Calyptosuchus wellesi is an aetosaur known from the upper Blue Mesa Member and lowermost Sonsela Member of the Chinle Formation in Arizona, and the Tecovas Formation of the Dockum Group of Texas. The taxon is considered biostratigraphically informative and aids in correlating Upper Triassic strata across the southwestern United States. Our anatomical understanding of Calyptosuchus was primarily based on the holotype specimen from Texas and referred specimens, including several disarticulated elements from the Placerias Quarry in northern Arizona. We provide a re-interpretation of the holotype specimen and describe two new specimens referrable to Calyptosuchus from northern Arizona. Together these specimens provide new information on the cranial anatomy, including dentition, and the positional and intraspecific variation within the carapace and vertebral column of the taxon. This new evidence suggests that the skull anatomy of Calyptosuchus is more similar to that of Neoaetosauroides and Stagonolepis than to other aetosaurs. The dentition of Calyptosuchus supports recent hypotheses suggesting that aetosaurs were more omnivorous/faunivorous. The associated carapace expands our anatomical understanding of characters that vary among trunk paramedian osteoderms. We identify variation in the vertebral column within the trunk region, including the prominence of the centrodiapophyseal lamina and anatomy of the neural spine. Additionally, we report the first documentation of co-ossified sacral vertebrae within Calyptosuchus, which is also the first observation of this state within the Aetosauria outside of the Desmatosuchini. This suggests that co-ossification of the sacral vertebrae may be more prevalent within the Aetosauria than previously recognized.

http://zoobank.org/da3735b8-edf1-465d-820a-316174ed7bf9

Funisia dorothea Droser in Droser and Gehling, 2008 is an inferred metazoan-grade tubular organism, endemic to the Ediacara Member, Rawnsley Quartzite, of South Australia (~555–550 Myr), which is characterized by a hollow, elongate body constructed of uniserially repeating modular elements and is one of the most abundantly reported members of the Ediacara biota. Thus, Funisia Droser in Droser and Gehling, 2008 has broad significance for developing understanding of the Ediacara biota and provides a large dataset for testing hypotheses on the biological traits of Ediacaran tubular organisms. This study investigates size changes in Funisia’s modular elements to provide further insight into the paleobiology of this organism through the development of a holistic growth model. Results demonstrate that growth in Funisia was highly regulated to maintain uniform modular element width along the length of an individual and, thereby, an overall cylindrical form despite increasing module width throughout ontogeny. The growth model proposed here is compared with the pre-established growth model for another modular Ediacaran tubular organism, Wutubus annularis Chen et al., 2014, demonstrating that the two taxa had distinct growth patterns and disparate autecological strategies, despite a shared constructional morphology.

This contribution identifies biogenic structures created by modern birds foraging in marginal aquatic settings and provides descriptions to facilitate their identification in the rock record. Biogenic structures related to foraging can be separated into those created by bills, such as peck marks, probe marks, gape marks, dabble marks, sweep marks, and bill-stir marks. Biogenic structures created by feet include stir tracks and paddle pits. Peck marks are created during visual foraging and result in shallow, solitary or paired, random or clustered, circular to subcircular pits and grooves. Probe marks are created during tactile foraging but are similar to peck marks, differing solely in their greater depth of penetration. Gape marks are formed when birds open their bill in the sediment resulting in elongated grooves. Dabble marks are larger ovoid divots emplaced by broad-billed waterbirds in subaqueous settings. Bill stirring occurs when a bird swishes its bill in a narrow trend on the sediment surface. Sweep marks are arcuate grooves emplaced in the sediment when long-billed birds forage by sweeping their bill side-to-side across the sediment–water interface.

Birds shuffling their feet in soft sediment is termed ‘foot-stirring’ and results in overprinted, side-by-side trackways. Foot-paddling dewaters the sediment and produces various pit morphologies with massive fill. Trackways emplaced during foraging are commonly characterized by variable stride length, stutter steps, and sudden changes in direction. ‘Trample grounds’ are produced by gregarious foraging flocks of birds. It is anticipated that illustrating and describing the structures produced by these behaviors will facilitate recognition of these commonly overlooked traces.

The present paper focuses on the middle to late Eocene Nummulites from the southern margin of the Tethys Ocean to address gaps in taxonomy of Nummulites, with emphasis on their biostratigraphic implications and paleobiogeographic distributions. Integration of biometric and morphological data with other taxonomic characters is used to define four Nummulites species (Nummulites midawaraensis Kenawy, 1978, N. biarritzensis d’Archiac and Haime, 1853, N. lyelli d’Archiac and Haime, 1853, and N. striatus (Bruguière, [1792]) from Fayum, Egypt. Biostratigraphically, three main biozones are identified. The Nummulites midawaraensis Biozone characterizes the Lutetian Midawara Formation. The N. lyelli Biozone heralds the Bartonian El-Gharaq Formation. The uppermost Priabonian Stage is demarcated by the N. striatus Biozone within the Birket Qarun Formation. These biozones match well with the Lutetian to Priabonian Tethyan larger benthic foraminiferal biozones. Distinct temporal changes and geographic distributions of the Nummulites assemblages distinguish remarkable middle to late Eocene paleobiogeographic provinces within the Tethys Ocean. Nummulites midawaraensis is probably endemic to the Egyptian southern Tethys Ocean, whereas the N. biarritzensis, N. lyelli, and N. striatus flourished throughout the Tethyan Realm, extending eastward from Spain to Pakistan and India. Notably, our findings strengthen the evidence for a strong connection between the Indo-Pakistani and Tethyan provinces during the Eocene. The relatively warm events throughout the middle to late Eocene led to an active carbonate factory and flourishing of calcite tests of Nummulites that favored clear waters and light under tropical to subtropical shallow-marine conditions.

We describe two new species of green algae in Dasycladales from Lower Cretaceous strata of the Eastern Carpathians (Romania), Suppiluliumaella schlagintweitii n. sp. and Triploporella loducai n. sp. The two new species display mineralization that coats most of the thallus, possibly casting light on their growth patterns. Suppiluliumaella schlagintweitii n. sp. displays a differentiated, club-shaped thallus with a very elongated vegetative part below the fertile zone (“head”) and a corticated external layer, suggesting a Neomeris type of growth. We further describe a possible mineralized juvenile growth stage. Triploporella loducai n. sp. is characterized by a rather short cylindrical thallus with a reduced vegetative region (sharp tapering rounded lower end), seemingly following a growth type resembling that of spherical Bornetella.

The late Silurian to Early Devonian floras in the South China Block provide important evidence for the radiation of early land plants, including the well-known Posongchong Formation and Xujiachong Formation of Yunnan Province and the Pingyipu Group of Sichuan Province. However, some taxa in these stratigraphic units are described on the basis of limited specimens, or even a single and/or poorly preserved specimen, and need further investigation. The re-investigation of specimen PB6458 from the Xujiachong Formation at the Xujiachong section near Xujiachong Village, Qujing City, Yunnan Province, which is the holotype of Zosterophyllum spathulatum Li and Cai, 1977, reveals some new characters of its strobilus, sporophylls, and sporangia and denies its assignment to Zosterophyllum Penhallow, 1892. Instead, this specimen should be assigned to Adoketophyton subverticillatum (Li and Cai) Li and Edwards, 1992. This taxonomic revision extends the paleogeographic distribution of Adoketophyton Li and Edwards, 1992 and further enhances this genus as one of the index fossils of Lower Devonian non-marine strata in the South China Block.

Macroscopic, modular, morphologically simple skeletons occur in the uppermost Mural Formation (Cambrian, Epoch 2, Bonnia–Olenellus Biozone), west-central Alberta and adjacent east-central British Columbia. They represent organisms that lived almost exclusively in reefal environments dominated by archaeocyaths. Some were attached to archaeocyaths or less commonly other surfaces, and some grew downward, apparently from overhangs or cavities in reefs. Qualitative and quantitative data from a large number of specimens, most of which were serially thin sectioned, indicate that they represent a single, remarkably variable species. The skeletal structure ranges among specimens from entirely cerioid to partially to entirely labyrinthine with irregularly incomplete walls. There is also a wide range of variability in growth form among skeletons, in module size and wall thickness among and within skeletons, in module shape within skeletons, and in number and location of projections extending from the wall into some modules. Module increase occurred by peripheral expansion at the basal surface of the skeleton and longitudinal fission involving projections from the wall as module size increased during vertical growth. Walls of skeletons, now composed of calcite cement, were probably originally aragonite. Modular skeletons from the uppermost Mural Formation are assigned to Rosellatana jamesi Kobluk, 1984a, previously represented only by a few cerioid specimens from correlative strata in the Rosella Formation of north-central British Columbia. The skeletal structure and types of module increase in R. jamesi, and a few similar but less well-known Cambrian taxa from elsewhere in North America, suggest a general biologic affinity with hypercalcified sponges.

Despite being a conspicuous group in many fossil-bearing beds from the Tepuel–Genoa Basin, the knowledge of bryozoans from Patagonia is scarce and outdated. The majority of bryozoan records are known from faunal components of the Lanipustula patagoniensis Biozone (Carboniferous, upper Serpukhovian–Moscovian), in lower to middle levels of the Pampa de Tepuel Formation, Tepuel Group. For the present contribution, we conducted a taxonomic study on bryozoan samples from the lower third of the Pampa de Tepuel Formation at the type section, Sierra de Tepuel, central-western Patagonia, Argentina. We found Paraptylopora gondwanica n. sp. along with species of Penniretepora, Polyporella, Septatopora, Levifenestella, Rectifenestella, Spinofenestella, and others still under study. Most studied fenestrate species are restricted to central-western Patagonia, indicating a degree of biogeographical isolation, while a few imply faunal migration between the western and eastern margins of southern Gondwana during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age. The bryozoan growth habits association and accompanying fauna suggests a mid-shelf to upper-slope environment characterized by deep, low-turbidity, euhaline waters and a soft to firm substrate.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/3bf56286-9fd7-43c2-b5f6-417e86994d08

Today, the range of the genus Euthria encompasses the Mediterranean and the eastern Atlantic, the region around southern Africa, and extends into the western Indo-Pacific. The genus, which has a geological history dating back to the Eocene of Europe, has recently undergone taxonomic revision in several European Neogene basins. These studies revealed a pronounced expansion during the Oligocene and Neogene in the Atlanto-Mediterranean region and the Paratethys, and these studies highlighted the overall diversity of the genus combined with a pronounced regional endemism. This paper reviews the fossil record of the genus in the western Iberian Pliocene of the Cainozoic Mondego Basin of Portugal. Two new species endemic to western Iberia with protoconchs showing non-planktotrophic developmental traits have emerged: Euthria galopimi n. sp. and Euthria lockleyi n. sp. These results reinforce the glocal character of Euthria, a genus that is both widespread and diversified, but simultaneously showing a high endemism. The contribution of nonplanktotrophic development to this scenario is discussed. Although well represented in the fossil record of Atlantic France, in present-day European waters, Euthria is represented by a single species, E. cornea (Linnaeus, 1758), and only in the Mediterranean and the northern shores of the Gulf of Cadiz. As with other warm-water molluscan taxa, the northern distribution limit of Euthria in the Atlantic has shifted southward since the Early to mid-Pliocene due to global cooling events and decreasing sea surface temperatures.

http://zoobank.org/2A64f041-8e17-491e-8782-a31a9c5dfd57

Three fossil tube fragments from middle Eocene to late Oligocene strata in western Washington State, USA, are here interpreted as those of ancient Ceriantharia (Hexacorallia, Cnidaria). The tube fragments are 3–6 mm in diameter, up to 60 mm long, and the surfaces show an overlapping, fibrous knitted pattern. This surface pattern resembles that of the extant ceriantharid Cerianthus membranaceus. One specimen has numerous benthic foraminiferans associated with, and apparently even embedded in, the tube wall, analogous to some extant Ceriantharia. These fossils likely represent the first fossil Ceriantharia and indicate that their present-day mode of tube construction using ptychocysts was established at latest by the middle Eocene.

During the Ordovician, the brachiopod order Atrypida originated and diversified. However, speciation patterns and evolutionary drivers within three atrypide Laurentian genera, Anazyga, Catazyga, and Zygospira, remain poorly known. Herein, we propose a Bayesian phylogenetic framework for these clades. Morphological character data, including 34 internal and external characters, were collected for 20 species, including seven species assigned to Zygospira, six species previously assigned to Anazyga, and seven species previously assigned to Catazyga. Morphological data were analyzed in BEAST2.5 via an Mk Model of morphological character evolution implementing the fossilized birth–death (FBD) model. In addition, FBD-based rates of extinction, origination, and fossil sampling were estimated across four Late Ordovician time intervals. Primary results include: (1) each genus was polyphyletic as traditionally established; (2) proposed transfer of all Anazyga and two Catazyga species to Zygospira based on reconstructed evolutionary relationships; (3) recognition of one new species, Zygospira idahoensis Vilela-Andrade n. sp., and the elevation of Z. multicostata Howe, 1965, originally a subspecies, to species status; and (4) updated understanding of clade origination and speciation. The origination age for the clade is calibrated to be 453 Ma (Sandbian 2). Recovered biodiversification rates indicate that the highest speciation and extinction rates occurred in the Katian 3 stage slice, when the number of species in the clade peaked. Subsequently, a decline in biodiversification led to an extinction episode in the Katian 4 for all lineages. Catazyga and Zygospira are interpreted as early Late Ordovician atrypids that experienced both rapid radiation and extinction during the Katian.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/442febc2-f7bb-4c04-b454-d43180237ebc

Species of Monopteria are revised to include documentation of substantial change in shell shape during growth, characters of the hinge, and characters present on the anterior surface of the shell. The mature shell grew in an arcuate curve that elongates far to the posterior and has a wide sinus that separates the inflated shell body from a prong-like posterior auricle on the hinge line. An unusual depression of the paired valves (anterior depression) is present on the anterior surface surrounding a large byssal notch. Dentition is lacking, and a clinovincular ligament (new term) is present. Species occur mostly in mollusk-rich biotas of shallow marine environments. Species lived with a combination of byssal attachment and a rounded ventral surface that enabled them to maintain position within fine-grained sediment. Six species are recognized, and five are provided with new or revised descriptions. New species include M. magna and M. heaneyi, neotypes are designated for M. longispina Cox, 1857 and M. alata Beede, 1898, and a lectotype is designated for M. marian White, 1874. Species Gervillia auricula Stevens, 1858, and Anthracoptera polita White, 1880, previously considered to be included in the genus, are excluded from Monopteria and the name Gervillia auricula is judged to be without merit and abandoned. The use of genus name Limopteria as a replacement of Monopteria is shown to be invalid. Limopteria is not a valid name; it has never been proposed as a taxon in publication.

http://zoobank.org/bd1064f1-f576-4194-8405-7d0c7771bc82

A new genus is established for species of late Paleozoic pterioid bivalves that have substantial ontogenetic change in hinge characters during growth. Juvenile shells have small cardinal and posterior lateral teeth on the hinge that are overgrown on the adult shell and the hinge become edentulous. The shell has a wide ligament plate with a clinovincular ligament (new term). Adjacent to the cardinal teeth on juvenile shell, ligament sheets tend to have small, low amplitude folding and wavy alignment of ligament grooves. A new genus and species, Willipteria nestelli, is described and the species Leptodesma falcata Boyd and Newell, is transferred to genus Willipteria n. gen. Comparison of Willipteria n. gen. to Leptodesma reveals a need to revise Leptodesma. A study of the type lot of genotype species Leptodesma potens Hall, provides a redescription for the genus, presented here. Definition of the new term, clinovincular ligament, is presented. Discussion of muti-sheet ligaments is presented for duplivincular, monovincular, and clinovincular configurations.

http://zoobank.org/014f32de-414d-4cda-a5d4-790c35d0bfa5

Anapachydiscus (Anapachydiscus) haegerti n. sp., an ammonite belonging to the Pachydiscidae, is reported for the first time from the upper Campanian Northumberland Formation of Hornby Island, British Columbia. Thirty-five specimens have allowed for the complete ontogenetic reconstruction of the taxon as well as thanatocoenosic (death assemblage) observations with paleoecological implications for ammonoid early life. Although isolated juvenile specimens occur, instances of concretions containing a multitude of individuals are typical. One concretion yielding twenty-six early-stage juveniles lends support to a mode of preservation reflective of life association through a taphonomic process of capture and burial. The new species presents age-diagnostic utility as a distinct fossil within the molluscan assemblage of the Nostoceras (Didymoceras?) adrotans regional subzone; a highly constrained interval of the upper Campanian in the eastern North Pacific. A specimen attributed to Anapachydiscus (Anapachydiscus) cf. A. (A.) fascicostatus from the upper Campanian of the Cedar District Formation on Denman Island is also described, and the genus Anapachydiscus is retained with an emended diagnosis. Additional collections have enabled revised conceptualizations of Pachydiscus (Pachydiscus) hornbyense and Pachydiscus (Pachydiscus) ootacodensis accounting for the spectrum of variance within these species. Recognition of an upper Campanian P. (P.) ootacodensis–Pachydiscus (Pachydiscus) suciaensis Concurrent-range Zone is proposed for the eastern North Pacific to assist broader efforts of interregional biostratigraphic correlation given the endemic limitation of the latter taxon.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/d8eb27f6-7221-4efb-9548-ec2001986b19

Agalope oshikirii n. sp. (Zygaenidae, Chalcosiinae) is described from the uppermost Miocene–Pliocene Sanzugawa Formation in Akita Prefecture, northern Japan. Because we found a single fossil forewing in this study, we give a table of the forewing characters of various groups of the genus Agalope and related genera and compared them with this new species, confirming that it does not match any of the species. This is the first discovery of chalcosiine fossils in Japan and provides evidence of a historically broader distribution of the genus.

http://zoobank.org/999828b5-4f91-470f-bc15-6b6fe7a8ec61

Fossil crinoids from the Ordovician–Silurian boundary interval (~ 443.8 million years) are known from relatively few locations worldwide due to a near-global unconformity that formed from eustatic sea-level fall. This rock record bias has severely hindered study of the timing, magnitude, biogeographic signature, and extinction mechanisms of the Late Ordovician mass extinction (LOME). Crinoids underwent a significant faunal transition between the Late Ordovician and early Silurian that resulted in major shifts between dominant clades, but the driving mechanisms and precise timing of this transition remain unclear. Anticosti Island (Québec, Canada) preserves one of the few Late Ordovician–early Silurian successions of highly fossiliferous, shallow-water rocks that includes the Ordovician–Silurian boundary, making fossils from this region instrumental for better understanding the LOME and Ordovician–Silurian crinoid faunal turnover.

Here we report on a new flexible crinoid, Anticosticrinus natiscotecensis n. gen. n. sp., from the Ordovician–Silurian boundary of Anticosti Island. Phylogenetic analysis of Middle Ordovician–early Silurian flexibles recovers Anticosticrinus natiscotecensis n. gen. n. sp. as a member of family Anisocrinidae. We quantified stratigraphic age uncertainty of A. natiscotecensis using a Bayesian approach for estimating tip-occurrence times in a phylogenetic context. Although results do not provide unequivocal support for the specimen’s precise stratigraphic age, the maximum a posteriori estimate indicates a late Hirnantian age. Regardless of its true age, recognition of Anticosticrinus natiscotecensis provides additional data for evaluating the timing of extinction in flexible crinoids, their diversification and increasing dominance during the Silurian, and crinoid faunal turnover between the Ordovician and Silurian.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/864738dd-3fc9-435b-a83c-e19fd4f6Ad9d

A new species of syngnathiform fish, Gerpegezhus daniaoriundus n. sp., from the Eocene Fur Formation of Denmark is described herein. The description is based on 17 specimens preserved in either soft diatomite or carbonate concretions. The two lithologies result in different preservation of the morphological features. Gerpegezhus daniaoriundus n. sp. exhibits a set of diagnostic features of the extinct monotypic family Gerpegezhidae and of the genus Gerpegezhus, including (1) greatly elongated body, (2) presence of ossified myoseptal tendons, (3) lower procurrent caudal-fin rays absent, (4) dorsal- and anal-fin spines absent, and (5) pelvic fin and girdle absent. It can be separated from the species Gerpegezhus paviai by having a much slenderer body bearing unpaired leaf-like appendages protruding from its ventral side, and completely different meristic values, including up to 39 (or 40) vertebrae, a total of 16 unbranched caudal-fin rays, dorsal and anal fins with 5 and 16 unbranched rays, respectively, and a different organization of body armor comprising two dorsal bilateral series of dermal plates. The occurrence of the genus Gerpegezhus from the Fur Formation provides a remarkable example of the biogeographic relationships between the North Sea realm and the Tethys in the earliest Eocene.

http://zoobank.org/3a57ae6b-faae-44c6-9a0a-aaeea03b57b3

A new fossil of Lycidae, Domipteron gaoi n. gen. n. sp., is described from Miocene Dominican amber. The fossil exhibits a combination of characteristics found in both Calopterini and Eurrhacini. To determine its systematic placement, we conducted phylogenetic analyses based on adult morphological features. Our analyses indicate that the new fossil belongs to Calopterini.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/d0f9a12e-aaed-48b0-a1dd-2c0991ef8b36