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A large specimen of Macroneuropteris macrophylla clearly shows the overtopped branching of the primary rachis branches in the upper part of the frond. This is the first unequivocal evidence of th distal architecture of this species to be published and confirms the reconstruction proposed by us in an earlier paper.

• Read more about Further observations on the Upper Carboniferous pteridosperm frond Macroneuropteris macrophylla

Mesophytic Ginkgo foliage from the Carpathian Basin (Romania and Hungary) is revised using a new statistical method for identification. The genera Ginkgoites and Baiera are suppressed in favour of Ginkgo. New combinations G, marginata and G. skottsbergii are studied for the first time using scanning electron microscopy. G. baieraeformis banaticus subsp. nov. is an Indo-European member of the Dictyophyllum-Clathropteris Flora. G. marginata banatica subsp. nov. is characteristic of the Clathropteris meniscioides Biozone (Hettangian-Sinemurian) of the European Province. G.

• Read more about Ginkgo foliage from the Jurassic of the Carpathian Basin

Cyclostomiceratidae is a distinct family of early Ordovician, small, gomphoceroid to breviconic ellesmerocerid nautiloids which possess an adorally contracting aperture. The family ranges in age from Arenig to early Llanvirn and is recorded from the USA, northern Argentina, east China and Baltoscandia. This paper reviews the family's status, origin, stratigraphical occurrence and systematics. Three new taxa are described from the lower Kundan Stage of northern Oland, Sweden: Pictetoceras oliviae sp. nov., Parcydostomiceras pautitumidum sp. nov. and Microstomiceras holmi gen. et sp. nov.

• Read more about A review of the cyclostomiceratid nautiloids, including new taxa from the Lower Ordovician of Öland, Sweden

Trachyderma, as established by Phillips for specimens from the Upper Silurian of the Welsh Borderland, was triply preoccupied. Chapman described supposedly congeneric material from the Silurian of Victoria, but that material is generically distinct and Keilorites Allan was erected to accommodate it. Oikobesalon nom. nov. is erected as a replacement name for Trachyderma Phillips, which has been regarded variously as either a body fossil or a trace fossil. Based on its distinctive structure, it is interpreted here as the thin organic lining of a terebellid polychaete dwelling burrow.

• Read more about Terebellid polychaete burrows from the lower Palaeozoic

A diverse assemblage of Llandovery (mainly Aeronian), biserial graptoloids has been recovered from the Cape Phillips Formation on Cornwallis Island, Arctic Canada. A study of the astogenetic patterns among these taxa can be used to define phylogenetically meaningful taxa at the generic and suprageneric level.

• Read more about Morphology and phylogeny of some Early Silurian 'diplograptid' genera from Cornwallis Island, Arctic Canada

The chemico-structure and morphology of the shells of the earliest known brachiopods, the paterinates, have many features consistent with the antiquity of the group and its phylogenctic proximity to the ancestral stock of the phylum. The organophosphatic shell is typically finely laminated and imprinted throughout with outwardly convex epithelial casts in the older cryptotretids.

• Read more about The diversity and phylogeny of the paterinate brachiopods

General shape of test, spine and tubercle morphologies, and ambulacral pore characteristics of three regular echinoid species from the Upper Jurassic are interpreted in functional terms. Results are compared with independent sedimentological and palaeoecological analyses of the host sediments. In Acrocidaris nobilis the existence of a basal P3/4 isopore phyllode suggests the development of a strong sucker disc which enabled firm attachment in a high energy hardground setting.

• Read more about Constructional morphology and palaeoecological significance of three Late Jurassic regular echinoids

The biological affinities of Echmatocrinus brachiatus Sprinkle, from the Burgess Shale (Middle Cambrian) of British Columbia, are re-evaluated based on study of all available material. This animal has an elongate, thinly plated/scaled body with a holdfast at one end and a calyx with eight(?) arms/tentacles at the other. Each of the latter bears alternating pinnule-like branches, and the pattern of the textured plating is very irregular, except for the uniserially plated arms/tentacles.

• Read more about The phylogenetic position of Echmatocrinus brachiatus, a probable octocoral from the Burgess Shale

Five British Silurian species of the cephalopod order Actinocerida are described: one of Ormoceras, one of Eldroceras, and three of Armenoceras, including A. cygneum sp. nov. Their sparse distribution stratigraphically and geographically is reviewed. There are comments on the endosiphuncular vascular system.

• Read more about The nautiloid cephalopod order Actinocerida in the British Silurian

An unusual specimen of the Silurian anomalocystitid mitrate Placocyxiites forbesianus K described.

• Read more about An abnormal specimen of the Silurian anomalocystitid mitrate Placocystites forbesianus