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A new plourdosteid arthrodire, Mcnamaraspis kaprios gen. et sp. nov., is described from the Late Devonian (Frasnian) Gogo Formation of Western Australia. Mcnamaraspis is characterized by its very short spinal plate, larger pectoral fenestra and inferognathal with several distinct trenchant cusps. The anterior surface of the nasal capsule is covered by a hemispherical bone not previously recorded in placoderms.

• Read more about A new plourdosteid arthrodire from the Upper Devonian Gogo Formation of Western Australia

The Tethyan genus Roudairia is described for the first time from North America. A new species, Roudairia squiresi, occurs in the shallow-marine, basal beds of the San Francisquito Formation (uppermost Maastrichtian) at Warm Springs Mountain, Los Angeles County, California. The earliest representatives of the genus Roudairia are from the Cenomanian of north and west Africa. The genus later migrated westward to the western Tethyan Realm and into California during the latest Cretaceous. The presence of R. squiresi suggests warm water in California at the end of the Cretaceous.

• Read more about The Tethyan bivalve Roudairia from the Upper Cretaceous of California

The photo-symbiotic bivalves Fragum fragum and Fragum loochooanum burrow in sediments and supply light through a posterior shell gape to zooxanthellae within their internal soft parts. This newly discovered mode of photo-symbiosis in bivalves can be termed sciaphilous (shade loving), and the hitherto known one, in which bivalves expose mantles or transparent shells out of the sediment to harvest light, as heliophilous (sun loving). Fragum unedo, also examined here, is heliophilous. Sciaphilous photo-symbiosis in F.

• Read more about The origin of algal-bivalve photo-symbiosis

Mechanical preparation of a relatively complete new skull specimen of Cryptodidus eurymerus has revealed the palate and cheek regions for the first time, permitting a more accurate reconstruction to be given.

• Read more about The skull of the Callovian plesiosaur Cryptoclidus eurymerus, and the sauropterygian cheek

The oldest remains of the teleost family Oplegnathidae are reported from Antarctica. Fragmentary beaks with the typical coalesced teeth have been discovered. The Antarctic material presents characteristic features of members of the extant Oplegnathidae: jaws lacking lateral canines, distinctly crenulate cutting margins, teeth with narrow cutting edges that show evidence of a bipartite structure; there are also larg rounded molariform teeth on the medial face of the jaws.

• Read more about An oplegnathid fish from the Eocene of Antarctica

Procordulagomphus xavieri is a new genus and species of gomphid dragonfly (subfamily Cordulagomphinae) from the Lower Cretaceous of Araripe (Brazil). It is the sister-genus of another gomphid from Araripe, Cordulagomphus.

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The proposed use of immuno-taxonomy of brachiopod shells for the reconstruction of brachiopod phylogeny is analysed for its possible contribution to genealogical systematics and for the validity of its principal conceptual and methodological foundations. It is concluded that brachiopod immuno-taxonomy, as so far described, departs from important norms of immuno-taxonomic and scientific procedures and can be of only limited utility in systematics.

• Read more about Immuno-taxonomy and the reconstruction of brachiopod phylogeny

Three new taxa of fossil stick insects Eophasma oregonense, E. minor and Eophasmina manchesteri, are named from eggs found in the Eocene of Oregon. They are allocated to the tribe Anisomorphini and are the oldest known members of an extant family of the Phasmida.

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A previously unknown cirriped from the semicostatum Biozone of the Lower Lias of Bridgend, South Wales is described. The fused scutum and tergum, and the lack of any indication of a peduncle, indicates some loose affinities with the Verrucomorpha. However, the tooth-like nature of scutum and tergum are unlike the plate in any other known cirriped. A new taxon Bassettina cambriensis is assigned to a new family, the Bassettinidae.

• Read more about A new barnacle from the Lower Jurassic of South Wales

An orthocerid cephalopod is reported for the first time from the Lower Cretaceous deposits of the Caucasus. Discovery of this mollusc, Zhuravlevia insperata gen. et sp. nov., in such young beds shows that evolution of the orthocerid branch within the cephalopods was not terminated in the Late Triassic, as was formerly believed, but continued for a further 90-95 Ma, at least until the late Aptian (Clansenian). Z.

• Read more about An Early Cretaceous orthocerid cephalopod from north-western Caucasus