We report a marine Middle Pleistocene mollusc fauna from a borehole near Luxwoude (Friesland, northern Netherlands). The fauna contains several species, including Bittium species, Acanthocardia paucicostata and Polititapes senescens, that hitherto have been used as indicative for warm (lusitanian) conditions in the southern North Sea Basin during the Late Pleistocene Eemian (MIS5e) interglacial. However, the stratigraphic context of the Luxwoude marine fauna indicates a MIS11 or older age for this new fauna. This thermophilous fauna demonstrates very warm-temperate conditions and probably an open marine connection through the Dover Strait towards the south, during this Middle Pleistocene interglacial. In the North Sea basin, this distinctive lusitanian fauna with Bittium-dominated assemblages can therefore no longer be presumed to be of Eemian age without additional evidence.

Based on data from 151 underwater surveys (scuba) between 2002 and 2007, the present study assessed the reef fish fauna from a scarcely known region on the north-eastern Brazilian coast (Ceará State). A checklist of 179 taxa is provided and the zoogeographic patterns are analysed and discussed, including six other localities. Based only on assemblage composition, the reef fish fauna from Ceará showed a strong resemblance (73%) with the reefs of Risca do Zumbi (RN) and Paraiba (PB). The data from the visual censuses including abundance values corroborate the evaluation based only on composition and suggest ecological factors as the main drivers of the fish assemblages in the region.