The earliest endosymbiotic tubeworms have been discovered within skeletons of the tabulate coral Heliolites sp. from the Silurian (Ludlow) of Podolia, Ukraine. The new tubeworm species has a maximum diameter about 1 mm, a slightly conical tube, a smooth lumen in the tube and a lamellar wall structure. The tube wall is 0.05-0.10 mm thick. The new endosymbiotic tubeworm Coralloconchus bragensis n. gen. and sp. shares zoological affinities with the tentaculitids (incertae sedis) and is assigned to the Family Cornulitidae (Tentaculita, Cornulitida).

The Neritimorph gastropod genus Otostoma d'Archiac, 1859 (p. 871), with its hemispherical shell and typical axial ribs and lamellae, is a characteristic fossil in (sub)tropical, nearshore deposits of the late Early and Late Cretaceous ages (Saul and Squires, 1997; Kiel, 2002; Kiel et al., 2002; Bandel and Kiel, 2003). The genus survived Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary perturbations and appears to have become extinct during the Middle Eocene (Glibert, 1973; Saul and Squires, 1997). Its placement in the Neritimorpha Golikov and Starobogatov, 1975 is clear from its typical hemispherical shell and D-shaped inner lip with a row of denticles. Long considered linked to Recent Nerita Linnaeus, 1758 (see Wenz, 1938-1944; Kase, 1984; Squires and Saul, 1993; Bandel and Kiel, 2003), assignment of Otostoma to the Neritoidea Rafinesque, 1815 has recently been corroborated by documentation of dissolved internal walls in Otostoma divaricatum (d'Orbigny, 1842) from the Campanian (Upper Cretaceous) of northeast Spain (Bandel and Kiel, 2003). However, axial (collabral) ornament as seen in Otostoma is unknown in modern neritids, which usually are either smooth or spirally sculptured. Here we describe the operculum of Otostoma retzii (Nilsson, 1827) for the first time; it closely resembles that of Nerita and many species of Neritina Lamarck, 1816, yet differs significantly from those of other neritimorph clades, including Neritopsidae Gray, 1847 and Neritiliidae Schepman, 1908.

Among Polychaete annelids, calcareous tubes occur in Serpulidae, Spirorbidae, Sabellidae, and Cirratulidae (Perkins, 1991; Fischer et al., 2000). The tubes of most serpulids are completely or partially cemented to the substrate. The fossil genus Rotularia has a peculiar unattached, spirally coiled tube, thus well distinguishable from the other known serpulids. Tube records of Rotularia are known from Mesozoic (Late Jurassic) (Ball, 1960; Stevens, 1967) to Early Tertiary sediments, becoming very common during the Cretaceous and Eocene (see Savazzi, 1995). It also has a global distribution (Wrigley, 1951; Ball, 1960; Keen, 1961; Regenhardt, 1961; Howell, 1962; Stevens, 1967; Chiplonkar and Tapaswi, 1973; Ware, 1975; Lommerzheim, 1979; Macellari, 1984; Jäger, 1993).

Gogiid eocrinoids (Echinodermata) are the most abundant coelomate invertebrates in the Middle Cambrian (Taijiangian) Kaili Biota, Taijiang County, Guizhou Province, China. Both long- and short-stalked taxa are represented. The short-stalked Globoeocrinus globulus n. gen. and sp. has a globular theca, with well-developed sutural pores on all thecal plates in older mature specimens, short, thick stalk composed of small polygonal to rounded platelets, a large flattened attachment disc, and up to ten long, thin, helically coiled brachioles with tall, pointed cover plates. Some younger mature specimens have varying patches of non-pored plates that usually occur on the upper (probably) posterior portion of the theca. This species is over three times more abundant than the other co-occurring long-stalked gogiid Sinoeocrinus lui Zhao, Huang and Gong, 1994. Most specimens of G. globulus (ca. 80%) attach to acrotretid brachiopods, trilobite exuviae, or other skeletal remains. They are also capable of attaching directly to the seafloor.

An australian paleontologist would not be expected to be familiar with the genera of recent snakes in the Western Hemisphere. Thus, when A. A. Öpik erected the genus Lampropeltis to receive certain Middle Cambrian trilobites from the Mindyallan of Queensland (Öpik 1967, p. 182), he was appropriately unaware that the name had already been coined for a genus of smooth-scaled colubrids, the kingsnakes (Cope, 1860; Blanchard, 1921).

The Ceratopsian dinosaur genera Diceratops Lull, 1905 and Microceratops Bohlin, 1953 are preoccupied by the Hymenoptera insects, Diceratops Foerster, 1868 and Microceratops Seyrig, 1952, respectively. Therefore, the name of the ceratopsian dinosaur Diceratops Lull, 1905 from the Late Cretaceous of United States is a junior homonym of the hymenoptera Diceratops Foerster, 1868. Diceratus n. gen. (Greek di = “two,” Greek ceratos = “horned”) is proposed as the replacement name of Diceratops Lull, 1905. Some workers have considered Diceratops synonymous with Triceratops (e.g., Dodson and Currie, 1990) but it was reinstated by Forster (1996) after analysis of the characteristics of all existing ceratopsid skulls, and recent reviews (e.g., Dodson et al., 2004) have considered Diceratops a valid genus.

Until Recently, our understanding of the earliest history of the fish has been fragmentary in terms of the fossil record and conjectural with respect to many details of phylogeny. Fortunately, significant new information has become available in recent years, most notably from the discoveries of at least three taxa of agnathan fish from the Lower Cambrian Chengjiang Lagerstätte of Yunnan, China (Shu et al., 1999, 2003; Shu, 2003; see also Hou et al., 2002; Hou et al., 2004, p. 192-193; Zhang and Hou, 2004). Two of the taxa (Haikouichthys and Zhangjianichthys) are represented by numerous specimens, but it is noteworthy that amongst the forty-odd Burgess Shale-type occurrences apart from the Chengjiang Lagerstätte, chordates (or indeed cephalochordates and urochordates) are otherwise unknown. The one exception is the Burgess Shale itself, characterized by the rather enigmatic Pikaia gracilens (Conway Morris, 1982, 1998) and the much rarer chordate described herein. Apart from this exceptionally preserved material, the fossil record effectively only begins in the Ordovician (e.g., Sansom et al., 2001, 2005; Sansom and Smith, 2005), in as much putative fish scales from the latest Cambrian (Young et al., 1996) may be better interpreted as arthropodan (see Smith et al., 2001, p. 78). The difficulties of interpreting what is overall an extremely patchy record are further compounded by the fact that the relevance to this early history of the extant agnathan hagfish and lamprey has remained (and indeed to some extent remains) problematic, given the uncertainty as to which of the presumed archaic features have been overprinted by specializations for modes of life that might have had little counterpart in the ancestral forms.

Stomatopods, or mantis shrimps, are malacostracan crustaceans. Known as “lean, mean, killing machines” (Watling et al., 2000, p. 1), modern stomatopods are obligate carnivores, feeding exclusively on live prey (Schram, 1986). Characteristically, their second thoracic appendages are enlarged to form powerful, raptorial claws. Modern stomatopods are divided into two broad functional groups based on the shape and usage of their raptorial claws: ‘spearing’ and ‘smashing’ stomatopods (Caldwell and Dingle, 1976).

The Genus Micromys includes a single extant species, Micromys minutus (Pallas, 1771), which lives in Europe and North Asia. This genus is known in the fossil record since the late Miocene; eight fossil species have been described in Europe and Asia, most of them of late Miocene and early Pliocene age. The evolution of this genus during the late Pliocene is barely known. Although it is present in numerous localities of this age, remains of Micromys are usually scarce and generally assigned to the species M. minutus or M. praeminutus Kretzoi, 1959.

Turritelline Gastropods (family Turritellidae, subfamily Turritellinae; sensu Marwick, 1957) are common components of many Cretaceous to Recent benthic marine assemblages worldwide. They are frequently the dominant or even the sole macrofossil in such assemblages (Allmon, 1988), termed “turritelline- dominated assemblages” (TDAs; Allmon and Knight, 1993). They are defined as macrofaunal assemblages in which turritelline gastropods: 1) comprise either at least 20% of the total actual or estimated biomass or at least 20% of the macroscopic individuals in the assemblage, and 2) are at least twice as abundant as any other macroscopic species in the assemblage (Allmon, 2007). TDAs have been widely reported from siliciclastic and carbonate sediments of the U.S. Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plains, but turritelline-dominated limestones (sometimes referred to as “turritella limestone” or “turritella rock”) appear to be limited to the Cretaceous and Paleogene (Allmon and Knight, 1993; Allmon, 2007; Allmon and Cohen, 2007).