Diverse and well-preserved radiolarian assemblages were recovered from the middle Eocene sedimentary sequences drilled at Ocean Drilling Program Site 1051 (Leg 171B; western subtropical Atlantic). In addition to biostratigraphically important species, several unknown morphotypes were observed in this material, leading to the description of three new spumellarian species and 18 new nassellarian species. Described herein are: Periphaena petrushevskayae n. sp. (Phacodiscidae), Stylodictya oligodonta n. sp. (Trematodiscidae), Excentrosphaerella delicata n. sp. (Heliodiscidae), Eucyrtidium granatum n. sp. (Eucyrtidiidae), Dictyoprora echidna n. sp., Spirocyrtis matsuokai n. sp. (Artostrobiidae), Elaphospyris cordiformis n. sp., Elaphospyris quadricornis n. sp. (Cephalospyrididae), Ceratocyrtis oconnori n. sp. (Lophophaenidae), Botryocella? alectrida n. sp., Pylobotrys? bineti n. sp. (Pylobotrydidae), Lychnocanium cheni n. sp., Lychnocanium cingulatum n. sp., Lychnocanium croizoni n. sp., Lychnocanium forficula n. sp. (Lithochytrididae), Apoplanius hyalinus n. sp., Apoplanius cryptodirus n. sp. (Lophocyrtiidae), Albatrossidium messiaeni n. sp., Phormocyrtis microtesta n. sp., Cryptocarpium? judoka n. sp. (Pterocorythidae), and Thyrsocyrtis kamikuri n. sp. (Theocotylidae). Biostratigraphic information is provided for each new species. In addition, we re-describe and illustrate the morphological variability of a remarkable Pterocyrtidium species formerly published by Bütschli (1882a).

UUID: http://zoobank.org/a01f7f03-73b0-458a-af7b-b85dc4666cc2

The zosterophyllopsids had a widespread distribution and constituted a dominant component in many plant assemblages during the Early Devonian. Although a large number of zosterophyllopsids have been documented, knowledge about the paleogeographic distribution of different genera/species remains to be expanded by further fossil evidence. In this article, new material assigned to the genus Gosslingia Heard, 1927 and designated as Gosslingia cf. G. breconensis Heard, 1927 is described from a new locality of the Lower Devonian of Guizhou Province, China. The Guizhou material shows main axes that are pseudomonopodially branched, pseudomonopodial lateral branching systems, subaxillary tubercle branches, circinate apices, elliptical xylem strand, exarch maturation of xylem, and G-type tracheids, and exhibits considerable similarities with the type and only species of Gosslingia, Gosslingia breconensis. Our finding represents the first report of Gosslingia in the South China Block and the most convincing occurrence of this genus outside of Wales, UK. Gosslingia adds to the diversity of genera shared among the Early Devonian floras of South China, western Europe, and North America, along with Distichophytum Mägdefrau, Estinnophyton Fairon-Demaret, Zosterophyllum Penhallow, and others, and indicates that the dispersal of early vascular plants among different paleocontinents was more common than previously appreciated.

Following the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction event, brachiopod faunas were in a phase of recovery during the late Rhuddanian (early Silurian), documented by a drastic turnover of Ordovician-type to Silurian-type faunas. In this study, we present a recovery brachiopod fauna, from the Niuchang Formation (late Rhuddanian-based graptolite zonation) at the Wanzi section of Zhenxiong in northeastern Yunnan Province, South China. The fossils include 26 species assigned to 25 genera, with a dominance of strophomenides and orthides, but also a diverse suite of atrypides and pentamerides, which exhibit compositional differences compared to the earlier Edgewood–Cathay fauna. The emergence of a more typical Silurian brachiopod fauna suggests a delayed community turnover after the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction event. The shallowing marine environment trend evinced in the brachiopod assemblages in the section indicates a balance between the global transgression and the regional Qianzhong Uplift, which provided a stable environment for the brachiopod recovery. The presence of diverse pentamerides, including the earliest species of the large-shelled genus Sinostricklandiella, suggests early diversification of this clade in South China.

The Cambrian dokimocephalid trilobite genus Deckera Frederickson, 1949 is a minor component of Steptoean (Jiangshanian) faunas of Laurentian North America. The original diagnosis emphasized strongly inflated palpebral areas of fixed cheeks and elevated palpebral lobes as important and novel characters. An appraisal of archival and new specimens from Oklahoma, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Utah, and Newfoundland show that the genus is geographically widespread and likely represented by as many as nine species, although only two of them are named formally. Deckera cf. D. aldenensis Frederickson, 1949 from Nevada extends the stratigraphic range of Deckera down to the base of the Jiangshanian Stage, and new species from Nevada and Newfoundland take the genus down farther, into upper Paibian strata. Paibian species show that some basal members of the genus have weakly inflated, nearly flat palpebral areas with palpebral lobes that sit well below the crest of the glabella. A revised diagnosis of Deckera focuses on the broad cranidium with width across the palpebral lobes much greater than the sagittal length. Pygidia are known for a few species and all of them have an unusual flexure of the posterior margin and border. Lectotype and paralectotype specimens are designated for Deckera completa.

A new genus and species of arachnid (Chelicerata: Arachnida), Douglassarachne acanthopoda n. gen. n. sp., is described from the late Carboniferous (Moscovian) Coal Measures of the Mazon Creek Lagerstätte, Illinois, USA. This is a unique animal with distinctive large spines on the legs. It has a subovate body, a segmented opisthosoma, and a terminal anal tubercle. The legs are robust and appear to have been similar in construction throughout the limb series, with heavy spination of the preserved proximal podomeres. The mouthparts and coxo-sternal region are equivocal. The preserved character combination does not permit easy referral to any known arachnid order, living or extinct, thus the new fossil in placed as Arachnida/Pantetrapulmonata incertae sedis. It contributes to an emerging pattern of disparate body plans among late Carboniferous arachnids, ranging from anatomically modern members of living orders through to extinct taxa, such as the present fossil, whose phylogenetic position remains unresolved.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/b70f5f95-9c8b-4389-bee5-b6031bff2ee2

A new crinoid fauna has been discovered in the Upper Ordovician (Katian) Martinsburg Formation at a small shale quarry, locally known as the ‘Shale Bank,’ on the Shawangunk Ridge in Ulster County, NY. The assemblage, which is from a relatively low energy, offshore mud-bottom environment, includes four identified species, including a new species of glyptocrinid camerate, Pycnocrinus mohonkensis n. sp., described herein. Crinoid taxa in order of increasing branch density in the assemblage include (1) the dicyclic inadunate Merocrinus curtus with irregularly isotomous and heterotomous, non-pinnulate arms and a stout cylindrical column exceeding 700 mm; (2) the disparids Cincinnaticrinus varibrachialus, with heterotomous non pinnulate arms, and Ectenocrinus simplex, with extensively branched ramulate arms and meric columns of 460–500 mm; and (3) the camerate Pycnocrinus mohonkensis n. sp., with uniserial pinnulate arms and a somewhat shorter column. Some cylindrical stems with nodose and holomeric columnals are thought to belong to unknown camerate crinoids with pinnulate arms. Filtration theory is used to model food capture in the Martinsburg crinoids. Surprisingly, even densely pinnulate camerates were able to survive in this setting, suggesting that ambient currents attained velocities exceeding 25 cm/sec even in this offshore setting. Similar assemblages were widespread in eastern Laurentia during the Late Ordovician.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/23ca31e8-f572-4520-ba1d-891e3abb950d

Encompassing global cooling, the spread of grasslands, and biogeographic interchanges, the Hemphillian North American Land Mammal Age is an important interval for understanding the factors driving ecological and evolutionary change through time. McKay Reservoir near Pendleton, Oregon is a natural laboratory for analyses of these factors. It is remarkable for its small vertebrate fauna including rodents, bats, turtles, and lagomorphs, but also for its larger mammal fossils like camelids, rhinocerotids, canids, and felids. Despite the importance of the site, few revisions to its faunal list have been published since its original description. We expand on this description by identifying taxa not previously known from McKay Reservoir based on specimens collected during fieldwork and through reidentification of previously collected fossils. Newly identified taxa include the borophagine canid Borophagus secundus (Matthew and Cook, 1909), the camelids Megatylopus Matthew and Cook, 1909 and Pleiolama Webb and Meachen, 2004, a dromomerycid, and the equids Cormohipparion Skinner and MacFadden, 1977 and Pseudhipparion Ameghino, 1904. Specimens previously assigned to Neohipparion Gidley, 1903 and Hipparion de Christol, 1832 lack the features necessary to diagnose these genera, which are therefore removed from the site's faunal list. The presence of Borophagus secundus, Cormohipparion, and Pseudhipparion is especially important, because each occurrence represents a major geographic range extension. This refined understanding of the fauna lays the foundation for future studies of taphonomy, taxonomy, functional morphology, and paleoecology—potentially at the population, community, or ecosystem levels—at this paleobiologically significant Miocene locality.

The fossil genus Heterocladus LoDuca, Kluessendorf, and Mikulic, 2003 was established based on specimens from the Silurian (Llandovery) of southeastern Wisconsin, USA (LoDuca et al., 2003). This genus is monotypic and contains only the type species Heterocladus waukeshaensis LoDuca, Kluessendorf, and Mikulic, 2003, regarded as a noncalcified dasycladalean alga (LoDuca et al., 2003). Heterocladus waukeshaensis shows a narrow, undivided main axis and two types of laterals. Hair-like, branched laterals are arranged in whorls at lower part of the main axis, whereas clavate, undivided laterals appear at the upper part (LoDuca et al., 2003). The generic name is derived from the Greek hetero and klados, meaning ‘different’ and ‘branches,’ respectively (LoDuca et al., 2003).

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 their detailed comments, Das et al. (2023) try to discount our arguments that the strata cropping out at the so-called Jhura pond locality are not Late Jurassic in age but Miocene. We wrote this paper (Fürsich et al., 2023) because of the far-reaching conclusions that have been drawn from the molluscan fauna at that locality, in particular with respect to the evolution of turritellid gastropods and the evolution of drilling predation by naticid gastropods. We still maintain that the beds containing abundant turritellids are not Jurassic but Neogene, most probably Miocene, in age. In no way do we contest the various analyses on the material collected from the outcrop by the authors, but just the erroneous age assignment of the strata. In order to keep this reply short, we support our point by referring to just to two aspects: the position of the outcrop and the composition of the fauna. Rather than refuting each of the other arguments of Das et al. (2023), we think that a joint visit to the locality would be more productive for arriving at a consensus on the origin and age of the fauna of the Jhura pond locality.