A new, previously undescribed Middle Ordovician (middle Darriwilian: Dw2) radiolarian assemblage has been recovered from the Table Cove Formation at Piccadilly Quarry, western Newfoundland. Constituents of the fauna described herein are both distinctive and exceptionally well preserved. Three-dimensional X-ray micro-computed tomography (μ-CT) is used to make a detailed examination of four key spumellarian specimens. This technology enables visualization of hitherto ambiguous details of the internal morphologies of key lower Paleozoic taxonomic groups, among which a lack of knowledge has impeded resolution of higher taxonomic rankings.

A nepticulid leaf-mine ichnofossil, Stigmellites janggi Sohn and Nam, n. ichnosp., is described on the basis of a fossil leaf of Fagus from the early Miocene Geumgwangdong Formation in Pohang Basin. This mine trace is characterized by a linear-blotch type with a clear centric frass trail composed of closely and randomly dispersed pellets filling the mine width in the early stage. We found traces of a possible egg case and an exit slit from the leaf. These features are most consistent with those produced by members of Nepticulidae. Our record demonstrates for the first time the trophic association of Nepticulidae with Fagus in the Miocene and suggests the persistence of a long-term association between the insect family and the plant genus from the Miocene to the present. Other Nepticulidae leaf mines in the Miocene and leaf-mine fossils from the Geumgwangdong Formation are briefly reviewed.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/fff951f6-ca82-4cca-a274-863e0d91acaa

The Upper Cliff coal interval (Early Pennsylvanian) of northern Alabama consists of sandstone, siltstone, shale, and coal deposited within a southwestward prograding deltaic complex as previously defined using paleobotanical and sedimentological evidence. The paleoecology of two invertebrate-bearing lithofacies was studied within this context. A lower shaley-siltstone lithofacies records the inundation of the Upper Cliff #1 peat-accumulating swamp/marsh by fresh-water influenced brackish to restricted marine deposits. The fauna is dominated by the inarticulate Orbiculoidea and the trace fossil Planolites. As inundation continued, an interdistributary bay developed. Diversity and abundance of taxa increased with the establishment of a molluscan dominated Pteronites-Pianolites assemblage. The assemblage consists of a low diversity and low abundance fauna of bivalves and trace fossils that suggest soft substrates with abundant organics.

The overlying sandstone lithofacies consists of a basal shell-bed (Schizophoria zone) composed of rare indigenous Pteronites and Wilkingia and a transported component of open marine epifaunal brachiopods, gastropods, and trilobite fragments. The Schizophoria zone thins to the northeast, suggesting open marine conditions to the southwest. Directly above this bed, the fauna of the sandstone lithofacies is composed entirely of Zoophycos. Higher in the section, rare Pteronites and Wilkingia occur, thus this lithofacies preserves a Wilkingia-Pteronites-Zoophycos assemblage of low abundance and diversity reflecting mobile organic-poor substrates. The sandstone lithofacies is interpreted as a migrating sand body with a basal shell-bed, initially formed probably as a result of storm activity.

The loss of information resulting from taphonomic degradation could represent a significant bias in the study of morphological diversity. This potential bias is even more concerning given the uneven effect of taphonomy across taxonomic groups, depositional facies, and stratigraphic successions and in response to secular changes through the Phanerozoic. The effect of taphonomic degradation is examined using character-based morphological data sets describing disparity in Paleozoic crinoids and blastozoans. Characters were sequentially excluded from the analyses following progressive taphonomic loss to determine how morphologic metrics, such as the relative distribution of taxa in morphospace and partial disparity, changed with increasing taphonomic alteration. Blastozoans showed very little change in these metrics with decreasing preservational quality, which is a result of characters that create distance in morphospace being recognizable in isolated plates. The opposite result is present in crinoids as the characters that are important in structuring the morphospace require intact modules (i.e., the calyx) to accurately assess. Temporal and stratigraphic trends produced encouraging results in that patterns could be largely recovered even with exaggerated taphonomic biases. However, certain parts of a stratigraphic sequence should be avoided and morphological outliers could potentially play a larger role through time, though both of these biases can be easily identified and avoided. The methods presented in this study provide a way to assess potential taphonomic biases in character-based studies of morphological diversity.

The aquatic molluscan fauna of the late Oligocene–early Miocene Cabbage Patch beds of western Montana includes eight taxa, six of which are new at specific or subspecific level, Sphaerium bakeri, Valvata paula, Planorbula powelli, Biomphalaria haydeni, Lymnaea tumere, and Lymnaea vetusta ambigua. Two are referred to previously known taxa, Viviparus nanus and Lymnaea shumardi. The genera Biomphalaria, Planorbula, and Viviparus no longer occur in western Montana, nor in the Columbia River drainage. Planorbula powelli is the earliest unequivocal Planorbula from North America. Of the 18 supraspecific taxa of this molluscan fauna, eight (44%) are now displaced, all but one to the east and/or south. Climatic interpretations derived from modern habitats of the genera Biomphalaria and Polygyroidea suggest a late Oligocene–early Miocene Mean Annual Temperature of 10°C, with January means not less than 5°C, and July means about 15°C. Environmental analysis suggests a subhumid to subarid shrub and grassland vegetation similar to modern environments with > 50 cm Mean Annual Precipitation, surrounding marshy shallow lakes subject to seasonal desiccation. Effective moisture varied from slightly greater than the present for the late Oligocene to a latest Oligocene pluvial interval followed by subarid conditions for the early Miocene. Geographically, the drainage of this area was into a closed and isolated basin during the late Oligocene–early Miocene. Molluscan assemblages are found to support the tripartite division of the Cabbage Patch beds that has been based on mammals and should be useful in correlation between basins.

The first fossil Typhlocybinae inclusions from Eocene Rovno amber are described and illustrated. They include two new monotypic genera of the extinct tribe Protodikraneurini, Retrorsotettix n. gen. with type species R. vlaskini n. sp. and Protoparallaxis n. gen. with type species P. clavatus n. sp. Also described and illustrated are two new monotypic genera of the extant tribe Dikraneurini, Eodikraneura n. gen. with type species E. obscura n. sp. and Rovnodikra n. gen. with type species Rovnodikra longipes n. sp. Retrorsotettix is the oldest leafhopper known to exhibit a false eyespot and false leg markings on the forewing, representing an early acquisition of a defensive strategy against visual predators. Appearance of a small insect with false eyespots in the Eocene fossil record may reflect increased pressure by visual predators, especially crown ornithuromorph insectivorous birds. Such birds and small insect prey with false eyespots remain unknown in the Cretaceous. Eodikraneura exhibits a unique condition of the hind wing venation in which radius posterior and media anterior veins are confluent for a short distance but then diverge before separately reaching the submarginal vein. This presumably represents a morphological transition between the Protodikraneurini, in which hind-wing radius posterior and media anterior veins are completely separate and connected by a radial-medial crossvein, and Dikraneurini, in which radius posterior and media anterior veins are completely confluent distally. A key to genera of Protodikraneurini is provided.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/f15e6f80-9708-4f5e-89a3-705f9d340a77

Despite 70 years of study, Dickinsonia remains one of the Ediacara biota’s most enigmatic taxa with both morphological characters and phylogenetic affinities still debated. A large population of relatively small Dickinsonia costata present on a semi-contiguous surface from the Crisp Gorge fossil locality in the Flinders Ranges (South Australia) provides an opportunity to investigate this taxon in its juvenile form. This population supports earlier findings that suggest D. costata’s early growth was isometric, based on the relationship between measured variables of length and width. The number of body units increases with length, but at a decreasing rate. A correlation between a previously described physical feature, present as a shrinkage rim partially surrounding some specimens and a novel, raised lip in some specimens, suggests that both features may have been the result of a physical contraction in response to the burial process, rather than due to a gradual loss of mass during early diagenesis. A marked protuberance in 15% of the population is also noted in limited specimens within the South Australian Museum collections and appears to be present only in juvenile D. costata. Both the abundance and narrow size range of this population support the notion that Dickinsonia was a hardy opportunist, capable of rapid establishment and growth on relatively immature textured organic-mat substrates.

Species of two new genera of Encrinuridae occur in the Ludlow Douro Formation at Goodsir Creek, Cornwallis Island, Gamier Bay, Somerset Island, and Prince Alfred Bay, Devon Island. The encrinurine Aegrotocatellus n. gen. includes four highly autapomorphic species, and is most closely related to Balizoma Holloway, 1980. Separate taxa are recognized at low and high stratigraphic intervals at Goodsir Creek (the type species, Aegrotocatellus jaggeri n. gen. and sp., and Aegrotocatellus n. sp. A, respectively), at Gamier Bay (Aegrotocatellus n. sp. B), and at Prince Alfred Bay (Aegrotocatellus nankerphelgeorum n. gen. and sp.). Perirehaedulus n. gen. is a coronocephaline most closely related to the Chinese upper Llandovery taxon Kailia Chang, 1974. The type species, Perirehaedulus caprus (Thomas in Thomas and Narbonne, 1979) from Goodsir Creek, is distinct from P. richardsi n. gen. and sp. at Garnier Bay. The upper Wenlock–Ludlow range of Balizoma is extended into the Arctic by Balizoma aff. B. variolaris (Brongniart, 1822) from Homerian rocks of the Cape Phillips Formation near Abbott River, Cornwallis Island, and by Balizoma sp., from the late Ludlow Douro Formation at Goodsir Creek.

The description of a new species of retroplumid crab, Costacopluma salamanca from the Danian Salamanca Formation, southern Argentina, represents the eighth species referred to that genus and extends the geographic range of the taxon into Patagonia. Cladistic analysis of the genus suggests that three groups of species can be identified based upon their geographic position; Afro-Asian, North American, and South American.

Three species of Upper Pennsylvanian crinoids, two inadunates and one flexible, exhibit a sufficiently complete growth series to describe and quantify their ontogeny. Apographiocrinus typicalis (Moore and Plummer), Erisocrinus typus (Meek and Worthen), and Euonychocrinus simplex (Strimple and Moore) were collected from the middle shale of the Millersville Limestone Member of the Bond Formation at the Charleston Stone Quarry, Coles County, Illinois. Ten other crinoid species were collected in insufficient numbers for growth studies. Both bivariate and multivariate statistical procedures were used to analyze the growth of these crinoids.

In the inadunate crinoids skeletal growth was highly coordinated in the dorsal cup and cup plates. Arm length increased by addition of secundibrachials. Food groove width increased almost three times from immature to adult stages, thus allowing a larger range of food particles to be consumed by adults. Growth of the cup is isometric in E. typus and slightly anisometric in A. typicalis. Primibrachials in both species develop anisometrically. Immature specimens possess long, slender primibrachials, with the A ray plate being longest. In maturity, the primibrachials become equidimensional and equalized in all rays. The A ray arm is followed by the C and D ray arms, and finally the B and E ray arms, in sharp contrast to arm development in disparid inadunates. Pinnules appear late in the immature stage of growth. Primary emphasis on the expansion of the arms in young inadunates demonstrates a rapid establishment of a filtration-fan mode of feeding. Subsequent development involves widening of the plates for strength and support of the arms and to accommodate wider food grooves that permit a larger array of food particles to be captured.

The flexible crinoid, E. simplex, experienced a less correlated pattern of growth. Cup plates and arms grew isometrically and all arms were added simultaneously. Development suggests that flexibles fed differently than the associated inadunates and the cup may have played a less important role in functioning of the calyx.

The upright, elevated growth pattern of stalked crinoids exposed them to a sequence of competitive interactions with other epifaunal animals that had important adaptational ramifications for their evolution, diversity, and extinction. The fact that most living crinoids, stalked and unstalked, have abandoned a permanently fixed place of growth may have been an advantageous factor in their survival.

A new argyrolagoid marsupial, Hondalagus altiplanensis n. gen., n. sp., from the middle Miocene (Santacrucian–Friasian) age locality of Quebrada Honda in southernmost Bolivia represents the smallest and most specialized member of the family Argyrolagidae known. The lower molars are hypselodont and lack vertical grooves labially and lingually, and M4 is greatly reduced relative to M3. In overall size and structure, H. altiplanensis compares best with Microtragulus catamarcensis (Kraglievich, 1931) from rocks of late Miocene (Huayquerian) age in northwest Argentina. Hondalagus altiplanensis demonstrates that the adaptive radiation of argyrolagoids was much greater than previously envisioned, and that generic differentiation of known taxa occurred no later than early–middle Miocene time in South America.

The earliest known interpreted spatial competition between two species of stromatoporoids, Clathrodictyon cf. C. mammillatum (Schmidt, 1858) and Labechia sp. is found in the Upper Ordovician Xiazhen Formation at Zhuzhai, South China. The interaction between these taxa was initiated by settlement of Labechia sp. on the surface of Clathrodictyon cf. C. mammillatum. Distortions of the intraskeletal elements of stromatoporoids represented by abnormally large, wide cysts and thick cyst plates in Labechia sp. are observed, along with zigzag crumpled distorted laminae and antagonistic behavior of the skeleton in Clathrodictyon cf. C. mammillatum, indicating syn-vivo interactions. The growth of Labechia sp. was terminated by the overgrowth of Clathrodictyon cf. C. mammillatum, possibly reflecting the ecological superiority of Clathrodictyon cf. C. mammillatum over Labechia sp. The observations are interpreted as competitive interaction between stromatoporoids that was most likely facultative, thus most likely occurring by chance, but the interaction allows assessment of different growth behaviors of the stromatoporoid species. Analysis of the interaction provides evidence to improve understanding of the paleoecology and growth behaviors of early stromatoporoids.

An echinoderm fauna from the Lower Devonian (Lochkovian) Cravatt Member of the Bois d'Arc Formation near Clarita, Oklahoma, has yielded specimens of recumbent, essentially bilaterally symmetrical taxa which are similar to Ordovician genera but absent or sparsely represented in Silurian strata. Claritacarpus smithi n. gen. and sp., is a dendrocystitid homoiostele with morphology similar to the Late Ordovician Dendrocystoides Jaekel, 1918; the anomalocystitid stylophoran Victoriacystis aff. holmesorum Ruta and Jell, 1999 shows strong affinities to Victoriacystis holmesorum Ruta and Jell, 1999, Humevale Formation, of Victoria, Australia; and the pleurocystitid rhombiferan, Turgidacystis graffhami n. gen. and sp., has close affinities to the Middle Ordovician Coopericystis Parsley, 1970 of West Virginia and Henicocystis Jell, 1983 of Victoria, Australia. Claritacarpus and Turgidacystis are North American range extensions for homoiosteles and pleurocystitids, respectively, being previously unknown from rocks younger than Upper Ordovician. Globally, Silurian homoiosteles and pleurocystitids are unknown although both occur in the Lower Devonian of Germany and Australia; additionally, Early Devonian pleurocystitids are known from Great Britain and Bohemia. These genera illustrate a pseudoextinction pattern suggesting a significant unsampled Silurian “homalozoan” and pleurocystitid history.

Fossiliferous marine Devonian has been known in Chile for less than a decade. The initial discovery from south of the Salar de Atacama region, in the Sierra de Almeida, northern Chile is described together with its brachiopods. The brachiopods indicate an age span of Emsian–Eifelian or Givetian, shallow-water conditions in the Benthic Assemblage 2 range, and a biogeographic boundary region between the cool climate Malvinokaffric Realm and warmer region extra-Malvinokaffric Realms, including the Eastern Americas Realm and the Rhenish-Bohemian Region of the Old World Realm. The recent discovery of a Malvinokaffric Realm trilobite far to the south in Chile, at Buill in the Andes of Chiloe, serves to underline our very preliminary knowledge of the Chilean Devonian, whereas the alleged Devonian brachiopods from the Chonos Archipelago far to the south are probably bivalves of uncertain age.

Taxonomic keys are rarely used as an aid to the identification of foraminifera. Such keys become increasingly attractive, however, as the number of taxa which must be distinguished becomes large. The proliferation of known genera over the last 25 years is nowhere more apparent than in the unilocular calcareous foraminifera, where the number of genera has risen from 5 to 46. We present herein a dichotomous key in which any species may be assigned to its proper genus by progressing through a series of steps, consisting of paired statements, in which only one choice is made at a time.

The cardiarinide brachiopod Lambdarina glaphyra n. sp. from the upper Tournaisian (lower Carboniferous) rocks of Belgium is only the fourth described species in the genus. Ontogeny involves growth from a non-lobate, triangular, brephic stage of shell outline to distinct bilobation through neanic and adult stages, with maturity attained at a length of < 2 mm. Known occurrences of the new species are from within low-energy, mud-dominated proximal peri-reefal facies adjacent to Waulsortian buildups.

The systematics of vermetid gastropods is in a shambles, with few genera defined by valid autapomorphic characters. Heretofore, the genus Petaloconchus has been included among the few adequately characterized groups, thanks to possession of a double internal lamina on the middle whorls. Yet abundant anecdotal information has been available for 100 years on the absence of laminae in high percentages of individuals within samples, and in entire populations that must be placed within the genealogical nexus of Petaloconchus. I demonstrate that such a nonlaminate population exists within the very material used to define the type species of the genus, Pliocene Petaloconchus sculpturatus Lea, 1843, from the Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plain of the United States. I use X-radiography and multivariate biometry to show that this population from the Pliocene Jackson Bluff Formation at Jackson Bluff, Florida, is fully alaminate, but otherwise indistinguishable from P. sculpturatus. After considering a range of solutions, I name this population as a new subspecies, Petaloconchus sculpturatus alaminatus. I discuss theoretical and practical issues arising from populations that lack the defining feature of their genus.

Two new species of Kalligrammula Handlirsch, 1919 (Insecta, Neuroptera, Kalligrammatidae) are described as K. lata n. sp. and K. karatensis n. sp. based on two nearly complete hindwings respectively from the Middle–Upper Jurassic of Daohugou, China and the Upper Jurassic of Karatau, Kazakhstan. Limnogramma Ren, 2003 is considered to be a junior synonym of Kalligrammula based on the hindwing venation. The distribution of kalligrammatid genera is discussed.

This paper presents an overview of the bryozoan fauna from the upper Koněprusy Limestone (kindlei Conodont Zone, middle Pragian, Lower Devonian) exposed in two quarries at Zlatý Kuň near Koněprusy in Central Bohemia, and discusses its paleoecology and paleobiogeography. The studied fauna is dominated by encrusting fistuliporine and trepostome bryozoans (eight species), accompanied mainly by reticulate fenestrates (four species), branching ramose trepostomes and cryptostomes (three species), and one massive trepostome species. The richest bryozoan association comes from reef core/margin facies (13 species), followed by crinoid-bryozoan facies of the ramp (eight species). The reef-terrace facies and the crinoid-bryozoan-algal facies contain three and two species respectively. Seven species are described taxonomically, three fistuliporines and four trepostomes. The following taxa are new: Koneprusiella armata n. gen. n. sp., Fistulipora rarivesiculata n. sp., Fistulipora hladili n. sp. and Leptotrypa varia n. sp. Paleobiogeographic patterns of the bryozoan fauna from the Koněprusy Limestone are similar to those of stromatoporoids, comprising widely distributed genera but mainly endemic species. This supports a relative geographic isolation of the Koněprusy reef. The bryozoan fauna from the Koněprusy Limestone shows paleogeographic affinities with that from the Lower Devonian (Pragian) of Morocco and the Middle Devonian of Michigan (USA).

Two lineages exist for Cahabagnathus. Lineage 1 is C. friendsvillensis–C. chazyensis–C. sweeti–C. carnesi. Three new species are proposed in lineage 2, which consists of C. baueri n. sp.–C. directus–C. cooperi n. sp. and C. craigi n. sp. The distribution pattern of Cahabagnathus was strongly influenced by Chazyan sea-level changes. The wide distributions of C. friendsvillensis and C. sweeti correspond to two large transgressions and the more narrow distribution of C. chazyensis and C. carnesi correspond to regression events. A similar relationship exists between sea-level change and the distribution of species in lineage 2. Evolution of the cahabagnathids was apparently influenced by the rise of sea level, which widely distributed taxa, and the fall of sea level, which isolated taxa. We propose that it was from peripheral isolates of widely distributed taxa that endemic Cahabagnathus taxa (C. baueri, C. cooperi, C. craigi, C. chazyensis, and C. carnesi) evolved.