Microborings in the Late Ordovician tabulate corals Catenipora rubra (a halysitid) and Manipora amicarum (a cateniform nonhalysitid) and in an epizoic solitary rugose coral differ from nearly all of those previously reported in Paleozoic corals. These microborings were formed within the coralla by endolithic algae and fungi located beneath living polyps. Comparable structures in the Late Ordovician tabulate Quepora ?agglomeratiformis (a halysitid) represent algal microborings, not spicules, and halysitids are corals, not sponges as suggested by Kaźmierczak (1989).

Endolithic algae in cateniform tabulates relied primarily on light entering through the outer walls of the ranks rather than through the polyps; lacunae within coralla permitted appropriate levels of light to reach many corallites. The direction of boring was determined by corallum microstructure and possibly also by the distribution of organic matter within the skeleton. There is an apparent inverse correlation between boring activity and coral growth rate.

The location and relative abundance of pyritized microborings within calcareous coralla can be established quantitatively and objectively from electron microprobe determinations of weight percent sulfur along appropriate traverses of the coral skeleton. The distribution of such microborings in Catenipora rubra and Manipora amicarum is comparable to algal banding in modern corals; this is the first report of such banding in the interiors of Paleozoic corals. Change in the intensity of boring within each corallum was evidently a response to variation in the linear growth rate of the coral, or to fluctuation in an environmental factor (perhaps light intensity) that could control both algal activity and growth rate in these corals. Change in the algal boring intensity and linear growth rate of the coral was generally but not always seasonal and usually but not invariably associated with change in the density of coral skeletal deposition.

Cyclic bands of boring abundance maxima within fossil colonial corals provide a measure of annual linear growth comparable to the widely accepted method based on skeletal density bands. Algal bands are more sporadically developed than density bands within and among coralla, thus increasing the difficulty of interpretation. Fluctuations in the abundance of algal microborings apparently provide a detailed record of changes in the linear growth rate of colonies and of individuals within colonies. Combined analyses of microboring abundance and skeletal density will contribute significantly to our understanding of the biological and environmental factors involved in endolithic activity and coral growth.

Species of the superfamily Acastacea constitute a minor element of North and South American Silurian trilobite faunas. Phacopidina? obsoleta (Ulrich and Delo) (Llandovery, Tennessee) provides the sole Silurian record of the “kloucekiine” grade (Acastacea s.l.); a lectotype is designated for this species. Acaste birminghamensis Norford (mid Llandovery, Alabama) lacks synapomorphies of post-Llandovery Acastidae s.s. (=Acastinae + “Acastavinae” + Asteropyginae), and is the basis for Llandovacaste n. gen. (Acastidae s.l.). A well-preserved sample of Andinacaste cf. A. ledgrandi Eldredge and Braniša from the Catavi Formation (Ludlow–Přídolí), Bolivia, displays apomorphic characters of the genal spines and hypostome shared with Devonian calmoniids. Coaptative structures, including vincular furrow/pits and “bifurcated” thoracic pleural tips, are documented for Andinacaste; similar enrollment morphologies arose in other acastomorph calmoniids. Poorly known Llandovery acastaceans from Paraguay and Venezuela may represent Andinacaste. Acaste zerinae n. sp. from the Pembroke Formation (Přídolí) of Maine is closely comparable to British late Wenlock A. downingiae (Murchison). The Australian Gedinnian acastine placed in Phacopinae indet. longisulcata (Shergold) is designated Acaste lokii n. sp.

Chitinozoa have been recovered from three sections within the Garra Limestone in central New South Wales, Australia. A total of 31 species are identified and two new species, Angochitina hypenetes and Bursachitina mawsonae, are described. Three stratigraphically distinct assemblages from the late Lochkovian to the early Pragian are distinguished and compared with faunas of a similar age from Europe and northern Africa.

Lack of an adequately calibrated Devonian time scale precludes satisfactory comparisons of Recent and Devonian bryozoan diversities. Nevertheless, Devonian bryozoans apparently are 3–100 times less diverse than Recent bryozoans. This variation is a function of how Devonian time is divided (whole period, stages, per million years) as well as the diverse skeletal architecture of cheilostome bryozoans, the most abundant Recent bryozoan order.

The Givetian has the largest specific, generic, and familial diversity of any Devonian stage and the drop in bryozoan diversity from the Givetian to the Frasnian is greater than the rise or fall of diversity between any other adjacent stages. Diversity hardly changes among bryozoans across the Frasnian–Famennian boundary. Among bryozoans the Givetian–Frasnian extinction was a major event.

Devonian taxonomic diversity is less than nomenclatorial diversity, although both exhibit the same trends from stage to stage during the Devonian. The amount of difference between the two measures of diversity is probably a reflection of the intensity of research on Devonian Bryozoa, especially revisionary studies of previously described faunas. Monographic bursts in diversity are present and are a measure of the episodic character of taxonomic studies on less popular phyla. Examination of the literature commonly provides a finer stratigraphic resolution than indicated in compilations such as the Zoological Record.

Although some significant areas of the exposed continents have not received adequate study, Devonian bryozoans show marked geographic changes in diversity that can not be ascribed entirely to lack of study.

Blocks of sandy limestone dredged from the bottom of a quarry in eastern Lee County, South Carolina, contain a turritelline gastropod-dominated macrofossil assemblage, including age-diagnostic Maastrichtian ammonites. Although turritelline-dominated assemblages are common in other areas and ages, this is the first report of such an assemblage of any age from South Carolina and the first Cretaceous turritelline-dominated assemblage from eastern North America. Whereas the matrix of the turritelline layer is calcareous, the carbonate is present only as cement and the fossil assemblage did not form in a typically carbonate-dominated environment. This fact agrees with the observed absence of “turritella limestones” in the Cretaceous. Such limestones are common in the Paleogene but absent in the Neogene. This pattern is consistent with the hypothesis that turritellines as a group have become less thermophilic since the Cretaceous.

A diverse Halobia fauna with rare ammonoids and conodonts is described from the type Martin Bridge Formation (Upper Triassic) of northeast Oregon. The composite section of black shale, mudstone, bedded micrite, limestone conglomerate, and halobiid lumachelle spans the Carnian–Norian boundary without apparent sedimentologic break or pronounced biotic extinction. The occurrence of Halobia radiata radiata Gemmellaro, Halobia? cf. teltschenensis (Kittl), H. superba superba Mojsisovics, and H. superba ornatissima Smith (nomen translatum) with the ammonoids Discotropites sp. and Arietoceltites? sp. low in the section indicates a late Carnian age (Dilleri?, Welleri to Macrolobatus Zones). These fossils occur below beds containing early Norian (Kerri Zone) H. beyrichi (Mojsisovics) and middle Norian (Rutherfordi?, Columbianus Zone) H. halorica Mojsisovics. The described fauna increases the halobiid and ammonoid diversity previously known from the Martin Bridge Formation despite synonymy of species previously reported from the section.

Rugose and tabulate corals from the Lower Permian (Wolfcampian) part of the Bird Spring Group in Arrow Canyon, Arrow Canyon Range, Clark County, Nevada, comprise eight species in eight genera. Stylastraea rowetti n. sp. is the first unequivocal record of this genus west of Texas in North America. Heritschiella girtyi, the only endemic North American waagenophyllid genus and species, is recorded outside Kansas for the first time. Paraheritschioides stevensi formerly was known only from northern California. The other species also occur elsewhere in the Permian of Nevada and nearby. This southeast Nevada shelf area has the first known intermixture of corals from the Durhaminid Coral Province and subprovinces of far western North America and the Cyathaxonid Coral Province of middle and southwestern North America.

Gemmellaroia is a conical Permian brachiopod that traditionally has been assigned to the superfamily Richthofeniacea [sic] on the basis of its conical shape and a myocoelidium in the ventral valve. It has been considered unique among brachiopods in opening the shell by having the dorsal valve move straight up, rather than rotating around a hinge axis. Evidence is adduced to warrant transfer of the genus and its cohorts to the superfamily Derbyoidea (totally unrelated to the richthofenioids) and to demonstrate that it was capable of opening in the normal manner, rotating the dorsal valve about a hinge axis. Members of the family include Gemmellaroia (Cossmann, 1898), Loczyella Frech, 1901, Tectaria (Likharev, 1928), and Cyndalia (new genus with type species C. rudistiformis new species).

Small shelly fossils from the Wirrealpa and Aroona Creek Limestones, Flinders Ranges, and the temporally equivalent Ramsay Limestone, Yorke Peninsula, South Australia, are described and assessed. These formations, deposited during a widespread marine transgression, have traditionally been assigned an early Middle Cambrian age based on lateral facies relationships, lithostratigraphic interpretation, and age diagnostic trilobites. However, new data from regional sequence stratigraphy and mounting paleontological evidence suggest that a late Early Cambrian age (equivalent to the Toyonian Stage from the Siberian Platform) is more appropriate for these units. Twenty-four taxa, including a number of problematica, poriferans, coeloscleritophorans, palaeoscolecidans, “conodontomorphs,” hyolithelminthes, hyoliths, mollusks, and inarticulate brachiopods, are reported herein; many of these have not previously been reported from the Cambrian of South Australia. The enigmatic Chalasiocranos exquisitum n. gen. and sp., known from disarticulated tuberculate cone-shaped phosphatic sclerites, and Protomelission gatehousei n. gen. and sp., a problematic, perhaps colonial organism, known from phosphatic plates, are especially notable. The genus Kaimenella is formally included in the Palaeoscolecida, and two species (including K. dailyi n. sp.) are recognized.

Gedinnian (Early Devonian) orthoceratid cephalopods were previously not well known in Japan. Five species are described from the Fukuji Formation of Gifu Prefecture, central Japan: Michelinoceras yamakoshii n. sp., Michelinoceras yoshikiense n. sp., Plagiostomaceras? sp., Polygrammoceras sp., and Metaspyroceras insignis n. sp. Growth and position of the cameral deposits in Michelinoceras indicate that the deposits precipitated from cameral fluids and living Michelinoceras maintained the shell horizontally in swimming orientation.

The authors wish to correct an error on page 26 of the paper on “An illustrated key to the identification of unilocular genera of calcareous foraminifera” by Fred E. Clark and R. Timothy Patterson (Journal of Paleontology, 67:20–28).

The endolithic mytilid bivalve, Lithophaga palmerae n. sp., from the Upper Eocene Ocala Limestone of north-central Florida, sheds new light on the evolution of lithophagids with its unspecialized morphology and highly specialized mode of life. Lithophaga palmerae n. sp. inhabited dead and living coral as indicated by orientation evidence. In living coral, the anterior end of the borehole was sealed off with thick, continuous, “false floors” of CaCO3, as the posterior end was extended to keep pace with coral growth. To date, this new species of lithophagid has been found associated with only one host coral, Actinastrea cf. A. incrustans (Duncan). Association with living coral is found today in L. bisulcata (d'Orbigny) and L. dixonae Scott from the Caribbean and in several Red Sea and Indo-Pacific lithophagids. In the fossil record, live-coral boring has been reported from the Miocene of the Vienna Basin of Austria and from the Pleistocene of Grand Cayman Island in the Caribbean. Lithophaga palmerae n. sp. provides a valuable ancestral link in the evolution of Lithophaga by extending the range of live-coral boring back to the Eocene of Florida.

New Mollusca from the shallow marine, highly fossiliferous Wangaloa Formation of southeastern Otago, South Island, New Zealand, are described. This paper reports three new species and one new genus: Leionucula palaioanaxea n. sp. of the Nuculidae, Pyropsis zinsmeisteri n. sp. of the Tudiclidae, and Wangacteon grebneffi n. gen. and sp. of the Acteonidae. These taxa represent new records in New Zealand of apparently endemic taxa. The molluscan fauna of the Wangaloa Formation is important in the understanding of Paleogene biogeography of the Southern Hemisphere and changes in faunal composition of the Cretaceous–Tertiary Gondwana Realm. Genus- and species-level endemism in the “Wangaloan” fauna is marked and is probably a reflection of “greater New Zealand” 's geographic and genetic isolation during the Paleocene. Although deposits containing early Paleogene Mollusca are generally rare in the Southern Hemisphere, comparisons of known Gondwana molluscan taxa and those of similar age in the Northern Hemisphere indicate that the Mollusca of the Wangaloa Formation have Early Paleocene affinities. Microfossil evidence, in addition, supports an Early Paleocene age for the fauna. However, an uppermost Cretaceous age is indicated for the basal part of the Wangaloa Formation stratigraphically below the shell beds, but the K–T boundary has yet to be located.

Phylogenetic parsimony analysis was used to classify the Siegenian–Eifelian “Metacryphaeus group” of the family Calmoniidae. Thirty-eight exoskeletal characters for 16 taxa produced a shortest-length cladogram with a consistency index of 0.49. A classification based on retrieving the structure of this cladogram recognizes nine genera: Typhloniscus Salter, Plesioconvexa n. gen., Punillaspis Baldis and Longobucco, Eldredgeia n. gen., Clarkeaspis n. gen., Malvinocooperella n. gen., Wolfartaspis Cooper, Plesiomalvinella Lieberman, Edgecombe, and Eldredge (used to represent the malvinellid clade), and Metacryphaeus Reed. The malvinellid clade is most closely related to a revised monophyletic Metacryphaeus. Typhloniscus is the basal member of the “Metacryphaeus group,” and the monotypic Wolfartaspis is sister to the clade containing the malvinellids and Metacryphaeus. Six new species are diagnosed: Punillaspis n. sp. A, “Clarkeaspis” gouldi, Clarkeaspis padillaensis, Malvinocooperella pregiganteus, Metacryphaeus curvigena, and Metacryphaeus branisai. Primitively, this group has South African and Andean affinities, and its evolutionary history suggests rapid diversification. In addition, evolutionary patterns in this group, and the distribution of character reversals, call into question certain notions about the nature of adaptive radiations. The distributions of taxa may answer questions about the number of marine transgressive/regressive cycles in the Emsian–Eifelian of the Malvinokaffric Realm.

The vermiform pedicle is one of the most distinctive organs of modern lingulids, but it is rarely preserved. Only two fossil specimens of lingulids with pedicle casts have been reported, one from the Ordovician and the other from the Devonian. No record of fossil pedicles of Lingulella and Lingulepis, the dominant Cambrian and Early Ordovician lingulids, is known. Fossil lingulids from the Lower Cambrian of Chengjiang County, Yunnan, suggest that the structure and function of the pedicle of the lingulids has not changed significantly from its first appearance. A comparison of fossil pedicle of lingulids from the Lower Cambrian, Chengjiang County (China), the Burgess Shale, Middle Cambrian, British Columbia (Canada), the Trenton Formation, Middle Ordovician, New York (U.S.A.), and the Devonian, Devonshire (England, U.K.) shows that the delthyrial area to which the pedicle muscles are attached was reduced in length through time until these muscles were completely embraced by the two valves.

Two species, Lingulella chengjiangensis n. sp. and Lingulepis malongensis Rong, are described.

A new species of planorbid gastropod, Vorticifex taylori, is described from the Late Miocene (Clarendonian) Truckee Formation at its type area in Churchill County, Nevada. Comparison with younger and older species assigned to Vorticifex indicates a high degree of morphologic variation within the genus as contrasted with relatively conservative intraspecific variation, which may reflect ecologic similarities at discrete times during the development of the Great Basin subprovince of the Basin and Range physiographic province.

A nonmarine pelecypod occurrence was reported in 1977 within a zone of gray shaly mudstones yielding carbonized plants at Promontory Butte, Mogollon Rim, east-central Arizona. On paleobotanical evidence, the zone appeared then to be either of Late Carboniferous or Early Permian age. Work on 50 measurable shells indicates that the fauna is of Anthraconaia protracta Eagar and has wide variation. Standard dimensions of the Arizona fauna are identical to those of the type assemblage of A. protracta, which forms a thin band immediately above the Benwood Limestone of the Monongahela Group near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 2,700 km to the east. The Arizona shell varieties match 50–60 percent of those from the band in Pennsylvania. Matching falls off rapidly to nil 70 m below this horizon and 100 m above it. Small differences in the trends of variation of the shells from Promontory Butte and Pennsylvania are accompanied by small differences in their respective host sediments, as reflected in their organic carbon and carbonate contents. When these results are compared with earlier conclusions on recurrent, apparently ecophenotypic, changes in the shape of Anthraconaia from other horizons in the Carboniferous and Lower Permian, they provide further evidence that the Arizona and Pennsylvania faunas were approximately contemporary. When the two bands are correlated, the Promontory Butte band is placed in the upper Pennsylvanian and in the upper Virgilian as traditionally accepted.

Malformations of trilobites are classified as healed injuries, teratological conditions, and pathological conditions. An improved method of recognizing such malformations combines information about the conditions under which cell injury can occur, the processes by which animal tissues react to injury, and trilobite morphology.

Study of healed injuries of polymeroid trilobites shows that injuries attributed to sublethal predation tend to be most commonly preserved on the pleural lobes, the posterior half of the body, and the right side. Statistically significant differences in the number of predation scars between the right and left sides is interpreted as evidence of right-left behavioral asymmetry in some predators of trilobites or the trilobites themselves. Asymmetrical, or lateralized, behavior in present-day animals is one manifestation of handedness, and is usually related to a functional lateralization of the nervous system. Evidence of behavioral lateralization in some Paleozoic predators or prey suggests that those organisms also possessed lateralized nervous systems. Right-left differences in preserved predation scars on trilobites date from the Early Cambrian (Olenellus Zone), and are the oldest known evidence of behavioral asymmetry in the fossil record.

Other examples of structural or behavioral asymmetry from the fossil record of animals are cited. Lateralization is recognized in representatives of the Arthropoda, Annelida, Bryozoa, Echinodermata, Cnidaria, Mollusca, Chordata, and Conodonta, and in trace fossils.

The Middle Devonian brachiopod genus Cyrtinoides, described from the southern Urals, is a senior subjective synonym of Mucroclipeus, previously known only from eastern and western North America. The Middle and Late Devonian cyrtinid brachiopod genus Komiella, previously known only from the Timan Range of eastern Europe, is identified from west-central Alaska and Nevada. A new family Komiellidae is proposed. New species are Komiella gilberti, K. magnasulca, and K. stenoparva. Known species of both genera occupy carbonate platform foreslope facies or shelf basins, allowing open marine migration via peripheral biofacies.