This study reports the earliest known reef-building anthaspidellid sponge, Rankenella zhangxianensis n. sp., from the Cambrian Series 3 (late Stage 5–early Guzhangian) deposit of the Zhangxia Formation, Shandong Province, China. Rankenella zhangxianensis mostly occurs within Epiphyton-Rankenella-Cambroctoconus reefs, with minor occurrence from inter-reef grainstone. The species has anthaspidellid-type regular ladderlike spicule networks consisting of dendroclones and trabs, and is characterized by trabs parallel/subparallel to the gastral surface that diverge and meet the dermal surface, which is typical of the genus. Compared to R. mors and R. hamdii, reported from the late Cambrian Series 2–late Cambrian Series 3 of Australia and the late Cambrian Series 3–early Furongian of Iran, respectively, R. zhangxianensis is characterized by a relatively thicker wall, high angle (~90°) between dermal surfaces and intersecting trabs, and minor occurrence of differentiated canals. On the other hand, R. zhangxianensis mainly shows obconical shape, which is far less diverse than the other two species showing conicocylindrical, digitate, explanate, or bowl shapes. These Cambrian Series 3 reefs from China are the ancestors of the Furongian anthaspidellid-microbial reefs and the Early Ordovician anthaspidellid-microbial reefs that flourished worldwide. They represent the resurgence of reef-building metazoans after the extinction of archaeocyaths at the end of Cambrian Series 2.

The Late Triassic rhynchocephalian Clevosaurus latidens Fraser, 1993 is known from the fissure deposits of Cromhall Quarry, England. Many studies have questioned its referral to the genus Clevosaurus Swinton, 1939 and some phylogenetic analyses suggest a close relationship with herbivorous rhynchocephalians. We re-examine the type specimens and referred material of C. latidens to elucidate its taxonomic identity. Additionally, we provide new phylogenetic analyses of the Rhynchocephalia using both parsimony and Bayesian approaches. Our taxonomic review and both phylogenetic analyses reveal that C. latidens is not referable to Clevosaurus, but represents a new genus. We reassess C. latidens and provide an amended diagnosis for Fraserosphenodon new genus. Both parsimony and Bayesian analyses recover similar topologies and we propose formal names for two higher clades within Rhynchocephalia: Eusphenodontia new infraorder and Neosphenodontia new clade.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/65f29bd1-47e3-4a73-af8c-9181c19319e4

Fossil bird bones from the late Eocene Keasey Formation and the latest Eocene Pittsburg Bluff Formation in northwestern Oregon are the earliest records of the pelecaniform family Pelagornithidae for the Pacific Basin. These fossils also represent the first late Eocene records of the family from the Northern Hemisphere, the second late Eocene record worldwide, and indicate that these animals were among the largest of flying birds. Unfortunately, the fragmentary condition of these fossils and the currently confused state of pelagornithid systematics prevents the assignment of these specimens to new species at this time.

Gladius-bearing coleoids are rare in the fossil record. For the Cretaceous period, these cephalopods are mainly recorded in a few Lagerstätten in Lebanon (Haqel, Hajoula, En Nammoura, and Sahel Aalma). Here, we study 16 specimens of gladius-bearing coleoids from these Upper Cretaceous Lebanese Lagerstätten to investigate their taxonomic diversity. Besides two species that were already reported (Dorateuthis syriaca and Glyphiteuthis libanotica), one new species is identified in the Cenomanian site of Hajoula: Rachiteuthis acutali n. sp., as well as another form of Glyphiteuthis from En Nammoura. Several studied specimens exhibit well-preserved soft-part characters. Among them, we document for the first time two transverse rows of sessile suckers in D. syriaca and we confirm the absence of tentacles, as well as the presence of a crop in this species. This strongly supports the phylogenetic proximity of D. syriaca with modern vampyropods rather than with modern decabrachians. In turn, the similarity in gladius morphology between this taxon and modern squids is regarded as convergent.

Two samples from a large, allochthonous limestone block in the McHugh Complex of the Chugach terrane on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, contain species of 12 genera of Permian Fusulinina including Abadehella, Kahlerina, Pseudokahlerina?, Nankinella, Codonofusiella, Dunbarula, Parafusulina?, Chusenella, Verbeekina, Pseudodoliolina, Metadoliolina?, Sumatrina?, and Yabeina, as well as several other foraminiferans and one alga. The assemblage of fusulinids is characteristically Tethyan, belonging to the Yabeina archaica zone of early Midian (late Wordian) age. Similar faunas are known from the Pamirs, Transcaucasia, and Japan, as well as from allochthonous terranes in British Columbia, northwestern Washington, and Koryakia in eastern Siberia.

The Duchesnean Lac Pelletier Lower Fauna, Cypress Hills Formation, Saskatchewan, includes 15 isolated teeth that are referred to the Carnivora (Mammalia). The fauna includes Miocyon magnus n. sp., Daphoenus cf. D. demilo, Hesperocyon sp., and indeterminate taxa; no members of the Creodonta were identified. This is the latest record of Miocyon and the earliest record of Hesperocyon. The fauna is transitional between Uintan carnivoran faunas that were dominated by miacids and the establishment in the early Chadronian of the White River carnivoran chronofauna, and suggests that the transition, which was largely a Duchesnean event, was gradual.

Stromatoporoids are the major fossil faunal element of the Upper Limestone Member of the Keyser Formation in an outcrop at Mustoe, Virginia. The member is divided into four subunits at Mustoe, in ascending order: a bioherm, two biostromes, and a laminated micritic subunit. Stromatoporoids are found in all subunits, and they decrease in quantity upward. Nine species are described in three genera: Plexodictyon cf. P. waparksi Stearn, Parallelostroma typicum (Rosen), P. kaugatomicum (Riabinin), P. barretti (Girty), P. cf. P. barretti, P. keyserense n. sp., P. longicolumnum n. sp., P. multicolumnum n. sp., and Densastroma pexisum (Yavorsky). With the exception of P. barretti, a Lower Devonian stromatoporoid, the species of stromatoporids found at Mustoe have been known only from Silurian rocks in other areas.

The purpose of the present statement is to announce discovery of a well-preserved and potentially diverse Lower Permian ammonoid fauna from south-central Thailand. Previous Thai records of Permian ammonoids lack descriptive detail (e.g., Yanagida, 1988), but two sparse Permian occurrences from nearby areas in Malaysia have been described recently by Lee (1980). Closest similarities of the Thai material are with faunas from the Pamir (Leonova and Dmitriev, 1989) and with our undescribed collections from south Xinjiang.

Two previously undescribed species of Bivalvia of Eocene age are herein tentatively considered to belong to the family Lucinidae because of their ligament areas and elongated anterior adductor scars. Both species are elongate for a lucinid, have edentulous hinges, striated muscle scars, and are placed in the new genus Cryptolucina. Both are found in the Humptulips Formation of middle to late Eocene age in western Washington, and both Cryptolucina megadyseides new species and C. elassodyseides new species are associated with deep-water, cold-seep limestone. Cryptolucina megadyseides is also associated with turbiditic mudstone.

An anomalous pair of small, isolated calcareous sandstone bodies in the middle member of the upper Eocene Wagonwheel Formation, Wagonwheel Mountain, of the San Joaquin Valley, California, contain numerous articulated specimens of soft-bottom-dwelling bivalves. The lucinid bivalve Epilucina washingtoniana (Clark, 1925) dominates the fauna, which also sparingly contains the thyasirid bivalve Conchocele bisecta (Conrad, 1849) and the vesicomyid bivalve Vesicomya (Vesicomya) aff. V. (V.) tschudi Olsson, 1931.

The fossils in the pair of calcareous sandstone bodies, which are surrounded by deep-water silty mudstone barren of megafossils, most likely represent cold-seep communities in the upper bathyal environment. These cold seeps apparently were formed by diffusive flow through coarse sand-fill material in submarine channels.

Epilucina washingtoniana was previously known only from upper Eocene rocks on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington, and in Santa Barbara County, southern California. This species, along with a late Eocene species from Colombia, South America, are the earliest representatives of Epilucina. The Wagonwheel Formation contains one of the earliest records of Conchocele bisecta, which is a widespread Cenozoic fossil and is extant in the north Pacific. The species of Vesicomya in the Wagonwheel Formation is the earliest record of Vesicomya s.s. and has close affinity to Vescicomya (Vesicomya) tschudi Olsson, 1931, from the upper Oligocene of northwestern Peru, South America. As in the case of Conchocele bisecta, Vesicomya s.s. has not been reported previously from the Eocene of California.

Species of the late Osagean and early Meramecian advanced cladid crinoid genera (suborder Poteriocrinina) Adinocrinus, Eratocrinus, Lekocrinus n. gen., Linocrinus, Sarocrinus, and Worthenocrinus n. gen. from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, and Missouri are redescribed and redefined from study of type material and museum collections. These species are considered to have advanced-grade calyces because of the substantial size reduction of the infrabasals and basals relative to the radials. Nomenclatural and systematic changes include the following: 1) Eratocrinus coxanus (Worthen, 1882) is a senior synonym of Zeacrinus keokuk Worthen, 1882; 2) E. commaticus (Miller, 1891a) is a senior synonym of Z. blairi Miller and Gurley, 1895; 3) Lekocrinus n. gen. is described and Scaphiocrinus divaricatus Hall, 1860, and Z. planobrachiatus Meek and Worthen, 1860, are assigned to this new genus; 4) Linocrinus praemorsus (Miller and Gurley, 1890a) is a senior synonym of Poteriocrinus lautus Miller and Gurley, 1896; 5) Sarocrinus kirki n. sp. is described; 6) P. varsoviensis Worthen, 1882, is assigned to Sarocrinus and is a senior synonym of P. tentaculatus Worthen, 1883, P. granilineus Miller and Gurley, 1890a, Z. pocillum Miller, 1891b, S. nitidus Kirk, 1942, and S. plenus Kirk, 1942; 7) P. asperatus Worthen, 1882, is assigned to Sarocrinus; 8) Worthenocrinus n. gen. is described and W. paterus n. sp. is assigned to this new genus; 9) Poteriocrinus iowensis Worthen, 1882, is considered a nomen dubium and placed in incertae sedis.

Fossilized notostracan carapaces and abdominal fragments are present in the Upper Triassic (Rhaetian) Bull Run Formation in the Culpeper Basin near Manassas, Virginia. Over 250 notostracan carapaces and carapace fragments and three abdominal fragments with attached caudal rami were collected from light olive-gray, grayish-red, and brownish-gray shales in three on-strike localities. Carapace and abdomen are attached in one specimen. The Culpeper Basin notostracans have a rudimentary supra-anal plate and are identified as Triops cf. cancriformis. Their carapaces are indistinguishable from those of modern forms.

Relatively few notostracan fossils are known and none have been reported previously from the Triassic of North America. Triassic notostracans, however, have been reported from Europe and Africa. Fossil notostracans have been reported from North America only once previously, from the Permian of Oklahoma.

The notostracans are associated with conchostracans (Cyzicus sp.), ostracodes (Darwinula sp.), fish scales, insects, plant fragments, and stromatolites.

The notostracan-bearing beds are present at the top of a transgressive-regressive sequence, indicating that the notostracans inhabited shallow water near the edge of a perennial lake. Palynology indicates that these beds are most likely mid- to late-Rhaetian in age.

The occurrence of the large ichthyosaur Cymbospondylus in the Middle Triassic of Spitsbergen is recognized based on two different specimens. One consists of a semiarticulated string of 17 dorsal vertebrae with associated ribs and the other of an anterior dorsal vertebral centrum and possibly a caudal vertebral centrum. Both specimens can only be identified as Cymbospondylus sp. This record fills a gap in the distribution of Cymbospondylus, establishing this genus as the second most widespread Triassic ichthyosaur after Mixosaurus.

Early Cambrian Leptomitus zitteli Walcott, 1886, is a tubular, double-walled, demo-sponge from the Parker Slate of Vermont and is one of the few intact sponges of that age known. It occurs with skeletal fragments of ?Protospongia hicksi Hinde, 1887. Hazelia walcotti (Resser and Howell, 1938) is a thin-walled, tubular sponge with crudely clustered oxeas in a thatched skeleton. It is known from the Kinzers Formation of Pennsylvania. Early occurrences of Leptomitus and Hazelia indicate that at least these two lineages had diverged by the latter part of the Early Cambrian. The impression described as Leptomitus minor by Resser and Howell (1938) lacks spicules and is not a sponge.

The Middle Cambrian eocrinoid genera Lyracystis Sprinkle and Collins, 2006, from western Laurentia and Balangicystis Parsley and Zhao, 2006, from South China, described in the same year, have turned out to be closely related genera assigned to the Family Lyracystidae. Both have erect, lyre-shaped, arm-like, brachiolebearing, feeding appendages, here termed exothecal ambulacra, that are not homologous to crinoid arms. They also have a long, multiplated stalk to elevate the theca and feeding appendages well above the sea floor, making them among the highest tiered echinoderm suspension feeders known from the Middle Cambrian. The long stalk was either inserted a short distance into the muddy sediment, or attached to rare skeletal fragments lying on the sea floor. Both genera seem well adapted to quiet-water or slow-current conditions in deeper water (150-200 m) on the outer shelf or upper slope of their respective continents.

Historically, the whaitsiid therocephalian Theriognathus Owen was one of the earliest described nonmammalian therapsids, its morphology helping to link phylogenetically the Paleozoic synapsids of North America and southern Africa to their mammalian successors. However, decades of taxonomic over-splitting and superficial descriptions obscured the morphologic diversity of the genus, hindering its utility as a study system for the evolution of synapsid cranial function as well as its biostratigraphic significance in the Late Permian of southern Africa. Here, we revise the status and provenance of all the known specimens of Theriognathus from South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia. We present both qualitative and quantitative support for the presence of a single morphospecies as proposed by some authors. Proportional differences in skulls that were previously ascribed to different morphotypes (‘Aneugomphius,’ ‘Notosollasia,’ ‘Moschorhynchus,’ and ‘Whaitsia’) are largely size-related and allometric trends are considered here in the context of jaw function and prey prehension. Our results suggest that the single species, Theriognathus microps, represented one of the most abundant Late Permian therocephalians in southern Africa and is consequently a potentially useful biostratigraphic marker for the upper Cistecephalus-lower Dicynodon Assemblage Zone transition (i.e., late Wuchiapingian). The wide range of preserved sizes in conjunction with recent paleohistological evidence supports that individuals spent much of their lives in an actively-growing, subadult phase. Later Dicynodon Assemblage Zone records (e.g., upper Balfour Formation) are unconfirmed as the genus was likely replaced by other theriodont predators (e.g., Moschorhinus) leading up to the Permo-Triassic boundary in the Karoo Basin of South Africa.

The penguin skeleton studied here constitutes the fourth partial skeleton found in Patagonia, and the third one with an associated humerus and tarsometatarsus. The finding of this partial skeleton identified with certainty as Palaeospheniscus patagonicus Moreno and Mercerat, 1891 (Aves, Sphenisciformes) allows the first description of elements other than the tarsometatarsus. The material comes from the basal sector of the Gaiman Formation (Early Miocene), located along the Atlantic coast of Chubut Province, south of Rawson city. This unit comprises a succession of shales, fine tuffs, sandstones, tuffaceous sandstones, and coquinas deposited in a shallow marine environment. These beds contain abundant marine vertebrates (sharks, dolphins, rays, birds), mollusk casts, and oyster beds. The skeleton includes: rostrum, two thoracic vertebrae, right coracoid without the distal end, left humerus, right femur, right tarsometatarsus, left fragmentary scapula, left coracoid, left radius without the distal end, proximal portion of left ulna, proximal end of left femur, and preacetabular part of the synsacrum. P. patagonicus would have been a medium-sized penguin weighing about 5 kg that inhabited the breeding colonies established in the nearby Bryn Gwyn area during the early Miocene. Despite the abundance of penguin remains known for Argentina, and the fact that they are among the birds with a better fossil record, this skeleton is an exceptional case. This finding allows a readjustment of the taxonomic criteria applicable to fossil and living species.

Commensal epizoozoans and episkeletozoans are rarely preserved attached to the external exoskeleton of the Late Ordovician trilobite Flexicalymene. Of nearly 15,000 Flexicalymene specimens examined, 0.1% show epizoozoans or episkeletozoans. Factors limiting Flexicalymene fouling include a shallow burrowing life style, frequent molting of the host, larval preference for other substrates, observational bias caused by overlooking small fouling organisms, and the loss of the non-calcified, outermost cuticle prior to fossilization or as the trilobite weathers from the encasing sediment. Trepostome bryozoans, articulate and inarticulate brachiopods, cornulitids, and a tube-dwelling/boring nonbiomineralized organism represent the preserved members of the Late Ordovician marine hard substrate community fouling Flexicalymene. This assemblage of organisms is less diverse than the hard substrate community fouling Late Ordovician sessile epibenthic organisms. Fouling is not restricted to only large Flexicalymene specimens as observed in previous studies but occurs in medium to large individuals interpreted as early to late holaspid specimens.

Epizoozoans fouling the carcasses or molt ensembles of 16 Flexicalymene specimens provide insight into the life habits of the host and these fouling organisms. Trepostome bryozoans, articulate and inarticulate brachiopods, and cornulitids preferentially attached to elevated portions of the dorsal exoskeleton, and preferentially aligned in either the direct line or lee side of currents generated by Flexicalymene walking on the sea floor or swimming through the water column.

Xenarthra is an endemic South American lineage of mammals, probably the sister clade of the other placental mammals. The oldest records of Xenarthra are from the latest Paleocene, although its current diversity is much lower than that recorded in some intervals of the Cenozoic Era. A new Neogene Xenarthra (Pilosa and Cingulata) assemblage from two localities of the Argentine Eastern Puna (Calahoyo and Casira) is described. The newly recorded taxa—Cingulata, Dasypodidae, Eutatini: Stenotatus sp. indet. and Eutatini indet., Euphractini: Macrochorobates scalabrinii (Moreno and Mercerat, 1891), and Tardigrada, Mylodontinae: cf. Simomylodon sp. indet. and Simomylodon cf. S. uccasamamensis Saint-André et al., 2010—and those already published from Calahoyo—Cingulata: Macrochorobates chapadmalensis (Ameghino, 1908), Eosclerocalyptus sp. indet., and Tardigrada, Megatheriidae: Pyramiodontherium bergi (Moreno and Mercerat, 1891)—suggest a middle–late Miocene age for the fossil-bearing levels. In Calahoyo, the presence of Stenotatus sp. indet., in addition to some rodents currently under study in the lower levels, suggest a closer similarity with the palaeofauna of Cerdas (southern Bolivia), probably involving the last part of the Miocene Climatic Optimum. The Xenarthra recorded in the middle and upper levels of Calahoyo and Casira suggest a late Miocene–Pliocene age. A comparative analysis between Calahoyo and Casira highlights the absence of Cingulata in the latter and a high diversity in the former. This situation probably indicates different paleoenvironmental conditions. Finally, we present the first certain record of the genus Simomylodon Saint-André et al., 2010 in Argentina, which includes the oldest record of dermal ossicles for sloths in South America.

The unusual extant crinoid Holopus rangii d'Orbigny lacks a column, cements directly to hard substrates, has a conical to tubular dorsal cup in which plate sutures cannot be discerned, and has 10 tapered arms that are able to enroll swiftly into a “fist-like” configuration when disturbed. The first SEM study of H. rangii is presented herein. The gross morphology and skeletal microstructure of this species display many characteristics that bear an obvious relationship to the functional morphology of the living animal. Dorsal cups show a range of morphologies, reminiscent of those found in acorn barnacles and other tubular encrusters. During arm enrollment, the adjacent arms abut and form an impervious seal. Of the two specimens dissected, one had a regenerating arm.