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Evidence for the Lower Bathonian Substage in most of the Pacific area has been lacking or controversial because index ammonoids of the Tethyan Subrealm in southern Europe and North Africa were unknown. During the Bathonian, the East Pacific margin belonged to either the Boreal Realm or the East-Pacific Subrealm of the Tethyan Realm, each with faunas distinctly different from the Eurafrican Tethyan faunas that form the basis for the chronostratigraphical standard. The first representatives of Morphoceras from South America, M. gulisanoi sp.

• Read more about An Early Bathonian Tethyan ammonite fauna from Argentina

The trigonotarbid arachnid genus Eotarbus was proposed by Dunlop (1996) as a plesion taxon for a new species from the upper Silurian of Ludford Lane, Shropshire. It has since been brought to my attention that the name is preoccupied. Eotarbus Kusta, 1888 was proposed for a single species of Carboniferous arachnid, Eotarbus litoralis Kusta, 1888 from Rakovnik in the Czech Republic. This preoccupation is unfortunate, as Kusta's paper gives only a figure for this species and no formal description.

• Read more about A replacement name for the trigonotarbid arachnid Eotarbus Dunlop

A bryozoan assemblage from the Billingen Stage of north-western Russia (Ingria) is apparently the oldest known in the world. It consists of six species distributed among the trepostomate genera EsthonioporaDianulites, RevalotrypaPhragmophora and Hemiphragma. Two species are new: Phragmophora lavaense Pushkin, sp. nov. and Hemiphragma priscum Pushkin, sp. nov. The bryozoans are characteristic of the medium diversity benthic fauna of uncertain origin which migrated into the Baltic Basin during Billingen time (late Prioniodus elegans- early Oepikodus evae zones).

• Read more about Early Ordovician bryozoans from north-western Russia

Three species of bucaniid gastropods from the upper Ordovician of Norway and Sweden are revised: Euomphalopterus excavatus is redescribed as a species of Phragmolites with very wide umbilici and ornamentation similar to that of Offleya. Three out of five specimens from the original type series of Temnodiscus lindstroemi remain, representing two different species of two different genera. The original species name is restricted to a species of Phragmolites, whereas two specimens are considered conspecific with Megalomphala? carinata sp.

• Read more about Bucaniid gastropods from the Upper Ordovician of Baltica, with a discussion of the Bucaniinae

Orthoconic cephalopods from the Soom Shale Member (Ashgill) are exceptionally preserved and are colonized by lingulate brachiopods and cornulitids. Other fossils commonly associated with orthocones include myodocopid ostracodes and chitinozoans. Size distribution analysis of the brachiopods on one orthocone indicates that it was colonized in vivo. Four orthocone radulae are preserved extending the record of these structures 50 My back to the late Ordovician. Orthocone radula configuration is more similar to that of ammonoids and coleoids than to that of nautiloids.

• Read more about Orthoconic cephalopods and associated fauna from the Late Ordovician Soom Shale Lagerstätte, South Africa

The Sirius Passet fauna from the Lower Cambrian of North Greenland yields a diverse suite of poorly sclerotized arthropods. A new nektaspid from the fauna described here differs from typical naraoiids in having six thoracic segments and in being isopygous. Soft parts are poorly known, but posterior limbs are preserved in some specimens. Although specimens are invariably highly flattened, details of the axial articulation suggest that the animal could enrol.

• Read more about A nektaspid arthropod from the Early Cambrian Sirius Passet fauna, with a description of retrodeformation based on functional morphology

The earliest known Odonatoptera: Protozygoptera from the Upper Permian of Lodeve (France) are described. Epilestes gallica sp. nov. belongs to the Permolestidae and Lodevia longialata gen. et sp. nov. to the Permepallagidae. Both of these families were previously known from the Kazanian of Russia, suggesting a similar age for the formation of Lodeve.

• Read more about The first recorded protozygopteran insects from the Upper Permian of France

Bulk maceration of Early Devonian (Lochkovian) deposits from the Welsh Borderland has yielded eight specimens of a new type of sporangium characterized by its elongate shape and distinctive spores. The specimens have been examined using scanning electron, transmission electron and light microscopy. The elongate sporangia occur isolated and are fragmented to varying degrees. They contain trilete spores that possess a proximal surface with shallow murornate ornament and a distal surface that is laevigate.

• Read more about Sporangia containing Scylaspora from the Lower Devonian of the Welsh Borderland

Re-examination of type specimens of Early Cambrian and early Mid Cambrian hyoliths from Sweden confirms placement of Hyolithes teretiusculus Linnarsson in Hexitheca Syssoiev, and reassignment to the order Hyolithida rather than Orthothecida. Inclusion of Hyolithes affinis Holm within Decoritheca Syssoiev is re-confirmed, and Hyolithes socialis Linnarsson is now referred to Nevadotheca Malinky and Slapylites Marek.

• Read more about A revision of Holm's Early and early Mid Cambrian hyoliths of Sweden

Large, alatoform bivalves, Wallowaconcha raylenea gen. et sp. nov., from the Upper Triassic of north-eastern Oregon, are described and placed in a new family, Wallowaconchidae, within the Megalodontoidea, which also contains the families Megalodontidae and Dicerocardiidae (herein transferred). Major character innovations of wallowaconchids are the internal partitioning of wings and development of non-articulating thin vanes on the hingeplate. The wallowaconchid hinge, which changed during ontogeny, differs greatly from the hinge of other bivalves.

• Read more about Giant alatoform bivalves in the Upper Triassic of western North America