The genus Salopina Boucot (in Boucot et al., 1960) is now widely recognized in Silurian to Middle Devonian rocks (Walmsley et al., 1969); its Ludlovian type species is S. lunata J. de C. Sowerby (Walmsley, 1965). From the outset, a variety of morphs and named species have been gathered within the genus Salopina, although some significant differences have been evident. The most obvious difference is size, which is often ignored as a consequence only of ontogenetic variation. Size can also be a hallmark of habitat, or biofacies, or position in the benthic community chain.

The Rio Grande do Sul Coastal Plain (southern Brazil) is composed of extensive marine and continental deposits related to at least four lagoon-barrier systems of Pleistocene−Holocene age. Part of these deposits is currently submerged and passing through erosion processes by waves. Vertebrate and invertebrate body and trace fossils are constantly exhumed from these deposits and redeposited on the modern beach face. Among them, a total of 253 fragments of crustacean burrows were collected for this study. Two ichnospecies of Ophiomorpha Lundgren, 1891 were recognized (O. nodosa Lundgren, 1891 and O. puerilis Gibert et al., 2006), but most of the materials can only be assigned to the ‘SOT’ group (Spongeliomorpha de Saporta, 1887, Ophiomorpha, and Thalassinoides Ehrenberg, 1944), mainly because of the lack of a pelleted lining. The absence of pellets and, as a consequence, the ichnotaxonomy of these specimens, is related to taphonomical processes (exhumation, reworking, and transportation) that acted during formation of the ex situ assemblage. The paleoenvironmental dynamics and a taphonomical model are presented to demonstrate how these processes affected the trace fossils since their construction, through exhumation until deposition. Neoichnological observations led us to infer larger producers in comparison to the extant ghost shrimp Sergio mirim (Rodrigues, 1971).

Two new specimens of Periastron reticulatum Unger emend. Beck have been collected from the Erin Slate, Talladega Slate Belt, southern Appalachians. Preserved anatomical features provide a basis for an expanded understanding of the genus and provide a biostratigraphic basis for dating the uppermost unit of the Talladega Slate Belt.

The fossil record of treeshrews, hedgehogs, and other micromammals from the Lower Siwaliks of India is sparse. Here, we report on a new genus and species of fossil treeshrew, specimens of the hedgehog Galerix, and other micromammals from the middle Miocene (Lower Siwalik) deposits surrounding Ramnagar (Udhampur District, Jammu and Kashmir), at a fossil locality known as Dehari. The treeshrew from Dehari (Sivatupaia ramnagarensis n. gen. n. sp.) currently represents the oldest record of fossil tupaiids in the Siwaliks, extending their time range by ca. 2.5–4.0 Myr in the region. Dietary analyses suggest that the new tupaiid was likely adapted for a less mechanically challenging or more frugivorous diet compared to other extant and fossil tupaiids. The occurrence of Galerix has only been recently documented from the Indian Siwaliks and the Dehari specimens help establish the likely presence of a relatively large Siwalik Galerix species in the Ramnagar region. In addition to the new treeshrew and hedgehogs, new specimens of the rodents Kanisamys indicus, Sayimys sivalensis, and Murinae indet. from Dehari help confirm that age estimates for the Ramnagar region are equivalent to the Chinji Formation in Pakistan, most likely corresponding to the middle to upper part of the Chinji Formation.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/56fb160c-2df8-4cd3-be91-af4dc02d0979

New fossil insect specimens from two new localities in Germany, namely Sperbersbach and Cabarz (Goldlauter Formation; early Permian), belonging to the Grylloblattida, are described. Abundant material is assigned to Pictoborella clara n. gen. n. sp., regarded as closely related to Pictoborella germanica (Prokop et al., 2012) n. comb., from the Saar-Nahe Basin (Germany; early Permian). Liomopterum fuscatum n. sp., represented by fewer specimens, is delimited based on previously published and new data on various Liomopterum spp. Two other Liomopteridae, Uralioma thuringiensis n. sp. and Liomopterites sperbersbachensis n. sp., each known from a single forewing, are also described. Finally, Cabarzopterum magnificus n. gen. n. sp., with unclear familial affinities, is described based on three forewings. The assemblages of grylloblattidan insects at Sperbersbach and Cabarz are generally similar, with differences probably related to different depositional environments and local paleoclimatic conditions.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/25ae125c-6a17-415f-8cf0-4c0507e4f89d

The terminal Ediacaran Shibantan biota (~550–543 Ma) from the Dengying Formation in the Yangtze Gorges area of South China represents one of the rare examples of carbonate-hosted Ediacara-type macrofossil assemblages. In addition to the numerically dominant taxa—the non-biomineralizing tubular fossil Wutubus and discoidal fossils Aspidella and Hiemalora, the Shibantan biota also bears a moderate diversity of frondose fossils, including Pteridinium, Rangea, Arborea, and Charnia. In this paper, we report two species of the rangeomorph genus Charnia, including the type species Charnia masoni Ford, 1958 emend. and Charnia gracilis new species, from the Shibantan biota. Most of the Shibantan Charnia specimens preserve only the petalodium, with a few bearing the holdfast and stem. Despite overall architectural similarities to other Charnia species, the Shibantan specimens of Charnia gracilis n. sp. are distinct in their relatively straight, slender, and more acutely angled first-order branches. They also show evidence that may support a two-stage growth model and a epibenthic sessile lifestyle. Charnia fossils described herein represent one of the youngest occurrences of this genus and extend its paleogeographic and stratigraphic distributions. Our discovery also highlights the notable diversity of the Shibantan biota, which contains examples of a wide range of Ediacaran morphogroups.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/837216cd-4a4a-4e13-89e2-ee354ba48a4c

Olenellid trilobites from the lower Cambrian of the Iberian Peninsula are very scarce and poorly studied, making them difficult to compare with defined species and to include in biostratigraphic and paleobiogeographic analyses. Based on newly collected specimens, we revise the species ‘Callavia? lotzei’ Richter and Richter, 1941 from the ‘Cumbres beds’ of Cumbres de San Bartolomé and the ‘Herrerías shale’ of Cañaveral de León, Sierra del Bujo, and Hinojales (Huelva, Spain), and ‘Paradoxides choffati’ Delgado, 1904 from the Vila Boim Formation of Elvas (Portugal). The new material indicates that Callavia? lotzei is a junior synonym of ‘P. choffati.’ The Iberian species are here assigned to Callavia Matthew, 1897, for which morphological characters are reassessed, offering a valuable opportunity to discuss characters previously misinterpreted for this genus. Traditionally assigned to the Olenelloidea Walcott, 1890, Callavia lacks some of the diagnostic characters of this superfamily and is here assigned to Judomioidea Repina, 1979. A new diagnosis for this genus is provided, and Sdzuyomia Lieberman, 2001 is considered to represent a junior synonym of Callavia. The genus Callavia is distributed across the western margin of Gondwana, from the western Mediterranean region (Iberia and Morocco) throughout all the Avalonia sectors (UK, eastern Newfoundland, and Massachusetts). Its presence in Iberia supports the faunal links between the West Gondwana domain and Avalonia during Cambrian Series 2. The Iberian records of Callavia choffati are assigned to the middle part of the regional Marianian Stage (uppermost Cambrian Stage 3 to the lowermost Cambrian Stage 4) and correlates with the Callavia Biozone of Avalonia (lower Branchian Series).

We describe a nearly complete, and thus extremely rare, feather star (Crinoidea, Comatulida) from Oligocene strata of North Otago/South Canterbury, New Zealand. A detailed analysis of this specimen, as well as newly recovered material and previously described fragmentary remains from nearby contemporaneous sedimentary units, in addition to relevant historical specimens, lead us to conclude that it cannot be placed in any currently established genus. A new genus, Rautangaroa, is proposed to accommodate it.

This intact specimen of Rautangaroa aotearoa (Eagle, 2007), provides rare data on the morphology of arms and cirri. It represents the first example of arm autotomy and regeneration in a fossil feather star and thus has bearing on the importance of predation to the evolutionary history of this group.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/c050dafd-93ba-4334-b11b-59209aabb588

A new fossil ricinuleid, Curculioides bohemondi n. sp., from the Pennsylvanian Energy Shale of Illinois is described from a single specimen. It is the largest ricinuleid species yet described, living or extinct. The Energy Shale represents a new geographic locale for fossil ricinuleids, a sparsely distributed group. The species is distinguished from other members within the genus by the possession of very large (0.09 mm) carapace tubercles at a very low (30 mm-2) density. Statistical analyses are performed on extant and fossil ricinuleids to determine how their tubercles change throughout ontogeny, culminating in the recovery of a new ontogenetically stable diagnostic character: the tubercle coefficient (a measure of the size of the tubercles relative to body size).

UUID: http://zoobank.org/aa9f2de5-c49d-4f70-bba5-db12fdee406f.

Palmichnium gallowayi (Sharpe, 1932) new combination from the Middle Ordovician Martinsburg Formation (proximal deltaic facies) of Rondout, near Kingston, New York State, is redescribed. It consists of opposing series of five tracks, the outer two large and pear-shaped, the inner three smaller and elliptical, arranged in a chevron converging in the direction of travel, on either side of a wide medial impression. It is attributed to a medium-sized stylonurid eurypterid using a decapodous gait, crawling onto the shoreline, traversing the intertidal zone, a behavior interpreted as part of its reproductive life cycle. This provides the earliest ichnological evidence for the ‘mass-molt-mate’ hypothesis, which proposes that eurypterids migrated en masse into nearshore environments to molt and mate.

The Hawkesbury Sandstone (Hawkesbury Series, Sydney Basin) on the southeastern coast of New South Wales, Australia, preserves a depauperate but important vertebrate tetrapod body-fossil record from the Early and Middle Triassic. As with many fossil sites around the world, the ichnological record has helped to shed light on the paleoecology of this interval. Herein, we investigate historical reports of a trackway pertaining to a putative short-tailed reptile found at Berowra Creek in the 1940s. Reinvestigation of the surviving track-bearing slabs augmented by archival photographs of the complete trackway, suggests that these impressions, which consist primarily of didactyl tracks (plus less common monodactyl and tridactyl traces), represent the earliest example of a swimming tetrapod found in Australia. Another isolated specimen (possibly from a nearby locality at Annangrove) appears to represent similar didactyl swim traces of a second, larger individual. Although the identities of the trackmakers are unknown, the Berowra Creek individual had an estimated body length of between ~80 cm (short-coupled) and 1.35 m (long-coupled), and produced the subaqueous trackway while travelling upslope (against the current) on a sandbar within a braided river system of the Hawkesbury Sandstone. These trackways partially resemble amphibian swim traces in the so-called Batrachichnus C Lunichnium continuum, but appear to represent a unique locomotion trace. This reanalysis of the Berowra Creek trackway provides insight into the locomotion of tetrapods of the Triassic Hawkesbury Series, which remains a poorly understood aspect of their life history.

In this contribution, fossil woods from the Valle de La Luna Member of the Upper Triassic Ischigualasto Formation at Ischigualasto Provincial Park, San Juan Province, Argentina, are described. The specimens are preserved as silica permineralization in tuffs intercalated with carbonaceous mudstone beds interpreted as distal floodplain facies. The fossil woods were assigned to the new species Agathoxylon argentinum since their anatomy differs from the known Mesozoic Gondwanan species of the genus Agathoxylon. The combination of characters present in the new taxon indicates an affiliation with the conifer family Araucariaceae. Signals of fungal-mediated wood decay were observed, comparable to the activity of basidiomycetes. Spherical structures attached to the walls of the tracheids were recognized and are interpreted as holocarpic chytrid fungi. The growth rings were quantitatively analyzed. Low values of percentage diminution, percentage latewood, and Ring Markedness Index, and a mean percentage skew of +11.5, were obtained, suggesting that the new species was an evergreen gymnosperm. The stratigraphic distribution and taxonomic composition of the Ischigualasto Formation fossil-plant-bearing levels were studied. A vegetation change is recorded in the fossil level bearing Agathoxylon argentinum n. sp., marked by the replacement of the corystosperm genera and a diminution of arboreal corystosperms. This floristic change, in addition to other evidence, indicates humid paleoclimatic conditions for the uppermost part of the Valle de La Luna Member of the Ischigualasto Formation.

Twenty-two taxa of stromatoporoids are described from the outcrop belt of the Elm Point, Winnipegosis, Dawson Bay, and Souris River Formations in Manitoba. The Elm Point Formation contains a fauna of stromatoporellids of Eifelian age that is characterized by the new species, Stromatoporella manitobaensis. The Winnipegosis stromatoporoids are dolomitized but the widespread species Actinostroma tyrrelli, Taleastroma logansportense and the new species Trupetostroma imbrex can be recognized in this Givetian assemblage. The Dawson Bay fauna is characterized by the appearance of the dendroid forms, Stachyodes and Dendrostroma and species of Hermatostroma, Trupetostroma, and Parallelopora. A species of Actinostroma, comparable to A. filitextum is the most abundant stromatoporoid in the Dawson Bay Formation. The Souris River fauna, referred to as the Arctostroma contextum assemblage, is widespread at the Givetian-Frasnian boundary. Elements occur elsewhere in western Canada in the Beaverhill Lake, Waterways, lower Duperow and lower Fairholme units. Stromatoporoids in these four assemblages are relatively restricted in their stratigraphic occurrence and sufficiently widespread in their distribution to be useful in correlation.

The micromorphic brachiopod genus Gwynia was established by William King (1859) on the basis of specimens described by Gwyn Jeffreys (1859) from the coast of Normandy and Belfast Lough. Additional, unpublished records of the genus from Larne and Portrush, collected by Dickie, Hyndman and Waller during the 1850s, were the last sightings of the taxon around Ireland (Massy, 1925). Despite the distinctive characteristics of the genus, Davidson (1861, p. 39) considered it had yet to be sufficiently determined whereas others (see Brunton and Curry, 1979, p. 46) have suggested the genus may be an immature form of Argyrotheca cistellula (Searles-Wood) with which Gwynia often co-occurs. However, that species is consistently transverse with marked exopunctae.

Following the publication of papers by Bergström and Sweet (1966) and Schopf (1966), a gradual shift from the use of discrete element taxonomy to multielement taxonomy has occurred in describing conodonts. Although most workers now apply multielement taxonomy wherever possible, systematics have not been updated for many of the conodont faunas described earlier, and as a result the use of multielement taxonomy still is far from universal.

A new eocrinoid ?Ubaghsicystis sp. from the middle Cambrian (Series 3, Stage 5) Burgess Shale is reported based on a single known specimen. This species extends the stratigraphic range of columnal-bearing eocrinoids in Laurentia significantly from Cambrian Stage 7 (Guzhangian) to Stage 5. It increases the diversity of echinoderms in this well-known fossil-Lagerstätte, provides the oldest evidence of columnal-bearing eocrinoids from Laurentia, and further documents the cosmopolitan distribution of middle Cambrian echinoderm clades.

Two specimens of the Cretaceous genus Pictetia Uhlig, 1883, have been found in the Cottonwood District, northern California, the first record of this genus in North America. The larger specimen is a septate whorl fragment from the Brewericeras hulenense zone that is associated with Douvilleiceras mammillatum. It is identified as Pictetia sp. The smaller specimen is a septate fragment of one and a half whorls from the Oxytropidoceras packardi zone associated with Cleoniceras. It is identified with the type species, Pictetia astieriana Orbigny, 1842, previously recorded from Europe. A review of the genus Pictetia suggests that species assigned to the genus have an open coil with a rounded dorsum. The occurrences of these Tethyan elements in the Albian fauna of the Cottonwood District suggest easy communication for many Cretaceous taxa between northern California and the Tethyan realm of Europe, the Caucasus, and Madagascar.

Paramys compressidens Peterson, from the Uintan of Utah, has long been considered a member of the genus Ischyrotomus Matthew. A re-examination of the type and referred specimens of this species demonstrates that it does indeed belong in the genus Paramys and that several of the previously cited referred specimens can be allocated to other known species.

Systematic relationships between the species of Paramys are analyzed. Recognizable morphoclines within this genus are increase in size and amount of crenulation of the enamel on the cheek teeth, and changes in the cross-sectional shape of the lower incisor. Several species previously considered as belonging to Paramys (P. simpsoni Korth, P. savagei Michaux, P. pourcyensis Michaux, P. ageiensis Michaux) may be referable elsewhere.

Thisbemys Wood, Leptotomus Matthew, and Tapomys Wilson can be directly derived from the known species of Paramys. The origin of several other genera may possibly be found within Paramys, but no ancestral morphotype is currently known.

Very well preserved gastropods, with preserved color banding, are common in a newly discovered site in the Eastern Kentucky Coal Field. The fossils occur in calcareous silty shales of the Middle Pennsylvanian Kendrick Shale Member of the Breathitt Formation. Three genera of gastropods, Bellerophon, Straparollus, and Ianthanopsis, have been found with preserved color patterns.

The james ross basin, situated on the eastern margin of the Antarctic Peninsula, has yielded an extensive fauna of decapod crustaceans spanning Late Cretaceous through Eocene time. To date, 28 species in 22 genera and 18 families have been described (Feldmann, 1992; Feldmann, Tshudy, and Thomson, 1993), making this the most diverse fossil decapod fauna in the Southern Hemisphere. Within the basin, Seymour Island alone contains rocks of the Eocene age La Meseta Formation from which seven species of crabs, one galatheid, and one species of callianassid ghost shrimp have been described (Feldmann and Zinsmeister, 1984; Feldmann and Wilson, 1988; Feldmann, 1992). The fauna of the La Meseta is remarkable also because, although the organisms are preserved in rocks deposited in moderate- to high-energy, shallow-water habitats (Elliot and Trautman, 1982), many of the species represent early occurrences of taxa with living descendants that are characteristic of deeper water, lower latitude habitats (Zinsmeister and Feldmann, 1984).