Silicified oolites and pisolites from Bed 18 of the Upper Proterozoic (about 700–800 Ma) Limestone–Dolomite “Series” of the Eleonore Bay Group, central East Greenland, contain a diverse suite of organically preserved microfossils that is, for the most part, unlike assemblages previously described from Proterozoic cherts and shales. Three principal assemblages occur in these rocks: 1) a clast-bound assemblage found in detrital carbonate grains (now silicified) that served as nuclei for ooid and pisoid growth, as well as in uncoated mud and mat clasts that were carried into the zone of ooid and pisoid deposition; 2) an epilithic and interstitial assemblage consisting of microorganisms that occurred on top of and between grains; and 3) a euendolithic assemblage composed of microbes that actively bored into coated grains. The Upper Proterozoic euendolithic assemblage closely resembles a community of euendolithic cyanobacteria found today in shallow marine ooid sands of the Bahama Banks. Thirteen species are described, of which eight are new, five representing new genera: Eohyella dichotoma n. sp., Eohyella endoatracta n. sp., Eohyella rectoclada n. sp., Thylacocausticus globorum n. gen. and sp., Cunicularius halleri n. gen. and sp., Graviglomus incrustus n. gen. and sp., Perulagranum obovatum n. gen. and sp., and Parenchymodiscus endolithicus n. gen. and sp.

The utility of benthic foraminifera in bathymetric interpretation of clastic depositional environments is well established. In contrast, bathymetric distribution of benthic foraminifera in deep-water carbonate environments has been largely neglected. Approximately 260 species and morphotypes of benthic foraminifera were identified from 12 piston core tops and grab samples collected along two traverses 25 km apart across the northern windward margin of Little Bahama Bank at depths of 275-1,135 m. Certain species and operational taxonomic groups of benthic foraminifera correspond to major near-surface sedimentary facies of the windward margin of Little Bahama Bank and serve as reliable depth indicators. Globocassidulina subglobosa, Cibicides rugosus, and Cibicides wuellerstorfi are all reliable depth indicators, being most abundant at depths >1,000 m, and are found in lower slope periplatform aprons, which are primarily comprised of sediment gravity flows. Reef-dwelling peneroplids and soritids (suborder Miliolina) and rotaliines (suborder Rotaliina) are most abundant at depths <300 m, reflecting downslope bottom transport in proximity to bank-margin reefs. Small miliolines, rosalinids, and discorbids are abundant in periplatform ooze at depths <300 m and are winnowed from the carbonate platform. Increased variation in assemblage diversity below 900 m reflects mixing of shallow- and deep-water species by sediment gravity flows.

Trends are the primary phenomenon of macroevolution, but they have often been misinterpreted because an old and deep conceptual error has induced us to misread, as anagenesis in abstracted entities, a pattern that actually records changes in variance by increase or decrease in diversity or disparity among species within clades. These patterns are actually produced by the “entity making and breaking machine” of differential species success, but we misread history as anagenesis because we focus on extreme values (though they may only represent tails in variance of a system), or on measures of central tendency that shift passively as species birth and death work in their differential way. I discuss several examples in two classes: “increase trends” mediated by growth in variance, and “decrease trends” produced by diminution of diversity or disparity. I present two examples in extenso based on original data: threefold occurrence of Cope's rule in planktonic foraminifers as a consequence of increasing species diversity from small founding lineages (increase trend), and disappearance of 400 hitting in baseball as a decrease trend recording symmetrical decline of variance with increasing excellence of play, not the gradual extinction of a valued “thing.” A proper appreciation of trends as changes in variance flows from and into the two most important revisionary themes in modern evolutionary theory: 1) constraint and structure as an antidote to overreliance upon adaptation (questions about why founding lineages tend to be small, and why size ranges are constrained, lie primarily in structural, not adaptational, domains); 2) hierarchy (increase and decrease trends are powered by differential species sorting, not by extrapolated anagenesis of competition among organisms within populations).

The distinctive trace fossil Chubutolithes gaimanensis n. ichnosp. occurs in Casamayoran (early Eocene) and Colhuéhaupian (late Oligocene) alluvial rocks of the Sarmiento Formation in eastern Chubut Province, Argentina. Though known for nearly 70 years, its origin has remained obscure. Examination of new specimens and comparisons with modern analogs demonstrate that specimens of Chubutolithes represent the fossil nests of a mud-dauber (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae). Virtually identical nests are constructed today by mud-daubers in areas as disparate as southern Santa Cruz Province, Argentina, and Nebraska, confirming that quite similar trace fossils can be produced by several different taxa in a higher taxonomic clade. No satisfactory ethological term exists for trace fossils that, like Chubutolithes, were constructed by organisms above, rather than within, a substrate or medium. The new term aedificichnia is proposed.

Chubutolithes occurs in alluvial paleosols and is associated with a large terrestrial ichnofauna. These trace fossils include the nests of scarab beetles, compound nests of social insects, and burrows of earthworms.

There has been some confusion in the literature regarding the present location of the type specimens of species described by Cope in 1886, which has resulted in the unnecessary erection of a neotype (Grande, 1982) for one of these species. This note is an attempt to trace the fate of these Brazilian specimens based on archival material in the Palaeontological Library of the British Museum (Natural History) (BMNH).

Girty (1895) named six species of stromatoporoids from the Lower Devonian of central and east-central New York, which are here redescribed and reillustrated. Additional new specimens provide data on variations within the following species: Anostylostroma jewetti, Parallelostroma foveolatum, ?Parallelostroma centrotum, and ?Parallelostroma microporum.

Sponsors: The Royal Society of New Zealand and International Palaeontological Association (IPA). Following on from the very successful 1st International Brachiopod Congress at the Universite de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest, in September 1985, the New Zealand congress will cover all aspects of brachiopod research.

Craterolithus n. gen. is described. Craterolithus hoerstgensis (Müller) n. comb. is designated as type species, and its description is emended. This distinctive species occurs within a restricted range in the middle Oligocene (NP 23 to lower NP 24) of the Labrador Sea and northern Germany.

Large trace fossils attributed to the ichnogenus Psilonichnus (Fürsich) have been identified in subtidal sediments of the Red Crag Formation (late Pliocene) of Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex, U.K. The traces are vertical or inclined, tapering cylindrical structures, occasionally branched, up to 2.3 m long. The structures are mud-rich relative to the surrounding sediment and their fills often show a spiralling grain fabric. The ichnogenus Psilonichnus has formerly been attributed to the burrowing activities of intertidal and supratidal crab species. The known fossil crab assemblage of the Red Crag contains no deep burrowing species. The traces are thus attributed to other crustaceans, possibly thalassinidean shrimps. The occurrence indicates that Psilonichnus may have a greater palaeoenvironmental range than previously realized.

A microfossil study of two boreholes, Araromi and Gbekebo (Geological Survey of Nigeria borehole numbers 1131 and 1132) (Figure 1), revealed the occurrence of Buntonia beninensis Reyment (1960, 1963) in the late Paleocene interval. This species was found to have forms with normal overlap and hinge element and forms with a reversal of these morphological features. In the former, the left valve is larger than the right, which bears the projecting terminal hinge element, whereas, in the latter, the larger valve is the right valve with the smaller left valve bearing the projecting terminal hinge element.

The Cretaceous Kodiak Formation at the northeastern end of Kodiak Island, Alaska, is interpreted to have been deposited in a distal deep-sea fan complex. Facies analysis of the sequence suggests deposition in channels (both major and distributary), lobe fringe (proximal and distal), and interchannel and interchannel/channel mouth environments. The strata contain a diverse and relatively abundant trace fossil assemblage consisting, at the ichnogeneric level, of twenty-six forms: Acanthorhaphe, Chondrites, Circulichnis, Cochlichnus, Cosmorhaphe, Desmograpton, Glockerichnus, Gordia, Helminthoida, Helminthopsis, Muensteria, Neonereites, Nereites, Paleodictyon, Palaeophycus, ?Phycosiphon, Planolites, Protopaleodictyon, Scolicia, Spirophycus, Spirorhaphe, Taenidium, Taphrhelminthopsis, Terebellina, Thalassinoides, and Yakutatia.

Thirty-eight ichnospecies are described, three of which (Acanthorhaphe ichnosp., Cosmorhaphe helicoidea, and Desmograpton fuchsi) are recorded for the first time in North America. Final channel-fill (levee) and interchannel environments contain the most abundant and diverse ichnoassemblages, a reflection of favorable environmental parameters for inhabitation by benthic organisms, but more importantly the presence of diverse lithotypes conducive to the final preservation of their activity. Channel-fill sequences are devoid of trace fossils, a reflection of substrate mobility and lack of shale interbeds precluding toponomic preservation. Lobe fringe sequences contain only isolated trace fossils, a reflection of their poor exposure and largely monolithologic character.

The ichnoassemblage is compared to 20 previously described and taxonomically well-documented deep-water flysch trace fossil studies from the Phanerozoic. Comparison at the ichnogeneric level is favorable with only Acanthorhaphe, Terebellina, and Yakutatia being relatively unique to the Kodiak sequence.

The heliolitid fauna of the Upper Silurian West Point Formation of southern Gaspé, Québec, Canada, consists of Propora tubulata (Lonsdale), Heliolites decipiens (McCoy), H. daintreei Nicholson and Etheridge, and Heliolites sp. cf. H. bohemicus Wentzel. All of these species are common in Europe, but are rare in North America. Heliolites sp. cf. H. bohemicus and H. daintreei are newly reported for North America. Very restricted facies occurrences, and presumed environmental preferences, of species such as P. tubulata and H. daintreei suggest that facies occurrences may be useful, along with conventional morphological criteria, in distinguishing species of heliolitid corals.

Bocchino (1964) described and figured a new genus and species, Propygidium primaevus, and assigned it to the siluriform family Trichomycteridae (=Pygidiidae). After examination of the holotype, the only referred specimen, the authors conclude that it does not correspond to a catfish, but to an acanthopterygian. Since it was considered the only fossil record of trichomycteridae, and having been used to support speculations on the “center of origin” of this Neotropical family (see Ringuelet, 1975), it is appropriate to correct the former assignment.

Lidaconus palmettoensis n. gen. and sp. is a recently discovered fossil from the Lower Cambrian Harkless Formation (Bonnia–Olenellus Zone) in Esmeralda County, Nevada. The conoidal fossils were originally calcareous and have been replaced by silica. The cones are distinctive in their consistent morphology, the presence of weak annulations, and the lack of any internal structures such as septa, tabulae, or dissepiments. Because of the paucity of diagnostic characters due to the simple morphology and the lack of original microstructure, taxonomic affinities are uncertain.

Stromatoporoids from the Late Devonian (early Frasnian) Waterways Formation near Fort McMurray, Alberta, contain well preserved Trypanites Mägdefrau. The stromatoporoid heads are formed of an initial growth of Clathrocoilona inconstans Stearn that is encased by a second stage growth of Trupetostroma papulosum Stearn. These two stages were separated by a period of no growth and erosion. The first two generations of boring penetrated the skeleton of C. inconstans while the third generation borings penetrated both C. inconstans and T. papulosum. The borings in the stromatoporoids are filled with light colored micrite, dark colored micrite, skeletal fragments, dolomite, non-ferroan calcite, and ferroan calcite. Analysis of the borings, the growth stages of the stromatoporoids, the boring fill, and the orientation of the geopetal fabrics indicates that the stromatoporoids were subjected to repeated cycles of growth-boring-filling and reorientation. This complex interaction of biologic and physical reworking had a profound influence on the diagenetic transformation of the stromatoporoid heads. This example clearly illustrates the role that biogenic agents can play in the production of diagenetic fabrics of hard carbonate substrates.

Molds of corals, bivalves, and gastropods in the Oligocene–Miocene Bluff Formation of Grand Cayman Island contain casts of Entobia (nine ichnospecies including the new ichnospecies E. dendritica), Trypanites (three ichnospecies), Gastrochaenolites (two ichnospecies), Maeandropolydora (one ichnospecies), Talpina (one ichnospecies), and Caulostrepsis (one ichnospecies), as well as the new ichnogenus Uniglobites, indeterminate ichnogenus A, and a problematical boring. Entobia accounts for about 75 percent of the borings, while Uniglobites and Trypanites together account for 15 percent of the borings. Comparison of Uniglobites with modern borings of known affinity suggests that it was produced by adociid and/or clionid sponges while indeterminate ichnogenus A was probably formed by bivalves. The amount of boring, which ranges from 0 to 75 percent, varies from skeleton to skeleton or, in some cases, from branch to branch of the same coral colony. The branching coral Stylophora was particularly susceptible to boring, probably because of its small size and high surface area. The average boring of about 38 percent compares favorably with the amount of boring found in modern corals. Analysis of the borings suggests that sponges were responsible for most of the borings in the corals from the Bluff Formation. Comparison with bioerosion in modern reefs suggests that similar patterns of bioerosion were also occurring in Oligocene–Miocene times.

Three new species of Hippocardia, H. ancora, H. pala, and H. cucullata, are described. Hippocardia ancora and H. pala occur together in the Lazy Bend Formation (Desmoinesian) of Texas. Hippocardia cucullata occurs in the Imo Formation (Chesterian) of Arkansas.

Modifications of primitive astogenetic patterns were central to the origin of bifoliate Peronopora. Outgroup comparison with Prasopora indicates that fundamental events in the former's origin included vertical growth of basal lamina skeleton to form the median lamina and heterochronic modifications of early and later-stage astogeny. Heterochronic modifications of early astogeny included acceleration of budding rates in the ancestrular disc, disc enlargement, and reduction of the basal expansion. Later-stage heterochronic modifications included reduction of zooecial length and width of “endozonal” growth and parallel orientation of cystiphragms about maculae. Also important were “2-D” budding in longitudinal ranges and a unique mode of secondary frond formation. Paedomorphosis resulted in constraints on zoarial form, autozooecial morphology, cystiphragm patterning, and increased colonial integration. Coordination of early and later-stage astogenetic events suggests developmental integration linked to median lamina formation. Heterochronic modifications are inferred to have been products of spatial competition in early astogeny and competitive avoidance and resource exploitation in later astogeny. Restricted biogeographic distribution and characteristics of the ancestrula suggest that the larvae of bifoliate Peronopora were nonplanktotrophic.

A shared derived suite of characters including the median lamina unite the bifoliate Peronopora clade. Results of cladistic analyses indicate that bifoliate Peronopora comprise a cohesive, statistically significant clade. Character analysis, phylogenetic results, and the restricted biogeographic distribution of bifoliate species support the hypothesis of a monophyletic bifoliate Peronopora clade of generic rank. The generic concept of Peronopora is revised and limited to bifoliate species.