Although fossilized teeth of sharks and rays are common elements in Eocene nearshore marine sediments of the southeastern United States (Parmley and Cicimurri, 2003 and references within), fossil remains of chimaeroid fishes are unknown from this region. Here we provide the first report of an Eocene chimaeroid fish from the southeastern United States, consisting of a partial, well-preserved left mandibular tooth plate recovered from central Georgia.

An unusual, lichenoporid-like bryozoan colony from Mid-Silurian strata on Gotland is described as a new cystoporate, Inconobotopora lichenoporoides new genus and species; a poorly known form from the same area and approximate horizon is reclassified as Inconobotopora silurica (Hennig, 1906). Similarities in overall morphology, particularly flagged by the distinctive radial-disk construction, combine with geochronologic sequence to suggest the possibility of an evolutionary lineage from Ordovician Constellaria, through Silurian Inconobotopora, to Devonian Botryllopora, and perhaps even on to Cretaceous-Cenozoic-Recent Lichenopora (although this last extension is extremely difficult to demonstrate in the present state of knowledge).

Zigzagopora wigleyensis n. gen. n. sp. is an Upper Ordovician (Sandbian, early Caradoc) cyclostome bryozoan from the Arbuckle Mountains of Oklahoma, USA. It has runner-type colonies characterized by a mostly uniserial, geniculate arrangement of monomorphic zooids that bud alternately left and right, producing a zig-zag pattern of growth. This new genus has calcified interior walls and non-pseudoporous exterior walls. It is thus most likely affiliated with the paleotubuliporine family Sagenellidae, despite superficial similarities with the corynotrypid cyclostomes with which it co-occurs.

Pharkidonotus megalius n. sp. is described from the Desmoinesian of the Mud Springs Mountains, New Mexico. This unusually large bellerophontid reaches a length of at least 90 mm and is also characterized by a prominent high median ridge bearing a narrow selenizone and subdued collabral ornamentation on the whorl surface at all stages of growth. Its size and subdued ornamentation are quite different from that of the two previously known North American Pennsylvanian species of Pharkidonotus. Although steinkerns of comparable size have been reported from several localities in North America, the specimens discussed here are the first relatively well preserved shells of very large Pennsylvanian bellerophontids to be described.

A new brachiopod fauna is described from the Early and Middle Permian of Zadoi and Zhidoi counties, southern Qinghai (Changdu block), northwest China. This fauna includes 13 species in nine genera with Spinomarginifera concentrica n. sp. and Transennatia waterhousei n. sp. the Early to Middle Permian brachiopod fauna from southern Qinghai is very similar to the contemporary Cathaysian faunas of South China with which the new fauna shares 70 per cent of its species. On the other hand, the Qinghai brachiopods also demonstrate a significant link with the Permian brachiopod fauna of the Sino-Mongolian-Japanese Province in northeast China, as suggested by Marginifera septentrionalis and Attenuatella. in particular, the occurrence of the bipolar brachiopod genus Attenuatella suggests that southern Qinghai may have played an important role as a biogeographic stepping stone in the marine faunal interchanges between the northern and southern hemispheres during the Early and Middle Permian.

The new genus Tanycythere (Crustacea, Ostracoda) is described from the Jurassic (Hettangian–Bathonian) of western and central Europe based on T. caudata new species, T. praecaudata praecaudata new subspecies, T. praecaudata parallela new subspecies, T. duartei new species, T. posteroelongata new species, and T. wattonensis new species. Another new species, T. procera, is described from the Lower Cretaceous (?Barremian). Recognition of a new genus comprising six new species and subspecies indicates that overall Jurassic and Early Cretaceous ostracod biodiversity is underestimated.

South Canyon, located in the New Pass Range in central Nevada (Fig. 1), is one of the most important localities for Upper Triassic marine invertebrates in North America. This site yields very rich ammonoid faunas, as well as cnidarians (Muller, 1936; Stanley, 1979; Roniewicz and Stanley, 1998), foraminifers (Gazdzicki and Stanley, 1983), bivalves (Waller and Stanley, 1998, 2005; Hopkin and McRoberts, 2003), and brachiopods.

Triassic lungfish (Dipnoi) have been extensively documented from the Gondwanan continental and marine shelf deposits of Africa and Madagascar (Teixeira, 1949; Lehman et al., 1959; Beltan, 1968; Martin, 1979, 1981; Kemp 1996), Australia (Kemp, 1993, 1994, 1997a, 1998), India (Jain et al, 1964; Jain, 1968), and Antarctica (Dziewa, 1980). Numerous records also exist from Laurasian landmasses including Europe (Agassiz, 1838; Schultze, 1981), North America (Case, 1921) and central and eastern Asia (Liu and Yeh, 1957; Vorobyeva, 1967; Martin and Ingavat, 1982). By comparison, nothing is known of contemporary lungfish fossils from the Middle East. Thus, the recent recovery of a single tooth plate representing a new geographic occurrence of the genus Ceratodus Agassiz, 1838 from paralic marine deposits of the Jilh Formation, a latest Anisian to lower Carnian unit that crops out along the eastern margin of the Proterozoic Arabian Shield in central Saudi Arabia (Fig. 1), is significant because it provides the stratigraphically oldest record of dipnoans from the Arabian Peninsula.

A new species of Orthoptera, Parapleurites morrisonensis, is described from the upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Colorado, USA. This is the first insect described from the Morrison Formation and the first orthopteran described from the Jurassic of North America. No other members of the family Locustopsidae have been described in North America previously, and the other species of Parapleurites are only known from Siberia. The lack of Jurassic Orthoptera in North America is likely due to a combination of taphonomic variables and collector bias. The discovery of Parapleurites morrisonensis and the potential for finding other Jurassic Orthoptera are important to understanding the evolution of this diverse and widely distributed group.

In situ colonies of Bulmanicrusta? sp. encrusting the surface of a hardground from the Upper Ordovician Bull Fork Formation provide the first glimpse of the full colony form, habitat, and faunal associates of a crustoid graptolite. Bulmanicrusta? sp. exhibits a runner-type colony form suited to rapid expansion over hard substrates, indicating it was an opportunistic member of the hardground community. This community also included two bryozoans (“Proboscina” and Amplexopora), Cornulites, and crinoids. The Bulmanicrusta? sp. specimens contain numerous graptoblasts (small, thick-walled vesicles) in organic connection with the colony. These objects are located at branch termini and confirm that graptoblasts were not pathological features, but probably were resting cysts produced by the crustoid colony as a normal part of its life cycle. Thus, the presence of graptoblasts supports the interpretation that the Caesar Creek crustoid was adapted to ephemeral or disturbance-prone environments.

The barnacle fauna of the Miocene Bear Lake Formation of the Alaska Peninsula includes Chirona (Chirona) alaskana n. sp., and three species of Balanus Da Costa conspecific with or related to the extant species Balanus balanus (Linnaeus), B. nubilus Darwin, and B. crenatus (Bruguière). Although the Bear Lake fauna lived in warm temperate waters, its modern counterparts are found primarily in boreo-arctic and cool temperate regions of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans. Miocene barnacle faunas in Japan are similar to those of the Alaska Peninsula, lacking relatives of B. nubilus, but including Semibalanus Pilsbry, which does not appear until the Pleistocene in the eastern Pacific. Elements of this boreo-Arctic fauna do not appear in the North Atlantic basin until the Pleistocene, suggesting migration of the fauna into the Atlantic with the opening of the Bering Straits.

Denticle number per unit of length in the (P) element of contemporaneously occurring Ozarkodina excavata (Branson and Mehl) and O. tuma Murphy and Matti is a characteristic that shows that these taxa belong to two discrete species. Their morphological ranges with respect to this character do not overlap.

Ozarkodina tuma has a short range within the delta Zone (Lower Devonian) of the central Great Basin and is useful in intrabasin correlation.

The Veneridae are the most speciose modern family of bivalves, and one of the most morphologically conservative and homoplastic, making subfamily- and sometimes even genus-level classification difficult. The widespread Cretaceous genus Legumen Conrad, 1858 is currently placed in the subfamily Tapetinae of the Veneridae, although it more closely resembles the Solenoida (razor clams, Pharidae and Solenidae) in general shell form. Here we provide high-resolution images of the Legumen hinge for the first time. We confirm from hinge morphology that Legumen belongs in Veneridae, but it should be referred to incertae subfamiliae, rather than retained in the Tapetinae, particularly in light of the incomplete and unstable understanding of venerid systematics. Legumen represents a unique hinge dentition and a shell form—and associated life habit—that is absent in the modern Veneridae despite their taxonomic diversity. Veneridae are hyperdiverse in the modern fauna, but strikingly ‘under-disparate,’ having lost forms while gaining species in the long recovery from the end-Cretaceous extinction.

The marine bivalve Fimbria susanensis n. sp. is reported from the uppermost Paleocene part of the “Meganos Stage” in the upper Santa Susana Formaton, Simi Hills, southern California.

Fimbria pacifica n. sp. is reported from the middle lower Eocene “Capay Stage” strata of the Pacific coast of southwestern North America. The new species is present in the lower Bateque Formation, Baja California Sur, Mexico, and in the lower Juncal Formation, Whitaker Peak area and Santa Ynez Mountains, southern California.

Fimbria susanensis n. sp. and F. pacifica n. sp. are the only fimbriids known from the Pacific coast of North America. Previously reported Pacific coast species, which gave a range of Late Cretaceous to late Eocene for this genus in this particular area, do not belong to Fimbria.

GONIAT is designed as tool for investigations on the systematics of the Paleozoic ammonoids, their paleogeographic distribution, and their biostratigraphic range. This data base management system provides not only determinations based on morphological characteristics, but also information on occurrence, duration, literature, and phylogenetic relationships of every taxon of family, genus, and species levels. GONIAT is a relational data base. It consists of six independent data bases connected by three link information files: TAX for taxonomy, MORPHA and MORPHB for all distinctive morphological characters in adult or early and middle growth stages, LIT for literature, LOC for localities, and BOUND for biostratigraphy. In order to provide relevant time planes that can be used on a worldwide scale, radiometric dates as well as biostratigraphic names are used.

A new crinoid association reported from the Kope Formation (Katian, Ordovician) of northern Kentucky and southwestern Ohio changes the model for facies distribution of crinoids along an Ordovician onshore-offshore depth gradient. Glyptocrinus nodosus n. sp., Plicodendrocrinus casei (Meek, 1871), Cincinnaticrinus varibrachialis (Warn and Strimple, 1977), and Ectenocrinus simplex (Hall, 1847) are reported from a suspension-feeding assemblage with 26 taxa. This assemblage developed above an argillaceous packstone with most of the fossils preserved in shale. The fauna was comprised principally of secondary epifaunally tiered suspension feeders, deposit feeders, and predators. This is the first reported occurrence of Glyptocrinus Hall, 1847 and Plicodendrocrinus Brower, 1995 from the Kope Formation (lower Cincinnatian), and Glyptocrinus is represented by a new species, G. nodosus. Also, this is the first report of pinnulate camerate crinoids from the deep-water facies of the Kope Formation. Thus, deep-water Cincinnatian crinoid assemblages were comprised of disparids, cladids, and camerates; and the assemblage was characterized by a variety of filtration fan types for acquisition of resources.

New material of the poraspid Alainaspis platyrhina Elliott and Dineley has made it possible to provide a more extensive reconstruction of this animal. It is now clear that an elongated branchial opening was present below the lateral lamina and that a well-developed post-branchial lobe was present. No branchial plate has been identified and this may have been fused to the dorsal shield, forming the ventral lamina. The lateral lamina is now seen to terminate in a rounded angle before the posterior margin of the shield. Several ventral shields with similar ornament are identified as belonging to A. platyrhina. These are broad and deep and are consistent with the original interpretation of this animal as a filter feeder. One similar shield with a coarser ornament is tentatively assigned to the closely related species Boothiaspis ovata Broad.

A single specimen of Hazelia palmata Walcott, 1920, was collected from the Middle Cambrian Marjum Formation near Marjum Pass, in the central House Range, western Utah. This is a first occurrence of the species outside the Burgess shale region of British Columbia, Canada. The flattened oval impression of the monaxonid demosponge shows characteristic tufts and spicule structures of the species.

Collins (1973), in a major systematic study of the Upper Cretaceous cirripeds of the eastern Gulf Coast, described four species of Cretiscalpellum, four of Arcoscalpellum, one of Virgiscalpellum (with two subspecies), and one of Brachylepas. In a companion paper, Mellen (1973) analyzed the stratigraphic and geographic distribution of these species and established the following biostratigraphic zones (Figure 1):