Forty-three species of 25 genera are described in a collection of 170 large, massive reef corals from the upper Eocene Gatuncillo Formation near Lago Alahuela in central Panama. Comparisons with type material for other Eocene Caribbean reef corals suggest that 27 of these species are new. Twenty-four of these species are named herein. Like other Eocene Caribbean reef-coral faunas, the fauna is rich in Astrocoenia, Actinacis, and Astreopora; however, unlike other faunas, plocoid and meandroid members of the family Faviidae (e.g., Montastraea, Agathiphyllia, Goniastrea, and Colpophyllia) are abundant. Also present are the oldest known representatives of the genera Meandrina, Coscinaraea, Alveopora, Heliopora, and Pocillopora, as well as the only recorded occurrences of Coscinaraea and Cyathoseris from the Caribbean. Comparisons with Oligocene and Recent Caribbean reef-coral faunas suggest that the generic composition of Cenozoic Caribbean reefs became established during the Eocene. With exception of the family Mussidae, much of the post-Oligocene history of the Caribbean is one of extinction at the generic level (19 of the 28 Eocene genera became extinct) and proliferation of species within the surviving genera.

The pre-Pleistocene fossil record of sturgeons (family Acipenseridae) from North America is reviewed based on a survey of reports in the literature and firsthand examination of specimens in museum collections. We provide a redescription of the only known specimen of †Protoscaphirhynchus squamosus (Late Cretaceous, Montana), a very poorly preserved specimen for which few morphological details can be determined. Three taxa described as species of the genus Acipenser from North America (†A. albertensis, †A. eruciferus, and †A. ornatus) were described based on isolated and fragmentary remains, and are here considered to be nomina dubia. The earliest reported remains of North American sturgeons are from the Late Cretaceous (Santonian to Campanian Milk River Formation). There is a relatively continuous record, with the exception of the Eocene and Oligocene, in which there are few (potentially in the Eocene) or no (Oligocene) known specimens available in collections. We have found that nearly all specimens are best regarded as Acipenseridae indeterminate genus and species due to their fragmentary preservation and lack of preserved diagnostic characters.

Small vertebrates were recovered from the matrix encasing specimens of giant sauropod dinosaurs (Supersaurus, Ultrasaurus, Dystylosaurus) collected from the “Dry Mesa” Quarry (Brushy Basin Member, Morrison Formation, western Colorado). Most of the remains appear to pertain to a single form of pterodactyloid pterosaur, Mesadactylus ornithosphyos, n. gen. and sp., the holotype of which is a synsacrum. A bone end from this quarry, first identified as an avian proximal tibia and named Palaeopteryx thomsoni, is reidentified as the distal radius of a small deinonychosaur or bird. A small femur of a small deinonychosaur or bird and additional material of other small vertebrates from this quarry are figured and described.

The Horse Spring conodont succession in the Canning Basin replicates zones 6 through 13 of the thirteen-fold Frasnian zonation. Horse Spring, together with other Canning Basin sections, demonstrates the widespread application of the zonation. Furthermore, the recently formalized three-fold subdivision of Zone 13, which has been recognized in the Montagne Noire, Moroccan Meseta, and northern Ontario, is developed at Horse Spring and other Canning Basin sections.

The Canning Basin Frasnian is noteworthy for the high quality of preservation of the conodont faunas, the extremely low CAI values, and the abundance of elements in most collections. The emphasis in this paper is on the taxonomy of Frasnian Palmatolepis. Newly described species are: Palmatolepis beckeri, P. feisti, P. housei, P. klugi, P. nicolli, P. playfordi, P. uyenoi, and Polygnathus kirchgasseri. Complete and partial multielement apparatuses have been reconstructed for Palmatolepis playfordi and P. nicolli.

Pectinifrons abyssalis new genus and species is an early Ediacaran (ca. 565 Ma) rangeomorph from the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland. It is known from more than 200 specimens from the Mistaken Point and Trepassey formations, and is typically preserved as a comb-shaped ridge on the top of mudstone beds beneath volcanic ashfall tuffs. Morphologic and taphonomic features suggest that the living organism consisted of two parallel series of soft rangeomorph fronds, alternately branching in an opposite arrangement from an elongate, tubular pedicle rod. the pedicle rod and the struts that represent the central stalks of the fronds were originally composed of resistant material that did not decompose until after lithification of the overlying ash bed. the fronds themselves were originally composed of a soft, non-resistant material that readily degraded, resulting in their extremely rare preservation as impressions on the bedding surface. Biometric analysis implies that Pectinifrons grew primarily by strut/frond addition, with later inflation of these elements. Pectinifrons is one of the first rangeomorph taxa to display evidence of possible age cohorts comparable to those observed in modern macrobenthic organisms.

The recently described radiodontan Lyrarapax unguispinus Cong et al., 2014 from the Chengjiang biota (Cambrian Series 2, Stage 3) highlighted a new morphological type of frontal appendage and unique mouth structures, a functional combination reinforcing the diversification of feeding strategies of radiodontans during the early Cambrian. Here we describe Lyrarapax trilobus n. sp. from the same fossil Konservat-Lagerstätte. The new species differs from L. unguispinus in the morphology and distribution of endites on the frontal appendage and the strengthening structure of the body flaps. The two species resemble each other in body shape (pattern of flap size), neck segment number, cephalic plates, and most importantly a mouth characterized by concentric wrinkled furrows. The latter confirms that a soft mouth without sclerotized plates is a real feature of Lyrarapax and supports the idea that oral structures provide valid diagnostic characters within Radiodonta.

Silicified peritidal carbonates of the Mesoproterozoic Kotuikan and Yusmastakh Formations, Anabar Uplift, northeastern Siberia, contain exceptionally well-preserved microfossils. The assemblage is dominated by ellipsoidal akinetes of nostocalean cyanobacteria (Archaeoellipsoides) and problematic spheroidal unicells (Myxococcoides); both are allochthonous and presumably planktonic. The assemblage also includes distinctive mat-forming scytonematacean and entophysalidacean cyanobacteria, diverse short trichomes interpreted as cyanobacterial hormogonia or germinated akinetes, rare longer trichomes, and several types of colonial unicells. Although many taxa in the Kotuikan-Yusmastakh assemblage are long-ranging prokaryotes, the overall character of the assemblage is distinctly Mesoproterozoic, with its major features shared by broadly coeval floras from Canada, China, India, and elsewhere in Siberia.

Microfossils also occur in middle to inner shelf shales of the Ust’-Il'ya and lower Kotuikan Formations. Leiosphaerid acritarchs (up to several hundred microns in diameter) characterize this facies. As in other Mesoproterozoic acritarch assemblages, acanthomorphic and other complex forms that typify Neoproterozoic assemblages are absent.

The combination in Billyakh assemblages of exceptional preservation and low eukaryotic diversity supports the hypothesis that nucleated organisms diversified markedly near the Mesoproterozoic–Neoproterozoic boundary. The assemblages also demonstrate the antiquity of cyanobacteria capable of cell differentiation and suggest the importance of both changing peritidal substrates and evolving eukaryotes in determining stratigraphic patterns of Proterozoic prokaryotes. The permineralized assemblage contains 33 species belonging to 17 genera. Ten new species or new combinations are proposed: Archaeoellipsoides costatus n. sp., A. elongatus n. comb., A. dolichos n. comb., A. minor n. nom., A. crassus n. comb., A. major n. comb., A. bactroformis n. sp., Veteronostocale medium n. sp., Filiconstrictosus cephalon n. sp., and Partitiofilum yakschinii n. sp.

Phylogenetic parsimony analysis was used to classify the Siegenian–Eifelian “Metacryphaeus group” of the family Calmoniidae. Thirty-eight exoskeletal characters for 16 taxa produced a shortest-length cladogram with a consistency index of 0.49. A classification based on retrieving the structure of this cladogram recognizes nine genera: Typhloniscus Salter, Plesioconvexa n. gen., Punillaspis Baldis and Longobucco, Eldredgeia n. gen., Clarkeaspis n. gen., Malvinocooperella n. gen., Wolfartaspis Cooper, Plesiomalvinella Lieberman, Edgecombe, and Eldredge (used to represent the malvinellid clade), and Metacryphaeus Reed. The malvinellid clade is most closely related to a revised monophyletic Metacryphaeus. Typhloniscus is the basal member of the “Metacryphaeus group,” and the monotypic Wolfartaspis is sister to the clade containing the malvinellids and Metacryphaeus. Six new species are diagnosed: Punillaspis n. sp. A, “Clarkeaspis” gouldi, Clarkeaspis padillaensis, Malvinocooperella pregiganteus, Metacryphaeus curvigena, and Metacryphaeus branisai. Primitively, this group has South African and Andean affinities, and its evolutionary history suggests rapid diversification. In addition, evolutionary patterns in this group, and the distribution of character reversals, call into question certain notions about the nature of adaptive radiations. The distributions of taxa may answer questions about the number of marine transgressive/regressive cycles in the Emsian–Eifelian of the Malvinokaffric Realm.

Giant Middle Coniacian to Lower Campanian Platyceramus Seitz is among the largest Cretaceous bivalves, commonly reaching an axial length of over 1 m, and occasionally over 2–3 m in size. the genus is characterized by its large size, very low convexity, normal inflation limited mostly to the umbonal area, and flattened flanks. It is especially common in moderately deep calcareous shale facies, as well as in chalks and limestones of the Niobrara Formation and equivalents. Preferred facies contain abundant pyrite, elevated total organic carbon (TOC), and very low biotic diversity. the genus maintains its giant size in these facies, and becomes more abundant. It clearly prefers dysoxic facies. As such, it probably is chemosymbiotic; photosymbiosis is almost ruled out because of inferred water depths of 200–350 m. It is also found more sparsely, and of smaller size, in oxygenated facies, including shoreface sandstone. the study area contains over 81 giant-sized Platyceramus platinus (Logan, 1898) on a single bedding plane; there are very few small ones. This allows spacing, orientation, and size analysis to be performed on an adult population.

The change in depositional environments observed in the Cretaceous (Upper Campanian) strata in the region of Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, from the proximal coastal plain deposits of the Oldman Formation to the lowland coastal plain deposits of the Dinosaur Park Formation, reveals an associated change in faunal composition. An assemblage collected from a microvertebrate site in the paralic deposits of the Lethbridge Coal Zone (uppermost Dinosaur Park Formation) reflects an increasing marine influence. Elasmobranch (sharks and rays) remains are the most abundant, both in terms of number of overall taxa and number of elements, and they are the best-preserved specimens. However, several brackish-water-tolerant osteichthyan taxa, and four reptile taxa (two marine and two terrestrial), were also recovered, although they exhibited evidence of extensive taphonomic reworking.

The elasmobranch fauna collected from the Dinosaur Park locality is uncommon for vertebrate microfossil assemblages in the Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta and in equivalent beds in Montana. Seven of the 10 taxa collected from this site [Cretorectolobus olsoni Case, 1978; Eucrossorhinus microcuspidatus Case, 1978; Odontaspis aculeatus (Cappetta and Case, 1975); Archaeolamna kopingensis judithensis Siverson, 1992; Protoplatyrhina renae Case, 1978; Ischyrhiza mira Leidy, 1856; and Ptychotrygon blainensis Case, 1978] are recorded for the first time from the uppermost section of the Judith River Group in Alberta; Carcharias steineri (Case, 1987), represents the first occurrence within the upper Judith River Group from either Alberta or Montana.

A phylogenetic analysis and review of Paleozoic phyllocarid systematics is presented using morphology-based characters from Cambrian to modern taxa. The resulting cladograms of the Phyllocarida suggest that the suborder Ceratiocaridina as traditionally defined (families Ceratiocarididae and Caryocarididae) is paraphyletic. Caryocarididae is subsequently elevated to subordinal rank with the erection of Caryocaridina n. suborder, resulting in two monophyletic suborders. Haplocaris n. gen. is erected to contain Caryocarididae taxa without triangular spine-like projections of the anterior telson margin. Emended diagnoses, quantified with morphometrics where appropriate, are integrated into this analysis, and result in synonymy of many Cambrian—Silurian caryocaridids and ceratiocaridids with pre-existing taxa. Two representatives of the Leptostraca are included in this analysis. A visual key of well-established representatives of the Ceratiocaridina is presented and suggestions are offered that will help to improve the long-term stability of the Archaeostraca.

The problematical rodent genus Cedromus Wilson, previously only known from the Orellan of the Great Plains, has been considered a sciurid by some authors and an aplodontid by others. An excellent collection of complete skulls with associated mandibles from Converse County, Wyoming, has provided evidence that this genus is a sciurid but that it represents a new subfamily distinguished from all other sciurids by a unique zygomasseteric structure that closely approaches myomorphy. A second genus, Oligospermophilus Korth, also from the Orellan of the Great Plains, is allocated to this subfamily.

Additional and more complete cranial material of the primitive aplodontid Prosciurus indicates that sciurids and aplodontids share a common ancestry and should be included together at least within the same suborder Sciuromorpha.

Three species of Cedromus are recognized, C. wardi Wilson, C. wilsoni n. sp., and Cedromus sp.; the latter extends the known temporal range of the genus into the Whitneyan.

A new form of Xenungulata Paula Couto, 1952 from red levels of the Peñas Coloradas Formation in a locality near Puerto Visser (45°17'S, 67°01'W), Chubut province, Argentina, is represented by a fragmentary left jaw with the m3 (MPEF-PV 1871). Notoetayoa gargantuai n. gen. and n. sp. is the first ever found in direct association with Carodnia feruglioi Simpson, 1935a which characterizes the incompletely known homonymous zone of the late Paleocene of Patagonia. A preliminary phylogenetic analysis, including representatives of “Condylarthra,” Litopterna, Notoungulata, Pyrotheria, Xenungulata and Astrapotheria, plus the characters that could be scored in the new taxon, was performed using TNT software. A single most parsimonious tree was obtained. Notoetayoa gargantuai has a closer phylogenetic relationship with the Xenungulate Etayoa bacatensis Villarroel, 1987 from the ?middle Paleocene of Colombia than with any other Tertiary ungulate group of South America. Notoetayoa gargantuai fills an important gap in the knowledge of the mammalian faunas from the Paleocene of Patagonia, particularly of the poorly known pre-Itaborian times.

The Eocene cetacean genera Andrewsiphius and Kutchicetus are systematically revised, their anatomy described, and their phylogenetic position analyzed. Each genus contains a single species, A. sloani and K minimus, and both are known only from the middle Eocene of the Indian Subcontinent. Andrewsiphius and Kutchicetus differ in a number of respects, the most important dental difference being that P2, P3, p2, and p3 are double-rooted in Andrewsiphius and single-rooted in Kutchicetus. Lower molars are separated by diastemata in Kutchicetus, but not in Andrewsiphius. Postcranially, Andrewsiphius has caudal vertebrae that are far more robust than those of Kutchicetus.

We propose the new clade Andrewsiphiinae for these two genera, based on their unique characters: the extremely slender jaw, fused mandibular symphysis, narrow palate and rostrum, and lower molars that have a low crown with three cusps lined up rostro-caudally. A phylogenetic analysis indicates that andrewsiphiines are either a subfamily of Remingtonocetidae or an independent branch on the Eocene cetacean lineage. Interpreting conservatively, we classify them as remingtonocetids. Andrewsiphiines have a long, robust, dorso-ventrally flattened tail and short limbs, suggesting that they swam using dorsoventral undulation of the tail.

In the autumn of 1912, the fossil collector Richard Markgraf, with financial support and direction from Bavarian paleontologist Ernst Freiherr Stromer von Reichenbach and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, discovered the partial skeleton of a bizarre predatory dinosaur in Upper Cretaceous (early Cenomanian, ~97 Ma, see Ismail et al., 1989; Barakat et al., 1993; El Beialy, 1994, 1995; Nabil and Hussein, 1994; Ismail and Soliman, 2001; Ibrahim, 2002; Gradstein et al., 2005) rocks of the Bahariya Formation exposed in the Bahariya Oasis of western Egypt (Fig. 1, see also Sereno et al., 1998; Nothdurft et al., 2002). This gigantic theropod, Spinosaurus aegyptiacus Stromer, 1915, possessed highly derived cranial and vertebral features sufficiently distinct for it to be designated as the nominal genus of the clade Spinosauridae (Stromer, 1915, 1936). Spinosaurids, currently definitively known only from Europe, South America, and Africa, are important because of the scarcity of Cretaceous Gondwanan tetrapod fossils (see Krause et al., 1999, 2003; Carrano et al., 2002; Lamanna et al., 2002). Moreover, fossils of Spinosaurus Stromer, 1915 and other spinosaurids are significant because of controversy surrounding the postulated paleoecology of these taxa (see discussions in Charig and Milner, 1997; Sereno et al., 1998; Sues et al., 2002). Questions related to spinosaurid paleoecology are particularly important in the Bahariya Formation, where Spinosaurus appears to have shared its habitat (see Stromer, 1936; Smith et al., 2001) with at least two other theropods in the size range of Tyrannosaurus Osborn, 1905 (Bahariasaurus Stromer, 1934 and Carcharodontosaurus Stromer, 1931). Unfortunately, the holotype and only known indisputable specimen of S. aegyptiacus (BSP 1912 VIII 19) was lost during the night of 24/25 April 1944 in a British bombing raid of Munich (Nothdurft et al., 2002). The attack severely damaged the building (dating to ca. 1583, Nöhbauer, 1987) that housed the Paläontologische Staatssammlung München and destroyed most of Stromer's Bahariya collection (see Appendix 1). Since 1944, new spinosaurid taxa have been described (see Charig and Milner, 1986; Martill et al., 1996; Sereno et al., 1998; Sues et al., 2002) and additional material has been referred to Spinosaurus (e.g., Buffetaut, 1989, 1992; Russell, 1996; Taquet and Russell, 1998; Benton et al., 2000; Buffetaut and Ouaja, 2002), some of it questionably. However, definitive S. aegyptiacus material, or information regarding the original specimen of Spinosaurus, has not been forthcoming.

Two cupulocrinids, Cupulocrinus crossmani n. sp. and Praecupulocrinus conjugans (Billings) n. gen., are known from the Middle Ordovician (Galena Group, Dunleith Formation) of northern Iowa and southern Minnesota. Various morphologic and ontogenetic features demonstrate that Praecupulocrinus is more primitive than Cupulocrinus. The two species commonly occur together. In addition, both taxa coexisted at similar levels with stem lengths ranging from about 1.5 cm in juveniles to 15 cm in adults. Relatively complete growth sequences illustrate growth and variation and show how two related crinoids subdivided feeding niches. The crown volume provides a satisfactory surrogate variable for the size of the animal. The food-gathering system of the cupulocrinids is mainly augmented by the addition of new plates at the ends of the arms. The number of plates in the arms and the arm length exhibit positive allometry relative to crown volume, largely due to development of new branches at the arm tips. The food-gathering capacity equals the number of food-catching tube-feet multiplied by the average width of the food grooves. Food-gathering capacity is also positively allometric with respect to crown volume and the amount of tissue that must be supplied with food. Consequently, the ratio of food-gathering capacity:crown volume is either constant or declines slightly with increasing size and age. The food groove width increases throughout ontogeny so adult crinoids ate larger food particles than juveniles. Praecupulocrinus conjugans (Billings) n. gen. has more narrow food grooves than Cupulocrinus crossmani n. sp. of comparable size and age, which suggests niche differentiation based on food-particle size. The arm and tube-foot geometry indicates that both cupulocrinids utilized the same type of suspension feeding.

The morphology of the anal sac and the lack of “patelloid” processes in the arms indicate that Cupulocrinus sepulchrum Ramsbottom from the Upper Ordovician of Scotland belongs to Dendrocrinus.

The previously poorly known “Tapiravus” polkensis Olsen, 1960 (Mammalia, Perissodactyla, Tapiridae) is now known from abundant, well preserved specimens from both the type area in central Florida and from the Gray Fossil Site (GFS) in eastern Tennessee. The latter has produced over 75 individuals, the greatest number of tapirids from a single fossil site, including many articulated skeletons. Almost all linear measurements taken on skulls, mandibles, and cheek teeth from GFS have coefficients of variation less than 10 (most between 3 and 7), indicating the presence of a single species. However, the sample reveals considerable intraspecific variation for a few key morphologic features, including development of the sagittal crest, outline shape of the nasals, and number and relative strength of lingual cusps on the P1. The Florida sample of T. polkensis is more limited, but has the same state as the GFS sample for all preserved characters of systematic significance, and while the Florida teeth are on average smaller (especially narrower lower cheek teeth), they fall either within or just below the observed range of the Gray Fossil Site population. The new material supports a reassignment of “Tapiravus” polkensis to the genus Tapirus, and demonstrates that the geologic age of the species is significantly younger than previously thought, Hemphillian rather than Barstovian. Tapirus polkensis is the smallest known North American Tapirus, and smaller than any of the extant species in the genus, with an estimated average mass of 125 kg.

Shelf-derived limestone boulders in debris flows of the Cow Head Group, western Newfoundland, have yielded rich mid- to Upper Cambrian trilobite faunas. The agnostoid component of Marjuman boulders consists of 23 species assigned to 11 genera; Kormagnostus boltoni and Kormagnostus? copelandi are new. Cladistic parsimony analysis of the Ptychagnostidae Kobayashi reduces this family to 3 genera: Ptychagnostus Jaekel, Pseudophalacroma Pokrovskaya and Lejopyge Hawle and Corda; Ptychagnostus includes three non-obligate subgenera: P. (Ptychagnostus) (= Tomagnostus Howell); P. (Goniagnostus) Howell and P. (Aotagnostus) öpik (= Myrmecomimus öpik). Correlation with zonations established in northern Canada and Utah indicates that the Cow Head Group includes a nearly complete sequence of agnostoid faunas from the mid-Cambrian Ptychagnostus gibbus Zone to the Upper Marjuman Cedaria brevifrons Zone.

A single specimen of the platyceratacean gastropod Raphispira showing one complete and one incomplete, slightly elliptical borehole was recovered from the Antelope Valley Formation in central Nevada. Circular boreholes may be formed by a variety of causes, but they are most commonly attributed to the predators. In the Paleozoic the holes are most common in brachiopods, both calcareous and phosphatic. This is the oldest reported occurrence in a calcareous shell. In most instances, if a hard-bodied form is consumed by a carnivore, little recognizable evidence remains; therefore, predator boreholes are helpful in determining trophic relationships.