The present paper focuses on the middle to late Eocene Nummulites from the southern margin of the Tethys Ocean to address gaps in taxonomy of Nummulites, with emphasis on their biostratigraphic implications and paleobiogeographic distributions. Integration of biometric and morphological data with other taxonomic characters is used to define four Nummulites species (Nummulites midawaraensis Kenawy, 1978, N. biarritzensis d’Archiac and Haime, 1853, N. lyelli d’Archiac and Haime, 1853, and N. striatus (Bruguière, [1792]) from Fayum, Egypt. Biostratigraphically, three main biozones are identified. The Nummulites midawaraensis Biozone characterizes the Lutetian Midawara Formation. The N. lyelli Biozone heralds the Bartonian El-Gharaq Formation. The uppermost Priabonian Stage is demarcated by the N. striatus Biozone within the Birket Qarun Formation. These biozones match well with the Lutetian to Priabonian Tethyan larger benthic foraminiferal biozones. Distinct temporal changes and geographic distributions of the Nummulites assemblages distinguish remarkable middle to late Eocene paleobiogeographic provinces within the Tethys Ocean. Nummulites midawaraensis is probably endemic to the Egyptian southern Tethys Ocean, whereas the N. biarritzensis, N. lyelli, and N. striatus flourished throughout the Tethyan Realm, extending eastward from Spain to Pakistan and India. Notably, our findings strengthen the evidence for a strong connection between the Indo-Pakistani and Tethyan provinces during the Eocene. The relatively warm events throughout the middle to late Eocene led to an active carbonate factory and flourishing of calcite tests of Nummulites that favored clear waters and light under tropical to subtropical shallow-marine conditions.

We describe two new species of green algae in Dasycladales from Lower Cretaceous strata of the Eastern Carpathians (Romania), Suppiluliumaella schlagintweitii n. sp. and Triploporella loducai n. sp. The two new species display mineralization that coats most of the thallus, possibly casting light on their growth patterns. Suppiluliumaella schlagintweitii n. sp. displays a differentiated, club-shaped thallus with a very elongated vegetative part below the fertile zone (“head”) and a corticated external layer, suggesting a Neomeris type of growth. We further describe a possible mineralized juvenile growth stage. Triploporella loducai n. sp. is characterized by a rather short cylindrical thallus with a reduced vegetative region (sharp tapering rounded lower end), seemingly following a growth type resembling that of spherical Bornetella.

Despite being a conspicuous group in many fossil-bearing beds from the Tepuel–Genoa Basin, the knowledge of bryozoans from Patagonia is scarce and outdated. The majority of bryozoan records are known from faunal components of the Lanipustula patagoniensis Biozone (Carboniferous, upper Serpukhovian–Moscovian), in lower to middle levels of the Pampa de Tepuel Formation, Tepuel Group. For the present contribution, we conducted a taxonomic study on bryozoan samples from the lower third of the Pampa de Tepuel Formation at the type section, Sierra de Tepuel, central-western Patagonia, Argentina. We found Paraptylopora gondwanica n. sp. along with species of Penniretepora, Polyporella, Septatopora, Levifenestella, Rectifenestella, Spinofenestella, and others still under study. Most studied fenestrate species are restricted to central-western Patagonia, indicating a degree of biogeographical isolation, while a few imply faunal migration between the western and eastern margins of southern Gondwana during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age. The bryozoan growth habits association and accompanying fauna suggests a mid-shelf to upper-slope environment characterized by deep, low-turbidity, euhaline waters and a soft to firm substrate.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/3bf56286-9fd7-43c2-b5f6-417e86994d08

Today, the range of the genus Euthria encompasses the Mediterranean and the eastern Atlantic, the region around southern Africa, and extends into the western Indo-Pacific. The genus, which has a geological history dating back to the Eocene of Europe, has recently undergone taxonomic revision in several European Neogene basins. These studies revealed a pronounced expansion during the Oligocene and Neogene in the Atlanto-Mediterranean region and the Paratethys, and these studies highlighted the overall diversity of the genus combined with a pronounced regional endemism. This paper reviews the fossil record of the genus in the western Iberian Pliocene of the Cainozoic Mondego Basin of Portugal. Two new species endemic to western Iberia with protoconchs showing non-planktotrophic developmental traits have emerged: Euthria galopimi n. sp. and Euthria lockleyi n. sp. These results reinforce the glocal character of Euthria, a genus that is both widespread and diversified, but simultaneously showing a high endemism. The contribution of nonplanktotrophic development to this scenario is discussed. Although well represented in the fossil record of Atlantic France, in present-day European waters, Euthria is represented by a single species, E. cornea (Linnaeus, 1758), and only in the Mediterranean and the northern shores of the Gulf of Cadiz. As with other warm-water molluscan taxa, the northern distribution limit of Euthria in the Atlantic has shifted southward since the Early to mid-Pliocene due to global cooling events and decreasing sea surface temperatures.

http://zoobank.org/2A64f041-8e17-491e-8782-a31a9c5dfd57

Species of Monopteria are revised to include documentation of substantial change in shell shape during growth, characters of the hinge, and characters present on the anterior surface of the shell. The mature shell grew in an arcuate curve that elongates far to the posterior and has a wide sinus that separates the inflated shell body from a prong-like posterior auricle on the hinge line. An unusual depression of the paired valves (anterior depression) is present on the anterior surface surrounding a large byssal notch. Dentition is lacking, and a clinovincular ligament (new term) is present. Species occur mostly in mollusk-rich biotas of shallow marine environments. Species lived with a combination of byssal attachment and a rounded ventral surface that enabled them to maintain position within fine-grained sediment. Six species are recognized, and five are provided with new or revised descriptions. New species include M. magna and M. heaneyi, neotypes are designated for M. longispina Cox, 1857 and M. alata Beede, 1898, and a lectotype is designated for M. marian White, 1874. Species Gervillia auricula Stevens, 1858, and Anthracoptera polita White, 1880, previously considered to be included in the genus, are excluded from Monopteria and the name Gervillia auricula is judged to be without merit and abandoned. The use of genus name Limopteria as a replacement of Monopteria is shown to be invalid. Limopteria is not a valid name; it has never been proposed as a taxon in publication.

http://zoobank.org/bd1064f1-f576-4194-8405-7d0c7771bc82

A new genus is established for species of late Paleozoic pterioid bivalves that have substantial ontogenetic change in hinge characters during growth. Juvenile shells have small cardinal and posterior lateral teeth on the hinge that are overgrown on the adult shell and the hinge become edentulous. The shell has a wide ligament plate with a clinovincular ligament (new term). Adjacent to the cardinal teeth on juvenile shell, ligament sheets tend to have small, low amplitude folding and wavy alignment of ligament grooves. A new genus and species, Willipteria nestelli, is described and the species Leptodesma falcata Boyd and Newell, is transferred to genus Willipteria n. gen. Comparison of Willipteria n. gen. to Leptodesma reveals a need to revise Leptodesma. A study of the type lot of genotype species Leptodesma potens Hall, provides a redescription for the genus, presented here. Definition of the new term, clinovincular ligament, is presented. Discussion of muti-sheet ligaments is presented for duplivincular, monovincular, and clinovincular configurations.

http://zoobank.org/014f32de-414d-4cda-a5d4-790c35d0bfa5

Agalope oshikirii n. sp. (Zygaenidae, Chalcosiinae) is described from the uppermost Miocene–Pliocene Sanzugawa Formation in Akita Prefecture, northern Japan. Because we found a single fossil forewing in this study, we give a table of the forewing characters of various groups of the genus Agalope and related genera and compared them with this new species, confirming that it does not match any of the species. This is the first discovery of chalcosiine fossils in Japan and provides evidence of a historically broader distribution of the genus.

http://zoobank.org/999828b5-4f91-470f-bc15-6b6fe7a8ec61

A new fossil of Lycidae, Domipteron gaoi n. gen. n. sp., is described from Miocene Dominican amber. The fossil exhibits a combination of characteristics found in both Calopterini and Eurrhacini. To determine its systematic placement, we conducted phylogenetic analyses based on adult morphological features. Our analyses indicate that the new fossil belongs to Calopterini.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/d0f9a12e-aaed-48b0-a1dd-2c0991ef8b36

The Paragaricocrinidae is an enigmatic late Paleozoic family of camerate crinoids that retained a robustly constructed calyx more typical of Devonian to Early Mississippian crinoids. The discovery of the oldest member of this family, Tuscumbiacrinus madisonensis n. gen. n. sp., initiated a phylogenetic investigation of the Paragaricocrinidae and consideration of its diversification and paleobiogeographic distribution. Phylogenetic analyses demonstrate the need to describe Tuscumbiacrinus n. gen and conduct revisions to preexisting taxa, resulting in the description of Palenciacrinus mudaensis n. gen. n. sp.; Pulcheracrinus n. gen.; Nipponicrinus hashimotoi n. gen. n. sp.; and Nipponicrinus akiyoshiensis n. gen. n. sp. Megaliocrinus exotericus Strimple is reassigned to Pulcheracrinus n. gen. In addition to having an anachronistic morphology, relatively few specimens are known through the ca. 76-million-year duration of this family. This pattern is unlikely to have resulted from low fossil sampling alone, and instead likely reflects low abundance and/or taxonomic richness of a long-lived waning clade. From its apparent origination in Laurussia during the Mississippian, the Paragaricocrinidae diversified into a cosmopolitan clade. Following a diversity drop during the Pennsylvanian, the Paragaricocrinidae persisted but exemplified characteristics of a dead clade walking until its eventual extinction during the middle Permian (Wordian).

http://zoobank.org/3e5df71c-112f-4556-96c5-a5a62d4a4da9

Gnathodus pseudosemiglaber is an important conodont species for Lower Mississippian biostratigraphy, but differentiating it from morphologically similar species remains difficult due to uncertainties in the intraspecific, ontogenetic, and phylogenetic relationships between taxa. To clarify these uncertainties, a fauna from the Yudong Formation at the Yudong II section in Baoshan, southwestern China, that contains abundant G. pseudosemiglaber was analyzed using population thinking. Quantitative morphometric methods were employed to analyze G. pseudosemiglaber specimens. Six anatomical measurements were taken on specimens of different ontogenetic stages to conduct analyses on normal distribution, correlation, and regression. A geometric morphometric analysis based on 13 landmarks was also performed. The results demonstrated that all analyzed specimens belonged to a single population. The dorsal carina of G. pseudosemiglaber has a growth rate that far exceeds other features on the platform through ontogeny as well as exhibits a series of transverse ridges in adult individuals, which becomes the most prominent diagnostic characteristic of this species. Thus, an amended systematic description for G. pseudosemiglaber is presented. Gnathodus girtyi maxwelli, a previously named species, however, is regarded as a junior synonym of G. pseudosemiglaber. Based on the revised taxonomy of G. pseudosemiglaber, its possible phylogenetic lineages and biostratigraphic use were reviewed. The ancestor of G. pseudosemiglaber is probably G. semiglaber but its descendant is unknown. The range of G. pseudosemiglaber is from the Scaliognathus anchoralis–Doliognathus latus Zone of uppermost Tournaisian to the lower part of the G. bilineatus Zone of middle-upper Visean.

The first unequivocal fossil of a tupinambine in North America is described on the basis of a single thoracic vertebra from a middle Miocene (Barstovian 2) paleocoastal deposit in southwestern Georgia, USA. Wautaugategu formidus n. gen. n. sp. is a mid- to large-bodied taxon with a unique mosaic of tupinambine features. Vertebral position of the fossil was determined both by qualitative and quantitative methods. This record is coeval with the warmest part of the Neogene, the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum, when increased temperatures would have made the southeastern United Sates more habitable for this hyperthermic group of lizards. Although the arrival time of tupinambines into North America is still unclear, an increasing number of endemic South American reptiles, including the large-bodied iguanid Ctenosaura, dispersed as far North as Panama by the early Miocene before formation of the Panamanian Isthmus.

http://zoobank.org/58ded940-9082-46ae-8023-4b5f1b01691e

This paper describes three collections of vertebrate fossils from the Lower Cretaceous Newark Canyon Formation of Eureka County, Nevada, made by the United States Geological Survey in 1961. Briefly mentioned in the prior literature, these specimens have gone unstudied for more than sixty years, until their recent transfer to the Smithsonian Institution. Re-examination of the materials reveals the first records of neoceratopsian and tyrannosauroid dinosaurs in the Newark Canyon Formation. In addition to augmenting the known vertebrate fauna from this poorly studied stratum, these occurrences provide important new data on otherwise rare taxa during a time of major faunal transition in North America.

The allosauroid theropod dinosaurs of the clade Carcharodontosauridae were the apex predators in terrestrial ecosystems of the Early Cretaceous but were replaced in this ecological niche by Tyrannnosauridae in the Late Cretaceous. Details of this turnover are poorly known because only two transitional ecosystems, containing both carcharodontosaurids and tyrannosauroids, had been recognized to date (Cenomanian Cedar Mountain Formation of Utah, USA, and Turonian Bissekty Formation of Uzbekistan). Moreover, the presence of carcharodontosaurids in the Bissekty Formation, based on a maxilla fragment identified as Ulughbegsaurus uzbekistanensis Tanaka et al., 2021, has been recently questioned. Here we report on the third ecosystem containing both clades of apex predators, the Cenomanian Khodzhakul Formation in Uzbekistan. This new occurrence of Carcharodontosauridae is based on a newly identified maxilla that closely resembles the holotype maxilla of U. uzbekistanensis and is identified as Ulughbegsaurus sp. The revised morphological characters of both specimens support attribution of Ulughbegsaurus to Carcharodontosauridae. We report a novel neurovascular feature of the theropod maxilla—a medial alveolar canal that supplied the alveoli medially and contained tributaries of the palatine vessels in Ulughbegsaurus.

In 1855, Ferdinand Hayden collected a single tooth from the Judith River badlands of central Montana. Joseph Leidy named this specimen the following year as Troodon formosus. We describe troodontid material from the coeval Two Medicine Formation of Montana that compares closely to the recently resurrected and previously synonymized Stenonychosaurus inequalis from the lower Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta. We uphold that synonymy but recognize T. formosus as the senior synonym. Troodon formosus is distinguished from other troodontids by a maxilla with an anteriorly more broadly rounded maxillary fenestra, low-angled nasal process with stepped anterior portion, large palatal shelf, and 23 teeth; more pronounced basioccipital tubera; L-shaped to triangular frontal; and relatively shorter metatarsal III with convex to flat anterior face at maximum breadth. Phylogenetic analysis places T. formosus within the Troodontinae, a clade with poor within-group resolution. The T. formosus holotype was diagnostic at time of description. Despite numerous complications over the taxon’s long history, the original name of 1856 has come to encompass a robust and specific species concept despite originally fragmentary material. Troodon formosus best satisfies the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature’s tenants of priority and stability. Recent proposals to re-establish Stenonychosaurus inequalis as the proper name encounter an equally problematic and undiagnostic type specimen. Instead of either of these types, we propose that material from the Two Medicine Formation (Museum of the Rockies, MOR 553) would best serve as a neotype for Troodon formosus.

Early Miocene land mammals from eastern North America are exceedingly rare. Over the past several decades a small, but significant, vertebrate fauna has been recovered by paleontologists and citizen scientists from the Belgrade Formation at the Martin Marietta Belgrade Quarry in eastern North Carolina. This assemblage has 12 land mammal taxa, including beaver (Castoridae), stem lagomorph, carnivorans (Mustelidae, Ailuridae), horses (Equidae), rhinoceros (Rhinocerotidae), tapir (Tapiridae), peccary (Tayassuidae), anthracothere (Anthracotheriidae), entelodont (Entelodontidae), and protoceratid (Protoceratidae). Taken together, the biochronology of this Maysville Local Fauna indicates a late Arikareean (Ar3/Ar4) to early Hemingfordian (He1) North American Land Mammal Age (NALMA). This interval, which includes the Runningwater Chronofauna, documents numerous important Holarctic immigrants, including Amphictis, Craterogale, and cf. Menoceras found at this locality. Strontium isotope stratigraphy (SIS) of shark teeth collected in situ from the Belgrade Formation yield an age of 21.4 ± 0.13 Ma, which validates the age of interbedded land mammals within this unit. It also is consistent with the late Arikareean (Ar3/Ar4) biochronology and Aquitanian Neogene marine stage. New SIS analyses of oysters (Striostrea gigantissima) and clams (Chione) from this mine, previously assigned to late Oligocene or Late Miocene, are significantly older (28.0 ± 0.22 Ma and 27.6 ± 0.26 Ma, respectively) than the land mammals. Depending upon stratigraphic interpretations, these may confirm an older marine facies within the Belgrade Formation. This locality is important because of its marine and terrestrial tie-ins that facilitate intercalibration of both NALMAs and Cenozoic marine stages.