Thirteen bryozoan species are described from the Brewer Dock (Hickory Corners) Member of the Reynales Formation (lower Silurian, Aeronian) at the locality Hickory Corners in western New York, USA. Three species are new: trepostomes Homotrypa niagarensis n. sp. and Leioclema adsuetum n. sp. and the rhabdomesine cryptostome Moyerella parva n. sp. Only one species, Hennigopora apta Perry and Hattin, 1960, developed obligatory encrusting colonies whereas the others produced erect ramose colonies of various thicknesses and shapes: cylindrical, branched, and lenticular. Bryozoans display high abundance and richness within the rock. This fauna is characteristic of a moderately agitated environment with a stable substrate. The identified species reveal paleobiogeographic connections to other Silurian localities of New York as well as Ohio and Indiana (USA) and Anticosti (Canada).

UUID: http://zoobank.org/c24f3184-4a8e-44c4-b6c0-d30433e841c9

Restudy of Strophomena cornuta Hall, 1843, confirms that it belongs to the superfamily Chonetoidea and establishes its assignment to Strophochonetes within the family Strophochonetidae. This is the first recorded occurrence of the genus in the Silurian of New York, and its late Llandovery age makes S. cornutus (Hall) one of the earliest representatives of the genus.

As first State Paleontologist of New York, T. A. Conrad is widely recognized as an important pioneer of American paleontology. Highlights of his career and tragic personal life, as well as his portrait, are given by Merrill (1906, p. 344, 354–357).

Although limpets are fairly common in shelly deposits, there are no reports of limpets preserved in the living position from the fossil record. The life style of capped-shaped limpet gastropods almost precludes preservation in a living position. Herbivorous alga-feeding limpets live attached to a firm surface. The surfaces of attachment vary widely from rocky surfaces, shells, or seaweed. Upon death the shells become detached and are incorporated in the nearby sediments or are transported to a site of final deposition.

Chlamydotheca llanoensis is a new species of freshwater ostracode found in latest Pleistocene (12,000–10,000 years B.P.) fluviatile sediments on the Southern High Plains. At the type locality (Lubbock Lake Archaeological Site, Lubbock County, Texas) and at two other localities, C. llanoensis was associated with streamside Paleo-Indian artifacts. This easily recognized species should be a useful guide fossil for correlation of strata of similar environment and age on the Southern High Plains.

The bivalve Odontogryphea thirsae, formerly “Ostrea thirsae,” is restricted to the Nanafalia Formation and is extensively used as a biostratigraphic zonal indicator in the Paleocene of the southeastern and central United States. Toulmin (1977) noted that O. thirsae was reported from the Tuscahoma Sand in early publications but stated (p. 191), “Reports of occurrence in the Tuscahoma Sand are probably in error.”

Šnadjr (1980, p. 76) erected the proetid trilobite subgenus Coniproteus (Ryckholtia), with the type species Proetus ryckholti Barrande, 1846, from the Silurian (Ludlow, Kopanina Formation) of the Prague Basin, Czech Republic, perhaps better known to geologists as the Barrandian type area in Bohemia. Although originally designated as a subgenus (e.g., Chlupáč et al., 1980, p. 175; Chlupáč and Kukal, 1988, p. 114; Kříž et al., 1993, p. 819), Ryckholtia Šnadjr was subsequently elevated to generic rank (e.g., Sepkoski, 2002, p. 189, 519; Jell and Adrain, 2003, p. 441, 477; Edgecombe and Wright, 2004, p. 183).

The genera Lissopleura, Sphaerirhynchia, Pectorhyncha, Yanishewskiella, and Terebratuloidea have been investigated to elucidate their internal features and taxonomic relationships. Specimens of the type species of these genera were sectioned. Lissopleura remains slightly enigmatic in that the holotype of Lissopleura aequivalvis is thinner and has a less pronounced fold than most specimens in the collection, including the one sectioned by us. The holotype is probably immature and is within the range of variation of specimens from the type area. The internal features lead us to assign Lissopleura to the Trigonirhynchiidae. Sphaerirhynchia wilsoni has a short septalium without a cover plate and other features that place it in the Hebetoechiidae. Pectorhyncha obtusiplicata has a very thick shell and a septalium filled by a large, bilobed cardinal process. The genus has several features similar to Obturamentella, and is assigned to the Obturamentellidae. Yanishewskiella angulata, which is retained within the Tetracameridae, has a spondylium with lateral buttresses, and a septalium into which the medium septum projects. Terebratuloidea davidsoni has small dental plates, and is assigned to the Allorhynchidae.

New Devonian fossil material from Bolivia includes internal molds of two species of paleotaxodont bivalve, Palaeoneilo musculosa (Knod) and P. pondeana (Hartt and Rathbun), with numerous accessory muscle scars. The unusual pattern of these scars appears to have been derived from excessive splitting. These muscle scars are described and a tentative interpretation is made. An adaptative role cannot be determined with certainty and it appears that these patterns were short-lived novelties without later success.

Amphissites insignis Croneis and Thurman, 1939, is a readily identifiable ostracode species because of the unique configuration of carinae and ridges on the surface of the valves. The species had adapted to both shale and limestone environments of deposition, has a wide geographic distribution in the United States (Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Montana, Nevada, Tennessee, and Texas), and is confined to the uppermost part of the Chesterian Series (foraminiferal zones 18 and 19). The description of this species is amended and specimens are illustrated for the first time from Nevada, Montana, Arkansas, and Tennessee, indicating that the species is a biostratigraphic indicator of the uppermost part of the Chesterian sedimentary sequence. Ontogenetic development of A. insignis is reconstructed. A. sp. 1 (Late Mississippian) and A. sp. 2 (Early Pennsylvanian) are illustrated in open nomenclature.

An australian paleontologist would not be expected to be familiar with the genera of recent snakes in the Western Hemisphere. Thus, when A. A. Öpik erected the genus Lampropeltis to receive certain Middle Cambrian trilobites from the Mindyallan of Queensland (Öpik 1967, p. 182), he was appropriately unaware that the name had already been coined for a genus of smooth-scaled colubrids, the kingsnakes (Cope, 1860; Blanchard, 1921).

Recently, several dinosaur bones were rediscovered in the paleontological collections at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with a label indicating that the material was collected from the Cretaceous of west Tennessee. Since dinosaur remains have never been reported from Tennessee, this discovery prompted further investigation.

Tubular fossils, up to 2 mm in diameter and 60 mm in length, occur rarely in the upper Martinsburg Formation (Upper Ordovician), northeastern Tennessee Appalachians, U.S.A. The fossils are unbranched, straight or slightly bent, occasionally twisted and wrinkled, and not significantly tapered. Orientation of the fossils within shallow-marine tempestites suggests that they represent remains of organisms that were broken, transported, and deposited by storm waves and currents. The fossils are morphologically similar to many of the previously identified species belonging to the genus Sphenothallus, a relatively rare tube-dwelling Paleozoic marine invertebrate. Owing to the limited evidence for distal widening of the tubes, lack of holdfasts, and carbonaceous rather than phosphatic composition, the affinity of these fossils remains uncertain, and we refer to them as Sphenothallus-like.

I he National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution), Department 01 Paleobiology, recently received the collection of invertebrate fossils (except Insecta and Patagonia material) formerly housed in the Princeton University, Department of Geological and Geophysical Sciences. This fine collection contains approximately 70,000 specimens; type and nontype specimens were stored together in taxonomic order. Current documentation for the entire collection consists of a card catalogue. Following curation, the specimens will be housed taxonomically in standing type and nontype collections. Lists of type specimens received will be published as they are isolated. Borrowers should return specimens to the Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, upon completion of loans.

The trilobite species Cryphaeus nicholsi Roy, 1929, was based on two pygidia from a Devonian red sandstone bed at Patacamaya, La Paz Department, Bolivia. Study of the syntypes (Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago) reveals that two well-known species are represented.