M. Griffin (Division Paleozoologia Invertebrados, Museo de la Plata, Argentin) and P. Bouchet (Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris) have kindly brought to my attention the fact that the genus name Taniella Kase (1990, p. 573; type species Taniella japonica Kase, 1990) is preoccupied by Taniella Finlay and Marwick, 1937, p. 48 (type species Natica notocenica Finlay, 1924). Consequently, a new name, Tanimasanoria, is proposed as a replacement for Taniella Kase, 1990. It is named in honor of Masanori Tani, for years of collecting the Izumi gastropods.

Certain groups of living Chlorophyta (green algae) have thalli made up of long, tubular cells with many nuclei and many plastids (Tappan, 1980; Bold and Wynne, 1985). The only cross walls in these coenocytes are those that isolate the gamete-producing structures. As the coenocytes approach the edges of the thallus, they branch, generally dichotomously, one or more times and eventually terminate in clavate or bulbous segments called utricles (Latin for small bag or bottle). Thus, the utricles are the termini of coenocytes that occur along the surface of the thallus and interface with the environment. Utricles have been figured in many descriptions and illustrations of such calcified genera as Halimeda (Wray, 1977) and such noncalcareous genera as Codium (Bold and Wynne, 1985). Because of the easily recognized distinction between the parts of the coenocytes, the thallus in cross section consists of a cortex occupied by the utricles and their contiguous segments and a medulla occupied by the long tubular portions of the cell (Figure 1).

In the paper by J. Keith Rigby (1991) in the January issue of the Journal, the Hungry Hollow Formation of southwestern Ontario is correlated with the basal Ludlowvillian Centerfield Limestone of New York. The new species of heteractinid sponge described in the paper was thus considered to be older than the designated type species of his new genus Gondekia, which is from the middle Ludlowvillian Wanakah Shale. The correlation was referred to as that of Rickard (1984) and was consistent with others going back several decades. It was also included in subsequent correlations based on conodont biostratigraphy (Johnson et al., 1985; Sparling, 1985) that are otherwise largely at odds with Rickard's conclusions. However, Brett and Baird (1985) provided convincing evidence that the Centerfield is a regressive unit between shales representing deeper water sedimentation, whereas the Hungry Hollow appears to be the basal unit of a transgressive sequence of strata and thus unlikely to be of the same age. Evidence for this was supplied by Landing and Brett (1987), who described a previously unrecognized disconformity beneath the Hungry Hollow and noted its regional significance. They also reported finding a single specimen of the conodont Polygnathus timorensis in the Hungry Hollow. This is the guide fossil for the Lower varcus Subzone, to which the Centerfield has been assigned, so placement of both units in at least the same conodont subzone was justified at that time.

A considerable part of micropaleontological work consists of picking microfossils for various types of analyses. Physical removal of specimens from a sample is necessary, for example, in morphometric, stable isotope, geochemical, and molecular studies of microfossils. The traditional method for picking microfossils involves transfer of each specimen from the picking tray to a slide using a moistened brush or a needle. This process requires a great deal of time and the risk of losing or damaging the specimen on the way from the picking tray to the slide is apparent. Furthermore, in geochemical analyses, the use of a moistened brush or needle for picking considerably increases the risk of contamination by undesirable organic substances, such as amino acids and polysaccharids. The brush-licking practised by some micropaleontologists results in anthropogenic contamination, which affects the results of molecular micropaleontologic analyses. We present a simple and effective device for microfossil picking, which may save about 60 percent of the time devoted to picking microfossils and prevent contamination during preparation.

During the course of field work for the invertebrate paleontology class at Bucknell University, part of an articulated polyplacophoran was discovered. Because these fossils are rare and because there are only two reports of North American Devonian polyplacophorans (Smith and Hoare, 1987), it is felt that this specimen should be described and illustrated.

Following the publication of papers by Bergström and Sweet (1966) and Schopf (1966), a gradual shift from the use of discrete element taxonomy to multielement taxonomy has occurred in describing conodonts. Although most workers now apply multielement taxonomy wherever possible, systematics have not been updated for many of the conodont faunas described earlier, and as a result the use of multielement taxonomy still is far from universal.

In the November 1990 (Vol. 64, no. 6) issue of the Journal of Paleontology, Lehman and Carpenter described an Aublysodon, which at the time was believed to be the most complete Carnosaur known from the Upper Cretaceous Kirtland Shale of northwestern New Mexico. Recently, a more complete specimen, considered to be a tyrannosaurid dinosaur on the basis of a proximally constricted third metatarsal and a partial D-shaped (in cross section) premaxillary tooth (Molnar, 1990), has been brought to the attention of the Museum of Geology at Arizona State University by an amateur paleontologist who recognized its scientific importance after obtaining it from an individual in New Mexico. The remains of this dinosaur, collected in northwestern New Mexico sometime in late 1989 or early 1990 by unknown persons, include both cranial and skeletal material (Figure 1.1).

When waikalasma was first recorded from early Miocene strata in New Zealand (Buckeridge, 1983) it was described as possessing eight compartmental plates but lacking basal whorls of imbricating plates. However, subsequent study and comparison of the holotype with extant Chionelasmus has shown that the remnants of several small plates remaining at the base of the rostrum represent the remains of two or three basal whorls (Figure 1). Furthermore, new evidence concerning the structure of the wall of the Chionelasmatinae has indicated not only that the true or median latus has been replaced by the carinolatus in balanomorphs, but that an additional or secondary carinolatus has been added in higher balanomorphs (Yamaguchi and Newman, 1990). The structure of the wall in Waikalasma can now be reinterpreted in light of these findings (Figure 2). It turns out, in terms of current phylogeny, that Waikalasma should be placed amongst the most primitive of the balanomorph barnacles, representing an important step in balanomorph evolution rather than simply an evolutionary offshoot as envisaged by Buckeridge (1983) and Foster and Buckeridge (1987) (Figure 3).

The trilobite Phacops rana var. milleri Stewart, 1927, was based on five specimens collected from the Silica Shale (Middle Devonian) in a quarry formerly owned by the Sandusky Cement Company, near Silica, Lucas County, Ohio. The “cotypes” (=syntypes of modern terminology) were catalogued as number 16266 in the Orton Geological Museum of The Ohio State University. Study of specimens in the OSU collection reveal four extant syntypes belonging to two subspecies of Phacops rana (Green, 1832). Three complete specimens and one separate eye are represented. A cephalon mentioned by Stewart (1927, p. 59) is missing and presumed lost. Of the extant specimens, three belong to P. rana milleri and one belongs to P. rana crassituberculata Stumm, 1953.

A nearly complete test and several test fragments of the irregular echinoid species Macropneustes mortoni (Conrad) were recently discovered in Lower Oligocene (Vicksburgian) strata of southern Alabama. To date, M. mortoni has only been reported from Upper Eocene (Jacksonian) sediments of Alabama, Georgia, and Florida (Cooke, 1959; Toulmin, 1977; Carter, 1987). This is one of the very few species of the diverse Eocene echinoid fauna of this region to survive the terminal Eocene extinctions.

This paper is the fourth in a continuing series describing Late Cretaceous echinoids from the United Arab Emirates (Ali, 1989, 1990, in press). A single semi-spherical Arbaciidae was discovered while I was preparing my earlier paper on additional echinoids of Gebel El Rowdah. This specimen resembled Codiopsis L. Agassiz (1840), but differs in having the ambulacral and interambulacral tubercles developed throughout the adapical and adoral sides. The ambulacral structure in the new genus is also unique among arbaciids. Therefore, the specimen is here placed in a new genus, having been omitted from previous papers because of the paucity of the material. Recently, during a field trip with students of the Geology Department, U.A.E. University, to the same location visited in December 1990, an additional 18 specimens were collected. These provide the basis for the present description of a new genus.

We described a Late Cretaceous fish fauna from the Campanian-age Blufftown Formation in western Georgia (Case and Schwimmer, 1988), including 15 selachian taxa and 8 osteichthyans; however, at that time no chimaeras had been found in the region. A well-preserved specimen of Ischyodus bifurcatus Case, 1978, was subsequently collected from the same general locality described in the above study, but in the immediately superjacent Cusseta Formation. This is a note of the new occurrence of this fish and a summary of its known geographic and stratigraphic distribution (Appendix).