The harpid neogastropod genus Oniscidia Mörch, 1852, which has not been recognized before in the northeast Pacific fossil record, is represented there by rare specimens of Oniscidia plectata (Waring, 1917) n. comb., of late early Paleocene age, in a region extending from southern California, USA to Baja California, Mexico. This species is the earliest unequivocal record of Oniscidia and its only known Paleocene record. It apparently lived in silty, inner- to middle-shelf depths, which were inherently cooler than adjacent shallower marine depths. Its habitat was subject to the influx of shallow-marine shells, especially turritellas, contained in turbidity currents emanating from nearshore depths.

The global paleogeography of Oniscidia, which is presented here for the first time, has been overlooked previously because this genus has a long and complicated history of taxonomic confusion with the harpid genus Morum Röding, 1798. Oniscidia questionably originated during the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) in southern India and apparently dispersed westward through the Tethys Seaway into the New World. Paleocene and early Eocene occurrences of this genus are rare, and middle Eocene occurrences are uncommon. During the cool times of the Oligocene and into the early Miocene, it was most widespread. Its range became restricted during the middle Miocene and continued to be so during the Pliocene, Pleistocene, and modern day, with occurrences only in the Caribbean Sea region, Florida, and the western Pacific. Its distribution through warm and cool times was most likely controlled by its habitat preference for relatively deep cool waters.

A bryozoan-dominated fauna that inhabited small caves underneath a carbonate hardground is here described from the Corryville Formation (Upper Ordovician, Katian) exposed near Washington, Mason County, Kentucky, USA. The dominant bryozoan, Stigmatella personata (a trepostome), is found both growing downwards from the cave ceilings and upwards on the exposed hardground surface above. Another trepostome, Monticulipora, is a minor component of the cave fauna. There are few discernible anatomical differences between the bryozoan colonies that grew upwards in presumably well-lit waters and those that grew downwards in the gloomy caves. The pendant, cave-dwelling S. personata in some cases appears to have longer zooecial tubes than its exposed equivalent. The colonies of S. personata are rounded mounds with multiple layers formed by self-overgrowth. The overgrowths in both downward and upward growing forms are marked by thin layers of sediment infilling the upper zooecial chambers in the older portion of the colony. We suggest that biofilms developed on patches of the colony where the zooids had died. Sediment adhered to these surfaces and the colony then overgrew the patches, trapping sediment within the skeleton. The bryozoan zoaria and the carbonate hardground are extensively bored by the cylindrical ichnogenus Trypanites that occasionally contain cylindrical calcite-filled tubes similar to “ghosts” of organic materials. Bioclaustrations are present in some of the bryozoan skeletons. This cave fauna is one of few submarine examples known from the Paleozoic. It supports the hypothesis that early cave-dwelling organisms were little differentiated from their exposed counterparts.

The Devonian of the Carnic Alps (Austria) is developed in different facies. The shallow marine facies is up to 1200 m thick. The Feldkogel Limestone of the Polinik Formation, >330 m thick, was dated as Eifelian–Late Devonian. The Feldkogel Limestone at Mount Polinik is developed in a peritidal facies composed of subtidal, intertidal, and supratidal deposits. Subtidal sediments are represented by dark gray Amphipora limestone and intertidal deposits by laminated and partly bioturbated grainstone and packstone, ostracode wackestone to packstone, and locally intercalated intraclast breccias documenting tidal channel fills. Laminated microbial mats (stromatolites) formed in a supratidal depositional environment. Grainstone and packstone contain abundant unilocular parathuramminid foraminifers. This latter group encompasses a diversified assemblage of ivanovellids, parathuramminids, uralinellids, and irregularinoids; some earlandiids are also present. They are dated herein as late Eifelian–early Givetian. These foraminifers provide a more precise systematics of these taxa, which often have not been studied for more than half a century. The taxonomic problems of their assignment to foraminifers, pseudo-foraminifers, calcitarcha, thaumatoporellaceans, volvocaleans, or other algae are also discussed. Several taxa are emendated: Parathuramminida, Parathuramminoidea, Irregularinoidea, Eovolutinidae, Ivanovellidae, Parathuramminidae, Uralinellidae, Ivanovella, Elenella, Neoarchaesphaera, Parathurammina, Bykovaella, Uralinella, and Paracaligella. The new taxa are: Ivanovella reitlingerae n. sp., Elenella polinikensis n. sp., Uralinella sabirovi n. sp., and Radiosphaerella poyarkovi n. sp.

Pilophyllia Ge and Yu, 1974 represents a major group of distinctive amplexoid corals in the Silurian, whose taxonomic relationships, species composition, and evolutionary trends remain contentious. A critical revision of type material and new specimens of several species (and subspecies) assigned to Pilophyllia, including the type species P. involuta Ge and Yu, 1974, provides solutions to some of these problems. Pilophyllia is revised to include only those forms characterized by a distinct peripheral stereozone and amplexoid major septa with club-shaped rhabdacanths set in thick lamellar stereomes. Other species, previously referred to Pilophyllia but having generally short septa with wedge-shaped rhabdacanths, are transferred herein to the new genus Neopilophyllia Wang. Both genera, together with other Silurian amplexoid rugosan genera such as Amplexoides, are referred to the new family Amplexoididae Wang, which is thought to be evolutionarily unrelated to the much younger (Devonian to early Carboniferous) amplexoid rugosan family Amplexidae Chapman, 1893. The first appearance of Neopilophyllia n. gen. in the middle Telychian, much later than that of Pilophyllia in the late Rhuddanian, probably marks a significant stage during the evolution of Silurian amplexoid corals.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/c22423b0-7af2-4be0-8ac2-7d47addde621

Four rare Pennsylvanian (Stark Shale: Pennsylvanian, Missourian [=Kasimovian]) coleoids from Nebraska and Iowa, which are preserved as flattened partial phragmocones and body chambers associated with three-dimensionally fossilized ink sacs, are herein described as Pabianiconus starkensis new genus new species, Nebraskaconus whitei new genus new species, and Starkites compressus new genus new species. One specimen that is missing most of the phragmocone, is provisionally assigned to Donovaniconus. The fossils are assigned to the Coleoidea because of the presence of ink-filled sacs in the body chamber region of the conch. Additionally, eight fragmented and flattened phragmocones and body-chamber clusters with similar morphologies, including some with ink fragments and arm hooks, are assigned to the Coleoidea, but are not named because of their fragmentary condition. On most of the eight specimens, the shell material is associated with other unidentified finely macerated material, which suggests these fossils are probably either ejectoid masses or coprolites from coleoid predators and/or scavengers. However, the new genera named above appear to have been deposited as complete animals, based on the presence of the ink-filled sacs that are in the body chambers. With their body chamber and phragmocone morphologies, these rare coleoid taxa provide valuable information about conch variability within the Carboniferous evolutionary radiation of coleoids.

Altaethyrella tarimensis, a new species of rhynchonellide brachiopod, is described from the late Katian (Late Ordovician) Hadabulaktag Formation in the Kuruktag region of Xinjiang, Northwest China on the northeastern edge of the Tarim Basin. Serial sections of the shell clearly show no dorsal median septum or septalium in the dorsal valve, and no spiralia or atrypide-style crura. Like other species of the genus, A. tarimensis n. sp. exhibits a high degree of intraspecific variation, including variations in shell shape and size, number of ribs in the sulcus at the anterior, and degree of asymmetry. The discovery of Altaethyrella in Tarim has important paleogeographic implications, indicating a close relationship between the Late Ordovician brachiopod faunas of Tarim and those of the Kazakh terranes and North and South China paleoplates, supporting a recently published paleogeographic projection that places Tarim near the Chu-Ili terrane during the Late Ordovician. The abundant large biconvex shells of A. tarimensis n. sp. would have provided a firm substrate for encrusting filter feeders like bryozoans to establish on the Kuruktag Platform.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/df8843cd-4db0-48e7-ba03-bf0ce81c4f01

Turritellid gastropods are important components of many Cretaceous–Recent fossil marine faunas worldwide. Their shell is morphologically simple, making homoplasy widespread and phylogenetic analysis difficult, but fossil and living species can be recognized based on shell characters. For many decades, it has been the consensus that the oldest definite representatives of Turritellidae are from the Lower Cretaceous, and that pre-Cretaceous forms are homeomorphs. Some morphological characters of the present turritelline species resemble those of mathildoids, but many diagnostic characters clearly separate these two groups. We here describe and/or redescribe—based on examination of more than 2600 near complete specimens—four species from the Upper Jurassic Dhosa Oolite Member of the Chari Formation in Kutch, western India, and demonstrate that they are members of Turritellidae, subfamily Turritellinae, on the basis of diagnostic characters including apical sculptural ontogeny (obtained from SEM study), spiral sculpture, and growth line patterns. The four species are in order of abundance, Turritella jadavpuriensis Mitra and Ghosh, 1979; Turritella amitava new species; Turritella jhuraensis Mitra and Ghosh, 1979, and Turritella dhosaensis new species. The turritelline assemblages occur only on the northeastern flank of the Jhura dome (23°24’47.57”N, 69°36’09.26”E). Age of the Dhosa Oolite has recently been confirmed based on multiple ammonite species. All these points indicate that these fossils are the oldest record of the family Turritellidae—by almost 30 million years—in the world.

The limited record of the bactritoid-like coleoid cephalopods is here expanded due to discovery of a late Carboniferous (Moscovian) orthocone comprising a phragmocone and a body chamber with a proostracum-like structure, a sheath-like rostrum, an ink sac, and a muscular mantle preserved on top of the conch. The specimen comes from the Wewoka Formation in the vicinity of the city of Okmulgee, Oklahoma, which previously yielded an orthocone indicative of an evolutionary branch of the Carboniferous cephalopods described as the order Donovaniconida Doguzhaeva, Mapes, and Mutvei, 2007a within the subclass Coleoidea Bather, 1888. Here, we describe from that site a bactritoid-like coleoid, Oklaconus okmulgeensis n. gen. n. sp. in Oklaconidae n. fam. A broad lateral lobe of the suture line and a compressed conch with a narrowed dorsal side and a broadly rounded ventral side distinguish this genus from Donovaniconus Doguzhaeva, Mapes, and Mutvei, 2002b. The muscular mantle is preserved as a dense sheet-like structure, with a crisscross pattern and a globular-lamellar ultrastructure. Recent knowledge on the early to late Carboniferous coleoids is discussed. Carboniferous coleoids show a high morphological plasticity with a capacity for being altered to create the diverse combinations of ‘bactritoid’ and ‘coleoid’ structures. This could be the principle evolutionary driver of their radiation in the late Carboniferous.

Ten bryozoan species are described from the Andrecito and Tierra Blanca members of the Lake Valley Formation (Mississippian) of Sierra County, New Mexico, USA. One genus, with one species, is new—a cystoporate, Cystomeson sierraensis n. gen. n. sp. The bryozoans indicate quieter and deeper conditions in the Andrecito Member and more agitated and shallower conditions in the Tierra Blanca Member. The species identified in this study are endemic to North America, whereas at the generic level, the composition is rather cosmopolitan.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/fc354A60-1fbc-4e41-8b9b-bbfd65e59a71

Malongitubus kuangshanensis Hu, 2005 from the early Cambrian Chengjiang Lagerstätte of China is redescribed as a pterobranch and provides the best evidence to demonstrate that hemichordates were present as early as Cambrian Stage 3. Interpretation of this taxon as a hemichordate is based on the morphology of the branched colony and the presence of resistant inner threads consistent with the remains of an internal stolon system. The presence of fusellar rings in the colonial tubes cannot be unambiguously proven for Malongitubus, probably due to early decay and later diagenetic replacement of the thin organic material of the tubarium, although weak annulations are still discernible in parts of the tubes. The description of M. kuangshanensis is revised according to new observations of previously reported specimens and recently collected additional new material. Malongitubus appears similar in most features to Dalyia racemata Walcott, 1919 from the Cambrian Stage 5 Burgess Shale, but can be distinguished by the existence of disc-like thickenings at the bases of tubarium branching points in the latter species. Both species occur in rare mass-occurrence layers with preserved fragmentary individuals of different decay stages, with stolon remains preserved as the most durable structures. Benthic pterobranchs may have occurred in some early Cambrian shallow marine communities in dense accumulations and provided firm substrates and shelter for other benthic metazoans as secondary tierers.

Extant members of the neogastropod family Conidae (cone snails) are renowned for their often dazzling shell coloration patterns and venomous feeding habits. Many cone snail species have also been described from the fossil record, but to date have been little used to understand the evolutionary history of extant clades. The cone snail fauna of the Miocene Gatun Formation of Colón Province, Panama is especially important for understanding the temporal and biogeographic history of tropical American Conidae. Intensive, focused collecting from an exposure of the lower Gatun Formation (deposited ca. 11–10 Ma) resulted in the discovery of nearly 900 specimens of Conidae. Remarkably, many of these well-preserved specimens exhibit revealed coloration patterns when exposed to ultraviolet light. The fluorescing coloration patterns were used in conjunction with other features of shell morphology to differentiate species and, in most cases, evaluate their potential relationships to members of the extant tropical American fauna. Nine species are fully described from this locality, one of which is recognized as new: Conus (Stephanoconus) woodringi n. sp. At least one, and perhaps more, additional Conidae species are also present at the study locality. The diversity of this Conidae fauna is considered moderate relative to other recently analyzed tropical American fossil assemblages. The phylogenetic diversity of the assemblage, however, is noteworthy: six of the ten species can be confidently assigned to six different clades of extant Conidae, providing potentially useful calibration points for future phylogenetic studies.

http://zoobank.org/8fe00c31-8f3f-4514-85af-29068e468cd3

We describe a new stylonurid eurypterid from the evaporitic potassium-salt deposits of the Upper Devonian (Famennian) Soligorsk Formation in the Pripyat Trough of Belarus. All specimens are assigned to Soligorskopterus tchepeliensis new genus new species, which represents the first formally described eurypterid species from Belarus. The occurrence of well-preserved eurypterids in these unusual evaporite deposits is most likely due to transport from freshwater stream habitats into a hypersaline setting following death. Soligorskopterus tchepeliensis n. gen. n. sp. appears to be intermediate between the traditionally considered parastylonurids and stylonurids and thus extends our understanding of stylonurid evolution in the mid-Paleozoic. Soligorskopterus n. gen. extends the occurrence of Famennian eurypterids into eastern Laurussia and the Stylonuridae into the Upper Devonian, and this taxon could be part of a global eurypterid habitat shift that took place in the Late Devonian.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/466b0195-6199-495b-9270-6f032e2d7493

We examine the morphological variation of a Paleozoic pterineid during a time of relative ecological and taxonomic stability in the Middle Devonian Appalachian Basin in central and eastern New York. We discuss the taxonomic status of the Middle Devonian bivalve Actinopteria boydi (Conrad, 1842) and quantify the variability of its shell disk as well as the width and angle of the auricles and sulci of this otherwise character-poor bivalve species using geometric morphometric techniques employing Cartesian landmarks. We compare variants from three stratigraphic levels (Skaneateles, Ludlowville, and Moscow formations) and from different habitats characterized by lithofacies.

The phenotypic variation observed in our data does not amount to an overall directional shift in morphology, i.e., they constitute reversible changes of morphology in a single variable taxon. Our study finds small-scale variation in morphology that represents evidence for ecophenotypic variation through ~3–4 Myr. Differences in substrate coupled with water energy seem to impact this taxon’s morphology. Although no clearly separated groups can be observed, material from muddy facies develops variants with, on average, rounder and broader shell disks than are found in material from silty facies. This morphology could have increased the flow rate of water channeled over the posterior shell portion thereby improving filtration rate, which is especially beneficial in environments with low water energy.

Four new species of the methane seep-inhabiting kalenterid bivalve genus Caspiconcha Kelly in Kelly et al., 2000 are described: Caspiconcha basquensis from the late Albian of northern Spain, C. yubariensis from the late Albian of northern Japan, C. raukumaraensis from the late Albian to mid-Cenomanian of New Zealand, and C. lastsamurai from the Campanian of northern Japan. The earliest confirmed record of the genus is known from the latest Jurassic. It reached its maximum diversity in the Albian and declined in diversity and abundance through the Late Cretaceous. The youngest species, C. lastsamurai, is currently known from a single specimen only.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/2f84cfd3-216c-4f1b-8c9f-c808a47f7aaa

The fossil record of the clawed lobster genus, Homarus, is appraised. The taxonomic history of Homarus and Hoploparia is summarized, and a list of species recognized for each is provided. A tabulation of all fossil species of the family Nephropidae permits assessment of nephropid species diversity through time. A new species of Homarus, H. hungaricus, is recorded from the upper Oligocene (Chattian) Mány Formation at Mány, northern Hungary. The species is known by a single specimen consisting of a partial cephalothorax, a pleon minus telson, and partial chelipeds. Homarus is now known by two extant species (H. americanus and H. gammarus) and six fossil taxa, one of Early Cretaceous (Albian; H. benedeni) and five of Cenozoic age (H. hungaricus n. sp., H. klebsi, H. lehmanni, H. morrisi, and H. percyi). The new fossil Homarus differs from modern congeners in aspects of carapace and pleon ornamentation and, especially, cutter claw shape. This is the fourth Oligocene occurrence of a nephropid species; all are Homarus and all are from Western Europe. Homarus makes its appearance in the fossil record in the Early Cretaceous (Albian) and then is not known again until the Paleogene, despite the fact that nephropid lobsters in general are well known from the Late Cretaceous. Nephropid lobsters are better known from the Cretaceous than from the Cenozoic. Both raw species numbers and numbers corrected (normalized) for epicontinental sea coverage show that shelf-dwelling nephropid lobsters were most diverse during the Late Cretaceous.

The kutorginates are commonly the most abundant rhynchonelliform brachiopod found in the early Cambrian; they are also some of the oldest known rhynchonelliforms, first appearing in the Unnamed Series 2 (Atdabanian equivalent) and becoming extinct sometime in Cambrian Series 3 (Amgaian equivalent). Moreover, kutorginates are the first known member of the rhynchonelliforms for which we have a detailed knowledge of their soft-part anatomy, including the lophophore, digestive tract, and pedicle—all exceptionally preserved in Kutorgina chengjiangensis Zhang et al., 2007 from the early Cambrian Chengjiang Lagerstätte of southern China. The stout and annulated pedicle in the original report was described as protruding between the valves; however, newly collected better-preserved material now clearly shows that the pedicle actually protrudes from the apical perforation of Kutorgina chengjiangensis. This type of apical pedicle has also been described from other early Cambrian rhynchonelliforms, including the problematic chileate Longtancunella chengjiangensis (Zhang et al., 2011a). Exceptionally preserved similar pedicles are also known to emerge apically from the Silurian chileate dictyonellid Eichwaldia subtrigonalis Billings, 1858, as well as from the recently described Silurian chileate Trifissura rigida Holmer, Popov, and Bassett, 2014. However, it is clear that the only other exceptionally preserved kutorginate—a silicified Nisusia—was provided with an adult pedicle emerging between the valves from a posterior gap; thus, Nisusia has two pedicle openings. However, the apical foramen may represent the earliest attachment of the larvae, which subsequently became nonfunctional through ontogeny. It is suggested that both types of attachment strategies may have appeared early in the stem lineage of the Rhynchonelliformea.

This study documents the early post-embryonic developmental stages (protaspides and early meraspides) of the Cambrian trilobite Ellipsostrenua granulosa (Ahlberg, 1984) from the Gärdsjön Formation of Jämtland, Sweden. The early protaspid stage is characterized by a circular outline of the exoskeleton, two pairs of fixigenal spines, a short preglabellar field, a genal swelling, and prominent bacullae. The late protaspid stage differs only in having the trunk portion discernible. Early meraspid cranidia are sub-rectangular with prominent palpebral lobes, a wide anterior margin, a proportionally long anterior branch of the facial suture, and intergenal spines. Meraspid pygidia tentatively assigned to this species possess comparatively long macrospines. Small hypostomes associated with E. granulosa bear at least four pairs of marginal spines. A comparison of the early developmental stages of E. granulosa with some other species of Ellipsocephalidae and with species of the closely related Estaingiidae reveals several similarities. The conservative morphology of the early protaspid stage with only two pairs of fixigenal spines, the timing of the development of the trunk portion, and the presence of genal swellings and prominent bacullae could be phylogenetically informative. The range of size variation of the early protaspid stages in two families may be related either to taxonomical differences between Ellipsocephalidae and Estaingiidae, or to environmental differences in various paleogeographic settings.

The radiodontans, including anomalocaridids and their allies, are enigmatic stem-group euarthropods and are the most ancient apex giant predators known from the fossil record. Most studies on their feeding behaviors have emphasized their diverse and abundant raptorial frontal appendages, while the oral cone surrounding the mouth opening in these animals has attracted less attention. At present, three oral cone morphotypes are known, from Anomalocaris Whiteaves, 1892, Peytoia Walcott, 1911, and Hurdia Walcott, 1912, respectively. In this paper, we report on a novel form of radiodontan oral cone from the Guanshan Lagerstätte (Cambrian Series 2, Stage 4) in the Wulongqing Formation, eastern Yunnan, South China. This oral cone is unique in combining features seen in Peytoia/Hurdia and Anomalocaris. It possesses a Peytoia/Hurdia-type ‘tetraradial’ configuration comprising a 32-plate outer ring that consists of four perpendicularly arranged large plates and 28 small plates, in addition to furrowed folds and scale-like nodes on plate surfaces otherwise seen only in Anomalocaris. As an intermediate morphotype, the Guanshan oral cone improves our understanding of the occurrence and morphological disparity of radiodontan oral cones, illuminates future investigations on potentially variable radiodontan feeding mechanisms, and reveals possible evolutionary transformations of these peculiar feeding structures. The resolution of current radiodontan phylogeny would be potentially improved by new knowledge on other body parts apart from frontal appendages in future studies.