Although past authors have regarded the Carydiidae as a European family, six species of Carydium are reported here from the Devonian of eastern North America. Two of these belong to a single morphocline common in the Hamilton shales; another (Carydium clarkei) is new. Due to lack of well preserved hinges most of these species were earlier placed in Nucula because serrations or striations on dental elements were mistaken for a taxodont dentition.

New data require modification of carydiid phylogenies of earlier authors. 1) Two independent pre-Devonian derivations from Lyrodesma are inferred. 2) Noradonta shergoldi, a carydiid-like lyrodesmatid from the Ordovician of Australia, is recognized as an important phyletic link between the Carydiidae and the Lyrodesmatidae. 3) The previous view of three distinct lineages within Carydium is not supported. Anamorphic data suggest as few as two main lineages and show two of the hinge types to be homeomorphic grades appearing separately or within one or the other of the main lineages.

Though too young to be directly involved in the early diversification of the Bivalvia, the actinodont, subheterodont, and pseudotaxodont hinge morphologies of Carydium supply models for the origin of heterodont and taxodont hinges. Anamorphic and other evidence suggests that both are iterative types, and fundamental differences between them may be few. Hence, their preeminence as diagnostic criteria among higher taxa is diminished.

Examination of collections from the Falkland Islands and South Africa shows that Chonetes falklandicus Morris and Sharpe, 1846, is a true Chonetes and is probably conspecific with Chonetes (Pleurochonetes) lauriata Isaacson, 1977, from Bolivia. Notiochonetes skottsbergi (Clarke, 1913) is quite different from C. falklandicus but is often associated with it in Malvinokaffric Realm Lower Devonian deposits.

From the Santiago Ixtaltepec area, in Oaxaca State, southern Mexico, 11 species of productoid brachiopods, including a new genus and five new species, are described. Semicostella sp., Antiquatonia sp., Keokukia? sp., Inflatia inflata, Reticulatia cf. R. huecoensis, Buxtonia websteri, Weberproductus donajiae n. gen. n. sp., Dictyoclostus transversum n. sp., Inflatia coodzavuii n. sp., Buxtonia inexpletucosta n. sp., and Flexaria magna n. sp. were collected from eight stratigraphic levels of the Ixtaltepec Formation. The presence of Semicostella sp., Keokukia? sp. and Inflatia inflata in the basal strata, Units 1 to 3, of the formation indicate a Viséan-Serpukhovian (Late Mississippian) age. Reticulatia cf. R. huecoensis and Buxtonia websteri, found in Units 6 to 8, confirm the Pennsylvanian age for upper strata of the Ixtaltepec Formation. Inflatia and Flexaria are present in the uppermost beds of the formation so it is possible to extend their upper stratigraphic range to the Middle Pennsylvanian. All these taxa also occur in the United States Midcontinent, suggesting that during the Carboniferous the epicontinental sea extended at least to central Mexico.

Extinct organisms with no close analogs and only distant living relatives are especially difficult subjects for paleobiological interpretation. Graptolites, especially the derived planktic Graptoloidea, are among this group of enigmatic fossils. Although the Pterobranchia are widely regarded as a sister group to graptolites, their entirely benthic, loosely organized colonies provide a poor analog for the mobile, highly integrated graptoloid colonies with their complex geometries. As a consequence, many basic features of zooid form and function are unknown. Under these circumstances, particularly troubling features—that is, features that do not readily fit into our simple models—may provide critical data with which to reform the models. It is with this hope that we describe here new observations of some graptolite specimens of the genus Appendispinograptus (Li Zhi-Ming and Li Da-Qing, 1985) and suggest a model for their function.

New parasitoid wasps of the family Braconidae are documented from Eocene Baltic and Rovno ambers. A new fossil genus belonging to the braconid subfamily Exothecinae, Palaeocolastes n. gen., with its type species P. bruesi n. sp., is described and illustrated from Baltic amber. This represents the first reliable fossil record for a member of Exothecinae. Two additional new species from Baltic amber are also described: Ascogaster (Syntaphus) latitibialis n. sp. (Cheloninae) and Meteorus arasnitsyni n. sp. (Euphorinae). Another fossil species, Microtypus eocenus n. sp. (Microtypinae), is described from coeval Rovno amber (Ukraine), representing the first braconid species described from this deposit. A new record of a female of Diospilites brevicornis Brues, 1933 (Diospilitinae) from Baltic amber, together with variation of some diagnostic features of the species and redescription of its subfamily and genus, are also provided.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/656cb1a3-b9cf-4696-ae24-0d4df9545101.

Juvenile specimens of the short-looped terebratulid brachiopod genus Pseudorhaetina Sandy have been investigated by the use of transverse serial sections. Internal structures indicate a simple brachidium (loop) is present with long flanges in adult specimens; the brachidium is approximately half the length of the dorsal valve; there is no complex loop metamorphosis in the central cavity of the brachiopod (i.e., no median septum). This combination of characters presents a taxonomic problem—Pseudorhaetina can neither be referred with confidence to superfamily Terebratuloidea, nor superfamily Loboidothyridoidea. Consequently Pseudorhaetina is, for the time being, assigned to a new and as yet unnamed superfamily representing a previously unrecognized part of the post-Paleozoic recovery and reradiation of Mesozoic articulate brachiopods (Rhynchonellata of Williams et al., 1996).

The fossil brachiopods of the Caribbean region are reasonably well known following publication of Cooper's (1979) monograph; however, the Jamaican fauna was not considered in this volume. Until recently, only Trechmann (1927, 1930) had described and figured fossil brachiopods from the island. Harper (1993; Harper and Donovan, 1990) has recently revised Trechmann's identifications and added to the still small faunal list, which includes two Cretaceous and 11 Cenozoic species (excluding those discussed below). Further specimens continue to be found and the present communication is a description of a significant collection of small terebratellaceans from the top of the Paleocene to Eocene Richmond Formation of eastern Jamaica. One of the two species described herein was originally recognized on the basis of three brachial valves as Argyrotheca sp. 1 in Harper (1993). The availability of superior material has confirmed the uniqueness of this species and has permitted adequate description and diagnosis. All specimens described herein are deposited in the James Mitchell Museum of University College, Galway (JMM), and the British Museum (Natural History), London (BMNH).

The genus Plicoplasia Boucot, 1959 (type species P. cooperi Boucot, 1959), embraces certain Lower Devonian brachiopods of the subfamily Ambocoeliinae, family Ambocoeliidae. The geographic range of Plicoplasia includes North America (Eastern Americas Realm) and South America and South Africa (Malvinokaffric Realm).

Numerous specimens of the neritid gastropod Nerita (Bajanerita) n. subgen. californiensis (White, 1885) are present in the Upper Cretaceous Rosario Formation at Punta Banda, Baja California, Mexico (Figure 1). Marincovich (1975) assigned these strata to a Late Campanian to Early Maastrichtian age. The strata contain extensive biostromal deposits of the caprinid rudistid bivalve Coralliochama orcutti White, 1885, that probably lived below mean wave base in a shallow-water, low-energy environment periodically affected by storm waves or currents (Marincovich, 1975). The nearby shoreline was apparently defined by steep wave-washed bedrock cliffs and local pocket beaches that formed along the margin of a forearc basin (Yeo, 1984). Scattered about in the sandstone matrix among the rudistid remains are the small-sized specimens of N. (B.) californiensis, which commonly weather out as resistant, complete shells on the surface of the rock. Saul (1970) concluded that the neritid and other shallow-water gastropods at Punta Banda accumulated in sediment-trapping depressions within the Coralliochama buildups. These gastropods had originally roamed over the algal pastures of these buildups. The color patterns preserved on many of the specimens of N. (B.) californiensis also provide evidence that the depth of water was shallow and within the photic zone. Furthermore, Sohl (1971) reported that Campanian and Maastrichtian gastropod assemblages of the Baja California region are mostly associated with rudist buildups, and warm-water rocky intertidal neritids are among the dominant faunal elements. Lowenstam and Epstein (1959), using oxygen-isotope studies of an ammonite, suggested that the Punta Banda rudistids lived at a marginally tropical temperature of about 19°C.

Sphinctozoans are the most abundant hypercalcified sponge group within the Late Triassic shallow water carbonates of the Tethyan realm. They have been described from numerous localities of western Tethys (European region) and northern Tethys (Pamir Mountains), but relatively little is known about Triassic sphinctozoans and hypercalcified sponges from the southern and eastern areas of the Tethyan realm (Senowbari-Daryan and García-Bellido, 2002). The discovery of new, well-preserved sphinctozoan material is an important addition to knowledge of the sponge fauna of the region. Bernecker (1996) and Senowbari-Daryan et al. (1999) reported on some Late Triassic sphinctozoans and other hypercalcified sponges from Oman in the Arabian Peninsula, but no other data are available from the south-central portion of Tethys along the north margin of Gondwana. Elliott (1963) described a small, chambered organism from the Paleocene of northern Iraq as a sphinctozoan sponge (Calymenospongia kurdistanens), but this has a maximum diameter of 0.72 mm and appears to be an agglutinated foraminifer, not a sponge (Senowbari-Daryan and García-Bellido, 2002). Hajarispongia osmani n. gen. and sp., the first sphinctozoan sponge reported from the United Arab Emirates, is a multibranched sphinctozoan with large areas of exterior wall surface exposed and positioned so that it can be longitudinally sectioned along three branches, cut in oriented sections, and examined externally as well as internally. The combination of characters present in this sponge shows the need for describing an additional genus of sphinctozoan sponges and revising sponges previously placed in the genus Colospongia (Laube, 1865). The classification of hypercalcified sponges proposed by Finks and Rigby (2004) is used for description of sponges in this paper. Morphological terms conform to the terminology presented in Kaesler (2004) and illustrated by Rigby and Potter (1986), of which the following terms are of special importance in the description and study of Hajarispongia: 1) cribribulla—inward facing, blisterlike sieve at the inner end of an exaulos; 2) cribripore—small pores in sievelike cribribulla; and, 3) exaulos—spoutlike tube in sponge wall.

Seven species belonging to three stromatoporoid genera are described from two localities at Empire Beach, southern Ontario. Stromatoporella is the most diverse genus, to which five species are assigned. The most common species is Syringodictyon tuberculatum (Nicholson), represented by ten of the twenty-four collected specimens. One genus, Syringodictyon, and one species, Stromatoporella megastrorhizifera, are new. Stromatoporella cf. S. composita Yavorsky is unassigned.

The species range in age from Emsian, or possibly Siegenian, to Frasnian. They correlate well with stromatoporoids described from strata equivalent to the lower Detroit River Group, Edgecliff Member (Onondaga Formation), as well as with the Couvinian–Eifelian horizons of Europe.

We published a series of papers regarding the oldest turritellids, naticids, their paleoecological interaction, and gastropod biozonation, which are of Oxfordian in age, from the Jhura pond section, Kutch, western India. Recently, an Oxfordian age was challenged by Fürsich et al. (2023) and they argued for a Cenozoic age. The authors reproduced a local geological map based on regional data where the Jhura pond section sediments were overlying the Bhuj Formation. In the original regional data, there was no Bhuj Formation and the introduction of the Bhuj Formation served to show that Jhura pond section sediments were “allochthonous”. Other lines of argument against our conclusions (e.g., identification of associated bivalve fauna, foraminiferal assemblage, and geological context) were brought forward. There were additional inconsistencies, such as the reworking of Oxfordian fossils, in their comment/opinion pieces. The only hard evidence was the report of a microfaunal assemblage, but the taxa were identified at the generic level and most of the genera appear in the Jurassic or even earlier.

Here we provide detailed and concrete evidence explaining features at the Jhura pond section, such as the subvertical nature of the beds, the ooid-bearing lithologies, the presence of various Oxfordian fossils, the difference in turritellids, naticid assemblages, and differences in the diversity curves between the present beds and the lower Miocene Chhasra Formation of Kutch. Detailed paleoecological analyses (both gastropods and bivalves) speak for two paleocommunities. We, therefore, reiterate that the present Jhura pond section sediments are Oxfordian in age and validate all the interpretations and conclusions that we have made in our previous papers.

In the first half of the nineteenth century, a marked shift occurred in our understanding and treatment of the chelicerate fossil record, with the differentiation and recognition of entirely extinct genera for the first time. At the heart of this taxonomic revolution were the Eurypterida (sea scorpions) and Xiphosura (horseshoe crabs), although both groups were in fact considered crustaceans until Lankester's (1881) seminal comparative anatomical study of the extant xiphosuran Limulus Müller, 1785 and modern scorpions. The oldest available eurypterid genus is Eurypterus deKay, 1825; the oldest available fossil arachnid genus name is that of the scorpion Cyclophthalmus Corda, 1835. However, there has been considerable historical confusion over the oldest available fossil xiphosuran genus name, which has been recognized alternately as Belinurus König (with a publication date of either 1820 or 1851) or the synonymous Bellinurus Pictet, 1846. Most recent treatments (e.g., Selden and Siveter, 1987; Anderson and Selden, 1997; Anderson et al., 1997; Lamsdell, 2016, 2021; Bicknell and Pates, 2020) have favored Bellinurus Pictet, 1846 as the available name; however, Haug and Haug (2020) recently argued that Belinurus König, 1820 is valid and has priority, a position then followed by Lamsdell (2020), prompting a reinvestigation of the taxonomic history of the genus. Upon review, it is clear that neither of the previously recognized authorities for Belinurus are accurate and that the two candidate type species for each genus are, in fact, synonyms. Given the convoluted and at times almost illogical history of the competing names, along with the most recent controversy as to which has priority, we present a complete history of the treatment of the genus to resolve the issue.

Multituberculates were among the most taxonomically diverse mammals of the early Paleocene, having survived the catastrophic Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction and radiating soon thereafter. Although their evolution during the early Paleocene saw the advent of increasingly specialized dentitions, multituberculates generally remained small, rarely exceeding body sizes greater than those of extant rabbits. A conspicuous exception is the Taeniolabidoidea, a primarily North American clade whose members include the largest multituberculates yet discovered. Taeniolabidoidea includes several genera, with one of these, Catopsalis, being speciose and geographically wide ranging. Until recently, the chronological succession of Catopsalis appeared to document a trend of increasing body size. We report here on a new species of Catopsalis from the early Paleocene of Alberta that violates this trend and suggests that the evolutionary history of Catopsalis is considerably more complex. Catopsalis kakwa new species is not only the smallest species of Catopsalis, but is the smallest taeniolabidoid so far discovered, with an estimated body mass between 400 g and 660 g. In contrast to previous studies, we used recently proposed regressions based on lower cheek tooth row length to estimate body masses for North American taeniolabidoids. Our results propose more modest body mass estimates, particularly for the largest taeniolabidoids. The occurrence of C. kakwa n. sp. in the late early Paleocene implies either a significant ghost lineage, or reversal of several characters, including body size, during the latter part of the early Paleocene; the more likely of these scenarios must await a better understanding of the phylogenetic position of C. kakwa n. sp.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/66d85345-49b8-4a46-ba6e-a4d4369cb3e0

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:AF7A5659-9068-4F2F-A6EC-5522A2BBA4CB

A new species of aphroditiform polychaete, Protopholoe colombiana, is described from the Coniacian of Colombia, South America, increasing the number of species of this genus known from the fossil record to two. This is the first occurrence of fossil soft-bodied polychaetes in the Tropical Americas, and indicates that aphroditiforms were spread worldwide during the Mesozoic.

A new ichnospecies, Glossifungites gingrasi n. isp., is described from multiple locations in basal sand-filled coastal plain distributary channels of the Turonian (Upper Cretaceous) Ferron Sandstone (central Utah). Glossifungites gingrasi n. isp. is attributed to the ichnogenus Glossifungites based on the presence of scratch imprints, passive fill, and a tongue-shaped structure, yet the new ichnospecies is distinct because it displays transverse bioglyphs that run perpendicular to the planiform structure, which contrasts to the axis parallel bioglyphs present in the ichnospecies G. saxicava. The transverse arrangement of ornamentation exhibited by G. gingrasi n. isp. is observed in modern subaqueous insect burrows produced by mayfly and chironomid larvae, and constitutes a way to differentiate insect-generated burrows from structures produced by crustaceans that are known to create other Glossifungites ichnospecies. Differentiating insect- from crustacean-generated burrows is significant because it provides a way to distinguish bioturbation by marine-recruited fauna from that produced by freshwater fauna in the rock record, making G. gingrasi n. isp. a valuable ichnological tool for paleoenvironmental and stratigraphic interpretation. While G. gingrasi n. isp. may represent a burrow created by a variety of filter-feeding subaqueous insects, the large size of G. gingrasi n. isp. in the Ferron Sandstone suggests that the largest specimens are probable mayfly burrows and supports the assertion that burrowing mayflies (e.g., Polymitarcyidae and Ephemeridae) adapted to domicile filter-feeding during or prior to the Turonian.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/a033b22f-bf09-481a-975e-3a1b096154cc

William C. Darrah, educator, geologist, botanist, and historian, loved life, and he chose to share with others his genuine enjoyment of discovery and learning through his writing and teaching. His A Critical Review of the Upper Carboniferous Floras of the Eastern United States (1970) and nearly a hundred professional papers made his name familiar to many paleontologists in Pennsylvania and throughout the United States. It is interesting to note that early in his career Bill developed an interest in the early conifers, especially Walchia. At the time of his death, he had just completed a manuscript with Paul Lyons, “The Earliest Conifers in North America: Upland and/or Paleoclimatic Indicators?,” “which has been accepted for publication in PALAIOS. Most recently, having attended the International Geological Conference in the United States in 1933, Bill had hoped to present a paper on the Dunkard at the July 1989 IGC in Washington, D.C.

Two specimens of Metaconularia manni (Roy, 1935) from the lower Middle Silurian Scotch Grove Formation (eastern Iowa) exhibit well-defined, relict soft parts replicated in silica. One of these specimens bears phosphatic periderm, whereas the other specimen is a mold. Present within the erect, undistorted apical region of the specimen preserving periderm, on opposite sides of the peridermal cavity, are two small, elongate masses of silica located near the midlines of two of the four faces. Present in the central portion of the other specimen, at a somewhat greater distance from the apex, are five pairs of hollow, elongate, keeled pouch-like bodies (hereafter pouches), the long axes of which converge on the center of the fossil. Each pair of pouches is associated with a short, narrow, gently curved or broadly U-shaped tube, also composed of silica. Additionally, two of the pouch/tube combinations are associated with a pair of rectilinear furrows that correspond to the paired internal carinae that straddled the conulariid's facial midlines. We interpret the paired pouches and short tubes in the moldic specimen as relic conulariid soft parts homologous, respectively, to the interradial gonads and retractor muscles of extant, stauromedusan and polypoid scyphozoan cnidarians. Unlike most conulariids, which exhibit four faces, this individual had five faces, an aberrant morphology known in one other conulariid. The two small masses in the other specimen are more difficult to interpret, but they, too, could be relic gonads or longitudinal muscles. These interpretations suggest that, as in certain extant scyphozoans, at least one conulariid lost the free-living, sexual medusoid life phase.

While preparing materials for the pentameroid portion of the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology revision of the brachiopod volumes, problems were encountered with four enigmatic genera: Rugolepyros Lenz, 1989; Aenigmastrophia Boucot, 1971; Spondylostrophia Kulkov, 1967; and Stricklandistrophia Sapelnikov and Rukavishnikova, 1975.