In a large collection of Wenlockian gastropods from north Siberia, a single small specimen shows the operculum in situ just within the aperture. In other morphologic features, particularly the presence of numerous spiral lirae on the shell, this species is similar to Silurian gastropods traditionally assigned to Oriostoma. Preservation of the operculum is far from perfect, but almost certainly it has paucispiral growth, rather than concentric or multispiral construction. This new species (Australonema varvarae n. sp.) is assigned to Australonema, previously known only from the Lower Devonian of Australia, primarily because of the form of the operculum. The material was obtained from just below a biostromal unit in a bed interpreted as an interreef lagoon in an area of locally relatively quiet water.

A gastropod assemblage is described from the middle Lower Devonian (Pragian) of Alai Ridge, Kyrgyzstan. It includes eight species, six of which are new. Two new genera are established, Alaionema and Barroisocaulus. Newly named species belonging to the above genera include: Alaionema kyrgyzensis and Barroisocaulus oliveri. In addition, four new species belonging to extant genera are also described: Omphalocirrus kaukensis, Ruedemannia tienshanica, Oriostoma sarydalchaensis, and Goniasma? asiatica.

Trepostome bryozoan Dianulites borealis Astrova, 1965, the earliest known member of this genus, has been identified from the Early Ordovician of Severnaya Zemlya, Arctic Russia. This species developed hemispherical colonies which indicate that it lived on a relatively soft substrate with moderately low rates of sedimentation and erosion. The new record from Severnaya Zemlya expands the palaeogeographical distribution of Dianulites, known before from the Early Ordovician of Novaya Zemlya, Arctic Russia.

This article describes the principles of operation and the parameters of the SINUS setups designed at the Institute of High-Current Electronics, Siberian Division, Russian Academy of Science, over the period from 1990 to 2002. A characteristic feature of accelerators of the SINUS type is the use of coaxial forming lines (in particular, with a spiral central conductor) which are charged by a built-in Tesla transformer to produce the accelerating high-voltage pulses. This ensures a reasonable compactness and long lifetime of the setups.

A Nd isotope map of early Cambrian epeiric basins has been inferred from the Nd isotopic signature recorded in phosphatic Small Shelly Fossils. The most radiogenic εNd(t) values characterize water reservoirs along the Avalonian and Cadomian belts, while εNd(t) values of −10 to −20 were obtained in Laurentia and East Gondwanan Australia and China. Such a distribution of Nd isotope signatures results from the different provenance of early Cambrian epeiric seas: juvenile magmatic arcs and/or cordilleran for Mongolia, Siberia, Iberia and adjacent terranes, and cratonic sources for Laurentia and East Gondwana. Biogenic apatite of Small Shelly Fossils may be a useful tool for mapping of Nd isotope composition and documenting water mass exchange between discrete basins.