Gedinnian (Early Devonian) orthoceratid cephalopods were previously not well known in Japan. Five species are described from the Fukuji Formation of Gifu Prefecture, central Japan: Michelinoceras yamakoshii n. sp., Michelinoceras yoshikiense n. sp., Plagiostomaceras? sp., Polygrammoceras sp., and Metaspyroceras insignis n. sp. Growth and position of the cameral deposits in Michelinoceras indicate that the deposits precipitated from cameral fluids and living Michelinoceras maintained the shell horizontally in swimming orientation.

Fossil barnacles are poorly known from the West Indies in general and Jamaica in particular. The only records from Jamaica to date have been of occasional balanomorphs collected from Neogene deposits (Newman and Ladd, 1974; Morris, in press). It is therefore significant to report what may be the first fossil lepadomorph from the island, preserved as a scaled peduncle. This is also the oldest known Jamaican, and probably Caribbean, barnacle, coming from the Upper Cretaceous. This specimen was discovered by the junior author in the Geology Museum, University of the West Indies at Mona. Barnacle terminology used herein follows that of Newman et al. (1969).

Crinoid faunas from the Lower Devonian of South America are poorly known. Two new taxa are described from the Emsian Icla Formation at Cerro Kochis in the Cochabamba Department: the rhodocrinitid, Lutocrinus boliviaensis n. gen. n. sp. and Griphocrinus pirovanoi n. sp. Two additional camerates are reported from the Emsian Belèn Formation of the Altiplano region in the La Paz Department, including Ctenocrinus branisai n. sp. and Boliviacrinus isaacsoni McIntosh, 1988. In addition, a specimen of the blastoid, Pachyblastus dicki Bremier and Macurda, 1972, was recovered from the Altiplano region. These crinoids and material previously collected by Leonardo Branisa, including specimens of C. branisai n. sp., Apurocrinus sucrei McIntosh, 1981, B. isaacsoni McIntosh, 1988, and L. boliviaensis n. sp., are described and revised. The specimens give new insights into the Lower Devonian Malvinokaffric Realm of Bolivia, a relatively new frontier in crinoid paleontology.

The small, Lower Cretaceous, iron ore deposit at Zengővárkony (Mecsek Mountains, southern Hungary, Europe) contains new brachiopod taxa of kingenoid relationships. Dictyothyropsis vogli, Zittelina hofmanni, and Smirnovina ferraria are described as new species from late Valanginian to earliest Hauterivian strata. The new taxa strengthen the presence of Early Cretaceous biogeographical connections with the Western Carpathians and the Pieniny Klippen Belt of southern Poland. The newly described taxa have significantly larger dimensions than their closest relatives from the type localities, which is in line with previous research on brachiopods from this environment. These brachiopods lived in a nutrient-rich, unique environment related to iron-ore deposition linked to former hydrothermal activity on the seafloor that might have contributed to the large size of these brachiopods. Larger than normal rhynchonellide and terebratulidine brachiopods have previously been recorded from this locality.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/353882-2838-4eb7-b21a-8cc665d13408

Pulvinites lawrencei n. sp. is described from the upper Paleocene (Landenian Stage) Paspotansa Member of the Aquia Formation in Stafford County, Virginia. This is the first report of a member of the pteriacean family Pulvinitidae in the Tertiary on either side of the Atlantic, the only other post-Mesozoic records of Pulvinites being in the Paleocene of California and the present-day Pacific off southeast Australia. The stratigraphic setting and co-occurring molluscan assemblage of the new species indicate shallow-shelf, open-marine conditions with near normal salinities.

Discospirina is a milioline genus previously recorded as fossil only from the Miocene to Pleistocene of the Mediterranean, and is found living in the same area and into the North Atlantic Ocean (Adams, 1959, 1967, 1973; Adams etal., 1983; Radford, 1976). It is readily recognized by its large, fragile, very thin test, with annular chambers surrounding a coiled initial stage; the concentric chambers are subdivided by numerous internal septa that fall short of the anterior wall of each chamber (Adams, 1959). The specimens illustrated by Brady (1884, PI. 65, figs. 6, 7) from the Atlantic Ocean were referred to Discospirina tenuissima by Barker (1960), but Adams (1959) considered this to be a junior synonym for D. italica, giving the species a range from late Miocene to Recent. Adams (1959) noted that there were more septa per annular chamber in the Recent than in the fossil forms from the Mediterranean area, and the Coral Sea forms appear to resemble the Miocene ones in this respect.

As the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology prepares for the coming century, the staff of the Paleontological Institute and the boards of advisors have begun the development of PaleoBank, an electronic, relational database that will facilitate the capture of up-to-date, paleontological information. Moving the Treatise project into the electronic age will make the task of the authors less daunting and enable future volumes of the Treatise to be updated in a more timely manner.

The presence of a new taxon, Duraznovis gallegoi new genus new species is reported and described from an early Late Triassic (Carnian) deposit in Argentina. Two specimens, recovered from the Quebrada del Durazno locality, uppermost levels of the Potrerillos Formation, Cuyana Basin (Mendoza), are represented by the molds of their shield and imprints of soft parts. The identity of these specimens appears enigmatic but closely resembles in the possession of a generalized arthropod morphology and a distinctive combination of characters, to living and fossil representatives of xiphosurans (Chelicerata) and notostracans (Branchiopoda). The new fossils are associated with a rich biota comprising abundant insects, spinicaudatans, plants, and scarce fish remains living in semipermanent swamps and/or ponds within a delta plain environment with intermittent episodes of flooding, in a warm temperate and humid megamonsoonal climate during Triassic times. In this context, we analyze the taphonomic and ecological implications of their presence. Lastly, these unique specimens at the Quebrada del Durazno locality adds to the diversity of the biota, revealing the importance of this site as an exceptional paleontological Triassic deposit.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/8d1194c2-170c-4b7a-b0c6-5c08b0974d95

Crowns of four crinoid species, Talarocrinus planus Weller, 1920, Phacelocrinus longidactylus (McChesney, 1860), Ampelocrinus mundus? Kirk, 1942, and Phanocrinus maniformis (Yandell and Shumard, 1847) are reported from the limestones of the Wymps Gap Member of the Greenbrier Formation in northern West Virginia. Collectively these species indicate an early Chesterian age for the Wymps Gap Member, with the occurrence of T. planus indicating correlation with the Ridenhower (Paint Creek) Formation of the Illinois Basin. A review of the 17 species currently placed in Talarocrinus suggests that the Talarocrinus zone ranges no higher than the Ridenhower Formation in the Upper Gnathodus bilineatus conodont zone of the late Visean. The new occurrence of A. mundus extends its range upwards from the Genevievian substage of the Chesterian.

Previous studies have used sequence stratigraphy to correlate the Wymps Gap Member with the lower part of the Union Limestone Formation of the Greenbrier Group in southern West Virginia, which in turn has been correlated with the Ridenhower Formation. The occurrence of T. planus in the Wymps Gap Member provides independent confirmation of the correlations based on sequence stratigraphy between the Appalachian and Illinois basins. Correlation of the overlying Reynolds Member of the Mauch Chunk Formation with the Glen Dean Formation of the Illinois Basin suggests a significant unconformity between the Greenbrier Formation and Mauch Chunk Formation in northern West Virginia.

The polyplacophoran Matthevia Walcott, 1885 has been reported previously only from Cambrian rocks. Recovery of specimens of two different species of Matthevia from the top of the cherty lower Gasconade Dolomite in Missouri extends the known range of the genus into the Ordovician. The presence of the Lower Ordovician trilobite Praepatokephalus Lochman, 1964 in one collection provides the biostratigraphic evidence that the new specimens of Matthevia are Ordovician in age. Matthevia erecta n. sp. is described. An emended diagnosis for the trilobite Praepatokephalus is provided; two species of the genus are briefly described but are left in open nomenclature as P. sp. A and P. sp. B.

Shell structure has been studied in two species of the family Craniidae Menke, 1828, from the Upper Jurassic of East Ukraine and from the Lower Cretaceous of Crimea, South Ukraine. These species belong to the new genus Mesocrania—M. barskovi (Smirnova, 1972) and M. condylata new species. A layer of coarse regular rhomboidal crystallites was discovered between the primary layer of acicular crystallites and the secondary laminar layer. Branching punctae canals were observed in M. barskovi.

Eight new species of lichid trilobites representing five genera in three subfamilies, from the Avalanche Lake area of the southern Mackenzie Mountains, Northwest Territories, Canada, are described. The subfamily Lichinae is represented by Dicranopeltis n. sp. and the subfamily Platylichinae by the early Llandovery Platylichas infimus n. sp. The subfamily Trochurinae is represented by six species belonging to four genera. These are Acanthopyge (Lobopyge) sp. (Wenlock), the earliest known species of the genus Acanthopyge and subgenus Acanthopyge (Lobopyge), A. (L.) pristina n. sp. from the Glyptograptus persculptus Zone in the latest Ordovician, Dicranogmus lepidus n. sp., D. wilsoni n. sp. (both Wenlock), Dicranogmus n. sp. (Llandovery), and Radiolichas guttatus n. sp. (Wenlock).

Paolia vetusta Smith, 1871a, from the Hindostan whetstone beds of Indiana (Namurian), thought to have been lost since 1918, has been found and currently is housed at Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana. Paolia vetusta is illustrated photographically for the first time. The major character difference between Smith's (1871a) figure and the actual specimen is the lack in the latter of an extensive archedictyon extending over the entire specimen. Currently, the family Paoliidae is defined as having Sc terminating on R. Paolia vetusta clearly shows Sc terminating on C. Therefore, the Sc terminus should have no taxonomic significance at the family level.

A proposed new genus of scalpellomorph cirriped, Tetrinis n. gen., based on T. serenuportus n. sp., is known from three Kansas localities in the middle part of the Fairport Member of the Carlile Shale where it is epizoic on the bivalve Inoceramus cuvieri. The stalked cirriped Stramentum elegans coexisted with T. serenuportus and the bryozoan Proboscina sp. was epizoic on S. elegans but not on T. serenuportus. The genus is readily distinguished from all other scalpellomorph cirripeds in the character of the capitulum, which comprises 28 slightly overlapping plates arranged in four whorls. Tetrinis serenuportus displays a large rostrum and an upper latus that is situated low in the capitulum between the scutum and tergum, allowing the two latter plates to touch. All umbos are apical except for that of the scutum, which is subapical and closer to the apex than to the base. The new form apparently has a narrow stratigraphic range and has potential as a biostratigraphic marker.

We diagnose a new species of Brontotheriidae from a middle Eocene locality, the Clarno Nut Beds, from the Clarno Formation, John Day Basin, Central Oregon. Though renowned for its richness in fossil flora, fossil vertebrates are rare in the Clarno Nut Beds and this new species is the most abundantly represented mammal. Radiometric dating constrains the age of the Nut Beds fauna to about 43.76 Ma within the Uintan North American Land Mammal Age. This new taxon, represented by numerous cranial, mandibular, and dental specimens, is comparatively small for a brontothere and notable for its cranio-caudally shorted nasal incision, a trait shared with three larger-bodied middle Eocene species, Metatelmatherium ultimum, Wickia brevirhinus, and Sthenodectes incisivum. Phylogenetic analysis suggests the sister taxon of the Nut Beds brontothere could be one of two species—Wickia brevirhinus from the Sand Wash Basin of Colorado and Washakie Formation of Wyoming, or Metatelmatherium ultimum, a pan-Beringian species known from the Uintan Formation of Utah (and other Uintan age deposits) and the “Irdin Manha” Formation of Inner Mongolia, China. Phylogenetic results also indicate that the Nut Beds brontothere is a dwarf taxon. Though brontotheres are renowned for having evolved very large body sizes, this new brontothere is one of several discovered in recent decades that suggest evolutionary reductions in body size may have been relatively common in Brontotheriidae.

We recently reported Cambrowania ovata Tang and Xiao in Tang et al., 2019, from the early Cambrian Hetang Formation in South China and interpreted it as a problematic animal fossil, possibly related to either sponges or bivalved arthropods (Tang et al., 2019). Slater and Budd (2019) contested our taxonomic identification and phylogenetic interpretation; instead, they claimed that Cambrowania ovata is a large acritarch referable to morphotaxon Leiosphaeridia Eisenack, 1958, and thus is not an animal. Here we refute their criticisms, clarify the differences between Cambrowania and Leiosphaeridia and other acritarchs, and reiterate why an animal affinity for Cambrowania cannot be ruled out.

We report the first Tertiary bird fossil from Central America, an ungual phalanx from a large, unknown genus and species of Accipitridae from the early Miocene Centenario Fauna, Panama. This specimen provides another example of a Neogene bird from North and Central America with its possible closest living relatives occurring today in Africa. In contrast, there is no evidence of African affinities among the reptile or mammal fossils from the Centenario Fauna.

A new Late Jurassic (Oxfordian) asteroid (Echinodermata) faunule from the Swift Formation of Montana includes representatives of four genera including the new genus and species Atalopegaster gundersoni (Stichasteridae), Eokainaster sp. indet. (Astropectinidae), an indeterminate probable member of the Goniasteridae, and a species indeterminate beyond the class level. Because of weathering at the outcrop, preservation is poor.

Although representing an unusual depositional occurrence, overall faunule composition appears comparable to that found in a similar modern environment. The faunule is comparable in age and regional location to earlier Jurassic asteroid discoveries, suggesting wide distribution during a geologically brief time interval of favorable conditions. Asteroids are only rarely reported from the Mesozoic of the North American continental interior, and co-occurrence of multiple fossil taxa is unusual on a global basis.