lower Eocene DSDP cores that he examined (Figure 1). Apparently, there is considerable confusion about C. crassus. For instance, Romein (1979) considered C. crassus a junior synonym of Coccolithus eopelagicus (Bramlette and Riedel) Bramlette and Sullivan; Steinmetz and Stradner (1984, p. 741, Pl. 42, figs. 1 and 2) figured a specimen of Ericsonia subpertusa Hay and Mohler from Zone CP7 (upper Paleocene) as C. crassus; Perch-Nielsen (1985, p. 433, figs. 3.46 and 3.47, p. 504, figs. 58.12 and 58.13) mistook Toweius callosus Perch-Nielsen as C. crassus, as did Varol (1989, p. 302, Pl. 4, figs. 37 and 38). The main problem that prevents most workers from using this index fossil is that the species concept is largely unclear. It appears to be difficult to distinguish C. crassus from C. pelagicus or T. callosus based on the light micrographs of Bramlette and Sullivan (1961, Pl. 1, figs. 4a and 4c), and scanning electron microscope (SEM) photographs of this species have never been published except one specimen of the species was illustrated in Matter et al. (1974, p. 914, Pl. 4, fig. 8) under the name Ericsonia ovalis Black.

Ophiolancea swartkopensis n. gen. and sp. is the first ophiuroid to be described from the Lower Cretaceous (Valanginian) Sundays River Formation, South Africa. Ophiolancea is distinguished by lanceolate lateral arm shields which occur on the distal portions of the arms. Associated fauna and stratigraphic evidence suggest that the specimen was buried in an intertidal mud flat.

In his monograph on the fauna of the Utica and Lorraine Formations of New York, Ruedemann (1925b) described a new and unusually young species of Corynoides, C. ultimus. He obtained these specimens from a thin band within the Utica Shale at a locality on Ohisa Creek (a tributary of the more well known Nowadoga Creek) in the Mohawk Valley. Like many of the graptolites from the Utica, the Corynoides ultimus specimens are vague carbon films, extensively exfoliated and difficult to study. Perhaps consequently, Ruedemann's illustrations and measurements are not entirely accurate and do not reveal sufficient detail for meaningful comparison of this taxon with other, better known species.

A low-diversity assemblage of smaller calcareous microfossils is present in the Upper Mississippian Maxville Limestone in Muskingum and Perry Counties, southeastern Ohio. Diagnostic faunal elements that suggest an early Chesterian age include the foraminifers Neoarchaediscus maxvillensis n. sp., Paraarchaediscus aff. P. Pachytheca (Petryk), Paraarchaediscus cf. P. koktjubensis (Rauzer-Chernousova), Endothyra excellens (Zeller), Endothyra bowmani Phillips emend. Brady, and attached forms. The presence of these diagnostic faunal elements in the Chesterian of Ohio significantly extends their known geographic range into the eastern Midcontinent region.

Other forms present include the foraminifers Priscella? of the group P. prisca (Rauzer-Chernousova and Reitlinger), Diplosphaerina inaequalis (Derville), Earlandia spp., and the problematic Asphaltinoides macadami (Brenckle and Groves) and Salebra irregularis Bogush and Brenckle. Microfossils are present in both calcareous mudstone and limestone.

A new bivalve, Yonginella amica n. gen. and sp., is described from the Silurian of Gotland. Although it has a straight hinge line with cardinal and lateral teeth indicating relationship with the Cyrtodontidae of the Arcoida, its external morphology (with a conspicuous diagonal ridge and sulcus) differs considerably from all previously described taxa of this group. Yonginella amica exhibits a shell shape suitable for soft muddy bottoms (“snowshoe” adaptation), and is interpreted to have been a nonsiphonate suspension feeder with a semi-infaunal, byssate mode of life.

Zygocycloides? foerstei n. sp. is described from the Llandovery (Aeronian) Brassfield Formation of southwestern Ohio. This is among the oldest reported Silurian cyclocystoids from North America and is the only North American Llandovery cyclocystoid that is preserved with a complete rim of marginal ossicles. Zygocycloides Smith and Paul, 1982 is most similar to Nicholsodiscus Glass et al., 2003 (Katian) and Perforocycloides Ewin et al., 2019 (Llandovery, Telychian), both from Anticosti Island, Québec. Cyclocystoids (Ordovician to Mississippian) survived Late Ordovician extinctions, and this discovery documents that this echinoderm clade was part of shallow-water, marine paleocommunities during the initial post-extinction transgression onto the Laurentian platform.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/3d3e092e-267b-4841-9245-6275d1eb79a1

A new genus and species of carneyellid edrioasteroid, Spiracarneyella florencei n. gen. n. sp., is described from the Upper Ordovician (Kaitian) Point Pleasant Formation of northern Kentucky and southern Ohio. Spiracarneyella n. gen. is characterized by having all five ambulacra curving clockwise around the theca, having small node-bearing interambulacral plates in the distal interambulacra, and having the periproct placement slightly offset to the right side of the CD interambulacrum. The oral area of carneyellids evolved by paedomorphosis of the oral plates covering the mouth. The straight ambulacra of Cryptogoleus and the spiraling ambulacra of Spiracarneyella n. gen. evolved by paedomorphosis and peramorphosis, respectively.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/79733c8f-0bc8-4e7e-8f77-8508f576755c