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Data on the substantial holdings of type, figured and cited fossils in many institutions in Great Britain and Ireland are summarized in numerous published catalogues, which are an indispensable aid in tracing material especially for taxonomic studies. Taxonomic, stratigraphical and museum location indexes are provided for catalogues published over the past 20 years. Some useful unpublished reports containing similar information are also noted.

• Read more about Bibliography and index of catalogues of type, figured and cited fossils in museums in Great Britain and Ireland (supplement 1975–1996)

Winged preovules, preserved as compressions, have been recovered from the upper Famennian of Sauerland in central Germany. Preovule organization of Warsteinia paprothii gen. et sp. nov. includes a nucellus with distal hydrasperman lagenostome and a preintegument comprising four alate lobes. The hydrasperman organization appears to be similar to that of other well-documented Late Devonian and Early Carboniferous preovules.

• Read more about Late Devonian winged preovules and their implications for the adaptive radiation of early seed plants

Diagenetically compressed ammonites from the Early Toarcian Posidonienschiefer in southern Germany yield new data on the diet and ingestion regulation of ammonites. About 4 per cent, of the relatively large body chambers of adult Harpoceras falciferum macroconchs contain distinctive food remains, mostly pereiopods of small decapod crustaceans, which probably were the main prey of this ammonite species, and rarely abdomens and telsons of the same crustaceans or aptychi of small ammonites.

• Read more about The diet of the early Toarcian ammonite Harpoceras falciferum

Single-layered, multiserial cyclostome bryozoans are almost ubiqitous as encrusters of Mesozoic hard substrata but little attention has been paid previously to the attributes of their life histories obtainable from their fossil skeletons. Colonies from 'populations' of one Triassic, five Jurassic and nine Cretaceous species from England and Slovakia are here studied using an image analyser to record colony size and shape, and the number, location and sizes of larval brood chambers. Survivorship curves relative to colony size demonstrate varying patterns of mortality for different species.

• Read more about Life histories of some Mesozoic encrusting cyclostome bryozoans

A spiriferinid Liospiriferina rostrata, two rhynchonellids Gibbirhynchia correcta and Pontaltorhynchia schopeni gen. nov., a terebratulid Merophricus mediterranea, and a zeilleriid Calpella aretusa gen. nov., constitute the first invertebrate fauna to be described systematically from the 'Gibraltar Limestone'. This formation, a 600 m thick cyclic sequence of well-cemented peritidal dolomitic limestones, has also yielded stromatolitic and oncoidal algae, a stromatoporoid, and locally common but generically indeterminate gastropods and bivalves.

• Read more about Early Jurassic brachiopods from Gibraltar, and their Tethyan affinities

Novaculapermia boydi gen. et sp. nov. is a remarkable Lower Permian vertically elongate bivalve that superficially resembles 'razor' clams of the superfamily Solenoidea. Our 'razor' clam possessed a duplivincular ligament and early ontogeny of the Myalinidae. The flattened, equiconvex form suggests that Novaculapermia was a shallow vertical burrower in soft sediments possibly anchored by byssal attachment; evidently it was not a reef dweller, but lived in near-reef environments.

• Read more about A new transitional myalinid bivalve from the Lower Permian of west Texas

Large lagomerycids are only known in Europe from the Orleanian of the Loire Basin (France). At least three forms are recognized: Ligeromeryx gen. nov. praestans, Heterocemas? sp. and Lagomerycidae gen. et sp. indet. The genus Lagomeryx is restricted to small European species.

• Read more about A revision of the large lagomerycid artiodactyls of Europe

Several trilobites developed an inflated cephalic lobe with a distinctive bubble-like profile. This happened polyphyletically in at least seven families ranging from the Cambrian to the Silurian. We describe a new species of Ordovician (Tremadoc) olenid trilobite, Parabolinella bolbifrons, having this morphology. A review of other trilobites with apparently similar cephala shows that the bubble-headed appearance was derived in several different ways and probably acquired different functions.

• Read more about Bubble-headed trilobites, and a new olenid example

A rich and well-preserved trilobite fauna is described from the upper Ordovician (Caradoc) Pa Kae Formation, Satun Province, southern Thailand. This is the first diverse trilobite fauna of this age to be described from the Shan Thai (Sibumasu) terrane. The fauna represents an outer shelf assemblage of 39 species, dominated by Ovalocephalus, nileids and remopleuridids.

• Read more about Late Ordovician trilobites from southern Thailand

The discs of the alleged ' medusoids' Rotadiscus from the recently discovered Mid Cambrian soft-bodied Kaili fauna in South China are commonly overgrown by shelled epizoans of unknown affinities. Most are attached to the convex side of the disc, near its margin. Towards the disc centre only small shells occur usually, which suggests that their growth was inhibited by an anoxic environment under the disc.

• Read more about Mode of life of the Middle Cambrian eldonioid lophophorate Rotadiscus