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Remains of two large sarcopterygians are described from Famennian deposits in Belgium. One of them is referred to Eusthenodon wangsjoi Jarvik; it is the first occurrence of this genus in Belgium. The other, much larger one, appears to be a tristichopterid. It has a postspiracular; size and shape of the mandible similar to those of Platycephalichthys skuenicus and P.

• Read more about Large Tristichopteridae (Sarcopterygii, Tetrapodomorpha) from the Late Famennian Evieux Formation of Belgium

Kaiwhekea katiki gen. et sp. nov. represents the first described cryptoclidid plesiosaurian from New Zealand. It is one of the largest cryptoclidids known, at a length of over 6.5 m, and represents the third reported genus of austral Late Cretaceous cryptoclidids. Kaiwhekea katiki is from siltstones of the Katiki Formation, upper Haumurian Stage (Cenomanian-Maastrichtian; c. 69-70 Ma) of coastal Otago, South Island, New Zealand. In the Late Cretaceous, the locality lay close to the polar circle.

• Read more about A new marine reptile (Sauropterygia) from New Zealand: further evidence for a Late Cretaceous Austral radiation of cryptoclidid plesiosaurs

Hyolith assemblages of early to mid Ordovician age in Sweden include the hyolithids Hyolithus bisulcatus Holm, H. concinnus Holm and H. innotatus Holm, which are confirmed as representatives of Hyolithes Eichwald. Dorsolinevitus Syssoiev is known from D. dispar (Holm), D. textilis (Holm) and D. vomer (Holm), and Carinolithes Syssoiev is represented by C. hospes (Holm) and C. triumvir (Holm). Sulcavitus caelatus (Holm), the type species that forms the basis for a family and even an order according to some, is redescribed; the order is suppressed.

• Read more about A revision of Early to Mid Ordovician hyoliths from Sweden

The Jurassic bivalve genus Placunopsis Morris and Lycett, 1853 is shown to be an anomiid on account of the detailed anatomy of its hitherto unknown right valve and the corresponding musculature in the left valve. Herein the most appropriate choice for type species is considered to be P. inaequalis (Phillips, 1829), which accommodates a number of the larger Late Jurassic nominal species. A species from the English Bathonian previously confused with P. inaequalis is described as P. fuersichi sp. nov.

• Read more about The Jurassic bivalve genus Placunopsis: new evidence on anatomy and affinities

Cyclopygids are a minor element in the abundant trilobite fauna of the Ordovician Llanfawr Mudstones Formation (teretiusculus-gracilis biozones) of the Builth-Llandrindod inlier. The rarity of these trilobites may be due to the accumulation of these sediments close to the shoreward limit of their depth range, and if this is the case, their presence, together with sedimentological evidence, can be used to infer the bathymetric limits within which the Llanfawr Mudstones Formation might have been deposited.

• Read more about Cyclopygid trilobites from the Ordovician Builth-Llandrindod inlier, central Wales

Material of small sauropsids from the Otter Sandstone Formation of east Devon (Sherwood Sandstone Group; Middle Triassic; Anisian) includes remains that were formerly attributed to a primitive procolophonid. In the light of new specimens, this material is instead found to contain remains of a diapsid and a procolophonine procolophonid. Among these fossils, the medium-sized procolophonine, Kapes bentoni sp. nov., is the first record of this Russian genus in the British Triassic. Coartaredens isaaci gen. et sp. nov. is a small diapsid tentatively assigned to Lepidosauromorpha.

• Read more about A re-evaluation of small tetrapods from the Middle Triassic Otter Sandstone Formation of Devon, England

Among a set of small, secondarily phosphatised larval arthropods from the Upper Cambrian 'Orsten' of Sweden, described by Muller and Walossek in 1986, one form bears a remarkable resemblance to the hatching protonymph larva of extant Pantopoda. This 'larva D' shares with protonymphs their gross body form, the anteroventral mouth on a slightly off-set forehead region, the cheliceral morphology, two homeomorphic pairs of post-cheliceral limbs, and further detailed similarities. It is described herein as Cambropycnogon klausmuelleri gen. et sp. nov.

• Read more about A larval sea spider (Arthropoda: Pycnogonida) from the Upper Cambrian 'Orsten' of Sweden, and the phylogenetic position of pycnogonids

• Read more about Magnoculocaris, a new name for the arthropod Magnoculus Briggs and Bartels, 2001 from the Lower Devonian Hunsrück Slate, Germany

Mystriosuchus westphali is based on a large, well-preserved cranium and a snout fragment from the Stubensandstein (Norian) of south-west Germany. The hypodigm is redescribed and new or poorly known cranial structures in phytosaurs are discussed. For the first time, the presence of a premaxillary crest is substantiated in a phytosaur. The type specimen shows a supernumerary occipital element (='tabular') that is probably fused to the parietal in other phytosaurs, and an orbitosphenoid.

• Read more about The Late Triassic phytosaur Mystriosuchus westphali, with a revision of the genus

Polypteriformes (or Cladistia) and Lepisosteiformes (or Ginglymodi) are two groups of freshwater fishes with ganoid scales. The earliest fossil records of these taxa are Albian (Lepisosteiformes) and Cenomanian (Polypteriformes) respectively in Gondwana; they are still extant. The 'first' appearance of the two groups in the fossil record (explosive in polypteriforms, gradual in lepisosteiforms) as well as their evolutionary mode (diversification/disparity or replacement) is described in detail.

• Read more about Diversification in Polypteriformes and special comparison with the Lepisosteiformes