A single large colony (20 cm) of Rhombopora blakei n. sp. from the Hook Head Formation of Ireland (Tournaisian Stage, Mississippian) permits an analysis of within-colony variation associated with environmental change at a calendar scale (days to decades). Morphometric data for three external characters—apertures spacing along a branch and diagonal to a branch as well as lateral zooecial spacing—were collected as growth series (16–30 generations) from 13 segments within the colony. ANOVA, post-hoc means testing and graphical analysis of standardized data revealed nearest neighbor effects at the zooecial level and non-random distribution of variances across the colony. Parametric tests for sequential nonrandomness revealed cyclic variation through growth transects at three levels (23.3, 9.4 and 5.3 generations). Comparisons to growth rates of modern bryozoans suggests that the longer-term cycles are annual and that the shortest cycles may be related to lunar tidal cycles. The exceptional size and preservation of this single specimen, which is a new species of rhabdomesine Bryozoa, reinforces the importance of collecting individual morphological measurements from randomly selected and widely spaced parts of a colony for taxonomic, evolutionary and ecological applications.

Hydrothermal vents and methane seeps sustain unique ecosystems with a highly adapted fauna that largely thrives on chemotrophic endosymbionts. This large biomass attracts not only predators but also parasitic taxa like the recently reported oophagous bivalve Acesta bullisis Vokes, 1963 that lives permanently attached to a vestimentiferan tube worm (Järnegren et al., 2005). Here I report large brachiopods of the Early Cretaceous seep-restricted genus Peregrinella Oehlert, in Fischer, 1887 that were infested by polychaete tubes inside their shells during their lifetime.

Epistreptophyllum cornutiformis Gregory, 1900, is the name assigned to a Middle Jurassic population of scleractinian corals from Kachchh, western India. Measurements of ten variables from 84 specimens of this population have been statistically examined by means of univariate and multivariate analyses. A wide range of variation in corallum shape, septal perforation, lateral septal surface ornamentation, nature of the endotheca, and that of the columella is observed. The great majority of specimens are solitary. The wide range of gradational variation observed in this population corresponds to and includes the morphological characters described for various scleractinian genera such as Protethmos Gregory, Metethmos Gregory, Frechia Gregory, and Epistreptophyllum Milaschewitsch. The assignment of these genera to this later senior synonym genus is supported by the description of a well-preserved topotype from Nattheim. The ornamentation of the septa in Epistreptophyllum is detailed and distances it from typical pennular corals.

The Cretaceous landmass of Appalachia has preserved an understudied but nevertheless important record of dinosaurs that has recently come under some attention. In the past few years, the vertebrate faunas of several Appalachian sites have been described. One such locality, the Ellisdale site of the Cretaceous Marshalltown Formation of New Jersey, has produced hundreds of remains assignable to dinosaurs, including those of hadrosauroids of several size classes, indeterminate ornithopods, indeterminate theropods, the teeth, cranial, and appendicular elements of dromaeosaurids, ornithomimosaurians, and tyrannosauroids, and an extensive microvertebrate assemblage. The theropod dinosaur record of the Ellisdale site is currently the most extensive and diverse known from the Campanian of Appalachia. Study of the Ellisdale theropod specimens suggests that at least four or more non-avian theropod taxa are represented at the site, including tyrannosauroids, ornithomimosaurs, several different morphotypes of dromaeosaurids that are the first of that clade described from New Jersey, and indeterminate theropods. The specimens are important for increasing current knowledge about the theropod diversity of the Atlantic Coastal Plain (ACP) during the Campanian by representing the most speciose assemblage of the group during the time in the ACP as well as for shedding light on Appalachian dinosaur ecology and biogeography generally.

We report on the faunal transition of benthic foraminifera during the middle Eocene at Site U1333 (4862 m water depth, 3,560–3,720 m paleo-water depth) of Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 320 in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. During the period ∼41.5–40.7 Ma, which includes carbonate accumulation event 3 (CAE-3), the benthic foraminiferal accumulation rate (BFAR) increased gradually and then it declined rapidly. In contrast, BFAR was considerably lower during ∼40.7–39.4 Ma, corresponding to the middle Eocene climatic optimum (MECO), and then it increased during ∼39.3–38.4 Ma, including CAE-4. Diversity (E [S200]) was slightly lower in the upper part of the study interval than in the lower part. The most common benthic foraminifera were Nuttallides truempyi, Oridorsalis umbonatus, and Gyroidinoides spp. in association with Globocassidulina globosa and Cibicidoides grimsdalei during the period studied. Quadrimorphina profunda occurred abundantly with N. truempyi, O. umbonatus, and G. globosa during ∼39.4–38.4 Ma, including CAE-4, although this species was also relatively common in the lower part of the study interval. Virgulinopsis navarroanus and Fursenkoina sp. A, morphologically infaunal taxa, were common during ∼38.8–38.4 Ma, corresponding to the late stage of CAE-4. Based on Q-mode cluster analysis, four sample clusters were recognized and their stratigraphic distributions were generally discriminated in the lower and upper parts of the study interval. Thus, there was only a small faunal transition in the abyssal eastern equatorial Pacific during the middle to late-middle Eocene. The faunal transition recognized in this study may be related to recovery processes following intense carbonate corrosiveness in the eastern equatorial Pacific during MECO.

Siliceous sterraster microscleres of the choristid demosponge, Geodia Lamarck, 1815, occur in outcrops of the lower Porters Creek Formation (Paleocene) near Moscow Landing on the Tombigbee River in southeastern Sumter County, Alabama. This is the first report of that sponge from the Cretaceous–Tertiary of the Gulf Coastal Plain. The initially opaline spicules have been converted to clinoptilolite, a Na-K-Ca zeolite.

The brachiopod genus Verneuilia Hall and Clarke, 1893, is recognized for the first time in North America, where it is represented by a new species described here, V. langenstrasseni. This occurrence not only extends the geographic range of the genus, but also the lower age and stratigraphic limit into the Eifelian (early Middle Devonian). Previously, the oldest known species was the type, V. cheiropteryx d'Archiac and de Verneuil, 1842, from the Givetian (late Middle Devonian) of Germany. Internal structures of V. langenstrasseni n. sp. are similar to those of genera in the ambocoeliid subfamily Rhynchospiriferinae, providing the first good evidence of a systematic relationship.

Seven species belonging to the gastropod family Volutidae are reported for the first time from Kutch, Gujarat, India. They are Prestrombus aff. Prestrombus rockei Cox, 1931, Indovoluta humberti (d'Archiac and Haime, 1854), Indovoluta multidentata (d'Archiac and Haime, 1854), Involuta daviesi Cox, 1931, Involuta coxi new species, Athleta (Volutocorbis) harnaiensis Cox, 1931, and Lyria cf. Lyria punjabensis Eames, 1952. Indovolutinae new subfamily, constituted of the Paleogene genera Prestrombus Douvillé, 1929, Indovoluta Eames, 1956, Involuta Cox, 1931, and Lyrischapa Aldrich, 1911, and the Cretaceous genus Gosavia Stoliczka, 1865, is proposed. These forms have elaborate development of columellar plaits. All of these genera evolved in the western part of the Indian subcontinent. They, except Lyrischapa, also largely remained restricted to this area. Lyrischapa flourished in the Americas after possibly migrating through the southern margin of the relict Tethys Ocean and crossing the Atlantic Ocean. It is argued that the geographic and temporal restriction of this new subfamily was due to lecithotrophic larval development.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/14bc056f-1d2e-4674-b624-9eb8e856a1f0

Two new specimens of Hyaenodon venturae from the early Chadronian (latest Eocene) of Wyoming provide new information about this rare, miniature hyaenodont, and extend the upper end of the temporal range of the species. The significant difference between H. venturae and H. microdon, the two smallest North American species of Hyaenodon, is the absence of synostosis of the mandibular symphysis in adult H. venturae. In Hyaenodon microdon, from the middle Chadronian, on the contrary, fusion of the symphysis is complete while the individual is still in the juvenile stage of ontogenesis, before the eruption of m3. Within the genus Hyaenodon the ml becomes relatively smaller as the length of the tooth row (pl-m3) increases; this relationship can be demonstrated in the series of species from the miniature H. venturae to the giant H. megaloides.

Among weevils of the subfamily Baridinae (548 extant genera and ca. 9,000 species), unique prosternal horns and associated sheaths have evolved independently multiple times. These structures are utilized in a unique form of male-male aggression in which males push, rather than overturn as in most other horned beetles, their competitor. Herein we report the first fossils of male Baridinae exhibiting such prosternal horns. Two males recovered from the middle Eocene Green River Formation in northwestern Colorado serve to provide a minimum age (at ca. 47 million years old) for both the origin of horns and its associated form of male-male combat in Baridinae.

The important mid-Telychian biozonal index species Monoclimacis griestoniensis (Nicol, 1850) is redescribed and distinguished from two new species: Monoclimacis directa (formerly the ‘Monograptus cf. griestoniensis’ of Elles and Wood, 1911), and Monoclimacis woodae. Stratigraphically, directa appears a little before griestoniensis, whilst woodae is from the late griestoniensis to early crenulata Biozone.

Most fossil echinoderms are unknown as complete skeletons because they have easily disarticulated appendages. This is the case of paracrinoids, which have a ruggedly constructed theca but fragile brachioles and attachment structures. In their monographic review ofparacrinoids, Parsley and Mintz (1975) figured only one species (Comarocystites punctatus Billings, 1854) showing essentially complete skeletal morphology. Paracrinoids have no good modern analogues and therefore the task of evaluating their lifestyles is complicated.

Detached rostral teeth of fossil sawfishes of the family Sclerorhynchidae Cappetta (1974) are relatively common in Late Cretaceous marine strata of Texas. Most such teeth are referable to various species of Ischyrhiza and Onchopristis (Slaughter and Steiner, 1968). The extraordinarily large rostral teeth described herein are not referable to any sawfish presently known from North America. They belong to Onchosaurus pharao (Dames, 1887), which is known elsewhere from Egypt, Nigeria, Zaire, Angola, and Brazil (Arambourg, 1940; Tabaste, 1963; Cappetta, 1987). The specimens are the largest reported for any sawfish.

Basal strata of the Tucumcari Formation south of San Jon, New Mexico, contain a bivalve assemblage different from that of the remainder of the formation. Ceratostreon texanum and two new species herein described (Gyrostrea hinchada, Plicatula quayensis) are the dominant faunal elements of these basal strata. A fourth bivalve, long known as Lopha quadriplicata, ranges downward approximately to the upper limit of C. texanum. However, reevaluation of the taxonomy of this and related species indicates that 1) they have little in common with typical representatives of Lopha and are grouped in a new genus, Peilinia, and 2) specimens from the Tucumcari and related formations formerly assigned to L. quadriplicata are a separate new species, P. levicostata, which appeared in the southern Western Interior before P. quadriplicata appeared in eastern Texas and Oklahoma. The biostratigraphic ranges of several widely distributed bivalves are utilized with ammonite range zones to refine the correlation of several southern Western Interior sequences with the classic lower Washita sequence of Texas and Oklahoma. Because ammonites are rare in the western area, bivalves are locally more important in establishing the age of some exposures. For example, the boundary between or slight overlap of the successive zones of C. texanum and P. levicostata in eastern New Mexico and west-central Texas marks the position of the Craginites serratescens ammonite zone to the east. Strata previously called Kiamichi and Duck Creek in west-central Texas are best considered part of the Tucumcari Formation, representing deposition that occurred mainly earlier than the main Tucumcari sequence in New Mexico.

The Fossil Hill Member of the Prida Formation (Fossil Hill, Nevada) yields one of the most continuous records of Middle Triassic conodont evolution currently known. Because of different taxonomic viewpoints, this record has been alternately interpreted to represent either morphological stasis or gradual, biostratigraphically significant morphogenesis. Univariate and multivariate morphometric analysis of 18 successive Neogondolella Pa element populations suggests that the majority of specimens at Fossil Hill (including N. constricta emend. sensu Nicora and Kovacs, 1984) belong to a single, morphologically diverse species, Neogondolella mombergensis (Tatge). Time series of individual character means from 18 stratigraphic horizons in the Fossil Hill display nondirectional morphologic trends for which a random walk model cannot be rejected. Time series of transformed multivariate means constitute biologs that may prove useful in regional correlation.

A newly discovered ammonoid, Mimagoniatites nearcticus n. sp., is described from upper Zlichovian–lower Dalejan (Lower Devonian) strata in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. This species is distinguished primarily by its extremely narrow profile and high degree of whorl involution. It is the most gracile species so far known in the genus, and displays possible kinship to Parentites praecursor Bogoslovsky. This record constitutes the first definite occurrence of a Lower Devonian ammonoid from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

The ornithischia and its sister group, the Saurischia, comprise the Dinosauria. Ornithischians (Weishampel, 2004) are a diverse group of primarily quadrupedal herbivores that include such familiar dinosaurs as the armored stegosaurs and ankylosaurs (Thyreophora), as well as the duckbilled hadrosaurs, pachycephalosaurs, and ceratopsians (Cerapoda). the Ceratopsia (You and Dodson, 2004) includes a number of relatively small basal forms such as psittacosaurs and Neoceratopsia, which comprises protoceratopsids and the larger, more derived horned Ceratopsidae.

New atopid trilobites are described from the early Cambrian Cumbres beds and Herrerías shale of northern Huelva Province (Andalusia, Spain) and are dated as middle–late Marianian (Cambrian Series 2, Stage 4). New specimens of Atops calanus Richter and Richter, 1941 are described and the Laurentian species Pseudatops reticulatus (Walcott, 1890b) is recognized for the first time in the Mediterranean subprovince. The associated trilobite assemblage studied herein suggests an age close to the base of Cambrian Stage 4.

Kinosternon Spix, 1824, was widespread in xeric to savanna associated paleowetlands across North America during the middle–late Miocene and steadily diversified following its first occurrences in the Hemingfordian. In the middle Miocene, Kinosternon rincon n. sp. occurred in the late Barstovian Cerro Conejo Formation of north central New Mexico, perhaps concurrently with Kinosternon pojoaque Bourque 2012a from the Tesuque Formation. Subsequent late Miocene kinosternine fossils indicate that at least three potentially contemporaneous species existed throughout the Clarendonian. These are Kinosternon pannekollops n. sp., from the Ogallala Formation of northern Texas; Kinosternon wakeeniense, n. sp., from the Ogallala Formation of northwestern Kansas and Ash Hollow Formation of south-central Nebraska; and Kinosternon notolophus n. sp., from the Alachua and Statenville formations of northern Florida. Kinosternon rincon is phylogenetically nested between the Kinosternon flavescens (Agassiz, 1857) group (=Platythyra Agassiz, 1857) and more derived Kinosternon including the Kinosternon subrubrum (Lacépède, 1788) group (=Thyrosternum Agassiz, 1857). Kinosternon pannekollops is recovered on the stem of the K. subrubrum group and is the oldest and largest member of that lineage. Kinosternon notolophus is readily differentiated from other Miocene Kinosternon in possessing a distinct dorsomedial keel on the nuchal and faint dorsolateral costal carination. The K. subrubrum group probably originated in the late Miocene savannas of the Great Plains and dispersed eastward via the Gulf Coastal Plain. An unnamed kinosternine taxon existed in the coastal plains of the eastern and southeastern United States during the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum (with fossils from ~18 to 15 Ma), and disappeared from the region coincident with the end of that megathermal event.

A fauna of eight taxa of demosponges and hexactinellid sponges has been collected from the Lower Devonian (Lochkovian) Ross Formation, largely out of the upper Birdsong Shale Member in Benton, Decatur, and Perry Counties in west-central Tennessee. The Upper Birdsong Shale (“bryozoan zone”) in which the sponges are most common appears to have been deposited below normal wave base in a quiet marine environment, and represents a terrigenous clastic sediment influx onto a carbonate shelf that had existed in the area from at least the middle Silurian. Benton Quarry in Benton County was the most productive locality for fossil sponges.

The new demosponge genera and species Ginkgospongia foliata and Coniculospongia radiata occur with the new species Haplistion lobatum and skeletal mats of fine spicules, along with moderately rare specimens of Hindia sphaeroidalis Duncan. The new hexactinellid genus and species Stiodermiella amanita and Stiodermiella tetragona are characterized by peculiar ornamented papillose, swollen spicules that produce a massive, armored layer on the upper part of the sponge. The latter are associated with the new hexactinellid species Twenhofelella bulbulus, which has relatively normal-appearing hexactines, and with an indeterminate hexactinellid genus, which has spinose hexactines in irregular orientation in a small, platelike fragment. Root tufts of probable hexactine origin also occur.

Swollen spicules in Stiodermiella are reminiscent of swollen spicules in the family Stiodermatidae Finks, largely from the Permian of western Texas, but elements of the family are also known from Lower Carboniferous to Permian rocks in Europe and North America.