A fragmentary tyrannosaurid skull and postcranial skeleton from the Kirtland Shale of northwestern New Mexico is the most complete specimen of a carnivorous dinosaur known from these strata. The specimen is identified as Aublysodon cf. A. mirandus on the basis of its narrow frontals, V-shaped frontal-parietal suture, and nondenticulate incisiform premaxillary tooth. The D-shaped cross section of the premaxillary tooth, rugose postorbital, well-developed footed pubis, and proximally constricted third metatarsal confirm the assignment of Aublysodon to the Tyrannosauridae. The limb bones are gracile and similar in proportions to those of Albertosaurus; however, the tibia and metatarsals are shorter relative to the femur. The distal end of the tibia exhibits a unique medial emargination not reported in other tyrannosaurids.

The lower River Bend Formation at the Martin Marietta New Bern quarry in Craven County, North Carolina, contains a diverse and abundant moldic molluscan fauna. This fauna, reconstructed by latex casts, suggests a Vicksburgian or a post-Vicksburgian, pre-Chickasawhayan age for the New Bern exposure. Forty-one molluscan species and subspecies are presently identified from the lower River Bend Formation, 11 of which are new: Turritella caelatura alani, Turritella neusensis, Galeodaria britti, Phalium newbernensis, Cymatium planinodum, Oocorys vadosus, Ecphora wheeleri, Lyria concinna, Scaphella saintjeani, Turricula (Orthosurcula) aequa, and Lucina (Stewartia) micraulax. This fauna is virtually identical at the generic level and similar at the species level to the Vicksburgian faunas of the Gulf Coastal Plain. About 37 percent of the New Bern species also occur in the Vicksburgian of Mississippi, although many of these species reach considerably larger sizes at New Bern. Apparent evolutionary transitions between previously known Vicksburgian and Chickasawhayan mollusks suggest a time of deposition intermediate between these two Oligocene stages.

Moderately high molluscan diversity, the abundance of characteristically warm-water genera, and associated carbonate-rich sediments suggest that the lower River Bend Formation represents a subtropical, open-marine, predominantly carbonate environment immediately seaward of a nearshore lagoonal or barrier island complex.

The lower River Bend Formation at New Bern differs faunally, climatically, and sedimentologically from the upper River Bend Formation in quarry exposures near Belgrade, North Carolina. The upper River Bend Formation contains a lower diversity molluscan fauna with marked dominance diversity and few warm-water taxa. It represents a slightly cooler nearshore, open-marine environment in a transitional siliciclastic-carbonate sedimentary regime. The considerable taxonomic and sedimentologic differences between the lower and upper parts of the River Bend Formation corroborate microfossil evidence suggesting that they represent temporally distinct depositional cycles.

An Early Pennsylvanian tetrapod trackway, referred to Notalacerta missouriensis Butts, was found in the Rockcastle Sandstone Member (Westphalian A, Upper Carboniferous) of the Lee Formation in McCreary County, Kentucky. Terrestrial characteristics of the trackway, such as digit length, claw marks, gait, and tail drag, suggest that it was made by a member of the primitive reptile family Protorothyrididae. If identified correctly, this is the oldest known reptile trackway in North America. The animal that made the trackway was approximately 0.4 m in length. The pes tracks are slightly larger and set slightly wider than the manus tracks; digits are elongated and slender, and the fourth digit of the pes is the longest. Whereas the slender, long toes indicate a terrestrial form, the gait was more advanced than the sprawling gait typical of the most primitive tetrapods.

Several specimens of Dickinsonia cf. D. menneri, originating from a single burial event at the Lyamtsa locality of the late Ediacaran (Vendian) in the southeastern White Sea area, Russia, represent deviations from normal morphology: a reduction in the total length of the body; the loss of portions of the body; various deformations of the transverse elements, called isomers; and splitting of the longitudinal axis with the formation of two posterior ends. It is assumed that these deformations were formed as a result of non-lethal damage, which occurred long before the burial event, and the response of Dickinsonia to them. The progress of the regeneration process at the damaged areas, and especially its deviations, indicates that the growth zone was located at the posterior end of the Dickinsonia body. The cause of non-lethal damage to Dickinsonia could not be established, but the local distribution of deformed specimens preserved in the same burial event alongside cyanobacterial colonies, and the presence of weak deformations, expressed only in shortening of the length of some isomers, lead to the conclusion that damage resulted from short episodes of physicochemical impact, rather than occasional attacks by a hypothetical macrophage.

Fine-grained sandstones and siltstones of Late Cretaceous to Eocene age in Antarctica and Tierra del Fuego yield an association of well-known shallow-marine trace fossils. Among them stick out complex spreite burrows, which are formally described as Euflabella n. igen. and subdivided into five ichnospecies with different burrowing programs and occurrences. As shown by concentrations of diatoms, radiolarians, foraminifers, and calcispheres in particular backfill lamellae, the unknown trace makers lived on fresh detritus from the surface as well as the burrowed sediment. In some ichnospecies, vertical sections show that the spreite is three-dimensionally meandering in upward direction and that upper laminae tend to rework the upper backfill of the folds underneath. This could mean a second harvest, after cultivated bacteria had time to ferment refractory sediment components, which the metazoan trace maker had been unable to digest before.

Nine species, including two new species of decapod crustaceans, are described from the Paleocene Rancho Nuevo Formation, collected from two localities of the Parras Basin, southeast Coahuila state, Mexico. The astacid Enoploclytia gardnerae (Rathbun, 1935) is represented by a pair of large chelae and one cephalothorax. An incomplete nephropid carapace is identified as Enoploclytia sp. Partial specimens of a callianassid and a pagurid are described. One partial carapace representing Linuparus wilcoxensis Rathbun, 1935 is described. A new raninid, Macroacaena venturai new species extends the genus into Mexico. Paraverrucoides alabamensis (Rathbun, 1935) is the most abundant species, followed by Tehuacana tehuacana Stenzel, 1944 and Viapinnixa perrilliatae new species. Taxonomic affinities of this assemblage confirm influence of the Mississippi Embayment, particularly from Paleocene stratigraphic units of Texas and Alabama.

A newly discovered vertebrate fossil assemblage, the Casa Blanca local fauna, comes from the Laredo Formation, Claiborne Group, of Webb County, Texas, and is the first reported Eocene land-mammal fauna from the coastal plain of North America. The mammalian fauna is correlated with the Serendipity and Candelaria local faunas of west Texas, the Uinta C faunas of the Rocky Mountains, the Santiago Formation local fauna of southern California, and the Swift Current Creek local fauna of Saskatchewan. The vertebrate-bearing deposit lies approximately 32 m above a horizon containing the marine gastropod Turritella cortezi, which ranges from east Texas to northeast Mexico in the lower half of the Cook Mountain and Laredo Formations and is a guide fossil for the Hurricane Lentil in the Cook Mountain Formation. Nannoplankton found in these middle Eocene formations belong to the upper half of Nannoplankton Zone 16 and allow correlation with European beds of late Lutetian to early Bartonian age.

Over 700 specimens represent at least 30 species of 28 mammal genera. The Casa Blanca fauna is the southernmost and easternmost North American land-mammal fauna of definite Eocene age, and is the westernmost Paleogene vertebrate fauna from the Gulf Coastal Plain.

Cambrian Cephalopods are presently reported only from tropical, carbonate platform successions that occur on a number of paleocontinents. Outside of West Gondwanan occurrences on the eastern Sino-Korean Platform in China, the record of Cambrian cephalopods is limited, and information on the early evolution and habitats of this molluscan class has grown slowly over the last century.

In the South Nahanni River area of the District of Mackenzie, the Middle Ordovician Sunblood Formation comprises mainly limestones and dolostones of intertidal and shallow-subtidal origin, as indicated by the presence of desiccation polygons, fenestral fabric, and oncolites. Faunas of well-preserved, silicified trilobites from a low-diversity, nearshore, Bathyurus-dominated biofacies are compositionally distinct from faunas in correlative strata around North America that represent different shelf to upperslope biofacies. A temporal biostratigraphy applicable to nearshore biofacies through much of the Whiterockian Series consists of five zones, in ascending order: Bathyurus mackenziensis, B. sunbloodensis, B. margareti, B. nevadensis, and B. granulosus. Twenty-six species are assigned to 18 genera, of which Ludvigsenella is new. Three new species of Bathyurus are B. mackenziensis, B. sunbloodensis, and B. margareti.

A diverse Halobia fauna with rare ammonoids and conodonts is described from the type Martin Bridge Formation (Upper Triassic) of northeast Oregon. The composite section of black shale, mudstone, bedded micrite, limestone conglomerate, and halobiid lumachelle spans the Carnian–Norian boundary without apparent sedimentologic break or pronounced biotic extinction. The occurrence of Halobia radiata radiata Gemmellaro, Halobia? cf. teltschenensis (Kittl), H. superba superba Mojsisovics, and H. superba ornatissima Smith (nomen translatum) with the ammonoids Discotropites sp. and Arietoceltites? sp. low in the section indicates a late Carnian age (Dilleri?, Welleri to Macrolobatus Zones). These fossils occur below beds containing early Norian (Kerri Zone) H. beyrichi (Mojsisovics) and middle Norian (Rutherfordi?, Columbianus Zone) H. halorica Mojsisovics. The described fauna increases the halobiid and ammonoid diversity previously known from the Martin Bridge Formation despite synonymy of species previously reported from the section.

Moroccodiscus smithi represents a new cyclocystoid genus and species based on moldic specimens from the Middle Ordovician Taddrist Formation (Darriwilian) of SE Morocco. This represents the earliest articulated member of the Cyclocystoidea and is the first complete cyclocystoid described from the Ordovician of Gondwana, as well as the first cyclocystoid ever recorded from Africa. The anatomy and morphology of this new species were studied using a combination of conventional paleontological methods and nondestructive X-ray computed tomography. Because Moroccodiscus differs from other cyclocystoids, in particular by lacking cupules attached to the marginal ossicles, it is assigned to the new family Moroccodiscidae. This new taxon illustrates the relatively poorly known early diversification of these enigmatic extinct echinoderms and sheds light on the mode of life of cyclocystoids, including injuries to plate circlets during early ontogeny and folding of these disk-like specimens at the time of death. The overall thecal shape was very similar in cyclocystoids and many domal edrioasteroids, probably because they were both sessile or attached, benthic, suspension feeders. However, many oral surface, ambulacral, and marginal ring features had become very different, indicating that these two groups had either converged because of similar life modes or were only distantly related sister groups.

Two forms of branched, thickly walled, meniscate trace fossils occur in the Permian of East Greenland and Miocene of southern Italy. A new ichnogenus, Rutichnus, is erected for these specimens, and its possible synonyms and mode of formation are discussed. The two ichnospecies, R. irregularis (D'Alessandro) and R. rutis n. ichnosp., differ in the manner of branching and external rugosity.

Arctotherium angustidens Gervais and Ameghino, 1880 (the South American giant short-faced bear) is known for being the earliest (Ensenadan Age, early to middle Pleistocene) and largest (body mass over 1 ton) of five described Arctotherium species endemic to South America. Here we assess the diet of this bear from multiple proxies: morphology, biomechanics, dental pathology, stable isotopes and a previous study using geometric morphometric methodology. Results favor the idea of animal matter consumption, probably from large vertebrates in addition to vegetable matter consumption. Most probably, active hunting was not the unique strategy of this bear for feeding, since its large size and great power may have allowed him to fight for the prey hunted by other Pleistocene carnivores. However, scavenging over mega mammal carcasses was probably another frequent way of feeding. South American short-faced bears adjusted their size and modified their diet through Pleistocene times, probably as a response to the diversification of the carnivore guild (from the few precursory taxa that crossed the Panamanian Isthmus during the Great American Biotic Interchange).

Septirhynchia hirschi n. sp. is described from the Callovian (Jurassic) strata of Gebel El-Maghara, northern Sinai, Egypt. Significant ontogenetic changes from juvenile to adult include: 1) increase in height of the ventral median septum; 2) change from hypothyridid to mesothyridid pedicle foramen; 3) change from a pyriform to a gibbous outline; 4) change from a weakly defined to a strongly defined pedicle sulcus; and 5) change from a relatively straight to a strongly arched lateral commissure. All ontogenetic stages, except for neanic, possessed a pedicle tube. Muscle scars (diductor) were observed for the first time in the genus on several pedicle valve interiors; none were noted on any brachial valve interiors. Juveniles lived epifaunally, attached to the substrate by a small but functional pedicle, while adults lived semi-infaunally with the umbos buried in the mud.

Two species of well-preserved phyllocarid crustaceans, Ceratiocaris macroura n. sp. and Ceratiocaris papilio Salter, occur in the Eramosa Formation Lagerstätte of Ontario, Canada, represented by several dozen articulated fossils preserving limbs and thoracic segmentation. Ceratiocaris macroura n. sp. is distinguished by possession of an exceptionally elongate telson in relation to its body length. Ceratiocaris papilio preserves fine detail of the abdominal scale-like ornamentation, allowing reinterpretation and enhanced characterization of this key feature. Ceratiocaris papilio has a wide paleogeographic distribution across Laurentia but is restricted to shallow marine depositional settings within the middle Silurian.

A large number of well-preserved chancelloriid scleritomes from the Guanshan biota, early Cambrian of Yunnan, China, are described as a new species, Allonnia tenuis n. sp., and provide solid evidence for the original appearance of these enigmatic animals, based on specimens compacted laterally and top-down. With the assistance of a flexible integument, chancelloriids, especially Allonnia from early and middle Cambrian, may have had the ability to partially or completely expand and contract the body, which might have played an important role in feeding. A new metazoan with single-element spines, Nidelric gaoloufangensis n. sp., is also described. Preservation and affinity are discussed. Detailed comparison of the morphology of the body and spines of this metazoan indicate that it shares many similarities with chancelloriids, of which it may be an unusual form.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/2708d95a-1fae-46fc-afea-9707ae97a4d7

A new specimen of a theropod dinosaur found in the Upper Jurassic (Freixial Formation, late Tithonian) of the Lusitanian Basin is described. It corresponds to a single individual and includes a sequence of articulated caudal vertebrae, an almost complete right pes, and other fragments of the appendicular skeleton. The specimen includes the most complete pes of a theropod dinosaur currently known in the Lusitanian Basin and represents one of the youngest skeletal records of theropod dinosaurs currently known in the Portuguese Upper Jurassic.

A systematic analysis of this specimen is performed and it shows a combination of characters that allows us to interpret it as belonging to an allosauroid taxon. Within this clade, the material from Cambelas shares a few features with some carcharodontosaurids, including the presence of a lateral lamina extending along the anterior end of the centrum in the caudal vertebra and of a low vertical crest on the lateral surface of the femoral lesser trochanter. The set of remains described here shares some unusual features with another specimen previously described in the Portuguese fossil record, which also presents some synapomorphies of Carcharodontosauria. However, no autapomorphy or exclusive character combination can be recognized in the specimen here described in order to describe it as a new form. The presence of this specimen suggests a greater diversity in the allosauroid theropod fauna from the Late Jurassic of the Lusitanian Basin than currently known and probably expands the temporal record of Carcharodontosauria up to upper Tithonian of south-western Europe.

Tympanal ears in insects are important for both intraspecific communication and for the detection of nocturnal predators. Ears are thought, based on modern forms, to have originated independently multiple times within insects and can be found on multiple regions of the body. Here we describe and document the exceptionally well preserved tympanal ears found in crickets and katydids from the Eocene Green River Formation of Colorado, which are virtually identical to those seen in modern representatives of these groups. These specimens are among the best preserved insect ears in the fossil record and establish the presence of ears in two major clades of Orthoptera 50 million years ago. Also discussed and evaluated are previously described insect ears from the Mesozoic and the implications of the findings of the present study for studying the evolution of ears within insects.