The genus Cribrella Lipina, 1989, with type species Cribrella mstaensis Lipina, was described from the Lower Carboniferous (middle Visean) of the southern Urals, and placed in the family Lituotubellidae (Lipina, 1989, p. 40, PL II, figs. 1–4). As the generic name is preoccupied by Cribrella Agassiz, 1835, an echinoderm, Cribrella Schmid, 1892, a sponge, Cribrella Cossman, 1906, a bryozoan, and Cribrella Gawor-Biedowa, 1987, a foraminifer, the new name Cribroaperturata is herein proposed for Cribrella Lipina. The type species of the genus thus becomes Cribroaperturata mstaensis (Lipina).

A single specimen of the new sponge, Raphidonema indica n. sp., is the first Eocene sponge to be reported from India. It was collected from the Fulra Limestone Formation at Lakhpat, Kutch, India. The undulating, cup-like sponge is most similar to R. farringdonense (Sharpe, 1854), but the Indian species has a clustered, mounded excurrent system and numerous tangential canals on the upper, exhalant surface. Skeletal tracts in Raphidonema indica are 0.4–0.5 mm in diameter, in walls that are generally 12–14 mm, but range up to 18 mm thick.

Bocchino (1964) described and figured a new genus and species, Propygidium primaevus, and assigned it to the siluriform family Trichomycteridae (=Pygidiidae). After examination of the holotype, the only referred specimen, the authors conclude that it does not correspond to a catfish, but to an acanthopterygian. Since it was considered the only fossil record of trichomycteridae, and having been used to support speculations on the “center of origin” of this Neotropical family (see Ringuelet, 1975), it is appropriate to correct the former assignment.

Study of type and new material of the pterygometopine Achatella Delo, 1935 demonstrates the presence of four species in Upper Ordovician (Katian) strata of Laurentian North America, A. achates (Billings, 1860) from the northeastern United States and the St. Lawrence lowlands of Canada, A. carleyi (Meek, 1872) from the Cincinnati region, Ohio and Kentucky, A. katharina (Bradley, 1930), from Missouri and Oklahoma, and A. clivosa Lespérance and Weissenberger, 1998 from the Gaspé Peninsula, Quebec. Perhaps as many as five additional species are present in Sandbian–Katian strata of the Laurentian terranes of Scotland and Northern Ireland, although only three of these are known well enough to code for phylogenetic analysis. The oldest pterygometopines, including species of Achatella, are known from Middle Ordovician strata of Baltica. Phylogenetic analysis supports a single migration event from Baltica from Laurentia, followed by a modest diversification in the latter region.

The present note aims to clarify the taxonomic status of the calmoniid trilobite Paranacaste pontagrossensis Popp, 1989, from the Ponta Grossa Formation, Lower Middle Devonian (Eifelian) of the Paraná Basin, Brazil.

Phosphatized and phosphatic small shelly fossils are a major source of information concerning the evolution of animals during the early Cambrian. Although progress has been made in understanding some of these fossils, many remain enigmatic, both with regard to their phylogenetic affinities and the overall morphology of the animal from which isolated sclerites came. Two unusual fossils from the upper lower Cambrian (Qiongzhusian or Atdabanian) Xihaoping Member of the Dengying Formation from Xiaowan, Xixiang County, southeastern Shaanxi Province, China are described herein. The first of these is a cap-shaped fossil we describe as Cambroskiadeion xiaowanense new genus and species. On its concave surface it bears a spine, the base of which is covered with numerous hemispherical verruculae. The long spine indicates that this was a sclerite rather than a univalved shell, although it remains unclear from what sort of animal it came. Similar fossils have been hypothesized to be halkieriid valves; although the rarity of halkieriid sclerites in the present samples argues against this view, it is possible these fossils are part of a similar multi-element skeleton. The second fossil is Acidocharacus longiconus Qin and Ding, 1988; it is known only from the Xihaoping Member and consists of a tall spine, often bearing barbs or bumps, attached to a rounded conical base. The base is covered with verruculae similar to those found on Cambroskiadeion. The function of these elements, and whether they were internal or external, remains unknown.

O'Dogherty (1994) erected the genus Pogonias for a distinctive group of Cretaceous radiolarians characterized by a tetrahedral thoracic segment drawn out distally into divergent appendages and considered, from a stratigraphic point of view, as a useful marker for the Albian-Turonian interval. By chance, we have recently discovered that the name Pogonias has been preoccupied two times, first by a fish Pogonias La Cepède, 1801 (p. 137), and later by an aves Pogonias Illiger, 1811 (p. 202). Thus, in accordance with the requirements of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (1999, article 60), we proposed the name Pogonisella nomen novum as a replacement name for Pogonias O'Dogherty, 1994, not Pogonias La Cepède, 1801, not Pogonias Illiger, 1811. The type species of Pogonisella (feminine gender) is P. prodromus by original designation (O'Dogherty, 1994).

Cyphaspis wessmani new species is a morphologically aberrant taxon from the Ludlow Henryhouse Formation of south-central Oklahoma. Its long, scoop-shaped cephalic border is without close comparison in the family Aulacopleuridae, but its possession of eleven thoracic segments with an axial spine on the sixth, an inflated glabella with tiny L1 and dorsal tuberculate sculpture, a prominently expressed bilobate eye socle, and a micropygous pygidium all support assignment to Cyphaspis. The genus is common in Silurian rocks from most parts of the world, but C. wessmani is the first published record from southern Laurentia.

Among hyoliths from the Givetian Kersadiou Formation in northwestern France one form is assigned to Hyolithes triliratus Hall, 1879, which is used as the basis for Brittanella new genus. The occurrence of this species in France supports affinity for fauna in that region to the Eastern Americas Realm. Other hyoliths from this unit include one species of Hyolithes Eichwald, which is left in open nomenclature, and one conch and one platyclaviculate operculum that cannot be identified to genus. The occurrence of these fossils in concretions in an oxygen-stressed dark gray shale supports the notion that this environment served as a refuge for taxa that were less efficient competitors with other normal marine benthos in the Devonian.

Five new species of Early Permian (late Sakmarian to Kungurian) colonial corals from eastern Nevada and southeastern California, one assigned to a new genus, are described and illustrated. These include Heintzella playfordi n. sp. from the Arcturus Formation in Nevada and the Darwin Canyon Formation in California, Paraheritschioides fergusonensis n. sp. from the Ferguson Mountain and Bird Spring formations in Nevada, and Wendoverella arca n. gen. and n. sp., Permastraea nevadensis n. sp., and Pararachnastraea moormanensis n. sp. from the Pequop Formation in eastern Nevada. These new taxa are distinct from all previously described species, but most are related to other species in the North American miogeocline. Wendoverella arca n. sp., however, is unlike any other species described from North America but is quite similar to a Russian species, indicating faunal communication between the Ural Mountains and the Cordilleran miogeocline at least into Artinskian time.

Permian colonial corals from Artinskian to Kungurian strata in the Conglomerate Mesa area, Inyo Mountains, east-central California, include five new species, one of which is assigned to a new genus. The new taxa are: Malpaisia maceyi n. gen. and n. sp., Pararachnastraea bellula n. sp., P. delicata n. sp., P. owensensis n. sp., and Cordillerastraea inyoensis n. sp. These species, several of which compare most closely with other Artinskian and Kungurian species from eastern Nevada and northern Mexico, represent three distinct stocks that differentiated on an isolated submarine uplift offshore from the main part of the Cordilleran carbonate shelf.

The Kohl Ranch locality in the Naco Formation (Upper Carboniferous, Desmoinesian) of central Arizona contains an ostracode fauna of 13 species of which three are left in open nomenclature because of inadequate materials; all of the others have been previously described. This fauna is strongly dominated by Hollinella (Hollinella) bassleri (Knight, 1928), Cavellina pulchella Coryell, 1928, Bairdia whitesidei Bradfield, 1935, and Bairdiacypris (Fabalicypris) regularis Cooper, 1946. Present in moderate numbers are Amphissites (Amphikegelites) roundyi Knight, 1928, Moorities minutus Warthin, 1930, and Healdia simplex Roundy, 1926. Pseudobythocypris tomlinsonella Cooper, 1946, Bairdia hoxbarensis Harlton, 1927, Sulcella sulcata Coryell and Sample, 1932, and species of Oliganisus, Sansabella and Chamishaella are represented by only small numbers of specimens. The dominant and moderately abundant species indicate a shallow, offshore environment of deposition. The known geographical range of all species present in the fauna is extended into central Arizona.

Specimens of the Late Mississippian productoid genera Inflatia and Keokukia from northeastern Oklahoma and northwestern Arkansas, collected from the Boone and “Moorefield” Formations, Hindsville Limestone, and Fayetteville Shale, display morphologic similarities and differences that delineate species and determine their biostratigraphic ranges. Generic assignments are based primarily on internal characters. Systematic descriptions include seven species of Inflatia Muir-Wood and Cooper: Productus inflatus McChesney (the type species), P. cherokeensis Drake, P. clydensis Girty (figured herein for the first time and for which a lectotype is designated), four new species of Inflatia (I. cooperi, I. gracilis, I. pusilla, and I.? succincta), and one species of Keokukia (the type species for the genus, K. sulcata Carter). Also proposed and described is a new genus, Adairia, with its type species Productus (Marginifera) adairensis Drake. All these species of Inflatia, Keokukia, and Adairia have biostratigraphically restricted ranges within the Meramecian and Chesterian sequence in the Ozark region.

A new species of Brissus is described from the lower Oligocene (Rupelian–Vicksburgian) Bridgeboro limestone of southwestern Georgia. Brissus bridgeboroensis n. sp. most closely resembles the Recent Brissus unicolor (Leske) of the West Indies and the Gulf of Mexico, but it differs primarily in features of the posterior paired petals. Brissus bridgeboroensis is the oldest known member of the genus from continental North America.

The ichnogenus Didymaulichnus has previously been reported in rocks of upper Precambrian-Carboniferous age (Häntzschel, 1975; Pickerill et al., 1984). Didymaulichnus has been postulated by different authors to be an epistratal grazing trace of trace makers ranging from molluscs and other soft-bodied animals to arthropods (Young, 1972; Häntzschel, 1975; Bradshaw, 1981; Hakes, 1985). If this is the case, it is reasonable to assume Didymaulichnus occurs in sediments and sedimentary rocks that are as young as the modern. In an examination of the Cardium Formation (Upper Cretaceous, Turonian) this ichnogenus occurred with relative abundance.

Spirodentalium Walcott, 1890, was originally described as a scaphopod. A reinterpretation of the type lot suggests that its overall shape is that of an open-coiled gastropod. If so, this is probably the earliest known open-coiled form and it is sinistral in coiling direction.

Reticuloceras (Swintoceras) n. subgen. unites an early group of the mid-Carboniferous goniatite family Reticulocertidae, in which reticulate sculpture is weakly developed or lacking and the typically reticuloceratid suture has slightly expanded ventral prongs. The type species, Reticuloceras (S.) spiraloides (Bisat and Hudson, 1943), is a rare, poorly known species from the British Namurian. Two additional species, R. (S.) wainwrighti (Quinn, 1966) and R. (S.) tiro (Gordon, 1969), are common in the basal type Morrowan Series, Lower Pennsylvanian, of Arkansas. Swintoceras occurs with two distinctive, late forms of the ammonoid, Hudsonoceras: Hd. ornatum (Foord and Crick, 1897) in Britain and Hd. moorei Quinn and Saunders, 1968, in Arkansas. The cooccurrence of these taxa correlates the basal Morrowan in its type region with the Namurian Reticuloceras nodosum (R1b) Zone of Britain and thereby also dates the close of the Mid-Carboniferous Eustatic Event in the North American Midcontinent.

Scolecodonts are the mouth pieces of jaw-bearing polychaete annelid worms that occur in abundance as microfossils in the fossil record. Historical scolecodont collections (e.g., Hinde, 1879, 1880, 1882; Stauffer, 1933, 1939; Eller, 1934, 1936, 1940, 1942) are of crucial importance for the taxonomy of fossil polychaetes because they often include taxa with nomenclatural priority over more recently established ones. One significant problem, however, is that most publications dealing with these collections have rudimentary hand-drawings of the fossils that do not allow unambiguous identifications. In this study, all specimens assigned to Arabellites by Hinde (1879) have been re-examined and photographed. Over the years Arabellites has been used for a plethora of morphologically variable scolecodonts of uncertain taxonomic affinity, rendering its status questionable (e.g., Kielan- Jaworowska, 1962, 1966; Kozur, 1970; Jansonius and Craig, 1971; Szaniawski and Wrona, 1973; Eriksson and Bergman, 2003). However, first-hand studies of the type material have allowed new discussions of this genus. Moreover, Glycerites Hinde, 1879, is briefly discussed as it proved to be intimately linked to Arabellites.