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More than 4200 kg of limestone, representing 980 productive samples, from the upper Middle Cambrian, Upper Cambrian, and lowermost Ordovician in western and north-western Hunan were processed for paraconodonts, protoconodonts, and euconodonts. The focus of the present paper is on the upper Middle and lower Upper Cambrian interval as it is developed at two, apparently stratigraphically continuous, key sections. The collections studied, which include more than 20,000 specimens and are quite diverse taxonomically, prove that some protoconodonts and paraconodonts are useful biostratigraphically.

• Read more about Middle and Upper Cambrian protoconodonts and paraconodonts from Hunan, South China

A new sea bird, Pterodromoides minoricensis gen. et sp. nov., similar in size and proportions to species of the modern genus Pterodroma, is described from Late Miocene breccias situated on the north-west coast of Menorca. The cranial osteology is similar to that of fulmarine petrels, but the large orbitonasal opening and characters of the postcranial skeleton justify its classification as a separate genus.

• Read more about A new fulmarine petrel (Aves: Procellariiformes) from the Upper Miocene of the western Mediterranean

Although Molayan is the richest fossil mammal locality in Afghanistan, only a few species have been studied. This paper describes three rodents (Hystrix aryanensis sp. nov., Parapeolomys sp. and Pseudomeriones latidens sp. nov.) and one insectivore (Erinaceus sp.). Lithostratigraphical correlations and biostratigraphical studies in the Khurdkabul Basin provide evidence that the Molayan locality is younger than three other localities in this basin: Sherullah, Taghar and Ghazgay.

• Read more about Rodents and insectivores from the upper Miocene of Molayan, Afghanistan

The laminar dorsal valve of living Neocrania consists of: a primary layer of rhombohedral tablets, composed of granular calcite and commonly forming slats orthogonal to the margin, associated with polysaccharides and a fibrous 60 kDa protein; and a secondary layer of spirally growing (10.4) rhombohedra, doped with the 60 kDa protein and interleaved with membranes of a fibrous 44 kDa protein. The ventral valve consists exclusively of a primary layer with the same composition and basic structure as that of the dorsal valve.

• Read more about Evolutionary and diagenetic changes in the chemico-structure of the shell of cranioid brachiopods

A continuing study of a collection of marine arthropods from the Upper Cretaceous of Sahel Alma in Lebanon has uncovered a new genus and species of the problematic arthropod group Thylacocephala. The apparent presence of two pairs of antennae constitutes the first available morphological evidence for a close relationship between this species and, by association, all thylacocephalans, and the Crustacea.

• Read more about New genus and species from the Cretaceous of Lebanon links the Thylacocephala to the Crustacea

A problematic organism, Bowengriphus perphlegis gen. et sp. nov., is described based on two specimens from the Late Permian Rangal Coal Measures of eastern central Queensland. It displays a double-looped feeding apparatus bearing small conical elements, considered homologous with that of the supposed lophophorate Odontogriphus omalus Conway Morris, 1976, from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of British Columbia, Canada. Odontogriphids are thus interpreted as a group that survived through the Palaeozoic and made the transition from marine to freshwater environments.

• Read more about An odontogriphid from the Upper Permian of Australia

Very few basal attachments of the spiralled fenestrate bryozoan Archimedes are known. A newly discovered specimen is interpreted to have grown on a thin cylindrical ephemeral substratum that extended above the sediment-water interface, allowing paired spirals to develop and to extend in opposite directions when the colony was very small.

• Read more about A rare, larval-founded colony of the bryozoan Archimedes from the Carboniferous of Alabama

A new species of artiodactyl, Amphirhagatheriumedwardsi sp. nov., is described from the Late Eocene (Priabonian) Headon Hill Formation of the Hampshire Basin, southern England. The Haplobunodontidae, in which Amphirhagatherium is usually placed, has recently been combined with the monotypic Choeropotamidae, both essentially European endemic families. New anatomical information is forthcoming from both the new species and recently published data on related species.

• Read more about A new species of Amphirhagatherium (Choeropotamidae, Artiodactyla, Mammalia) from the Late Eocene Headon Hill Formation of southern England and phylogeny of endemic European 'anthracotherioids'

In this paper we report the first occurrence of permineralized plant fossils in volcaniclastic lithologies from China and in doing so describe a new species of cardiocarpalean ovule permineralized within tuffaceous sediments from a recently discovered locality near Pingquan, Hebei Province, North China. The tuff is part of the Early Permian Taiyuan Formation which contains a diverse fossil plant assemblage that includes cordaitean spermatophytes, lepidodendralean lycophytes, equisetophytes, and filicalean ferns, all of which were typical of Permian floras of northern China at this time.

• Read more about Permineralized cardiocarpalean ovules in wetland vegetation from Early Permian volcaniclastic sediments of China

Boreholes between Kuqa and Korla, in the northern Tarim Basin, Xinjiang, penetrated Ordovician marine limestones at depths of 5-6.2km. From three boreholes 54 out of a total of 170 limestone samples contain calcified algae, cyanobacteria and associated Microproblematica.

• Read more about Ordovician calcified algae and cyanobacteria, northern Tarim Basin subsurface, China