Šnadjr (1980, p. 76) erected the proetid trilobite subgenus Coniproteus (Ryckholtia), with the type species Proetus ryckholti Barrande, 1846, from the Silurian (Ludlow, Kopanina Formation) of the Prague Basin, Czech Republic, perhaps better known to geologists as the Barrandian type area in Bohemia. Although originally designated as a subgenus (e.g., Chlupáč et al., 1980, p. 175; Chlupáč and Kukal, 1988, p. 114; Kříž et al., 1993, p. 819), Ryckholtia Šnadjr was subsequently elevated to generic rank (e.g., Sepkoski, 2002, p. 189, 519; Jell and Adrain, 2003, p. 441, 477; Edgecombe and Wright, 2004, p. 183).

An australian paleontologist would not be expected to be familiar with the genera of recent snakes in the Western Hemisphere. Thus, when A. A. Öpik erected the genus Lampropeltis to receive certain Middle Cambrian trilobites from the Mindyallan of Queensland (Öpik 1967, p. 182), he was appropriately unaware that the name had already been coined for a genus of smooth-scaled colubrids, the kingsnakes (Cope, 1860; Blanchard, 1921).

New linguliform microbrachiopods from the Middle Ordovician are described and illustrated. This fauna was recovered from the uppermost beds of the San Juan Formation in two sections of the Central Precordillera (Argentina), which are accurately dated to the Lenodus pseudoplanus Zone (middle Darriwilian). The fauna consists of the obolid Luthieria diminuta n. gen. n. sp., and the acrotretids Eoconulus tucunucoensis n. sp., Conotreta andina Lavié, Serra, and Feltes, Scaphelasma zharykensis Popov, and Numericoma rowelli Holmer et al. This low-diversity lingulate association displays close similarities with coeval faunas that inhabited the Laurentia, Baltica, and Kazakhstanian regions, in agreement with evidence from other linguliform and rhynchonelliform brachiopods.

UUID: http//zoobank.org/fe9acbb0-6654-4462-ba4d-ea2386ae79f6

New Devonian fossil material from Bolivia includes internal molds of two species of paleotaxodont bivalve, Palaeoneilo musculosa (Knod) and P. pondeana (Hartt and Rathbun), with numerous accessory muscle scars. The unusual pattern of these scars appears to have been derived from excessive splitting. These muscle scars are described and a tentative interpretation is made. An adaptative role cannot be determined with certainty and it appears that these patterns were short-lived novelties without later success.

Restudy of Strophomena cornuta Hall, 1843, confirms that it belongs to the superfamily Chonetoidea and establishes its assignment to Strophochonetes within the family Strophochonetidae. This is the first recorded occurrence of the genus in the Silurian of New York, and its late Llandovery age makes S. cornutus (Hall) one of the earliest representatives of the genus.

Recently, several dinosaur bones were rediscovered in the paleontological collections at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with a label indicating that the material was collected from the Cretaceous of west Tennessee. Since dinosaur remains have never been reported from Tennessee, this discovery prompted further investigation.

The morphology and growth habits of Evactinopora species of the Evactinoporidae (new family) are documented. This distinctive family of free-living bryozoans has a radial colony form at all growth stages. During a brief attachment phase on a hard substrate, the colony morphology grew as an expanding cone with vertical folds. Following detachment of the nascent colony from this hard substrate, it settled on soft sediment and the free-living expanding colony acquired a star-like form by producing slender outrigger rays. Continued growth produced a radial array of vertical vanes containing feeding autozooecia. The colony maintained a vertical orientation on soft sediment by means of outrigger rays and secretion of solid skeleton on the colony base that provided ballast. The radial growth pattern, outrigger rays, and vertical vanes developed as adaptive characters suitable for free-living life on soft sediment. North American species of Evactinopora are redefined and described taxonomically on the basis of zoarial and zooecial characters and a new species, Evactinopora mangeri, erected. The new family Evactinoporidae is established on the basis of the novel characters of early colony detachment from a hard surface, radial growth pattern through life, generation of outrigger rays, and growth of vertical vanes from the top of rays.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/d2cf3b6d-72d2-49d5-afa0-c08710af7874

The trilobite species Cryphaeus nicholsi Roy, 1929, was based on two pygidia from a Devonian red sandstone bed at Patacamaya, La Paz Department, Bolivia. Study of the syntypes (Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago) reveals that two well-known species are represented.

The fossil record of octocorals from Cenozoic marine strata of western North America is quite limited, and they have not been reported previously from rocks in Washington State, USA. Two late Oligocene specimens from the upper part of the Lincoln Creek Formation in western Washington, referred to Radicipes? sp., are the first fossil record of the family Chrysogorgiidae. The family Isididae is represented by an internode and two holdfasts identified as Isidella sp. collected from the Oligocene Pysht Formation, along with specimens questionably identified as Lepidisis sp., possibly the first fossil record for this genus. Together, these are the first confirmed fossils of the Alcyonacea from north of California in western North America. The axes of sea pens from several late Eocene or early Oligocene localities in the Lincoln Creek Formation in the central part of western Washington, and the Pysht and Makah formations on the north side of the Olympic Peninsula, are the first fossil record for the Pennatulacea from western North America; all are tentatively referred to the genus ‘Graphularia’. Large axes from the Lincoln Creek Formation and Makah Formation are referred to ‘Graphularia’ (?) aff. sasai, because they are similar to the species known only from late Eocene and early Oligocene rocks in Japan.

The last clade-level extinction episode affecting the Phylum Brachiopoda has been long-established in the Early Toarcian Mass Extinction Event (ETMEE) around the Pliensbachian-Toarcian transition, when several rhynchonellide groups became extinct and others underwent a notable renewal in the western Tethys. Among them, Wellerelloidea is a long-ranging superfamily severely affected by this environmental crisis, embodying the subfamily Cirpinae as the last wellerelloids worldwide, prior to their global extinction in the Pb-To transition. The profuse record of Lower Jurassic cirpines in the peri-Iberian paleomargins provides an opportunity to clarify the taxonomy of wellerelloid species in the pre-extinction interval. A new species (Cirpa lucentina) is erected and the revision of the Cirpinae taxa around the ETMEE is carried out. Morphometric analysis and the study of internal structures of the shells support separation of the genera Cirpa and Salgirella, adding new supplementary diagnostic criteria. The biogeographic distribution of this clade in the western Tethys and its evolutionary history in the Early Jurassic reveal a pervasive colonization pattern of both epicontinental and epioceanic habitats. The Mediterranean origin of the last representatives of this group is ascertained, but while diversification of Salgirella took place in epioceanic habitats, speciation of Cirpa is unrelated to biochorema boundaries, even colonizing epicontinental seas until their extinction prior to the hyperwarming event that occurred in the basal Serpentinum Zone. A rhynchonellide morphogroup epitomized by cirpines was resilient to this event in the epicontinental seas. This morphogroup is also recorded after the extinction interval by means of the genus Pseudogibbirhynchia, thus postulating potential pre- and post-extinction phyletic relationships.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/100b06c0-a803-4f6f-b0fa-2d9e2d6678d2

Ediacaran fossils, obtained in stratigraphic context in 1993, 1995, and 1996, with the assistance of A. Seilacher, IGCP project 320 scientists, and the Geological Survey of Namibia, are described for the first time. Most are from the Kliphoek and Buchholzbrunn members of the Dabis Formation and the Huns and Spitskop members of the Urusis Formation, Witputs subbasin, but a significant number, including Pteridinium, are from the Kliphoek Member, Zaris Formation, and the Neiderhagen Member, Nudaus Formation, north of the Osis arch, which separates the two subbasins. We extend the stratigraphic ranges and geographic distributions of several important taxa, including Archaeichnium, Ernietta, Pteridinium, and Swartpuntia, provide reassessments of the paleobiology of these and other organisms, and describe a new sponge—possibly an unmineralized archaeocyath—Arimasia germsi n. gen. n. sp. We also describe and illustrate various ichnofossils (including the oldest known traces from the Nama Group), narrow down the first appearance of Treptichnus in the Nama succession, and reinforce the idea that there was a prolific infauna of micrometazoans during the latest Ediacaran by naming and describing previously reported microburrows found on the surfaces of gutter casts as Ariichnus vagus n. igen. n. isp.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/8c267425-135a-4b0a-98b6-cf726515cbf2

Nemavermes mackeei Schram, 1973, found in the Mazon Creek fossil site and the Bear Gulch Limestone, was described initially as a free-living marine nematode. Here we investigate 13 specimens of N. mackeei from the Mazon Creek to reassess its morphology and identity, and also two specimens originally identified as Gilpichthys greenei Bardack and Richardson, 1977. Based on the extensive morphological variation among these specimens, N. mackeei encompasses multiple species that are only distantly related. The holotype of N. mackeei is a proboscis of Tullimonstrum gregarium Richardson, 1966, making N. mackeei a junior synonym of T. gregarium. However, the other specimens that we investigated could not be attributed to T. gregarium. We name a new species from these specimens: Squirmarius testai new genus new species, a cyclostome. One specimen is likely a juvenile G. greenei. Other specimens were not identified during this study but represent a variety of vermiform bilaterians.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/d8c63f6a-0ef4-4a34-8dbd-c1d9099589cc

Natural history museums house numerous previously undescribed species and unknown information hidden in their collections. We describe lower Carboniferous slit-bearing gastropods (order Pleurotomariida, subclass Vetigastropoda; and family Goniasmatidae, subclass Caenogastropoda) from previously unreported gastropod collections made by Jane Longstaff (Jane Donald), one of the pioneering paleontologists of Paleozoic gastropods in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The gastropods were collected from the Lower Limestone Formation (Visean, Brigantian) near Dalry, Ayrshire, Scotland. The collection consists largely of microgastropods, many of which are unusually well-preserved including delicate ornament and protoconchs (larval shells). Three new pleurotomariidan species are described—Biarmeaspira heidelbergerae new species, Neilsonia seussae new species, Tapinotomaria longstaffae new species—in addition to seven species belonging to Borestus Thomas, 1940, Stegocoelia (Stegocoelia) Donald, 1889, Stegocoelia (Hypergonia) Donald, 1892, Donaldospira Batten, 1966, and Platyzona Knight, 1945. The caenogastropod-type protoconch is documented for the first time in Hypergonia, which is therefore placed in Goniasmatidae. The new data confirm that Neilsonia Thomas, 1940 (type genus of Neilsoniinae) belongs to Pleurotomariida and is distinct from the morphologically convergent Peruvispira Chronic, 1949 (Goniasmatidae). The selenizone morphology is identical in Biarmeaspira Mazaev, 2006 and Baylea de Koninck, 1883 during their early ontogeny, and Biarmeaspira develops an angulation on the selenizone (the diagnostic feature) in late ontogeny. This corroborates earlier suggestions that Biarmeaspira evolved from Baylea. Biarmeaspira heidelbergerae n. sp. is the first Carboniferous record of Biarmeaspira, which was previously only known from the Permian. The angulated selenizone evidently evolved several times in Pleurotomariida and the repeated appearance of this character in different groups (e.g., Phymatopleuridae, Eotomariidae, Pleurotomariidae) needs further studies using phylogenetic methods.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/92ae9a99-5774-4ee9-bf5d-9a9319494ef6

Three new species of Cyphaspides are proposed: C. ammari, C. nicoleae, and C. pankowskiorum. These species are based on specimens obtained from Middle Devonian (Eifelian) strata of the Bou Tchrafine Group, near Erfoud, in the Province of Errachidia, southeastern Morocco. The present contribution enhances our knowledge of Cyphaspides by providing details of three new species that are based on well-preserved, complete, and articulated types. The genus Cyphaspides is discussed, and an emended diagnosis is provided. The paleobiogeography, ontogeny, and relationships of the genus are discussed.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/4a7aab8f-8c8e-4498-9cc2-6f8c69b85213