New parasitoid wasps of the family Braconidae are documented from Eocene Baltic and Rovno ambers. A new fossil genus belonging to the braconid subfamily Exothecinae, Palaeocolastes n. gen., with its type species P. bruesi n. sp., is described and illustrated from Baltic amber. This represents the first reliable fossil record for a member of Exothecinae. Two additional new species from Baltic amber are also described: Ascogaster (Syntaphus) latitibialis n. sp. (Cheloninae) and Meteorus arasnitsyni n. sp. (Euphorinae). Another fossil species, Microtypus eocenus n. sp. (Microtypinae), is described from coeval Rovno amber (Ukraine), representing the first braconid species described from this deposit. A new record of a female of Diospilites brevicornis Brues, 1933 (Diospilitinae) from Baltic amber, together with variation of some diagnostic features of the species and redescription of its subfamily and genus, are also provided.

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We describe two new genera of Triassic Aviculopectinoidea: Cristaflabellum n. gen., which is biconvex and has a strongly plicate shell, and Globodiscus n. gen., which is equiconvex and externally smooth or nearly so. Globodiscus contains the new species G. kiliani n. gen. n. sp. and G. vinzenti n. gen. n. sp. In order to make the taxonomic concept of the superfamily Aviculopectinoidea more consistent with that of its sister group Pectinoidea (scallops), we use tribes rather than families or subfamilies for accommodating the new taxa. Cristaflabellum is placed in the tribe Antijanirini (previously family Antijaniridae), whereas Globodiscus is made the type genus of the new tribe Globodiscini. Both tribes are placed within the family Aviculopectinidae, which is revised to include both equiconvex and inequiconvex taxa. We suggest that tribes are a more appropriate taxonomic rank for many of the previously erected species-poor families and subfamilies of Aviculopectinoidea.

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From the Santiago Ixtaltepec area, in Oaxaca State, southern Mexico, 11 species of productoid brachiopods, including a new genus and five new species, are described. Semicostella sp., Antiquatonia sp., Keokukia? sp., Inflatia inflata, Reticulatia cf. R. huecoensis, Buxtonia websteri, Weberproductus donajiae n. gen. n. sp., Dictyoclostus transversum n. sp., Inflatia coodzavuii n. sp., Buxtonia inexpletucosta n. sp., and Flexaria magna n. sp. were collected from eight stratigraphic levels of the Ixtaltepec Formation. The presence of Semicostella sp., Keokukia? sp. and Inflatia inflata in the basal strata, Units 1 to 3, of the formation indicate a Viséan-Serpukhovian (Late Mississippian) age. Reticulatia cf. R. huecoensis and Buxtonia websteri, found in Units 6 to 8, confirm the Pennsylvanian age for upper strata of the Ixtaltepec Formation. Inflatia and Flexaria are present in the uppermost beds of the formation so it is possible to extend their upper stratigraphic range to the Middle Pennsylvanian. All these taxa also occur in the United States Midcontinent, suggesting that during the Carboniferous the epicontinental sea extended at least to central Mexico.

Four trepostome bryozoan species are described from the Upper Triassic of New Caledonia. They include one new genus Metastenodiscus n. gen. The studied fauna shows strong paleobiogeographic relations to New Zealand and less so to Japan. Morphological similarities between Middle Paleozoic and Triassic trepostome bryozoans (e.g., abundant diaphragms) are explained by homeomorphy.

We published a series of papers regarding the oldest turritellids, naticids, their paleoecological interaction, and gastropod biozonation, which are of Oxfordian in age, from the Jhura pond section, Kutch, western India. Recently, an Oxfordian age was challenged by Fürsich et al. (2023) and they argued for a Cenozoic age. The authors reproduced a local geological map based on regional data where the Jhura pond section sediments were overlying the Bhuj Formation. In the original regional data, there was no Bhuj Formation and the introduction of the Bhuj Formation served to show that Jhura pond section sediments were “allochthonous”. Other lines of argument against our conclusions (e.g., identification of associated bivalve fauna, foraminiferal assemblage, and geological context) were brought forward. There were additional inconsistencies, such as the reworking of Oxfordian fossils, in their comment/opinion pieces. The only hard evidence was the report of a microfaunal assemblage, but the taxa were identified at the generic level and most of the genera appear in the Jurassic or even earlier.

Here we provide detailed and concrete evidence explaining features at the Jhura pond section, such as the subvertical nature of the beds, the ooid-bearing lithologies, the presence of various Oxfordian fossils, the difference in turritellids, naticid assemblages, and differences in the diversity curves between the present beds and the lower Miocene Chhasra Formation of Kutch. Detailed paleoecological analyses (both gastropods and bivalves) speak for two paleocommunities. We, therefore, reiterate that the present Jhura pond section sediments are Oxfordian in age and validate all the interpretations and conclusions that we have made in our previous papers.

Pupae of the nonbiting midge Chaoborus are reported from the middle Eocene (Claibornian) Tallahatta Formation in Benton County, Mississippi. These pupae are placed within the genus Chaoborus because the shape of the respiratory organs, length of the abdomen, and shape of the anal paddles closely resemble other species of this extant genus. This occurrence represents the oldest record of Chaoborus pupae and the first record of fossil Chaoborus from North America. The flora and fauna found associated with the fossil pupae along with the known habitats of extant Chaoborus pupae indicate a lentic environment. This interpretation corresponds to the depositional environment of similar Eocene-aged clay deposits in western Tennessee.

Class Hyolitha Marek, 1963 encompassing the Order Hyolithida Sysoev, 1957 (Early Cambrian to Upper Permian) and Order Orthothecida Marek, 1966 (Early Cambrian to Early Devonian) consists of a group of conical, calcareous-shelled invertebrates of controversial affinity. One opponent view holds that hyoliths may be reasonably accommodated under the Phylum Mollusca (Malinky and Yochelson, 2007 and references therein), whereas another supports separate phylum status under the name Hyolitha (Pojeta, 1987 and references therein). Hyolith abundance and diversity attain a maximum in the Cambrian, followed by a progressive decline up to their Permian extinction (Fisher, 1962; Wills, 1993). Their demise was part of the extinction event of the Late PermianlEarly Triassic. The cause(s) of this event remains controversial (Erwin et al., 2002), and no imprint remains in the geologic record of the specific circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the hyoliths, though it is highly probable that reduced population size was a contributing factor. Given the overall rarity of Late Paleozoic hyoliths, every occurrence is worthy of note to better understand patterns of hyolith diversity and abundance in the Late Paleozoic, the geographic and stratigraphic distribution of hyolith taxa and circumstances related to their extinction. The species from the Upper Permian described herein is among the youngest, if not the youngest, members of class Hyolitha.

Stratigraphic distribution of two key brachiopod species in the Ramp Creek Formation and Harrodsburg Limestone (middle Mississippian) in south-central Indiana suggests the boundary between the Osagean and Meramecian Series lies in the lower part of the Ramp Creek Formation. Marginirugus magnus (Meek and Worthen), an Osagean index fossil, ranges into the lower part of the Ramp Creek Formation. Warsawia lateralis (Hall), a Meramecian index fossil, also occurs in the lower part of the Ramp Creek Formation and in the lower part of the Harrodsburg Limestone. Thus, the upper part of the Edwardsville Formation and lower part of the Ramp Creek Formation in Indiana are temporally equivalent to the lower half of the Warsaw Formation in the Mississippi Valley. The upper part of the Ramp Creek Formation and the lower part of the Harrodsburg Limestone are temporally equivalent to the upper half of the Warsaw Formation.

The small, distinctive, glyptorthinine brachiopod Ptychopleurella Schuchert and Cooper is widely distributed in rocks of early Ordovician to late Silurian age. Several species are known from the Barr and Ardmillan successions (middle-upper Ordovician) of the Girvan district, S.W. Scotland, one of which, ‘Orthis Lapworthi’ Davidson, has not been described in modern terms as there has been some confusion concerning its true identity. Recognition of this species of Ptychopleurella permits comparison with congeners elsewhere, strengthens the correlation of this part of the Girvan Succession with the middle Ordovician of North America, and provides a more complete record of this genus in the slope sedimentary facies of the northwestern margin of the Iapetus Ocean.

Four species of Fenestrida and two species of Rhabdomesida occur in the Otter Formation (Viséan) of the Little Belt Mountains, central Montana. Four species are new: Laxifenestella snyderi n. sp., Rectifenestella concava n. sp., Streblotrypa (Streblascopora) eastoni n. sp., and Nikiforovella beltensis n. sp. Several of these species are very similar to species described in Viséan rocks of central Mongolia, northeast Russia, Kazakhstan, and Japan. Fabifenestella cf. F. vulgaris compares closely with F. vulgaris Gorjunova and Morozova from the Lower Carboniferous of northern Mongolia. Most of the bryozoans in the Otter Formation occur in the normal marine, subtidal carbonate mud and calcareous shale microfacies.

A new strophalosiid, Megalosia chuluensis n. gen. and sp., from the Nisal Member, Senja Formation, in the Manang district north of Mt. Annapurna, north-central Nepal, is of early Dorashamian or Changhsingian (Late Permian) age. Wyndhamia circularis Chang, from slightly older faunas of south Tibet, might be congeneric.

Camptocrinus alabamensis Strimple and Moore, from the Gasperian (Mississippian: Chesterian) part of the Monteagle Limestone and overlying Bangor Limestone in northern Alabama, is the only species of Camptocrinus known to have more than 10 arms. Camptocrinus alabamensis exhibits morphological features (basals that are taller on their posterior ends than on their anterior ends, flattened primanal, shorter posteriormost secundibrachs on C ray and D ray) indicative of a tightly coiled life position, with most of the stem lying along the sediment. Unlike other coiled crinoids, Camptocrinus alabamensis had a double-folded stem and more than 10 arms, which we interpret to have been compromise solutions to the problems of protection from high current energy and predation pressure coupled with the need to lift the animal into a feeding posture. In addition, C. alabamensis is the only dichocrinid exhibiting highly modified pinnules, which may have been used as rheo/chemosensory organs. Camptocrinus alabamensis was a leeward passive suspension feeder that, in times of danger, could fold in its arms and coil tightly against the sediment.

Camptocrinus alabamensis is removed from synonymy with C. cirrifer and the diagnosis of Camptocrinus is modified. Species of the genera Camptocrinus and Neocamptocrinus should be used only for specimens in which calyces are known; therefore, the plethora of stem-species erected over the years should all be assigned to stem genera unless adequate calyx descriptions are available.

As first State Paleontologist of New York, T. A. Conrad is widely recognized as an important pioneer of American paleontology. Highlights of his career and tragic personal life, as well as his portrait, are given by Merrill (1906, p. 344, 354–357).

The clypeasteroid echinoid Astrodapsis bajasurensis n. sp. is described from upper middle Miocene beds of the Isidro Formation near the mouth of Arroyo Mezquital on the Pacific coast of north-central Baja California Sur, Mexico. The new species is the first occurrence of Astrodapsis outside of California and extends the southern limit of the genus by 1,100 km.

De Wever et al. (1979) proposed the new radiolarian name Xiphotheca from the Triassic of Greece. We discovered that this name has already been used for a fish by Agassiz in 1846. Therefore, in accordance with article 60 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (1999) we propose the name Xiphothecaella nomen novum as a replacement name (type species Xiphotheca karpenissionensis De Wever, in De Wever et al., 1979, p. 93, pl. 7, figs. 1–5; text-fig. 3, by original designation) for the preoccupied homonym Xiphotheca De Wever, 1979, non Agassiz 1846.

Cardiarina cordata Cooper, 1956, has previously been placed in the Rhynchonellacea. Specimens present in the Dickerson Shale (Pennsylvanian, Desmoinesian) in north-central Texas have a terebratulid centronelloidiform loop, and although there are no punctae preserved, are questionably assigned to C. cordata and placed in the Terebratulacea.

The Cretaceous chaetetid sponge Acanthochaetetes huauclillensis Sánchez-Beristain and García-Barrera is reported for the first time from the Aptian–Cenomanian Khalsi Formation, Ladakh Himalaya, India. Its low- to high-domical growth form could suggest an adaptation to either an environment with constant sedimentation rates, or to an irregular substrate. However, these growth forms also may indicate an absence of important environmental/sedimentological changes during the lifespan of the sponges. In addition, the growth form of this species suggests a calm, non-turbulent, reef-like microenvironment. Along with the other faunal assemblages, such as the rudists, corals, and the gastropod Nerinea, A. huauclillensis indicates a tropical to subtropical shallow marine carbonate platform setting. This new finding extends its stratigraphic range from the upper Hauterivian to the Aptian–Cenomanian interval in the eastern Tethyan realm.