Conical and vase-shaped calathids are found in the Lower Ordovician Fillmore Formation of western Utah associated with intraformational conglomerates and small patch reefs. Calathium yersini n. sp. exhibits patterns of both the inner and outer walls of calathid two-wall construction. The broadly annulate walls are constructed from meroms with fused proximal merom feet forming the inner wall. The reticulate-patterned outer wall is formed by interlocking stellate ribs at the distal end of each merom. Latitudinal (horizontal) ribs interlock adjacent merom ribs side by side at the tips of ribs while meridional (vertical) ribs overlap merom shaft to merom shaft. Inner and outer walls are perforate. Pore-canal casts preserved in silicified molds suggest an exit and entrance current circulation for inner and outer wall pores. Upper ends of the calathids are not preserved, but an open cup is interpreted from infill material and encrustation of the interior cup wall by epibionts. Epibionts commonly encrust and thicken Calathium outer walls, with the cyanobacterium Girvanella as the dominant encrusting organism. Calathium yersini n. sp., among the earliest of receptaculitids, has a morphology suitable for water circulation consistent with that of filter-feeding organisms.

The uppermost Precambrian(?)–Lower Cambrian of the Avalon Zone in the northern Antigonish Highlands is composed of two dissimilar sequences in thrust contact. These include the sandstones and slates of the Doctor's Brook allochthon and the volcanoclastic-rich Malignant Cove authochthon.

Lithostratigraphy of the “Black John Formation” (designation abandoned) in the Doctor's Brook allochthon is comparable to the uppermost Precambrian–Lower Cambrian in eastern Placentia Bay, southeastern Newfoundland, and Cape Breton Island. A unified stratigraphic nomenclature is appropriate in these Avalonian areas. The lower part of the “Black John” is an unconformity-bounded depositional sequence with subaerial rift facies (Rencontre Formation, 178+ m), overlying marine siliciclastic mudstones and fine sandstones (Chapel Island Formation, 59 m), and a quartzite cap (Random Formation, 2.05 m). The Chapel Island Formation has the oldest faunas from mainland Nova Scotia (Watsonella crosbyi Zone, lower Placentian Series). A post-Random unconformity known in Newfoundland and Cape Breton Island lies at the Random-Bonavista Group (Cuslett Formation) contact in the upper “Black John Formation.”

Fossiliferous Lower Cambrian limestones and siliciclastic mudstones previously reported from the Malignant Cove autochthon are actually clasts in basalt pebble-dominated slope deposits of the Arbuckle Brook Formation. These clasts were eroded from shallow-marine facies comparable to those in the Doctor's Brook allochthon during local uplift associated with Middle Cambrian(?) extension and mafic volcanism.

Eight species are illustrated from the Placentian and Branchian Series. Anabaritellus Missarzhevsky, 1974, emend. (=Selindeochrea Valkov, 1982) is a Lower Cambrian calcareous tube-dwelling metazoan(?) known from tri- through multisulcate conchs that are morphologically intermediate between Anabarites and Coleoloides.

Cryptolithinid trilobites have been repeatedly described from North America for over 150 years. Earlier work on these forms is here integrated with new information from Oklahoma to form a strong case for the following conclusions: 1) the genus Cryptolithus migrated to (present-day) eastern North America from Europe at a single time in the early Caradoc; 2) it gave rise rapidly to a western North American relative, Cryptolithoides; 3) both genera were restricted to relatively cool-water shelf environments roughly 30 m deep and remained, in general, geographically isolated for several million years. The Viola Group, geographically between these eastern and western occurrences and representing much of Middle and Upper Ordovician time, chronicles the interplay between these two genera over some six million years.

In the biogeographic boundary region formed by Oklahoma, the two supposedly distinct genera showed suprising convergence of fringe pit and other character traits as marine transgression reduced provinciality through Ordovician time. This suprising convergence of genera is interpreted as hybridization of mere subspecies after several million years of incomplete geographic separation.

Cocks and Rong (1989) subdivided the species of the Ordovician brachiopod genus Bimuria into two groups, those with a simple, or not undercut, cardinal process and those with an undercut cardinal process. They placed the second group in a new genus, Cooperea, and grouped Cooperea with Craspedelia in the new subfamily Craspedeliinae of the family Sowerbyellidae. However, the cardinal process of Bimuria ranges from not undercut to undercut within at least two species. Cooperea is therefore placed in synonymy with Bimuria, and Craspedelia is returned to the Bimuriidae.

Cocks and Rong (1989) inferred that, with rare exceptions, the cardinal process of the Plectambonitacea evolved from simple to trifid to undercut. The evidence from Bimuria indicates, however, that the undercut process developed more than once and, in Bimuria, directly from the simple type.

As an adjunct to the above discussion three new species are described: Bimuria gilbertella, Craspedelia intonsa, and Craspedelia sp. 1. Craspedelia is a rarely reported genus documented here for the first time in western North America (northern California). Additional evidence is introduced that the ratio Lmusbv/Lebv decreased from middle to late Ordovician species of Bimuria.

The new genus and species, Gondekia hastula, are described from the Middle Devonian (Givetian) Hungry Hollow Formation of southwestern Ontario. Astraeospongium lancifer Reimann, 1945, is also included in the new genus and A. acicularis is considered a synonym of that species. Gondekia has a flat saucer-like form and a felted, but thin, skeleton composed of at least three orders of regularly spaced and oriented simple sexiradiates. Gondekia is placed in the Eiffeliidae but is convergent toward the Astraeospongiidae in having a somewhat thickened wall.

Chama iudicai n. sp. is described from the Pleistocene of San Antonio Oeste, Rio Negro Province, Argentina. It is characterized by its large size, thick shell, and crenulated inner margin. Externally it has weak comarginal lamellae. It is indicative of a clear, stenohaline, warm-water environment. This is the first record for the family Chamidae in the Argentine Quaternary.

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.

Systematic revisions and revised stratigraphic occurrences are made to Aorocrinus, Dorycrinus, Macrocrinus, Paradichocrinus, Strotocrinus, and Uperocrinus from the Osagean and Meramecian stratotype region in Iowa and Missouri. Systematic revisions include the assignment of Batocrinus procerus Miller and Gurley as a junior synonym of Macrocrinus mundulus. Batocrinus heteroclitus Miller and Gurley, B. vicinus Miller and Gurley, and B. stelliformis Miller and Gurley are assigned to Uperocrinus heteroclitus n. comb. The concept of Aorocrinus spinosulus (Hall) did not match characteristics of the holotype. Consequently, the appropriate name for this concept is Aorocrinus kelloggi (Worthen) n. comb., and A. spinosulus is assigned to Dorycrinus mississippiensis as a junior synonym. Batocrinus strenuus is assigned to Aorocrinus strenuus n. comb.?; and Strotocrinus glyptus is regarded as the valid name for the only species recognized in this genus.

These systematic revisions result in the restriction of Strotocrinus glyptus to the middle Osagean Burlington Limestone, and extension of Aorocrinus, Dorycrinus, Macrocrinus, and Uperocrinus into the Meramecian upper Warsaw Formation.

Laminae of genera considered in this revision are sheets of planar, compact tissue (order Clathrodictyida) or a network formed by arms (colliculi) emerging from pillars (order Actinostromatida). Pillars, confined to a single interlaminar space, are simple rods, branch upwards, or have complex cross sections. The scope of Anostylostroma is limited to species with complexly upwardly branching pillars and simple planar laminae. Species with predominantly y- or v-shaped pillars are removed to Schistodictyon. Simplexodictyon is limited to species with double laminae formerly referred to Diplostroma. A new genus, Petrostroma (type species: Simplexodictyon simplex Nestor), is proposed for species with simple, planar laminae and rodlike pillars. The scope of Atelodictyon is restricted to species with planar, simple laminae resembling the type species and many species with laminae formed of colliculi previously placed in this genus are assigned to Aculatostroma. Other genera discussed include: Crumplestroma and Coenellostroma (both synonyms of Aculatostroma), Pseudoactinodictyon, Stelodictyon, Clathrodictyon, and Nexililamina and Coenostelodictyon (both synonyms of Schistodictyon).

The Bromide Formation of the Middle Ordovician Simpson Group of Oklahoma contains one of the oldest diverse bryozoan faunas in North America. The early divergence of many trepostome clades is revealed in these rocks. Three trepostome bryozoan species belonging to family Halloporidae are described from this fauna. Discriminant analysis is used to define the following halloporid species: Diplotrypa schindeli n. sp., Tarphophragma karklinsi n. sp., and Tarphophragma macrostoma (Loeblich). Preliminary cladistic analysis indicates that the family Halloporidae was already a distinct lineage by the Middle Ordovician. This suggests that by this time, many of the major trepostome clades were already established.

The Providence Limestone member of the Dugger Formation in Indiana and its lithologic correlatives in the southern part of the Illinois Basin are thin lime mudstones to packstones lying stratigraphically between the Herrin and Hymera Coal Members of the Dugger Formation and their equivalents. The purposes of the study are to describe and correlate the Providence conodont fauna and to apply biofacies analysis and petrographic study to interpreting the paleoenvironments.

Providence conodonts are dominated by representatives of the Idiognathodus-Streptognathodus plexus. Hindeodus is abundant; Neognathodus is common; and Idioprioniodus, Adetognathus, and Diplognathodus are common only in some sections. Aethotaxis is a minor constituent.

Conodont biofacies reflect a shallow, nearshore, low- to moderate-energy marine environment. The Idiognathodus-Streptognathodus plexus indicates quiet to moderately elevated energy levels. Hindeodus replaces part of the Idiognathodus-Streptognathodus plexus in higher energy conditions. Diplognathodus has an affinity for low to slightly elevated energy conditions. Migration during ontogeny to quite, organic-rich water from a more open, slightly higher energy environment is indicated for Streptognathodus oppletus.

Assignment to the Neognathodus dilatus-N. roundyi zone indicates a middle Desmoinesian age. The new species Diplognathodus indianaensis is morphologically intermediate between the early Desmoinesian D. coloradoensis and the late Desmoinesian D. illinoisensis and allows refinement of a Diplognathodus-based zonation.

Large collections of Glyptopleura costata (McCoy, 1844) from the Maxville Limestone in central Ohio contain four instars and adults. The juveniles provide a basis for understanding the orderly development of the complex ornamentation of costae characteristic of Glyptopleura. Dimorphism is prominent with heteromorphs and adult tecnomorphs readily identifiable, primarily in adults. Progressive development of the ornamentation in juveniles, significant variation in adult ornamentation, and dimorphism has led to a proliferation of proposed taxa.

Three more thalamid sponge species are described from Upper Permian reefs of Djebel Tebaga, Tunisia. Intrasporeocoelia hubeiensis Fan and Zhang, 1985, Rhabdactinia depressa Rigby, Fan, and Zhang, 1989, and Glomocystospongia gracilis Rigby, Fan, and Zhang, 1989, are now known from a few Tunisian specimens.

Monaxon spicules are common within the rigid, diagenetically altered, aragonitic skeleton of Glomocystospongia gracilis Rigby, Fan, and Zhang, 1989. Spicules are common as vertical elements in walls of tubes between the vertical series of cyst-like chambers and less common in the chamber walls where they are parallel to the tube walls but project out into the chambers.

Intrasporeocoelia has been reported from Permian rocks of the Sosio Valley in Sicily, and therefore from the Western Tethys. However, the species of Rhabdactinia and Glomocystospongia reported here have been known, until now, only from the Permian of China; thus, the Djebel Tebaga locality in southern Tunisia represents the first known occurrence of these latter sponges in the Western Tethyan realm.

Two additional specimens of Tristratocoelia rhythmica Senowbari-Daryan and Rigby, 1988, have also been found. They allow further definition of characteristics of this sponge, which was initially described from a single specimen from Djebel Tebaga.

The trochid archaeogastropod Margarites (Pupillaria) columbiana n. sp., the mytilid bivalve Modiolus (Modiolus) willapaensis n. sp., and the vesicomyid bivalve Calyptogena chinookensis n. sp. are described from the earliest known fossil communities associated with subduction-related methane seeps. The communities are in very localized limestones of late middle to late Eocene age along the southwestern margin of Washington. These limestones contain large numbers of chemosynthetic bivalves and worm tubes, as well as other macrobenthos, that colonized around cool-temperature methane seeps along the landward slopes of an ancient subduction-zone complex.

Calyptogena chinookensis n. sp.is the earliest known species of this genus, which was previously known from Miocene to Recent.

Recognition of ontogeny within a stenolaemate bryozoan colony requires separating the individualistic aspects of a zooid's growth from those of its neighbors. The ancestrula is the only zooid within a colony that always displays a partially independent ontogeny that ceases when it starts to experience shared changes with its neighboring daughter zooids during subsequent accretionary skeletal growth.

Stenolaemate astogeny (shared changes across multiple zooids during the growth of both the ancestrular zooid and its asexual descendants) includes all coordinated changes in the size, shape, number, and calcification of autozooids, polymorphs, and extrazooidal structures, as well as changes within autozooids or polymorphs, such as the formation of basal diaphragms and brown bodies. Despite the fact that many of these directional changes occur within individual zooids, they are not part of ontogeny because they are taking place simultaneously across zooids that share a common skeleton, extrazooidal tissues, and pseudocoelomic spaces.

Shared directional multizooidal changes occurring during colony growth provide a confirmatory test for the existence of astogeny. Astogeny was statistically evaluated in 6–15 characters measured within the exozones of four colonies of Tabulipora carbonaria (Worthen in Worthen and Meek, 1875). Statistically significant (at P ≤ 0.05) directional changes took place across growth stages within the exozone in the following morphometric characters: zooecial density, zooecial wall surface area, acanthostyle density, zooecial wall thicknesses, maximum acanthostyle diameters, and intrazooecial diaphragm abundances. Overall, earlier exozonal growth stages differ statistically from those of the later exozone, with characteristics of intermediate growth stages intergrading between the two. Discriminant function analysis segregated intervals of exozonal growth into early-, intermediate-, and late-stage clusters, confirming patterns delineated by univariate statistical tests.

Based on these exozonal growth patterns, heterochronic changes in exozone astogeny characterized evolution within and across species of Tabulipora. Onshore populations of T. carbonaria were astogenetically progenetic relative to offshore ones along an environmental gradient across Kansas, whereas local populations became temporally more hypermorphic in a short-term stratigraphic succession of similar environments. Tabulipora carbonaria originated by astogenetic recapitulation in populations of its probable ancestor, T. ramosa. Therefore, speciation, microevolution, and clinal variation in Tabulipora all involved heterochronic modifications of exozone astogeny.

On the western side of the Tjörnes Peninsula in northern Iceland exposures of fossiliferous marine sediments, basalts, and glacial tills record the climatic history of this region of the North Atlantic Ocean. Seventy-five marine ostracode species were recovered from the Pliocene Tjörnes sediments and Quaternary sediments known as the Breidavik beds. The ostracode assemblages contain many warm-water genera that do not inhabit Iceland today and indicate early to middle Pliocene (4.5–3.0 Ma) winter and summer bottom-water temperatures that averaged 5–6°C and 14–16°C, respectively (maximum 20°C in summer, rarely below 3°C in winter except during a brief cooling 3.5–3.2 Ma). An intensified North Atlantic Drift and a diminished or absent East Greenland Current account for warm-water oceanographic conditions at 66°N. Late Pliocene marine climates were cooler with winter and summer averages of about 9°C and 8°C. Early Pleistocene ostracode assemblages dated at 1.7–1.3 Ma contain extant arctic–subarctic species that indicate winter and summer temperatures of about − 1.5°C and 4–5°C. New species Bensonocythere eirikssoni, Robertsonites williamsi, Hemicythere rekaensis, Thaerocythere mayburyae, Thaerocythere whatleyi, Leptocythere tjornesensis, Tetracytherura bardarsoni, and Cytheromorpha einarssoni are described.

This study represents a preliminary analysis of variation in size and shape in a large and diverse molluscan clade, the Strombina group, over the past 20 million years. Restored height and width were measured on 5,099 individuals of 72 species and 5 genera. Size was estimated by adding height and width, and shape was estimated by dividing height by width. Patterns of variation were analyzed quantitatively among species, subgenera, and genera using univariate statistical tests comparing means and variances and linear regression.

Results of univariate tests show that both shape and size vary among species within subgenera (the specific level) and among genera (the generic level). However, only shape varies among subgenera within genera (the subgeneric level). Regression analyses for each species show that the relationship between height and width is linear, indicating that growth is never allometric with respect to these characters. Because of this nonallometric growth, rates of shape relative to size change can never vary, imposing a severe constraint on shape change and, in turn, shape evolution. Regression models for species within subgenera have equal slopes but differ slightly in intercept. Subgeneric models differ more in intercept. Generic level models differ in slope. These results suggest that formation of species within subgenera primarily involves extension or contraction of trajectories between height and width within species (=static vectors), resulting in size change without shape change. Shape change is more important in the evolution of higher categories.

To examine overall morphologic change in the clade through time, mean sizes and shapes of species were analyzed using nonparametric statistics. Only a slight tendency exists within the clade for increase in species size, and this tendency is best expressed within two species-rich subgenera having long stratigraphic ranges. No directional trends exist for change in species shape. No relationship is found between species size and probability of speciation or extinction, or between species size and species duration, thus negating the role of species selection. Nevertheless, species are smaller in size in the northern Caribbean, a region characterized by extreme fluctuations in temperature. Larger species occurred only after a taxonomic radiation in the eastern Pacific, a more restricted region possibly characterized by reduced environmental disturbance. During this radiation, normal patterns of morphologic change associated with speciation appear to have been disrupted.

Abundant and well-preserved tetrapod footprints have been discovered in the Glenshaw Formation (Lower Conemaugh Group) in Wayne County, West Virginia. The tracks occur along at least three horizons within a 30-cm-thick stratigraphic interval about 15 m (50 ft) above the Brush Creek Limestone; they are of Missourian age. The tracks are preserved mainly as casts on the underside of thin-bedded, ripple cross-laminated sandstones and less commonly as molds in intervening dark-gray shales. Associated body fossils include Spirorbis worm tubes and washed-in plant debris. Facies characteristics indicate the tracks were formed along the margins of an ephemeral lake in a flood basin setting adjacent to delta plain fluviodeltaic channel systems. Short-lived lacustrine conditions were likely to have resulted from a seasonal tropical to subtropical climate.

Most of the tracks can be assigned to the ichnogenus Limnopus, making them one of the earliest known occurrences. At least five trackways are discernible with an external width ranging from 320 to 400 mm. Limnopus glenshawensis, a new ichnospecies, is herein proposed and various morphologic and locomotion parameters are quantified. Mean values include stride/manus, 407 mm; stride/pes, 411 mm; oblique pace/manus, 313 mm; oblique pace/pes, 317 mm; pace angle/manus, 82.4 degrees; pace angle/pes, 80.5 degrees; glenoacetabular distance, 329 mm; manus length, 87.2 mm; manus width, 104.2 mm; pes length, 121.4 mm; pes width, 112.7 mm. The tracemaker was most likely an eryopoid amphibian with a total length of slightly over 1 m.

Mytiloides hattini, a new species of inoceramid bivalve from the basal Turonian (Upper Cretaceous), is described and its stratigraphic importance discussed. This inoceramid is particularly significant because its first occurrence can be used as a marker for the base of the Turonian in strata that typically contain no ammonites and few other taxa. The lowest occurrence of Mytiloides hattini is characterized by abundant specimens over wide regions of the Western Interior of North America; this species also apparently occurs in the lowest Turonian strata of western Europe. The typical absence of ammonites in this stratigraphic interval potentially makes the first occurrence of Mytiloides hattini an important fossil for regional and intercontinental correlation of the Cenomanian–Turonian boundary.