Shi and Waterhouse (1996, p. 127) proposed a new genus, Yukonella, for a distinctive licharewiinid species (Spiriferida, Brachiopoda) based on well-preserved material from the Lower Permian upper Jungle Creek Formation, northern Yukon Territory, Canada. However, the Editor of the Zoological Record, Mrs. M. Joan Thorne (personal commun., 1997), has kindly informed me that the name Yukonella is preoccupied by an Upper Triassic poriferan genus published by Senowbari-Daryan and Reid (1986, p. 900). I therefore rename the brachiopod genus Nahoniella after the Nahoni Range in the northern Ogilvie Mountains of northern Yukon Territory, Canada, where the type species of the genus, Nahoniella plana (Shi and Waterhouse), was collected.

Ten new species of benthic foraminifera are described from the early to middle Pleistocene Bathhouse Beach locality of the Santa Barbara Formation, Santa Barbara, California. The new taxa include Glabratella luxuribulla n. sp., Rectobolivina ruida n. sp., Homalohedra jungocostata n. sp., Homalohedra quasilineata n. sp., Pytine lemniscata n. sp., Lagena complurecosta n. sp., Lagena compressacosta n. sp., Cerebrina adamanta n. sp., Fissurina artolabiata n. sp., and Fissurina infragilella n. sp. Palliolatella immemora is proposed as a replacement name for the primary homonym Lagena neglecta Buchner, 1940.

Tolypelepis mielnikensis n. sp. from a core sample of the Late Silurian (Pridoli) succession in Mielnik, Poland shares tolypelepidid features such as a subdivision of the dorsal shield into epitega, and ornamentation of short dentine ridges grouped into scale-like units with a coarser, higher median ridge encircled by narrower and lower ridges. A constriction of the dorsal shield anterior to the orbit level with the orbital notches significantly deeper than in other tolypelepidids discriminates it from other Tolypelepis species.

The typical Mississippian shallow-water deposits of the Jiusi and Shangsi formations are well exposed in the Yashui section in southern Guizhou, South China. The strata are composed mainly of platform limestones intercalated with shales and sandstones. Conodonts obtained from the limestones are dominated by two assemblages of cavusgnathids: the Cavusgnathus aff. Cav. unicornis and Clydagnathus windsorensis assemblage from the upper Jiusi Formation and the Cavusgnathus unicornis assemblage from the lowest Shangsi Formation. Vogelgnathus campbelli (Rexroad, 1957) is reported for the first time in Eastern Paleotethys and is characterized by small lateral denticles. The evolutionary first occurrence of Cavusgnathus unicornis Youngquist and Miller, 1949 is recognized as a marker for the regional Shangsian stage. This biostratigraphic datum is interpreted to be correlative with other shallow-water conodont zones marked by Cavusgnathus unicornis s.l. and similar species from North America and Europe.

With the 1859 publication of On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin posed contention against his synthesis on the history of life. His dilemma specifically regarded that the geologically sudden appearance of complex shelly invertebrates at the Cambrian Explosion followed an incomprehensible absence of a long-standing gradual transition to such forms. Indeed, as quoted from Chapter 10 of the sixth edition, “To the question why we do not find rich fossiliferous deposits belonging to these assumed earliest periods prior to the Cambrian system, I can give no satisfactory answer… the difficulty of assigning any good reason for the absence of vast piles of strata rich in fossils beneath the Cambrian system is very great… The case at present must remain inexplicable; and may be truly urged as a valid argument against the views here entertained” (p. 286–288). In the 155 years since this assertion, paleontologists focusing on the strata of the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition have uncovered a rich evolutionary history prior to the radiation of animals, but our resulting discoveries have neither been without debate nor unraveled the intricacies suggested by Darwin's dilemma. While we are continuing to learn from both geological and paleontological records, the organisms, their expanding ecosystem intricacy, and the increasing complexity of their behaviors during the Ediacaran and Cambrian periods are yet not well understood. With rapidly growing data and ideas, this transition in evolutionary history has become one of the intellectually richest periods in our record of life on Earth.

Theridiidae is a family of spiders with the fourth highest richness of extant species worldwide. Fossil Theridiidae is also the family of spiders with the largest number of Cretaceous, Eocene, and Miocene representatives. Phycosoma Pickard-Cambridge, 1880 is a theridiid genus without a fossil representative. In this study, we describe a new fossil species of Phycosoma, P. icti† n. sp., from an adult male specimen found in a piece of amber from the lower Miocene (ca. 23 Ma), from the Montecristo mines near Simojovel de Allende, Chiapas, Mexico. Phycosoma icti† n. sp. can be distinguished from all other Phycosoma males except P. corrugum by the long embolus partly covered by the conductor. In addition, it can be distinguished from P. corrugum by the oblique and constricted median apophysis; the narrow and pointed conductor; the long, curved, and bent theridiid tegular apophysis in its distal portion; and the prosoma ringed in the middle and along the ventral margin. Phycosoma icti† n. sp. represents the oldest recovered record of the genus. Extant Phycosoma species are still present in Chiapas, suggesting an extended evolutionary history of the genus in the region despite major geological changes over this time span in North America.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/28d74f14-0f80-405d-a165-f24749e15d05

The Batocrinidae are characteristic faunal elements in Lower Mississippian shallow-marine settings in North America. Recent delineation of objectively defined genera allows a reexamination of batocrinid species and their distribution in the Fort Payne Formation (early Viséan, late Osagean), a well-studied array of carbonate and siliciclastic facies. The Fort Payne batocrinid fauna has 14 species assigned to six genera, plus hybrid specimens. Magnuscrinus spinosus (Miller and Gurley, 1895a) is reassigned to its original placement in Eretmocrinus. Hybrid specimens (Ausich and Meyer, 1994) are regarded as Eretmocrinus magnificus×Eretmocrinus spinosus. Macrocrinus casualis is the dominant species of Macrocrinus in the Fort Payne, and M. mundulus and M. strotobasilaris are recognized in the Fort Payne Formation for the first time. Magnuscrinus cumberlandensis n. sp. is named, 13 species are designated as junior synonyms, the name for the hybrid specimens is changed to Eretmocrinus magnificus×Eretmocrinus spinosus, and the previous occurrences of two species in the Fort Payne are rejected. The Eastern Interior Seaway was a mixed carbonate-siliciclastic setting with both shallow- and deep-water epicontinental sea facies ranging from relatively shallow autochthonous green shales to deep-water turbidite facies. Dizygocrinus was restricted to shallow-water carbonate and siliciclastic facies, Eutrochocrinus was restricted to shallow-water carbonate facies, and Magnuscrinus was restricted to deep-water facies. Species distributions varied from Abatocrinus steropes, Alloprosallocrinus conicus, Macrocrinus mundulus, and Uperocrinus nashvillae, which occurred throughout the Eastern Interior Seaway, to species that were restricted to a single facies. Eretmocrinus magnificus, Alloprosallocrinus conicus, and Uperocrinus robustus were the dominant batocrinids in the Fort Payne Formation.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/703aafd8-4c73-4edc-9870-e2356e2d28b8

Four placoderm fishes are described from the Lepel Beds of the Vitebsk Regional Stage of the Lower Devonian (upper Emsian) of Belarus. Two forms are new (Stipatosteus svidunovitchi new genus, new species and Actinolepis zaikai new species) and the other two taxa are left in open nomenclature (Coccosteidae gen. indet. sp. indet.; Placodermi indet. 1). Specimens of all four forms consist of disarticulated, mostly well-preserved plates (some are worn at the edges) originating from the cores of six boreholes. Additionally, the paper presents data on organic remains with the placoderms. A detailed lithological description of the enclosing rocks and a taphonomic description of the ichthyofauna are also provided. The 2010 Stratigraphic Chart of the Devonian deposits of Belarus was used as the stratigraphic basis. The presence of the genus Actinolepis Agassiz, 1844 in these deposits as well as in the Emsian of the Baltic region and Spitsbergen suggests a regional paleogeographic connection at this time.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/368b44df-e9e9-417c-a0e0-f7e138b7f4ec

The typical species of Parks' stromatoporoid genus Stictostroma designated as Stromatopora mammillata Nicholson, 1873, and renamed S. mamilliferum to avoid homonymy by Galloway and St. Jean (1957), had unknown internal structure because Nicholson's type specimens were not sectioned. Parks' (1936) diagnosis of generic characters was based on specimens from a location (Gorrie) far from the type locality of S. mammillata that he assumed were conspecific with Nicholson's species. Investigation of the type specimens of Stromatopora mammillata = Stictostroma mamilliferum by thin sections shows that they are very poorly preserved and not conspecific with the specimens on which Parks based the genus. Because paleontologists for many years have used Stictostroma as amended from Parks' description by Galloway and St. Jean, the species from Gorrie that clearly shows these characters should be recognized as the typical species and given a new name.

The fauna of the lower Chickabally Member of the Budden Canyon Formation, a part of the Cretaceous Great Valley Sequence in the Cottonwood District (Figures 1, 2) of northern California, was described by Murphy (1975). At that time, two specimens of the species described here were known, but they were not complete enough to be identified or classified. Recently, Embree collected three additional specimens from the same horizon that enable us to classify the taxon with the Heteroceratidae. However, the rate of whorl expansion of the cross section of the conch and the open coiling are different from all other Heteroceratidae and we regard it, like much of the associated fauna, as a genus and species endemic to California.

Spongiostroma Gürich, 1906 from the Mississippian of Belgium was initially provisionally placed in Foraminifera and subsequently compared with hydrozoans and microbial carbonates. For nearly 100 years, the term spongiostromate has been widely applied to clotted microbial fabrics in stromatolites and oncolites. Examination of the type material shows that S. mæandrinum Gürich, 1906, the type species of Spongiostroma, consists of numerous juxtaposed millimetric pillow-like masses permeated by thin anastomose sparry microscopic fibers (vermiform fabric) in fine-grained groundmass, locally traversed by millimetric rounded to elongate partly sediment-filled openings. Here we interpret S. mæandrinum to be a lobate sponge composed of mammiform papillae formed by calcified spongin network and traversed by canals and spongocoel. These are typical features of calcified remains of keratosan demosponges. We redescribe and revise S. mæandrinum and interpret it as a keratosan demosponge with papilliform morphology. This upholds Gürich's (1906) initial opinion that Spongiostroma could be a sponge and supports suggestions that keratosan vermiform fabric has long been confused with microbial carbonate. Since S. mæandrinum is not a stromatolite, it is inappropriate to use the term spongiostromate to describe microbial carbonate microfabric.

Additional specimens of the problematical rodent Pipestoneomys Donahoe, 1956, have allowed for recognition of a new family, Pipestoneomyidae. A new genus and species of pipestoneomyid is recognized from the late middle Eocene (Duchesnean North American Land Mammal Age; Bartonian), Argorheomys septendrionalis, which is morphologically more primitive than Pipestoneomys and demonstrates that this new family has been distinct since the Duchesnean. The Pipestoneomyidae share a number of derived characters with the Geomorpha, especially the two-part inner layer of incisor enamel of the Eoymidae. The Pipestoneomyidae differ from the Eomyidae in lacking the basic “omega” pattern of the cheek teeth of the former, so are in the Eomyoidea as a distinct family.

The new endemic genus Neuquemya, from Pliensbachian deposits in west-central Argentina, is here described and tentatively referred to the Cuspidariidae on account of its shell characters. The new species Neuquemya leanzaorum has a thin, inflated shell, rounded anteriorly and rostrate posteriorly, with a narrow posterodorsal gape and opisthogyrous umbones. The hinge region bears small cardinal tubercles. The shell is ornamented by commarginal (anterior) and radial (posterior) sculpture, whereas the rostrum is smooth. The general and detailed characters of the shell are thus very similar to those of living cuspidariids. Cuspidariids are extremely specialized bivalves with special features related to their carnivorous habit. Their fossil record is scarce, and their phylogeny is poorly understood. Because a few key shell characters and all soft body features of the new genus are unavailable, the alternative possibility that his taxon could be a remarkable example of a homoeomorphic shell cannot be dismissed. If actually a cuspidariid, Neuquemya n. gen. becomes the oldest known member of the family ca. 100 Myr older than the Late Cretaceous records unequivocally accepted and supports the argument that the origin of the group is much older than its known fossil record. The possible relationships of the new genus with other poorly known Mesozoic genera are discussed. Although septibranchs in general and cuspidariids in particular are now conspicuous elements of deep-sea faunas, this new genus inhabited nearshore environments of the Neuquén Basin.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/8adbd45b-c9c6-4f57-bcfc-c13e5f9182eb

The decapod crustaceans of Central European Russia have been the subject of studies since the nineteenth century, and the only species, Eryma quadriverrucatum Trautschold, 1866 (Erymidae), has been found in the Callovian to the Oxfordian of that region. The present paper discusses the new exceptional findings of Solenoceridae, Glypheidae, and Mecochiridae from the upper Callovian sites of the Ryazan Region. The previously reported presence of Archeosolenocera sp. is confirmed in detail; Glypheopsis aff. G. etalloni (Oppel, 1861) and Eumorphia sp. are noticed for the first time for this area. Modern identification of erymids is reported: Eryma aff. E. ventrosum (von Meyer, 1835), E. ornatum (Quenstedt, 1858), and Stenodactylina insignis (Oppel, 1862) are noted in addition to E. quadriverrucatum. These findings address the gaps in the fragmented knowledge about the decapod fauna of Central European Russia and exhibit a differentiation of the local Russian decapod assemblage from those of Western Europe. The decapod community of the Ryazan region is considered to be associated with soft substrates of upper sublittoral zone.

Acteonellids were one of the most significant groups of marine macro-invertebrates in the Late Cretaceous biota of the Tethyan Realm. They were common faunal elements associated with Cretaceous carbonate platform communities most notable for their abundance of rudist frameworks and thrived in coeval lagoons. The Upper Cretaceous fossil-bearing Karababa Formation, cropping out in southeastern Turkey, yields a remarkable assemblage of acteonellid gastropods and rudists. Cretaceous gastropods from sedimentary successions in Turkey barely have been studied over the past 80 years. The subgenus Trochactaeon, a very successful and widespread taxon of heterobranch gastropods within the family Acteonellidae, dominated acteonellid assemblages throughout the Late Cretaceous. In the present work, we present the first record of Trochactaeon (Trochactaeon) giganteus subglobosus from Turkey. It is from a single lower Campanian bed in the upper part of the Karababa Formation of the Gölbaşı region (south of Adıyaman), corresponding to the northwestern part of the Arabian Platform. This record complements information on the temporal and spatial distribution of Trochactaeon at the southern margin of the Tethyan Ocean during the last part of the Cretaceous Period. This discovery increases the documented diversity of the paleofauna from the Upper Cretaceous succession in southeastern Turkey and provides new insights into the paleoenvironment of the carbonate ramp of the northern Arabian plate, and the paleobiogeography of Campanian gastropods in general.

Crasquin proposed (in Crasquin et al., 2008) the generic name Bairdiacratia (p. 244-246) for a Bairdioidea ostracod (Crustacea) recorded from the latest Permian of the Southern Alps (Italy) and Guizhou, Zhejiang, and Hubei Provinces (South China). Unfortunately, I discovered recently that the name was already used for an ostracod genus from the Middle Devonian of eastern Yunnan Province (China) by Jiang (1983).