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Four new genera and species of arthropod, Cambronatus brasseliWingertshellicus backesiEschenbachiellus wuttkensis and Magnoculus blindi, are described from the Hunsruuck Slate (Lower Emsian) of Germany. All four occur in the Wingertshell Member in the vicinity of Bundenbach. They preserve remarkable details of the ventral morphology, including the appendages, as a result of pyritization. In each case the body consists of just two tagmata, a cephalon and a large number of similar trunk somites. Both CambronatusWingertshellicus have fluke-like appendages making up a tail fan.

• Read more about New arthropods from the Lower Devonian Hunsrück Slate (Lower Emsian, Rhenish Massif, western Germany)

Of living amphibian groups, the limbless burrowing caecilians are amongst the most highly specialised, but are the least known. Their fossil record is extremely poor, leaving unresolved questions as to their origins, relationships and early distribution. We describe here caecilian remains from a Lower Cretaceous (Berriasian) microfossil locality near Anoual, Morocco. This material represents the second oldest record for the group, after the Jurassic Eocaecilia of North America, and the earliest caecilian record for Gondwana.

• Read more about A stem-group caecilian (Lissamphibia: Gymnophiona) from the Lower Cretaceous of North Africa

A small brachiopod fauna is described from the carbonate rocks of the basal Shazipo Formation of the Baoshan Block, western Yunnan, south-west China, including significant new ventral and dorsal internal morphological features of Cryptospirifer omeishanensis Huang. This fauna is regarded as Wordian (Middle Guadalupian, Middle Permian) because of the presence of Cryptospirifer omeishanensis Huang and associated fusulinids (Neoschwagerina craticulifera Zone).

• Read more about A biogeographically mixed, Middle Permian brachiopod fauna from the Baoshan Block, western Yunnan, China

Scoyenia beerboweri is a new ichnospecies of burrow from the late Ordovician (Ashgill) Juniata Formation in central Pennsylvania, USA. The burrows are abundant in red calcareous palaeosols, and were created by animals living at the time of soil formation, because they are filled with red sediment like that of the palaeosol matrix, and both cut across, and are cut by, nodules of pedogenic carbonate. The isotopically light carbon and oxygen of carbonate in the palaeosols indicate a terrestrial ecosystem of well-drained floodplains in a tropical seasonally-dry semi-arid palaeoclimate.

• Read more about Scoyenia burrows from Ordovician palaeosols of the Juniata Formation in Pennsylvania

A single pair of well-preserved muscle attachment scars showing excellent detail on the umbilical surface is described in a supposed bellerophontoidean gastropod from the Carboniferous of Britain. Ontogenetic study reveals that the bilateral symmetry of the thick-shelled adult masks an anisometric early growth stage, indicating that the gastropod is a pleurotomarioidean vetigastropod masquerading as a bellerophontoidean.

• Read more about Musculature and asymmetry in a Carboniferous pseudo-bellerophontoidean gastropod (Mollusca)

The paraphyletic trilobite suborder Ptychopariina includes a large proportion of Cambrian trilobite diversity and is probably ancestral to most groups of post-Cambrian trilobites. Resolution of the phylogenetic relationships within the group is therefore crucial to a better understanding of the initial radiation of trilobites. The recognition of approaches that can successfully resolve the relationships of ptychoparioid taxa is an important first step towards this aim.

• Read more about The phylogeny and systematics of blind Cambrian ptychoparioid trilobites

Two new species of euthycarcinoids (Arthropoda), Kottixerxes anglicus sp. nov. and Smithixerxes pustulosus sp. nov., are described from the Coal Measures of Westhoughton, Lancashire and Coseley, West Midlands (Westphalian A and B respectively). Both genera are previously known from Mazon Creek, USA (Westphalian D). An additional, enigmatic arthropod with possible euthycarcinoid affinities, Arthrogyrinus platyurus gen. et sp. nov., is described from Coseley. Hypotheses concerning the phylogenetic position of euthycarcinoids are critically reviewed.

• Read more about New euthycarcinoids and an enigmatic arthropod from the British Coal Measures

A phylogeny of the Cambrian solenopleuropsine trilobites is constructed to evaluate the importance of differential speciation, extinction and developmental constraints in the evolutionary history of the clade. The transformation of the Pardailhania-Solenopleuropsis (Manublesia)-Solenopleuropsis (Solenopleuropsis) lineages occurred during the mid Caesaraugustian-early Languedocian interval, with all measured morphological variables exhibiting continuous and gradual changes.

• Read more about Evolutionary trends in the ornamentation of Cambrian solenopleuropsine trilobites

Eight new specimens and the holotype of Lepidocoleus sarlei Clarke, 1896 from Lagerstautten deposits within the Rochester Shale (Silurian, Wenlock) of New York are described to elucidate the morphology, function and construction of the scleritome. The material exhibits an unusual type of dorsal hinge with a pronounced antero-posterior displacement between the two sides. Two specimens have an aberrant sclerite on the right side of segment eleven. One tightly enrolled specimen may demonstrate a method of defence with the stronger protected dorsal side oriented outwards.

• Read more about The machaeridian Lepidocoleus sarlei Clarke, 1896, from the Rochester Shale (Silurian) of New York State

New Protopteraspis material from Shropshire is sufficiently similar to Protopteraspis leathensis from the Welsh Borderland, and the type-species Protopteraspis gosseleti from France, to justify transfering P. leathensis to P. gosseleti. The Anglo-Welsh, biostratigraphic leathensis Zone is changed to the Protopteraspis Zone (sensu Blieck and Janvier 1989). Possible lifestyles are discussed for Protopteraspis gosseleti.

• Read more about Protopteraspis gosseleti (Vertebrata: Pteraspidomorphi: Heterostraci) from the Lower Devonian of Shropshire, England