The Mammalia from the Calf Creek Local Fauna, Cypress Hills Formation, Saskatchewan, include various Carnivora (197 specimens) and Creodonta (nine specimens). Most specimens are isolated teeth. The fauna includes Daphoenus sp., Daphoenocyon dodgei, daphoenine sp., Parictis parvus, Parictis sp., nimravid spp., Hesperocyon gregarius, Hemipsalodon grandis, Hyaenodon horridus, H. microdon, Hyaenodon spp., and indeterminate taxa. Most of the large number of deciduous teeth are referred to Hesperocyon or the Daphoeninae. Daphoenus canadensis, Russell, 1934, is a junior synonym of Daphoenocyon dodgei. Upper molars are tentatively referred to P. parvus; the geographic range of P. parvus is extended to include Saskatchewan and Wyoming. The Calf Creek Hesperocyon closely resembles samples of the genus from Pipestone Springs Local Fauna, Montana, and most levels at Flagstaff Rim, Wyoming. Most of the previously described Carnivora and Creodonta from Cypress Hills localities can be referred to species that occur in the Calf Creek Local Fauna. The Carnivora and Creodonta are consistent with an early to medial Chadronian age for this local fauna and suggest a relatively early age within that interval.

Although basic skeletal design tends to be rather stable within classes and lower level taxa of echinoderms, Echinodermata as a phylum shows an enormous range of symmetries, including forms that are amorphous, bilateral, and pentameral. Variations in symmetry within taxa are not simply curiosities, but have been used to infer modes of development and patterns of evolution of symmetry (Lane and Webster, 1967; Macurda, 1980; Galloway, 1990). During a recent morphometric study (Foote, 1991) involving the blastoid collections of the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology (UMMP), a specimen of the fissiculate blastoid species Timoroblastus coronatus was found with the azygous basal in the CD interray. This appears to represent the first reported case of basal inversion in this species, and increases the number of blastoid genera in which basal inversion is known to at least six.

The late Mississippian ammonoid family Delepinoceratidae is comprised of the genera Platygoniatites and Delepinoceras, and is considered one of the more biostratigraphically significant families for lower Namurian correlation (Manger et al., 1985). Platygoniatites, the earliest member, is known from eastern and southern Europe (Ruzhencev and Bogoslovskaya, 1971; Wagner-Gentis, 1963, 1980) and North Africa (Lemosquet et al., 1985). Despite its wide distribution, Platygoniatites is generally a rare member (with the exception of the southern Ural Mountains) of latest Visean and earliest Namurian faunas. It has never been reported previously from North America, though thousands of ammonoids have been collected here from age equivalent beds. The discovery of a new species of the genus in the late Mississippian faunas of east-central Nevada provides new data for precise correlation of the ammonoid zonations of Gordon (1970) to the type Namurian and indicates a need for revision of the current correlations between the southern Urals and northwestern Europe.

The university of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP), located on the Berkeley Campus, is a major repository of fossils and paleontological materials. The collection, one of the largest in the nation, originated in 1873 and has been added to continuously since then. In 1921, the Museum of Paleontology was officially initiated with an endowment though the generosity of Annie Alexander of Oakland, California (Grinnell, 1958). The UCMP collections are divided into four specimen collection management units and one collection of paleontological materials, such as rock, sediment, and amber samples, and various teaching collections. The specimen collection units are Fossil Prokaryotes and Protists, Fossil and Recent Invertebrates, Paleobotany and Palynology, and Vertebrate Paleontology. Each of these units has its own manager and each consists of hundreds of thousands of specimens or more and thousands of primary and secondary type specimens. The Museum is supported by the Annie Alexander Endowment and the University of California, Berkeley. It has a staff of 11, and a group of faculty curators, affiliate faculty curators from other University of California campuses, research associates, and associated graduate and undergraduate students. It is a general purpose research museum open to the scientific community and, although it does no formal instruction, it provides instructional exhibits and teaching collections at Berkeley and other campuses. It publishes Paleobios (ISSN 0031-0298), an occasional publication containing a variety of paleontological, peer-reviewed papers. UCMP is also involved in public and school activities at the Museum in Berkeley and at the University of California, Berkeley, Museum of Science, Art and Culture, at Blackhawk Plaza, Danville, California.

Echinoid fragments were reported by Zachos (1990) from a Weches Formation (Clairborne) outcrop on Hooker Creek in Burleson County, Texas. Enough fragments have been found at the latter locality to piece together a composite identifiable as a species of the spatangid genus Maretia, most likely M. arguta. This species has not previously been reported outside of Clarke County, Mississippi. A search of the stratigraphic collections of the Texas Memorial Museum in Austin, Texas, has uncovered several previously unidentified specimens of M. arguta from two Weches localities, at Kickapoo Shoals on the Trinity River in Houston County and at Nacogdoches in Nacogdoches County. In addition, spatangoid fragments, some of which are attributable to M. arguta, are common in collections from the Weches and Cook Mountain Formations.

A suite of over 70 samples recovered from the tropical southwest Pacific Ocean and selected from the collection of Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) has been the basis of this author's current research. In the course of studying the Recent benthic foraminiferal faunas from these samples, a new species, also referable to a new genus, was identified in six of the samples.

A new Permian bactritoid cephalopod, Aktastioceras nishikawai n. sp., was discovered from the Uyamano Formation of the Taishaku Limestone Group at Miharanoro, Hiroshima Prefecture (Figure 1). The Uyamano Formation represents the Lower Permian portion of the Central Facies, which was defined by Hase et al. (1974) in a large reef complex deposited during the period of Early Carboniferous to Late Permian age. Lithofacies of the formation mainly consist of limestone, including the reef core facies with minor amounts of a limestone conglomerate. The specimens of Aktastioceras occur in light-gray massive limestone of the lowest Uyamano Formation, belonging to the Pseudoschwagerina Zone (Akagi, 1958), which indicates Asselian age. This is the first record of a Permian bactritoid from Japan.

In 1990 (Fluegeman and Orr) the writers published a short study on known North American cyclocystoids. This enigmatic group is best represented in the United States Devonian by only two specimens, both illustrated in the 1990 report. Previously, the Cortland, New York, specimen initially described by Heaslip (1969) was housed at State University College at Cortland, New York, and the Logansport, Indiana, specimen was housed at Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana. Both institutions recognize the importance of permanently placing these rare specimens in a proper paleontologic repository with other cyclocystoids. Therefore, these two specimens have been transferred to the curated paleontologic collection at the University of Cincinnati Geological Museum where they can be readily studied by future workers in association with a good assemblage of Ordovician specimens of the Cyclocystoidea.

Three species of Yoderimyinae (Eomyidae: Rodentia) are recognized from the lower part of the White River Formation (early to medial Chadronian) in the Flagstaff Rim area, Wyoming. The new material allows an improved diagnosis for the subfamily. The enamel microstructure of Yoderimyinae supports its inclusion in the Eomyidae.

A new genus, Zemiodontomys, is established for Yoderimys burkei Black, and new material, including upper dentition, is referred to this species. This genus differs from Yoderimys in having higher crowned and more lophodont teeth and in lacking P3. A second new genus, Litoyoderimys, is established for Yoderimys lustrorum Wood, and a new species, L. auogoleus, is referred to the genus. This genus has lower crowned, more cuspate teeth than Yoderimys.

Through early and medial Chadronian time, evolution in yoderimyines includes the following morphologic transformations: increase in size; increase in crown height and lophodonty of cheek teeth; reduction of P3 (from double-rooted, to single-rooted, to absent); increase in relative size of P4 and p4; and increased longitudinal torsion of the mandible.

The Outgoing Council met Sunday, October 25, 1992, in the Hyatt, Bluegrass Room A-B, in Cincinnati, Ohio. The meeting was called to order by President Kaesler at 7:00 PM. Present for the Outgoing Council Meeting were: Roger Kaesler, Tom Bolton, Rod Feldmann, Steve Stanley, June Ross, Don Wolberg, Don Steinker, Arnie Miller, Carl Koch, Steve Culver, and Scott Lidgard. President Kaesler asked for a motion to approve the agenda and June Ross so moved, Rod Feldmann seconded the motion, which passed without objection.

The impetus for writing this paper has come from many people who have shown an interest in the device we describe; prior to this paper, we had no reference to provide for interested parties. The original device was described in Elmgren (1973) and illustrated in Thomas (1986). These papers are not readily available to many micropaleontologists; hence, we felt the need to redescribe it here with a few modifications. Traditionally, foraminiferal researchers, especially those working in fossil deposits, work on samples that are first processed and then dried. To split these dry samples to aliquots of manageable numbers of foraminifera, they use the well-known “Otto” microsplitter, which provides accurate splits plus or minus 10–20 percent.

The responsibilities of Secretary of this Society bring with them an opportunity to interact with the membership and the public. It is a job that offers a unique perspective on the profession and a general perception of the profession. There is no doubt but that a high level of interest in paleontology is present “out there” in the real world and people are interested in fossils. I continue to receive many, many requests for our educational brochures and there has been a surprising number of requests for membership information in the Society by people for whom paleontology is an avocation.

Disarticulated elements from three individuals of Mammuthus cf. M. columbi (Falconer) and one individual of Bison cf. B. latifrons (Harlan) were recovered from an excavation in gravelly, sandy clay of the Colma Formation at the southeast base of Telegraph Hill, San Francisco, California. This is the most abundant collection of late Pleistocene terrestrial vertebrates reported from San Francisco, and only the fourth record from excavations in the city proper. The Mammuthus-Bison association indicates a Rancholabrean age, and elements of these two taxa from this site have been radiocarbon dated at 25,380 ± 1,100 years B.P. Geologic setting, lithology, associated diatoms and pollen, and preservation of the bones suggest that these animals were buried rapidly in a boggy environment on the west margin of the broad valley now occupied by San Francisco Bay.

Ceratopsid diversity at the end of the Cretaceous plays a role in interpreting faunal events at or near the Cretaceous–Tertiary boundary in North America. The addition of a new ceratopsid genus within this time frame thus has potential ramifications for the interpretation of these events.

Two new species of benthic foraminifera, Heronallenella boltovskoyi and Planulinoides srinivasani, are present at four Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) sites in the tropical Indian Ocean (Table 1 and Figure 1). Both species are rare, each constituting less than 1 percent of the assemblage (> 149 μm size fraction) in which it occurs. The former, belonging to a new genus, occurs in Pliocene to Holocene sediments of DSDP sites 219, 237, 238, and 253, whereas the latter is present in the late Pleistocene of sites 237 and 238. The stratigraphic placement of the samples is after Srinivasan and Singh (1989) for site 219 and after Gupta (1987) for sites 237, 238, and 253. The descriptions of the new taxa are given below; the suprageneric classification is taken from Loeblich and Tappan (1987).

Huene (1935) first reported dicynodonts from the Triassic Santa Maria Formation of southern Brazil. Most common are specimens of Dinodontosaurus from localities near Chiniquà (Chiniquà local fauna) and near Candelaria (Candelaria local fauna) in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The other Middle Triassic dicynodont found near Chiniquà is the huge (about 3 m body length) Stahleckeria potens, and an equally large Middle Triassic dicynodont, Barysoma lenzii, is known from near Candelaria. A fourth, supposed Santa Maria Formation dicynodont, Jachaleria candelariensis (Araújo and Gonzaga, 1990), is actually from a younger, Upper Triassic, horizon of the Caturrita Formation near Candelaria (Bonaparte, 1982). Here, I argue that Barysoma lenzii is a junior subjective synonym of Stahleckeria potens and discuss the biochronological significance of this synonymy.

During examination of the large ostracode assemblage collections at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Geology & Geophysics, Lower Hutt, New Zealand, a single specimen of unusual shape was encountered. So unusual is the crescentic outline and infolding of the entire shell periphery that assignment even to a phylum was difficult, and it was only upon scanning electron microscopic study that subcentral muscle scars were clearly observed and these enabled confident identification of the specimen as an ostracode. One specimen is not usually considered sufficient to propose a new taxon; however, in this case there is no doubt that this unique specimen clearly represents a new species, genus, and probably family of Ostracoda. A search for additional specimens from the type unit is underway, but has, as yet, been unsuccessful to find this rare intriguing ostracode. Unlike other unusual ostracodes described from the Southern Hemisphere such as the punciids, this specimen appears to have no similarity with Paleozoic taxa.

In 1992, 100 articles and notes were published in Volume 66 of the Journal of Paleontology, as well as two Memoirs. Publication of articles and notes was supported by authors, grants, and institutions in the amount of approximately $34,000.

This technique is effective for completely breaking down moderately calcareous to noncalcareous mudstones and shales to produce a concentrated residue of microfossils and non-clay minerals. I have applied this treatment to Mississippian and Pennsylvanian age mudstones and have easily retrieved abundant conodonts, ostracodes, foraminifers, spores, wood fragments, fish teeth, vertebrate bone fragments, silt, mica, pyrite crystals and framboids, and phosphate nodules. All of the above items emerge from the treatment with fine structures such as spines and surface ornamentation undamaged and completely free of surficial clay. This technique is a modification of that of Lund (1970). The chemical used by Lund (Union Carbide Amine 220) is no longer manufactured and an effective alternative is reported here. Furthermore, the additional steps in processing reported here increase the efficacity of the technique for completely dissolving indurated mudstones.