Three species of Upper Pennsylvanian crinoids, two inadunates and one flexible, exhibit a sufficiently complete growth series to describe and quantify their ontogeny. Apographiocrinus typicalis (Moore and Plummer), Erisocrinus typus (Meek and Worthen), and Euonychocrinus simplex (Strimple and Moore) were collected from the middle shale of the Millersville Limestone Member of the Bond Formation at the Charleston Stone Quarry, Coles County, Illinois. Ten other crinoid species were collected in insufficient numbers for growth studies. Both bivariate and multivariate statistical procedures were used to analyze the growth of these crinoids.

In the inadunate crinoids skeletal growth was highly coordinated in the dorsal cup and cup plates. Arm length increased by addition of secundibrachials. Food groove width increased almost three times from immature to adult stages, thus allowing a larger range of food particles to be consumed by adults. Growth of the cup is isometric in E. typus and slightly anisometric in A. typicalis. Primibrachials in both species develop anisometrically. Immature specimens possess long, slender primibrachials, with the A ray plate being longest. In maturity, the primibrachials become equidimensional and equalized in all rays. The A ray arm is followed by the C and D ray arms, and finally the B and E ray arms, in sharp contrast to arm development in disparid inadunates. Pinnules appear late in the immature stage of growth. Primary emphasis on the expansion of the arms in young inadunates demonstrates a rapid establishment of a filtration-fan mode of feeding. Subsequent development involves widening of the plates for strength and support of the arms and to accommodate wider food grooves that permit a larger array of food particles to be captured.

The flexible crinoid, E. simplex, experienced a less correlated pattern of growth. Cup plates and arms grew isometrically and all arms were added simultaneously. Development suggests that flexibles fed differently than the associated inadunates and the cup may have played a less important role in functioning of the calyx.

The upright, elevated growth pattern of stalked crinoids exposed them to a sequence of competitive interactions with other epifaunal animals that had important adaptational ramifications for their evolution, diversity, and extinction. The fact that most living crinoids, stalked and unstalked, have abandoned a permanently fixed place of growth may have been an advantageous factor in their survival.

Harmostocrinus jonesi n. sp. (Mississippian: Chesterian) is described from the upper part of the Monteagle Limestone in northern Alabama, and is distinguished from all other species of the genus by bifurcation of the A-ray arm on IBr2 instead of IBr1. Reduction in overall number of arms, A-ray arm bifurcation, and reduction of cup-size demonstrate that H. jonesi is a paedomorphic evolutionary intermediate between the stratigraphically older Mississippian genus Abrotocrinus, and other, younger species of Harmostocrinus. Both peramorphosis (cup characters) and paedomorphosis (arm characters) were important factors in the evolution of Harmostocrinus jonesi.

The Upper Devonian (Frasnian) conodont fauna of the Lime Creek Formation of north-central Iowa is dominated by species of Polygnathus. Patterns of species composition and abundance are consistent with the Polygnathus biofacies described from the Frasnian of the Northwest Territories of western Canada. Consequently, the standard Frasnian conodont zones, defined on sequences developed in the Palmatolepis biofacies, are not applicable to the Lime Creek sequence. The Lime Creek conodont sequence correlates with Zones 4, 5 and Faunal Interval 7 of the Frasnian conodont sequence in the Alberta Rockies and with similar sequences in the southwestern United States. The Pb elements of Palmatolepis semichatovae Ovnatanova and Ancyrognathus? deformis (Anderson) are described and illustrated for the first time.

In the Lime Creek Formation of north-central Iowa, brachiopods of the lowermost part of the Nervostrophia thomasi Zone of Day (1989a) occur in Zone 4, brachiopods of most of the N. thomasi, Douvillina arcuata, and Cyrtospirifer whitneyi Zones span conodont Zone 5, and the Elita inconsueta and Iowatrypa owenensis Zones occur in Faunal Interval 7. Species of the ammonoid Manticoceras and of the gastropods Floyda, Turbonopsis, and Westerna are restricted to Faunal Interval 7. Species of the calcareous foraminifer Nanicella first occur in Zone 5, and are joined by species of Multiseptida high in Zone 5.

The diagnosis of the shovel-tusked gomphothere genus Amebelodon has been subject to dispute since it was first established by Barbour in 1927. This dispute stems from a failure to evaluate the phylogenetic nature of two characters found in some specimens referred to Amebelodon: four lophs(ids) on some intermediate cheek teeth (M2 and M1) and internal dentinal rods within the lower tusks. These characters are considered diagnostic for the shovel-tusk gomphothere genera Platybelodon and Torynobelodon, and conflict with the traditional diagnosis of Amebelodon. Newly described specimens of Amebelodon and a detailed morphological analysis of one of the disputed characters, dentinal rods, indicate that the character states in the two shovel-tusker groups are analogous. The genus Amebelodon is rediagnosed to take into account this new information.

The rediagnosis of Amebelodon is taxonomically recognized by the designation of a new subgenus, Amebelodon (Konobelodon), which includes all Amebelodon specimens convergent with Platybelodon and Torynobelodon. A new species, A. (Konobelodon) britti, is established that includes all specimens of this subgenus from North America. Specimens from the Moss Acres Racetrack site (Hemphillian) in northern Florida are used in the description of this species.

The crown of an erect plant (probable juvenile tree/shrub) has been recovered from Lower Pennsylvanian strata of the southern Appalachian basin. It is preserved in three dimensions and provides the first confirmatory evidence for the compact helical arrangement of leaves in early Late Carboniferous plants. The crown is partially cast and partially compressed and is comprised of 11 leaves disposed in a 3/5 phyllotaxis. Substantiation of tight helical leaf development restricted to the crown of an Early Pennsylvanian plant provides evidence for greater architectural diversification in growth habit than presently documented at this time in tree ferns or pteridosperms.

Remains derived from owl pellets are a major source of small-animal remains in paleontological and archaeological sites. Pellet remains are examined here to further develop workable strategies for extracting taphonomic information from microvertebrate assemblages. Study of the remains of three wild owl species yielded characteristic patterns of bone fragmentation and skeletal element representation. At the assemblage level, owl-derived assemblages are shown to differ quantitatively from other assemblages. The possible variability to be expected in owl-derived assemblages is examined and the patterns are contrasted with those produced by other depositional agents. The patterns can be useful in the identification of owl-deposited remains in some assemblages; however, overlap with patterns produced by other mechanisms may complicate analysis.

The woodbridge Clay Member of the Raritan Formation of New Jersey yields the oldest marine fauna known from the Upper Cretaceous of the United States Atlantic seaboard. This fauna is dominated by bivalves and gastropods (Richards, 1943; Stephenson, 1954), which have sufficient elements in common with the Cenomanian Woodbine Formation of Texas to suggest a Cenomanian age (Stephenson, 1954, p. 26), and this has been supported by data from megascopic plant remains and pollen (see review in Christopher, 1977; Doyle and Robbins, 1977, and references therein). The discovery, by N. F. Sohl, of two ammonite fragments in the Woodbridge Clay Member provides the first evidence for the assignment of the member within the Cenomanian Stage. The specimens came from sideritic concretions in the Woodbridge Member at the claypit of the Sayreville-Fisher Brick Company at Sayreville, Middlesex County, New Jersey (USGS Mesozoic locality 29584). General descriptions of the Raritan succession are given in Owens and Sohl (1969), Owens et al. (1977), and Owens (1983).

The holotype of the errant polychaete annelid Trentonia shegiriana Pickerill and Forbes, 1978 from the Middle Ordovician Trenton Group of the Quebec City area, Quebec, Canada (see Pickerill and Forbes, 1978, fig. 1, p. 660), and subsequently figured in Boardman et al. (1987, fig. 12.4, p. 199), has now been reposited in the Division of Natural Sciences, New Brunswick Museum, Saint John, New Brunswick, with the catalog number NBMG 6501. Although the Trenton Group in this area has yielded additional annelids of uncertain affinity (Conway Morris et al., 1982), the holotype of T. shegiriana still represents the only known specimen despite a further decade of investigation. At the time of publication, a repository for the specimen was unavailable, but Dr. R. Miller, Curator for Paleontological Collections, has now arranged to receive the specimen.

Three ichnospecies of Bergaueria—B. perata, B. hemispherica, and B. radiata—are described from the Lower Cambrian Gog Group near Lake Louise, Alberta. Usually populations of Bergaueria are monospecific and this occurrence is unique. Since all three ichnospecies are found on a single slab, the criteria used for ichnospecies differentiation appear valid.

Fossils of a new primitive plesiadapid primate, Pronothodectes gaoi n. sp., from the middle Tiffanian (late Paleocene) Paskapoo Formation of Alberta, Canada, are described. Pronothodectes gaoi, the youngest known species of the genus, has P3–4 and lower molars that are intermediate between those of the early to middle Tiffanian successional species Plesiadapis anceps Simpson and Plesiadapis rex (Gidley) both in size and qualitative characters. Pronothodectes gaoi retains I2 and the lower canine, as do all species of Pronothodectes Gidley but not Plesiadapis Gervais. A possible second species of Pronothodectes, from the earliest Tiffanian Cochrane 2 locality, Alberta, more closely resembles the ancestral Plesiadapis, Plesiadapis praecursor Gingerich, in size and configuration of P4, M1–3, but not in dental formula since the lower canine and perhaps I2 are retained. The stratigraphic occurrences of the fossils described here show that ancestral plesiadapids having I2 and the lower canine did not evolve anagenetically into Plesiadapis at the Torrejonian–Tiffanian boundary, as had been previously believed and that knowledge of the infrequently known anterior lower dentition may be necessary for recognition of some, otherwise indistinguishable, plesiadapid species. These discoveries make both interpretation of early plesiadapid phylogeny and correlation based on the stratigraphic succession of early plesiadapid species uncertain.

Among the multitude of Silurian nautiloids described by August F. Foerste over a long and illustrious career were specimens identified by him as being in the Welch Collection of Wilmington College, Wilmington, Ohio. These were figured and discussed in a series of papers published over a several-year period (Foerste 1928b, 1930a, 1930b, 1934).

Sinodiversograptus Mu and Chen, 1962, from the Monograptus turriculatus Zone of the lower Telychian (=Upper Llandovery, Silurian), is the earliest known Silurian graptolite genus to bear thecal cladia. Only one species of sinodiversograptid is known, this being S. lientanensis (Mu, 1948). A mature specimen of this species is illustrated in Figure 1. The genus Sinodiversograptus has been portrayed as such in both the Treatise (Bulman, 1970) and in Rickards et al.'s (1977) analysis of the evolution of the Silurian and Devonian graptoloids. Mu and Chen (1962), however, in their detailed study of the astogeny of the conspecific S. multibrachiatus, noted that the development of Sinodiversograptus may be divided into three stages.

1) Streptograptid stage (Figure 2.1)—development is as in a normal monograptid, with the first theca arising from the sicula. Subsequent thecae are added sympodially. Rickards et al. (1977) noted that the thecae of Sinodiversograptus are not streptograptid in form (i.e., retroverted, with an aperture slit-like laterally, but possessing a median upturned lip—see Chen, 1986, for illustrations of chemically isolated streptograptid thecae), but are hooked (Figure 2.8), an observation also made by the present author of the thecae of Mu and Chen's (1962) specimens (housed in the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology). They most closely resemble the thecae of Monograptus runcinatus Lapworth, 1876, as illustrated, for example, by Bjerreskov (1975). This first stage of development might, therefore, more correctly be termed the monograptid stage.

There appears to be an overwhelming urge in the study of earth sciences currently to discover the “cosmic generality.” Certainly, no observational and descriptive aspects of the study of earth history can be concluded until one has placed the observations into a broader context. On the other hand, there are not very many “cosmic generalities” and few lasting generalizations have been developed before the basic data have been gathered. When generalizations do precede observations, the former fall into the category of testable hypotheses or speculations, depending upon the overall plausibility of the ideas and the generosity of the reader.

A partial skeleton, including a skull with part of the axial skeleton, part of a second skull, and fragments of ribs have been recovered from the Sinemurian of the Sandilands Formation exposed at Kennecott Point in the northwestern Queen Charlotte Islands. This material is the most complete Early Jurassic collection from North America reported to date; other occurrences include a forefin from the Nordegg Formation (Sinemurian) of Alberta positively identified as Ichthyosaurus (McGowan, 1978) and vertebral centra from the Nicely Formation (Pliensbachian), Oregon, not assigned conclusively to a genus (McGowan, 1978). The discovery of ichthyosaurs in the allochthonous insular belt of British Columbia adds weight to the contention that ichthyosaurs were cosmopolitan in their distribution (McGowan, 1978; Orr, 1986).

Enigmatic tubular trace fossils up to eight meters long occur in the Lower Pennsylvanian Middlesboro Member of the Lee Formation. Two morphotypes occur: type 1 trace fossils are plain, smooth, vertical, nonbranching, parallel-walled, tubular structures; type 2 trace fossils branch, have walls with faint vertical striations, regularly or irregularly spaced nodes, and funnel-shaped terminations. Sandstone casts filling type 2 structures have helical spiral morphology, and, in rare individuals, faint meniscate fills have been observed. Both trace-fossil morphotypes have poorly cemented wall linings containing framboidal pyrite, amorphous carbon, quartz sand, and poorly preserved fecal material.

The trace fossils occur in a massive, structureless, channel-form sandstone, originating at the contact between a channel lag and the overlying massive fill. The stratigraphic sequence is interpreted to represent a barrier island transgressing an estuarine facies. A tidal inlet within the barrier facies scoured into the underlying estuarine sediments. Subsequent rapid filling of the inlet led to the deposition of the massive sandstone.

Origin of these structures is uncertain. The preponderance of evidence favors the hypothesis that the structures are escape burrows of animals that had colonized, or were concentrated in, the lag and were suddenly buried by the deposition of the massive sand. However, no likely burrower has been identified, and several characteristics of the structures and the enclosing sediments indicate that they may be completely inorganic in origin.

Rousseau H. Flower (1913-1988) described and figured more than hundreds of fossil taxa, collected throughout the world, during his long and colorful career (Wolberg, 1988). Most of the fossils Flower worked with remain at the New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources (NMBM&MR). Not surprisingly, given his interests in worldwide distributions of cephalopods and other groups, a rather small proportion of the fossils Rousseau worked with throughout his career were collected in New Mexico; a large proportion of the fossils actually belong to other institutions. The NMBM&MR continues to receive requests for published specimens and is making every effort to return loan material. The NMBM&MR also believes that the professional community would be best served by maintenance of the Flower/NMBM&MR fossils in a national repository. It was Rousseau's wish that the Smithsonian Institution/U. S. National Museum serve as one of the repositories of the NMBM&MR collections.