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Whatcheeria deltae gen. et sp. nov. is Visean V3b in age and is represented by the second oldest tetrapod skeletal remains so far described from the Americas exclusive of Greenland.

• Read more about A new primitive tetrapod, Whatcheeria deltae, from the Lower Carboniferous of Iowa

Phanerozoic reefs were differentiated into distinctive open surface and cryptic communities from their first appearance. During the Lower Cambrian, cryptic communities were surprisingly diverse with small, solitary chambered archaeocyath sponges, calcified cyanobacteria and a microburrowing (?)metazoan being the most ubiquitous and abundant elements. Putative primitive cnidarians, spiculale sponges and various problematic were also common crypt dwellers. Several species of archaeocyaih sponge, as well as cribricyaths, the calcified cyanobacteria Chabakovia spp.

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The distribution of charophyte assemblages in the Purbeck and Wealden sequence of southern England has been established from borehole samples from the Weald and from outcrop material collected in Dorset, Wiltshire and on the Isle of Wight. Of the twenty-one taxa represented, three are new: Globator rectispirale, Clypeator britannicus and Sphaerochara andersonii; three new combinations are proposed: Globator praecursor, Globator protoincrassatus and Atopochara triquetra. The Chinese Valanginian species Flabellochara xiangyunensis is recognized for the first time in Europe.

• Read more about Charophyte biostratigraphy of the Purbeck and Wealden of southern England

Yunnanellina hanburyi, the type species of the genus, is widely distributed in South China. Study of the external and internal features of abundant specimens from three sections in central Hunan indicates that other previously described nominal species and subspecies of Yunnanellina from the Upper Devonian of South China, are junior synonyms of the type species. Y. hanburyi is very varied in both external form and internal structures. Internally, the septalium may be open, or covered anteriorly by a connectivum.

• Read more about The type species of the brachiopod Yunnanellina from the Devonian of South China

The ostracodes and conodonts of the Silurian Ludlow/Pridoli Series boundary are documented in detail at Ludlow, and described from across Wales and the Welsh Borderland. The Upper Whitcliffe Formation and its lateral equivalents are characterized by the ostracode Calcaribeyrichia torosa and the conodonts Ozarkodina confluens, O. excavata, Panderodus serratus and Coryssognathus dubius. The Downton Castle Sandstone Formation and its lateral equivalents are characterized by the ostracodes Frostiella groenvalliana, Londinia arisaigensis, L. fissurata and Nodibeyrichia verrucosa.

• Read more about Ostracode and conodont distribution across the Ludlow/Prídolí boundary of Wales and the Welsh Borderland

Two chigutisaurids (Amphibia, Temnospondyli), Compsocerops cosgriffi gen. et sp. nov. and Kuttycephalus triangularis gen. et. sp. nov., from the Late Triassic Maleri Formation, Pranhita-Godavari valley, Deccan, India are described. In the past, the only known chigutisaurids have been two genera from Australia and probably two from South America. Relationships within the family are analysed and two groups are recognized. They possess marked differences in their palate and dentition. The Late Triassic beds of the Pranhita-Godavari valley exhibit a rapid faunal change.

• Read more about Chigutisaurid temnospondyls from the Late Triassic of India and a review of the Family Chigutisauridae

A new occurrence of a pergamidiid bivalve genus, which can probably be assigned to Manticula Waterhouse, 1960, is established within the Early Cretaceous (Berriasian) of Antarctica. Such a record is of particular interest as this taxon was only known previously from the Late Triassic of New Zealand and New Caledonia. The Antarctic material is contained within a new species, M. complanata, which is shown to be somewhat smaller and less inflated than the genotypic M. problematical (Zittel).

• Read more about Occurrence of the bivalve genus Manticula in the Early Cretaceous of Antarctica

Cuticle fragments from the upper Silurian (Pridoli Series) of south Shropshire, England, are described and interpreted as the respiratory organs of eurypterids. These fragments, combined with whole body evidence, suggest a dual respiratory system: lamellate book-gills, homologous with those of modern xiphosurans and arachnid book lungs, and an additional Kiemenplatten on the true sternite, the roof the branchial chamber. Kiemenplatten is used in preference to gill-tract, because it is a more 'neutral' term, without functional implications.

• Read more about The respiratory organs of eurypterids

Twelve telephinid trilobite species, all assigned to the genus Telephina, from the Middle and Upper Ordovician of Sweden are described or discussed. In Sweden, the genus appears in equivalents of the uppermost Didymograptus murchisoni Biozone and ranges into the late Ashgill or Harjuan (Jerrestadian Stage), where only one species, T. wegelini, is present. The others are restricted largely to strata belonging to the Hustedograptus teretiusculus and Nemagraptus gracilis biozones.

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Late Cambrian agnostoid trilobites are described from an in situ locality near the base of the El Relincho Formation in Mendoza Province, northwestern Argentina, and from allochthonous blocks in the younger, Ordovician, Empozada and Los Sombreros Formations of Mendoza and neighbouring San Juan Provinces. The faunas of the olistolites fall into three age groups in terms of North American Late Cambrian biochronology: one Trempealeauan and two late Dresbachian assemblages are represented. Species occurring are compared with appropriate taxa from the USA, Canada and Australia.

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