The Neognathodus Index (NI) is developed as a primary biostratigraphic indicator for the Desmoinesian Series of the Illinois Basin in Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky. It is based on the gradual evolutionary morphotypic variations of P1 elements of named species of Neognathodus Dunn, 1970. The NI analyses and zonations presented herein are constructed from 472 productive conodont samples from 105 different localities. NIs for the Illinois Basin show morphologic drift in Indiana from the Perth Limestone Member of the Staunton Formation (NI = 2.03) to the Velpen Limestone and Mecca Quarry Shale members of the Linton Formation (NI = 5.04) followed by stability through the Alum Cave (NI = 4.83). Further morphologic drift then occurred through the Providence Limestone Member of the Dugger Formation (NI = 5.43) and continued through the West Franklin Limestone Member of the Shelburn Formation (NI = 6.32) until the extinction of Neognathodus at the end of Desmoinesian. The patterns of drift and stability translate to Neognathodus biozones and are supported by Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests of standardized Neognathodus morphotype distributions. Localized NI variations are due to morphologic shifts and differential evolution in response to localized environmental conditions. Examination of the NI differences in the states of Illinois, Kentucky, and Indiana reflect similar morphologic simplification of the P1 element from Perth to Velpen and Mecca Quarry in Indiana (NI = 2.03–5.04) and from Seville to Brereton in Illinois and Kentucky (NI = 2.80–5.00). Post-Brereton in Illinois and Kentucky (NI = 5.00–5.65) and post-Providence in Indiana (NI = 5.43–6.32) saw progressive P1 simplification, but it was much more pronounced in Indiana.

A new ichnospecies, Glossifungites gingrasi n. isp., is described from multiple locations in basal sand-filled coastal plain distributary channels of the Turonian (Upper Cretaceous) Ferron Sandstone (central Utah). Glossifungites gingrasi n. isp. is attributed to the ichnogenus Glossifungites based on the presence of scratch imprints, passive fill, and a tongue-shaped structure, yet the new ichnospecies is distinct because it displays transverse bioglyphs that run perpendicular to the planiform structure, which contrasts to the axis parallel bioglyphs present in the ichnospecies G. saxicava. The transverse arrangement of ornamentation exhibited by G. gingrasi n. isp. is observed in modern subaqueous insect burrows produced by mayfly and chironomid larvae, and constitutes a way to differentiate insect-generated burrows from structures produced by crustaceans that are known to create other Glossifungites ichnospecies. Differentiating insect- from crustacean-generated burrows is significant because it provides a way to distinguish bioturbation by marine-recruited fauna from that produced by freshwater fauna in the rock record, making G. gingrasi n. isp. a valuable ichnological tool for paleoenvironmental and stratigraphic interpretation. While G. gingrasi n. isp. may represent a burrow created by a variety of filter-feeding subaqueous insects, the large size of G. gingrasi n. isp. in the Ferron Sandstone suggests that the largest specimens are probable mayfly burrows and supports the assertion that burrowing mayflies (e.g., Polymitarcyidae and Ephemeridae) adapted to domicile filter-feeding during or prior to the Turonian.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/a033b22f-bf09-481a-975e-3a1b096154cc

In the first half of the nineteenth century, a marked shift occurred in our understanding and treatment of the chelicerate fossil record, with the differentiation and recognition of entirely extinct genera for the first time. At the heart of this taxonomic revolution were the Eurypterida (sea scorpions) and Xiphosura (horseshoe crabs), although both groups were in fact considered crustaceans until Lankester's (1881) seminal comparative anatomical study of the extant xiphosuran Limulus Müller, 1785 and modern scorpions. The oldest available eurypterid genus is Eurypterus deKay, 1825; the oldest available fossil arachnid genus name is that of the scorpion Cyclophthalmus Corda, 1835. However, there has been considerable historical confusion over the oldest available fossil xiphosuran genus name, which has been recognized alternately as Belinurus König (with a publication date of either 1820 or 1851) or the synonymous Bellinurus Pictet, 1846. Most recent treatments (e.g., Selden and Siveter, 1987; Anderson and Selden, 1997; Anderson et al., 1997; Lamsdell, 2016, 2021; Bicknell and Pates, 2020) have favored Bellinurus Pictet, 1846 as the available name; however, Haug and Haug (2020) recently argued that Belinurus König, 1820 is valid and has priority, a position then followed by Lamsdell (2020), prompting a reinvestigation of the taxonomic history of the genus. Upon review, it is clear that neither of the previously recognized authorities for Belinurus are accurate and that the two candidate type species for each genus are, in fact, synonyms. Given the convoluted and at times almost illogical history of the competing names, along with the most recent controversy as to which has priority, we present a complete history of the treatment of the genus to resolve the issue.

Two specimens of Metaconularia manni (Roy, 1935) from the lower Middle Silurian Scotch Grove Formation (eastern Iowa) exhibit well-defined, relict soft parts replicated in silica. One of these specimens bears phosphatic periderm, whereas the other specimen is a mold. Present within the erect, undistorted apical region of the specimen preserving periderm, on opposite sides of the peridermal cavity, are two small, elongate masses of silica located near the midlines of two of the four faces. Present in the central portion of the other specimen, at a somewhat greater distance from the apex, are five pairs of hollow, elongate, keeled pouch-like bodies (hereafter pouches), the long axes of which converge on the center of the fossil. Each pair of pouches is associated with a short, narrow, gently curved or broadly U-shaped tube, also composed of silica. Additionally, two of the pouch/tube combinations are associated with a pair of rectilinear furrows that correspond to the paired internal carinae that straddled the conulariid's facial midlines. We interpret the paired pouches and short tubes in the moldic specimen as relic conulariid soft parts homologous, respectively, to the interradial gonads and retractor muscles of extant, stauromedusan and polypoid scyphozoan cnidarians. Unlike most conulariids, which exhibit four faces, this individual had five faces, an aberrant morphology known in one other conulariid. The two small masses in the other specimen are more difficult to interpret, but they, too, could be relic gonads or longitudinal muscles. These interpretations suggest that, as in certain extant scyphozoans, at least one conulariid lost the free-living, sexual medusoid life phase.

William C. Darrah, educator, geologist, botanist, and historian, loved life, and he chose to share with others his genuine enjoyment of discovery and learning through his writing and teaching. His A Critical Review of the Upper Carboniferous Floras of the Eastern United States (1970) and nearly a hundred professional papers made his name familiar to many paleontologists in Pennsylvania and throughout the United States. It is interesting to note that early in his career Bill developed an interest in the early conifers, especially Walchia. At the time of his death, he had just completed a manuscript with Paul Lyons, “The Earliest Conifers in North America: Upland and/or Paleoclimatic Indicators?,” “which has been accepted for publication in PALAIOS. Most recently, having attended the International Geological Conference in the United States in 1933, Bill had hoped to present a paper on the Dunkard at the July 1989 IGC in Washington, D.C.

The trilobite Phacops rana has previously been documented in two life positions: horizontally outstretched and enrolled (Hall and Clarke, 1888). A specimen of Phacops rana was recovered in an unusual life position from the Windom Member of the Moscow Formation (Figure 1). It was collected from a borrow pit along Castle Hill Road, 1 km east of Earlville in Chenango County, New York. The trilobite appears to have burrowed tail first into the substrate, with only part of the cephalon and one or two thoracic segments exposed above the sediment surface. The orientation of the eyes indicate that the visual field was horizontal. The thorax angled into the substrate at an angle of approximately 50° from the horizontal, with the pygidium tilted dorsally relative to the thorax. Compaction effects appear to be slight. Because the specimen was found in situ, no doubt exists as to its orientation with respect to bedding. It is also evident from bedding plane surfaces that this trilobite had burrowed, and was not simply draped over an uneven substrate, as it intersects three bedding planes. There is no evidence of any object over which it could have been draped. No burrow trace, lining, or scratch marks are preserved. No other specimens of Phacops in this position have been reported.

Conodonts from two localities on the western shore of Alberto Island, southeastern Alaska, include Polygnathus alexanderensis n. sp., P. angustipennatus, P. borealis n. sp., P. praetrigonicus n. sp., P. robusticostatus, P. pseudofoliatus, P. linguiformis linguiformis gamma form of Bultynck, P. parawebbi beta form of Chatterton, P. angusticostatus, P. costatus costatus, Polygnathus sp. B of Savage, 1977, Tortodus kockelianus australis, and T. kockelianus kockelianus. The faunas are considered to be of middle to late Eifelian (kockelianus Zone) age. On Prince of Wales Island, just north of Staney Creek, exposures of Wadleigh Limestone include the conodonts Polygnathus trigonicus, P. kennettensis, P. alexanderensis, P. angustipennatus, P. parawebbi beta form, P. eiflius, P. linguiformis linguiformis gamma form, P. borealis, P. angusticostatus, P. robusticostatus, P. costatus costatus, P. pseudofoliatus, Tortodus kockelianus australis, and T. kockelianus kockelianus, also suggesting a middle to late Eifelian (kockelianus Zone) age. Conodonts from the west end of the easternmost of the Alberto Islands include Polygnathus linguiformis linguiformis gamma form, P. parawebbi beta form, P. xylus ensensis, and Ozarkodina brevis, indicating a late Eifelian to early Givetian (ensensis to varcus Zones) age. The presence of Polygnathus kennettensis, P. parawebbi beta form, and P. borealis suggests a biogeographic affinity with other parts of western North America during Eifelian time.

Two species of terebratulide brachiopods are described from the upper part of the Bateque Formation (middle Eocene) on the Pacific coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico, Terebratulina cf. Terebratulina louisianae Stenzel, 1940, and Terebratalia batequia n. sp. Terebratalia batequia n. sp. is the earliest confirmed record of the genus Terebratalia Beecher, 1893, which has been an important component of Pacific brachiopod faunas through to the present day. The occurrence of Terebratulina cf. Terebratulina louisianae Stenzel is one of the earliest records of the genus from the west coast of North America. These brachiopods, like other elements of the Bateque invertebrate fauna, may record Eocene migration from the Atlantic to Pacific Ocean via the Central American seaway.

The septate, lamellose, spiriferacean brachiopod genus Tylothyris North, 1920, is considered to be a delthyridid of the subfamily Tylothyridinae Carter, 1972. Herein, the diagnosis of the Tylothyridinae is emended to include forms with micro-ornament, and with a myophragm or median septum on the floor of the pedicle valve.

For the first time, Tylothyris is formally reported from the Traverse Group rocks of Michigan, Givetian through early Frasnian in age. Two species of the genus occur in the Traverse Group. The first, T. subvaricosa (Hall and Whitfield, 1872), previously described by Stainbrook (1943) from the Cedar Valley Limestone of Iowa, is also known from the Milwaukee Formation of Wisconsin and the Mineola Limestone of Missouri. Tylothyris randalia Stainbrook, 1943, also from the Cedar Valley Limestone, is considered to be synonymous with T. subvaricosa. In the Traverse Group, T. subvaricosa occurs in the Bell Shale, Rockport Quarry Limestone, Ferron Point Formation, Genshaw Formation, Alpena Limestone, Gravel Point Formation, Norway Point Formation, and Potter Farm Formation. The second species, T. rockportensis n. sp., occurs only in the Rockport Quarry Limestone, and appears to be endemic to the Michigan Basin.

Tylothyris is considered to have originated in the Illinois area during the late Eifelian, then to have migrated to the Michigan area by the early Givetian. With the onset of Taghanic Onlap during the late Givetian, the genus dispersed from its Illinois–Michigan area of origin, becoming distributed across much of North America during the Frasnian and Famennian, and becoming essentially cosmopolitan in distribution during the Tournaisian. Tylothyris apparently became extinct by the end of the Visean.

Numerous specimens of the neritid gastropod Nerita (Bajanerita) n. subgen. californiensis (White, 1885) are present in the Upper Cretaceous Rosario Formation at Punta Banda, Baja California, Mexico (Figure 1). Marincovich (1975) assigned these strata to a Late Campanian to Early Maastrichtian age. The strata contain extensive biostromal deposits of the caprinid rudistid bivalve Coralliochama orcutti White, 1885, that probably lived below mean wave base in a shallow-water, low-energy environment periodically affected by storm waves or currents (Marincovich, 1975). The nearby shoreline was apparently defined by steep wave-washed bedrock cliffs and local pocket beaches that formed along the margin of a forearc basin (Yeo, 1984). Scattered about in the sandstone matrix among the rudistid remains are the small-sized specimens of N. (B.) californiensis, which commonly weather out as resistant, complete shells on the surface of the rock. Saul (1970) concluded that the neritid and other shallow-water gastropods at Punta Banda accumulated in sediment-trapping depressions within the Coralliochama buildups. These gastropods had originally roamed over the algal pastures of these buildups. The color patterns preserved on many of the specimens of N. (B.) californiensis also provide evidence that the depth of water was shallow and within the photic zone. Furthermore, Sohl (1971) reported that Campanian and Maastrichtian gastropod assemblages of the Baja California region are mostly associated with rudist buildups, and warm-water rocky intertidal neritids are among the dominant faunal elements. Lowenstam and Epstein (1959), using oxygen-isotope studies of an ammonite, suggested that the Punta Banda rudistids lived at a marginally tropical temperature of about 19°C.

Examination of collections from the Falkland Islands and South Africa shows that Chonetes falklandicus Morris and Sharpe, 1846, is a true Chonetes and is probably conspecific with Chonetes (Pleurochonetes) lauriata Isaacson, 1977, from Bolivia. Notiochonetes skottsbergi (Clarke, 1913) is quite different from C. falklandicus but is often associated with it in Malvinokaffric Realm Lower Devonian deposits.

Extinct organisms with no close analogs and only distant living relatives are especially difficult subjects for paleobiological interpretation. Graptolites, especially the derived planktic Graptoloidea, are among this group of enigmatic fossils. Although the Pterobranchia are widely regarded as a sister group to graptolites, their entirely benthic, loosely organized colonies provide a poor analog for the mobile, highly integrated graptoloid colonies with their complex geometries. As a consequence, many basic features of zooid form and function are unknown. Under these circumstances, particularly troubling features—that is, features that do not readily fit into our simple models—may provide critical data with which to reform the models. It is with this hope that we describe here new observations of some graptolite specimens of the genus Appendispinograptus (Li Zhi-Ming and Li Da-Qing, 1985) and suggest a model for their function.

A neptunoceratid cephalopod, Texanoceras jacksboroensis n. gen. n. sp., is described from the Virgilian (Upper Pennsylvanian) Graham and Caddo Creek Formations in Texas, North America. The family Neptunoceratidae was previously represented by a single genus, Tetrapleuroceras. This new material provides important emendations to the diagnostic concept of the enigmatic family including shell orientation, mature modification and siphuncular structure. Although higher taxonomic position of Neptunoceratidae is difficult to determine at present, morphologic similarities between the family and the orthoceratid (?) family Brachycycloceratidae are discussed.

The genus Plicoplasia Boucot, 1959 (type species P. cooperi Boucot, 1959), embraces certain Lower Devonian brachiopods of the subfamily Ambocoeliinae, family Ambocoeliidae. The geographic range of Plicoplasia includes North America (Eastern Americas Realm) and South America and South Africa (Malvinokaffric Realm).

Multituberculates were among the most taxonomically diverse mammals of the early Paleocene, having survived the catastrophic Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction and radiating soon thereafter. Although their evolution during the early Paleocene saw the advent of increasingly specialized dentitions, multituberculates generally remained small, rarely exceeding body sizes greater than those of extant rabbits. A conspicuous exception is the Taeniolabidoidea, a primarily North American clade whose members include the largest multituberculates yet discovered. Taeniolabidoidea includes several genera, with one of these, Catopsalis, being speciose and geographically wide ranging. Until recently, the chronological succession of Catopsalis appeared to document a trend of increasing body size. We report here on a new species of Catopsalis from the early Paleocene of Alberta that violates this trend and suggests that the evolutionary history of Catopsalis is considerably more complex. Catopsalis kakwa new species is not only the smallest species of Catopsalis, but is the smallest taeniolabidoid so far discovered, with an estimated body mass between 400 g and 660 g. In contrast to previous studies, we used recently proposed regressions based on lower cheek tooth row length to estimate body masses for North American taeniolabidoids. Our results propose more modest body mass estimates, particularly for the largest taeniolabidoids. The occurrence of C. kakwa n. sp. in the late early Paleocene implies either a significant ghost lineage, or reversal of several characters, including body size, during the latter part of the early Paleocene; the more likely of these scenarios must await a better understanding of the phylogenetic position of C. kakwa n. sp.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/66d85345-49b8-4a46-ba6e-a4d4369cb3e0

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:AF7A5659-9068-4F2F-A6EC-5522A2BBA4CB

A new species of aphroditiform polychaete, Protopholoe colombiana, is described from the Coniacian of Colombia, South America, increasing the number of species of this genus known from the fossil record to two. This is the first occurrence of fossil soft-bodied polychaetes in the Tropical Americas, and indicates that aphroditiforms were spread worldwide during the Mesozoic.

The Upper Ordovician Sandbian to Katian strata from the East Qilianshan (northeastern Tibet Plateau) bear a graptolite fauna of moderately high diversity. Graptolites from the Amplexograptus maxwelli beds to the Appendispinograptus longispinus Biozone (Sa2–Ka4 intervals) proposed herein include 27 species of 13 genera. This important graptolite fauna is first described herein although it was initially reported in 1963. Most of them occur in the A. longispinus Biozone corresponding to the Dicellograptus complexus to Paraorthograptus pacificus biozones of the Wufeng Formation in the Yangtze region. Alulagraptus new genus is established based on the materials from the East Qiqiaogou section. The endemic species, e.g., Alulagraptus ensiformis (Mu and Zhang in Mu et al., 1963), Dicellograptus sinicus Mu and Zhang in Mu et al., 1963, and Climacograptus? papilio Mu and Zhang in Mu et al., 1963, could indicate that East Qilianshan block was separated from South China.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/84ab69a2-0b56-4ec3-912e-730da08ab10a

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.