Scale microfossils are locally abundant in rocks of the uppermost Tindir Group and basal beds of the overlying Funnel Creek Limestone in northwest Canada. Co-occurring organic-walled fossils in this microbial mat biota resemble forms described from the Upper Proterozoic but mineralized spicules of Cambrian aspect are also present. The fossils occur in chert nodules or beds in flat laminated limestones interpreted to represent accumulation in a subtidal environment.

The scale microfossils are of three basic shapes: Group 1, simple imperforate scales; Group 2, thin disk-like scales with prominent, regularly arranged pores; Group 3, ring-like scales with distinct three dimensional morphology. All taxa in Groups 1 and 2 have scales of a single morphology and narrow size range; Group 3 taxa may contain one, two, or (?)three morphotypes and sizes of scales. The scales of Group 1 taxa are not closely comparable to known Chromophyta but are similar to scales of several modern Rhizopoda. Some of the Group 2 taxa can be compared to members of the Chrysophyta, whereas others have general resemblance to centric diatom valves. Most Group 3 taxa are morphologically comparable to members of the Prymnesiophyta. All scales that could be analyzed petrographically are now siliceous and none could be confirmed as polycrystalline.

The scale microfossils are referred to new taxa, including 17 genera, 26 species, and 6 varieties. Newly described taxa are: Group 1) Archeoxybaphon polykeramoides n. gen., n. sp., Archeoxybaphon diminutum n. sp., Archeoxybaphon amydrum n. sp., Hyaloxybaphon monokeramoides n. gen., n. sp.; Group 2) Paleohexadictyon litosum n. gen., n. sp., Paleohexadictyon myriotrematum n. sp., Paleohexadictyon coroniforme n. sp., Paleohexadictyon coroniforme var. tetragonum n. var., Paleohexadictyon coroniforme var. delicatum n. var., Chilodictyon caliporum n. gen., n. sp., Chilodictyon caliporum var. striatimarginatum n. var., Chilodictyon myriocanthum n. sp., Characodictyon skolopium n. gen., n. sp., Characodictyon skolopium var. tetragonum n. var., Characodictyon skolopium var. soleniscum n. var., Characodictyon diskolopium n. sp., Characodictyon diskolopium var. circulare n. var., Radiocerniculum inornatum n. gen., n. sp., Spinicerniculum tribulosum n. gen., n. sp.; Group 3) Petasisquama alta n. gen., n. sp., Petasisquama versicorona n. sp., Petasisquama laciniata n. sp., Bicorniculum brochum n. gen., n. sp., Confinisquama fimbriata n. gen., n. sp., Aqualisquama centritubula n. gen., n. sp., Invaginatibalteus dimorphus n. gen., n. sp., Invaginatibalteus depressus n. sp., Paterisquama crassa n. gen., n. sp., Altarmilla multistriata n. gen., n. sp., Patinisquama cirratomarginata n. gen., n. sp., Paleocrassalimbus spinosus n. gen., n. sp., and Paleomegasquama coccolithoides n. gen., n. sp.

Almost all nassellarians possess some skeletons, comprised of cephalic skeletal elements, at the base of their cephalis. Observations using the scanning electron microscope (SEM) have been made on the internal structures of Jurassic “Eucyrtidium” from manganese carbonate ore deposits in the Mino Terrane, central Japan. Jurassic “Eucyrtidium” possesses only a median bar and apical spine as cephalic skeletal elements. Because this structure is quite different from that of Cenozoic Eucyrtidium, which possess MB, A, V, L, l, and D, a new genus, Monosera, is proposed for the Jurassic forms. One new species, Monosera gujoensis, is described.

A disc-like soft-bodied fossil recovered from the Farmers Member of the Borden Formation in northeastern Kentucky is described and is interpreted as a chondrophorine float, an internal feature. This is apparently the first report of a post-Devonian fossil porpitid.

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.

Rhondellina dorei n. gen., n. sp. is morphologically a very unusual acrotretid in possessing a marginal ventral beak and vestigial ventral pseudointerarea. In common with all other acrotretaceans it has a pitted first-formed shell that is an evolutionary novelty for the clade. By analogy with developmental stages of living lingulids and discinids it is concluded that these pitted first-formed valves are not protegula, but are larval valves developed during a protracted pelagic phase. The distinction is important in considering dispersal of the organisms. Although some acrotretids are endemic and limited to rocks deposited around a single Cambrian continental landmass, others are cosmopolitan. The wide dispersal of such forms supports earlier conclusions that the functional significance of the pits in the larval valves was an adaptation to increase buoyancy and suggests that the larvae were planktotrophic. Because of energy problems inherent with planktotrophic larvae and small parents, it is conceivable that acrotretacean development was mixed and that a relatively small number of lecithotrophic eggs were brooded prior to release of the free-swimming planktotrophs.

Rhondellina dorei was seemingly endemic to Cambrian North America. Although its larvae apparently were unable to cross oceanic barriers, the species dispersed around the periphery of the craton. It is known from western Utah and eastern Nevada and also occurs in Peary Land, North Greenland, on the opposing side of the continent. In the western United States it occurs only in the Crepicephalus Zone (lower Dresbachian, Upper Cambrian), but in Greenland it appears earlier in the upper Lejopyge laevigata Zone, in beds that are the temporal equivalents of the North American Cedaria Zone.

Asymmetric sculpture in the form of tubercles or ridges on the shells of large (mean shell length ~60 mm) turritelliform gastropods has previously been shown to enhance efficiency of the shell as a penetration anchor in burrowing through coarse sediment. The small (<8 mm) turritelliform shells of all species of Argyropeza (Family Cerithiidae) have both of these ratchetlike sculptural features. Four lines of evidence from Lower Pleistocene A. divina and A. schepmaniana from Fiji support the interpretation that they help resist back-slippage: cross-orientation, frictional asymmetry, allometric shallowing, and allometric densing of sculptural elements. In addition, excellent state of preservation including protoconch sculpture, near coplanarity of aperture and ventral side of shell, and susceptibility to drilling predation by naticids support the conclusion that these gastropods burrowed in the sediment that formed the siltstone in which they are now preserved. A direct relationship is proposed between height of ratchet sculpture on turritelliform gastropod shells of approximate length range 5–100 mm and the grain size of sediments they inhabit ranging from silts to coarse sands.

An ammonite fauna from the southern coastal volcanic region of the Chinese Jurassic contains representatives of the genera Sulciferites, Coroniceras, Arnioceras, Asteroceras, Eparietites, and Juraphyllites. The ammonite-bearing strata of the Jinji Formation were deposited during the Sinemurian (Bucklandi to Obtusum zones), whereas the lower member has yielded marine Hettangian bivalves. The Jinji Formation is underlain by terrestrial Triassic rocks of the Xiaoping Formation and overlain by terrestrial Middle Jurassic rocks of the Baizushan Group.

Correlative Early Jurassic rocks are shown to occur across eastern Guangdong Province, and probably as far north as southern Hunan Province. Although this marine phase of deposition may correspond broadly to a eustatic sea level rise, the exact role of local tectonic events has still to be assessed.

Fossilized notostracan carapaces and abdominal fragments are present in the Upper Triassic (Rhaetian) Bull Run Formation in the Culpeper Basin near Manassas, Virginia. Over 250 notostracan carapaces and carapace fragments and three abdominal fragments with attached caudal rami were collected from light olive-gray, grayish-red, and brownish-gray shales in three on-strike localities. Carapace and abdomen are attached in one specimen. The Culpeper Basin notostracans have a rudimentary supra-anal plate and are identified as Triops cf. cancriformis. Their carapaces are indistinguishable from those of modern forms.

Relatively few notostracan fossils are known and none have been reported previously from the Triassic of North America. Triassic notostracans, however, have been reported from Europe and Africa. Fossil notostracans have been reported from North America only once previously, from the Permian of Oklahoma.

The notostracans are associated with conchostracans (Cyzicus sp.), ostracodes (Darwinula sp.), fish scales, insects, plant fragments, and stromatolites.

The notostracan-bearing beds are present at the top of a transgressive-regressive sequence, indicating that the notostracans inhabited shallow water near the edge of a perennial lake. Palynology indicates that these beds are most likely mid- to late-Rhaetian in age.

The third species belonging to Zygastrocarcinus from the Cretaceous of the Western Interior is represented by a single carapace collected from below the Groat Sandstone Bed, Gammon Ferruginous Member, Pierre Shale of Carter County, Montana. Comparison of Zygastrocarcinus cardsmithi n. sp. with the other North American congeners, Z. mendryki (Bishop, 1982) and Z. griesi Bishop, 1983, and with the Pacific Slope species Z. richardsoni (Woodward, 1896) suggests early separation of the Pacific Slope and Western Interior lineage having Z. cardsmithi as a possible ancestor to Z. mendryki and Z. griesi.

Five Jurassic through Oligocene sea stars are described; all are assignable to modern genera and two (Tethyaster jurassicus; Mediaster hayi) represent new species. Tethyaster and Pseudarchaster are morphologically similar but represent separate orders; occurrence of both in Jurassic sediments suggests close common ancestry. Many post-Paleozoic sea stars appear enduring, perhaps because of broad ecological tolerances and construction; the fossils described here probably are not unique as asteroid living fossils.

An unusually complete large pycnodont fish from the Mooreville Chalk of Green County, Alabama, is figured and compared to several previously described specimens. Material from the specimen apparently places Grypodus Hay = Ancistrodon Roemer, Hadrodus Leidy, and Propenser Applegate into synonymy. The specimen is referred to Hadrodus hewletti (Applegate). A complete dentition is present and most of the thick, tuberculated ganoid scales that covered the body are preserved. Exact location of the dorsal fin has been determined and many of the fragile gill rakers are represented.

The functional interpretation of Drepanosaurus unguicaudatus, an Upper Triassic lepidosaurian from the Italian Alps, is given here. The peculiar anatomical structure of the post-cranial skeleton would point to a burrowing animal.

A specimen of the ammonoid Perrinites Böse, 1919, was collected from the McCloud Limestone east of the summit of Tombstone Mountain, Shasta County, California. This is the first record of the genus in California, an important addition to the meager Permian cephalopod fauna of the state previously reported by Miller, Furnish, and Clark (1957) and Wilson (1984). It was found 1,100 feet (335 m) above the base of the formation in a coarse-grained limestone (Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, Invertebrate Paleontology Section locality 6184) within fusulinid zone H of Skinner and Wilde (1965), considered to be late early or early middle Leonardian in age.

During investigations in the Rhenish Schiefergebirge, West Germany, concerning the Devonian biostratigraphy of forereef limestones in the Brilon area (Figure 1) several diplodont teeth of fossil sharks were discovered by chance. Remains of xenacanthid teeth from marine Givetian beds are rare. They have been described by Hotton (1952) of probable Givetian/Frasnian age from North America, by Gross (1973) from Middle Devonian Hunsrück Shales, and by Young (1982) from Middle/Upper Devonian strata of Australia and Antarctica.

The Swan Hills are erosional remnants of a once-continuous plateau lying between the Athabaska River and Lesser Slave Lake in the north-central part of Alberta, western Canada. Fossils were first discovered in the Paskapoo Formation here in 1964 by L. S. Russell, who described a small mammalian fauna from Swan Hills Site-1 (Russell, 1967). Russell's collection from Site-1 was interpreted (correctly) as representing the Tiffanian Land-Mammal Age (Late Paleocene). Of particular interest, Russell (1967) described a new primate species of the plesiadapiform family Carpolestidae, “Carpolestes” cygneus, based on fragmentary remains from Site-1. This species was later transferred to Carpodaptes by Rose (1975). Judging from the evolutionary grade of Carpodaptes cygneus, Rose (1977) regarded Swan Hills Site-1 as early or early middle Tiffanian in age. Additional work on C. cygneus at other Canadian sites indicated that Site-1 might be early late Tiffanian in age (Krause, 1978). This distinction is important because Carpodaptes has a more detailed evolutionary record in Wyoming and Montana, and correct attribution of the name C. cygneus, originally based on three isolated teeth, to samples better known elsewhere necessarily requires precise correlation. The holotype and type sample of C. cygneus, by themselves, are too fragmentary and limited to characterize the species. Species of Carpodaptes are among the most common and useful fossils available for precise dating of sediments associated with Laramide tectonic deformation in the Western Interior. At 55° north latitude, Swan Hills Site-1 remains the most northerly locality in North America yielding Paleocene mammals.

North American pantodonts have mostly been recovered from the Rocky Mountain states. However, none has previously been accurately reported from Utah. Reference to Coryphodon was made by Cope in 1872 under the name Bathmodon, to which others (e.g., Marsh, 1876) later referred, but this probably was in error. The reported material apparently came from southwestern Wyoming rather than northeastern Utah. An undescribed coryphodontid jaw, though, has been collected from Eocene deposits in the Uinta Basin.