Neoinoceramus Ihering, 1902, hitherto placed in the family Pernidae, is shown to be a member of the family Limidae, according to its edentulous hinge, well-defined ligamentary pit, and biauriculated shell. It was an epibenthonic bivalve living attached by a byssus to the hard substrate in a platform environment where some epibionts (muricaceous gastropods, sponges) were fixed on its shell.

The Mammalia from the Calf Creek Local Fauna, Cypress Hills Formation, Saskatchewan, include various Carnivora (197 specimens) and Creodonta (nine specimens). Most specimens are isolated teeth. The fauna includes Daphoenus sp., Daphoenocyon dodgei, daphoenine sp., Parictis parvus, Parictis sp., nimravid spp., Hesperocyon gregarius, Hemipsalodon grandis, Hyaenodon horridus, H. microdon, Hyaenodon spp., and indeterminate taxa. Most of the large number of deciduous teeth are referred to Hesperocyon or the Daphoeninae. Daphoenus canadensis, Russell, 1934, is a junior synonym of Daphoenocyon dodgei. Upper molars are tentatively referred to P. parvus; the geographic range of P. parvus is extended to include Saskatchewan and Wyoming. The Calf Creek Hesperocyon closely resembles samples of the genus from Pipestone Springs Local Fauna, Montana, and most levels at Flagstaff Rim, Wyoming. Most of the previously described Carnivora and Creodonta from Cypress Hills localities can be referred to species that occur in the Calf Creek Local Fauna. The Carnivora and Creodonta are consistent with an early to medial Chadronian age for this local fauna and suggest a relatively early age within that interval.

A new trace fossil, Feoichnus martini new ichnospecies, from the Two Medicine Formation is here described. This ichnotaxon is reported from the upper Campanian deposits of the Egg Mountain locality (Montana) and consists of a hemispherical to hemiellipsoidal structure with a truncated upper edge, and a regular, rounded lower edge marked by a lined border composed of stained layers. The trace maker likely impregnated the border using organic fluids. The simple lined wall observed in F. martini n. isp. suggests that the structure was produced by an invertebrate soil-dwelling organism, likely an insect. Specimens are preserved as casts in calcitic Inseptisols alongside an abundant vertebrate fossil record composed by dinosaurian and nondinosaurian fossil remains, dinosaur eggs and nest structures, and pervasive insect bioturbation. Feoichnus martini n. isp. represents an additional, minor component of the impoverished Celliforma ichnofacies reported at Egg Mountain and expands the paleogeographical distribution of the ichnogenus Feoichnus Krause et al., 2008 to the Upper Cretaceous deposits of Montana, USA.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/7c1a5026-7f27-4f12-a9fb-1eb8daa93baf

A number of Early Cretaceous inoceramids are widely known worldwide, but many are poorly understood. in particular the nature of ligaments and muscle scars are in need of major revision. the inoceramid genus Neocomiceramus Pokhialainen and the species N. curacoensis (Weaver) are revised based on newly collected materials in the Neuquén Basin, west-central Argentina. Neocomiceramus curacoensis is recorded in the Agua de la Mula Member of the Agrio Formation. A Late Hauterivian age is indicated by the associated ammonite fauna. Neocomiceramus curacoensis has a shell shape similar to Inoceramus J. Sowerby, but its ligament lies in a higher angle to the commissural plane and has a smaller number of pits. Neocomiceramus curacoensis probably lived reclined and byssally attached on muddy offshore substrates under restricted oxygen levels. the genus Neocomiceramus ranges from the Valanginian?, Hauterivian to Albian and probably is cosmopolitan. It differs from other well-recognized Early Cretaceous inoceramid genera, namely Actinoceramus Meek, Anopaea Eichwald, and Coloniceramus Pokhialainen by its shell shape, shell thickness, ornamentation, and ligament morphology.

A near complete shell from the Hemphillian 4 (Miocene/Pliocene boundary) Buis Ranch local fauna of Beaver County, Oklahoma, represents a fossil box turtle. An anterior contact of neural III and neural V with costal III and costal V only, respectively, presence of a small contact between the suprapygal and eleventh peripherals, development of a thin peripheral lip for articulation with the posterior plastral lobe, placement of the vertebral III/IV sulcus on neural VII, presence of two anterior musk duct glands, a rounded posterior plastral lobe, an elongate shell outline, and a complete neural series diagnose the fossil as a new species, Terrapene parornata n. sp. A phylogenetic analysis of fossil box turtles places T. parornata along the phylogenetic stem of the extant taxon T. ornata. The holotype of ‘Terrapene longinsulae’ cannot be distinguished from Terrapene ornata and is therefore synonymized. Finally, ‘Terrapene’ corneri lacks characters of crown group Terrapene and may therefore represent a stem box turtle. The provenance of the holotype of ‘Terrapene longinsulae’ is more poorly known than previously recognized and this specimen may originate from Kansas or Nebraska and be early Miocene to late Pleistocene in age. Terrapene parornata is therefore the oldest demonstrable representative of crown group Terrapene (ca. 5.3–4.6 Ma). ‘Terrapene’ corneri from the late Barstovian of Nebraska and fragmentary material from the middle Barstovian of Nebraska by contrast are the oldest representative of the Terrapene lineage (ca. 14.5–11.5 Ma). A review of morphological characters related to shell kinesis reveals that most are highly correlated. The results of the phylogenetic analysis converge upon those of molecular data when these correlated characters are omitted from the analysis.

Computed tomographic (CT) imaging allows new accessibility to shells of gastropod fossil taxa and their extant relatives, providing new data for interpreting former systematic assignments. The highly questionable ellobiid assignment of the nonmarine gastropod genus Protocarychium Pan, 1982 from the Lower Jurassic of Hunan, China, is reevaluated using CT imaging to assess internal aspects of the shell. By comparing these new data to those of stylommatophoran, ellobiid, and caenogastropod clades in the literature, this work reveals that Protocarychium bears no affinity to the Carychiidae, which are otherwise known only from the Cenozoic, but rather to the Paleozoic land snail family Anthracopupidae Wenz, 1938. This finding constitutes the first Asian appearance of anthracopupid snails beyond their known North American and European range. Contrary to the current opinion, we suggest the Anthracopupidae to be a basal stylommatophoran clade, which places the origin of Stylommatophora at least in the late Carboniferous.

Articulate brachiopods from the Aptian–Coniacian (Kotick Point and Whisky Bay Formations, Gustav Group) and the Santonian–Campanian (Santa Marta Formation, Marambio Group) of James Ross Island are described. A new terebratulid species, Rectithyris whiskyi n. sp., is described from the late Albian–early Coniacian of the Whisky Bay Formation. The record from the late Albian is supported by palynological evidence making it contemporaneous with other species of Rectithyris from Europe. The relative abundance of Rectithyris whiskyi n. sp. in late Turonian to early Coniacian sections indicates an extended biohorizon that may aid biostratigraphic correlation in the James Ross Island region.

The brachiopods have some affinities with faunas described from Europe, northern Siberia, North America, Madagascar, southern India, Western Australia, and Alexander Island, Antarctic Peninsula. Elements of the James Ross Island brachiopod fauna probably migrated by the following routes: 1) from northern high latitudes via the Eastern Pacific; 2) from Europe via the north and central Atlantic and opening south Atlantic Ocean; and 3) via Eastern Tethys, the East African Seaway, to the south Atlantic Ocean. Brachiopod evidence supports a fully marine connection between the central Atlantic and south Atlantic Ocean (Route 2) possibly as early as the late Albian (as do ammonite faunas from western Africa), and certainly by the late Turonian. Route 3 was established in the Cretaceous by the Aptian?–Albian to eastern Africa and Madagascar and to the Antarctic Peninsula by the late Turonian. Faunal links between James Ross Island and Western Australia support the Late Cretaceous juxtaposition of these plates.

A distinct austral brachiopod fauna may be present in the Cretaceous from the Aptian onwards (although current evidence is scant). Antarctic Peninsular and Western Australian faunas yield five brachiopod genera (and their species) endemic to Gondwanaland's southern marine fauna. Other genera known from the Antarctic Peninsula (Kingena, Ptilorhynchia, and Rectithyris) and the Northern Hemisphere may have species endemic to Gondwanaland.

Traditional terms used to describe shell orientation in bivalves are unsatisfactory in three important ways: 1) for poorly known bivalve taxa, unbiased and directionally neutral terms are sometimes needed to replace anterior and posterior where data are incomplete; 2) there is a striking absence of simple terms to apply to the long and short ends of the shell; and 3) the term lateral is either incorrectly or inconsistently applied. in the following discussion, I shall explore each of these issues and suggest remediation.

A new molluscan genus, Voskopiella, from the Lower Devonian of Bohemia is described and assigned to the Onychochiloidea. The type and only known species is Voskopiella barborae n. sp. from the Nowakia elegans Zone (uppermost Zlichovian, =Emsian) of the Suchomasty Limestone. Also discussed are its ontogeny, variability, and pathological development of ornamentation, as well as the mode of life, in order to resolve the problem as to whether onychochiloideans are torted gastropods or untorted paragastropods. A foliage supported mode of life or life in close association on or within algal mats is suggested for Voskopiella barborae n. gen. and sp.

An ichnofossil formed by an organism that preferentially burrowed the micritic sediment filling corallites of tetradiids has an axial passage that may be filled with sediment or calcite spar and a surrounding affected zone of concentric structure formed by the alignment of grains. More than one such burrow may occur in a single corallite. A larger ichnofossil that destroyed both septa and walls of the corallites is associated with the smaller ichnofossils.

An Upper Cretaceous (early Maastrichtian) tube-building hydractinian (Psammoactinia antarctica n. gen. and sp.) from Sanctuary Cliffs, Snow Hill Island, believed to live in association with hermit crabs, is described for the first time from Antarctica. Psammoactinia forms thick, concentric, globular colonies that encrust gastropod shells and extend the shell aperture by forming an open spiral tube. The colony consists of concentric layers with chambers and pillars made of silt and very fine sand grains agglutinated by collophane, which is interpreted as a diagenetic modification of an original chitinous phosphatic material. On the basis of the additional finding of isolated claws of pagurid crabs, assigned to Paguristes sp., the functional analysis of the hydractinian structure, and a comparison with modern and fossil analogous structures it is concluded that the peculiar hydractinian tube is a carcinoecium that housed a symbiotic hermit crab.

Paleoenvironmental and paleoecological inferences suggest that the Psammoactinia–Paguristes association is mainly controlled by a fine-grained substrate and by a lack of abundant gastropod shells of different sizes. These factors do not necessarily correlate with absolute water depth, and favorable environments could include either offshore, relatively deep water or shallow restricted depositional settings.

The late history of edrioasteroids has come to light only in the last 40 yr. When the edrioasteroid chapter of the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology was published (Regnéll, 1966) the youngest known edrioasteroids were upper Mississippian (Chesterian). Since that time, a series of papers have described edrioasteroids in the Pennsylvanian (Fraunfelter and Utgaard, 1970; Bell, 1976; Sumrall, 1992; Sumrall and Bowsher, 1996; Sumrall et al, 2000, 2006). Pennsylvanian edrioasteroids now include nine species distributed among six genera, including one fauna bearing four genera (Sumrall et al., 2006). These edrioasteroids are not limited to a single clade but include postibullinids, plesiomorphic agelacrinitids, and derived clavate discocystinids.

Four trilobite species are present in the Gilmore City Limestone (Kinderhookian–Osagean) of Humbolt County, Iowa. The most common trilobite taxa, Perexigupyge hodgesi n. gen. and sp. and Perexigupyge gerki n. gen. and sp., make up the greatest percentage of the trilobite population. Two other species are known from fragmentary cranidia and are assigned to the genera Richterella and Proetides. Prior to the description of these forms, the only trilobite previously described or illustrated from the Gilmore City Limestone was a cranidium of Proetides insignis (Winchell) from the type area.

The Gilmore City Limestone in Humbolt County, Iowa, represents deposits associated with an oölitic sand-shoal environment, including washover-lobe and back-shoal deposits. Morphologic attributes exhibited by the Gilmore City Limestone trilobites, such as low relief and vaulting to the exoskeleton and subdued surface ornamentation, may have been adaptations that enabled them to inhabit current-swept shoal environments. Conversely, coarsely tuberculate forms may have used the tubercules as a mimic of the surrounding coarse-grained sediment or to strengthen the exoskeleton.

An enteletid brachiopod genus Peltichia Jin and Liao, 1981, is reviewed and emended based on specimens from the Permian sequences of Japan, South China, Vietnam, and Transcaucasia. New and revised taxa are Peltichia akasakensis (Ozawa), P. kwangtungensis (Zhan), P. ruzhencevi (Sokolskaja), P. sinensis (Huang), P. subtriangularis new species, P. transversus (Huang), and P. zigzag (Huang). The genus Peltichia, consisting of 10 species, ranges from Kungurian to Changhsingian, and is distributed geographically in the Tethyan Realm and its surrounding areas and probably as well as in the western Panthalassan region.

The rhynchonellid genus Ptilorhynchia Crickmay and the terebratulid genus Sellithyris Middlemiss are described from Mexico for the first time. This is the first formal description of Sellithyris from the American Continent. Ptilorhynchia (Proteorhynchia) imlayi n. sp. is described from the late Aptian of the La Penã Formation, Coahuila. “Rhynchonella’ durangensis Imlay from the Valanginian of the Carbonera Formation, Durango, is assigned to Ptilorhynchia (Proteorhynchia). “Terebratula’ coahuilensis Imlay from the Valanginian Barril Viejo Formation, Coahuila, is referred to Sellithyris. Sellithyris coahuilensis indicates close links with contemporaneous Valanginian faunas of southern Europe. During the early Early Cretaceous Sellithyris had a fairly restricted latitudinal and broad longitudinal distribution (Tethys and its extension across the opening Central Atlantic Ocean). Ptilorhynchia (Proteorhynchia) in Mexico is significant as the first low-latitude record for Ptilorhynchia. Other Lower Cretaceous records are from northern and southern high latitudes, previously interpreted as a bipolar distribution. It is suggested that Ptilorhynchia had a Boreal-East Pacific distribution with Ptilorhynchia (Proteorhynchia) being a low-latitude Early Cretaceous offshoot. The genus may prove to be pandemic. Proteorhynchia Owen is regarded as a subgenus of Ptilorhynchia.

The Late Irvingtonian fauna of Port Kennedy Cave, Pennsylvania, includes four species of turtles. Terrapene carolina is the most common species; Clemmys insculpta is present. A nearly complete plastron of Emydoidea blandingii from Port Kennedy and two specimens from New Jersey sites indicate that the species ranged through the Delaware Valley region during much of the Quaternary. The type material of Clemmys percrassa Cope is reidentified as Geochelone (Hesperotestudo) percrassa Cope, and becomes one of the more northeasterly records of the genus in North America.

In the Conglomerate Mesa area in the southeastern Inyo Mountains, east-central California, a series of distinctive fusulinid assemblages ranging in age from late Artinskian to Kungurian or Roadian was developed in units 7–10 of the sedimentary rocks of Santa Rosa Flat (part of the Owens Valley Group). The fauna of unit 7 shows some eastern Klamath Mountains affinity, but most of the species in unit 7 and the lower half of unit 8 are highly endemic and comprise three new genera with 12 new species, two unusual unassigned forms, and two other new species assigned to previously described genera. New taxa include: Crenulosepta new genus with five new species, C. inyoensis, C. delicata, C. fusiformis, C. rossi, and C. wahlmani; Nigribaccinus new genus with three new species, N. giganteus, N. elegans, and N.? nestelli; and the new genus Inyoschwagerina with four new species, I. magnifica, I. elayeri, I. elongata, and I.? linderae. Cuniculinella Skinner and Wilde, 1965, is represented by one new species, C. parva, and Skinnerella Coogan, 1960 by one new species, S.? mcallisteri. Faunas from the upper half of unit 8, unit 9, and unit 10 have a strong West Texas affinity. New species from these units are Skinnerella davydovi, S. hexagona, Parafusulina cerrogordoensis, P. complexa, P. halli, P. owensensis, and P. ubehebensis.

The majority of Changhsingian orthotetid brachiopod species from the Southern Alps were described by the end of the nineteenth century, but were then neglected by subsequent authors who proposed further new species, giving rise to great taxonomical confusion. An examination of type-specimens and newly collected material permits the consideration of Orthothetina ladina (Stache, 1878) and Ombonia tirolensis (Stache, 1878), type-species of Ombonia, as the only valid species and describe Teserina nerii as a new genus and species. The former two species are mostly located within a short stratigraphic interval, which is a few centimetres thick, limited by the trigger and peak of the end-Permian mass extinction. Teserina nerii n. gen. n. sp. occurs 2–3 m above the extinction peak and represents one of the last Permian rhynchonelliform brachiopod holdovers in the Southern Alps.

We describe a Pennsylvanian (Late Carboniferous) Parapostibulla edrioasteroid that competed for living space with an encrusting cryptostome bryozoan on the brachiopod Composita. the colonial bryozoan grew faster than the solitary edrioasteroid, and the bryozoan increased its colony size by slowly encircling the edrioasteroid. Neither organism was able to overgrow the other, even where the margins became thick, and each had to accommodate the presence and possible defenses of the other. Evidence for defensive measures by edrioasteroids has not previously been reported, but this interaction does emphasize that edrioasteroids could not move away from severe crowding or overgrowth by other organisms.

Spinicaudatans (‘clam shrimps’) are small branchiopod crustaceans enclosed in a chitinous bivalved carapace that is often the only preserved element in the fossil record. However, few studies have analyzed the preservation of these carapaces, which have been found in continental facies from the Devonian to the present. The aim of this study was to contribute to a better understanding of the chemical preservation of fossil spinicaudatan carapaces, and it focused on spinicaudatan carapaces of the Cañadón Asfalto Formation from the Jurassic of Argentina. Semiquantitative energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS) analysis provided elemental composition data that were interpreted using principal component analysis (PCA). The results showed a complex chemical mode of preservation for spinicaudatan carapaces. In some parts, EDS spectra of the specimens exhibit peaks of calcium, phosphorous, aluminum, and fluorine, representing the retention of original carapace material with some diagenetic recrystallization. Certain zones of the carapace show low-intensity peaks of the elements mentioned, while silicon and oxygen peaks (from the rock matrix) become the dominant spectral signals. These modes of preservation modify the interpretations and observations of the ornamentation of the carapace, which are used as taxonomic features. Our results suggest that specific diagenetic processes play a fundamental role in the preservation of spinicaudatans.