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A Lochkovian vertebrate assemblage from the Peel Sound Formation of northern Prince of Wales Island, Northwest Territories, Canada, includes numerous headshields resembling the osteostracan Parameteoraspis, together with several fragments suggesting Machairaspis. Five specimens of the former, distinct in their extended and diverging pectoral cornua, may be regarded as a conspecific variety. A possible advantage afforded by such cornua, in this and other species, may be their use in swimming and in disturbing the substrate during feeding.

• Read more about Cephalaspids from the Lower Devonian of Prince of Wales Island, Canada

The early synapsid Glaucosaurus megalops, from the Lower Permian of north-central Texas, is re-examined. Despite being represented by a single, partial skull of uncertain ontogenetic age, the presence of six autapomorphies indicates that Glaucosaurus is clearly a distinct synapsid form. Phylogenetic analysis of the early Synapsida indicates that Glaucosaurus is the probable sister taxon of Edaphosaurus within Edaphosauridae.

• Read more about The Lower Permian synapsid Glaucosaurus from Texas

A new genus of anguimorph lizard Parviraptor (type species P. estesi sp. nov.) has been identified from middle Jurassic (Bathonian), and late Jurassic (Tithonian) or early Cretaceous (Berriasian) sites in England. The genus is also represented in the late Jurassic of Portugal (Oxfordian or Kimmeridgian, Guimarota). Parviraptor differs markedly from the only previously recorded Jurassic anguimorph, Dorsetisaurus, and shares a complex of characters which suggests that it was a stem-platynotan, and that the 'Platynota' had differentiated by the middle Jurassic.

• Read more about A new anguimorph lizard from the Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous of England

Albionbaatar gen. nov., assigned to the Albionbaataridae fam. nov., in the Plagiaulacoidea, described upon the basis of A. denisae sp. nov. based on minute (about 1-5 mm long) upper premolars (P5) an three anterior upper premolars (0-5-0-9 mm long), all from the Purbeck Limestone Formation of southen England. Two incomplete lower premolars (p4), each found in a sample yielding an upper premolar < Albionbaatar, are described as Plagiaulacoidea, fam., gen. et sp. indet, and we speculate whether they may I counterparts of Albionbaatar.

• Read more about Tiny plagiaulacoid multituberculate mammals from the Purbeck Limestone Formation of Dorset, England

The original, and additional, specimens of Burlingia hectori are described from Canada and Sweden, B. laevis being considered synonymous with B. hectori. Westergaard's original material ol Schmalenseeia amphionura and S. acutangula is redescribed, two cranidia included with the latter being segregated as S.jagoi sp. nov. No burlingiid exoskeleton exceeds a length of 13 mm, most being less than half this size. The eye lobe was close to the glabella, the two branches of the facial suture directed outward anc forward.

• Read more about Burlingiids: small proparian Cambrian trilobites of enigmatic origin

The type and only known specimen of Elmosaurus lelmensis Huene was originally described as a pachypleurosauroid and plesiomorphic sauropterygian, but is here redescribed and identified as skull fragment of Nothosaurus cf. mirabilis. It shares with the Nothosauridae the presence of two caninifonn teeth on the maxilla. Elmosaurus is compared with a newly prepared and as yet undescribed skull of Nothosaurus mirabilis Munster.

• Read more about The status of the nothosaurian reptile Elmosaurus lelmensis, with comments on Nothosaurus mirabilis

The secondary shell of the spire-bearing Davidsonia is fibrous, whereas in all true orthotetidine brachiopods it is laminar. For this reason, Davidsonia and related genera, which constitute the Davidsoniidae, are transferred to the spire-bearing brachiopods, the Atrypidina. The oldest known orthotetidines are impunctate, but the Ashgillian Fardenia scotica rarely bears incipient pseudopunctae, which apparently arise through spiral perpetuation of screw dislocations.

• Read more about Role of the shell structure in the classification of the orthotetidine brachiopods

We describe a simple and quick method of restoring photographic or line-drawing images of deformed fossils, using a Canon CLC 300 laser copier in place of computer hard- and software; it will help in the identification of material from deformed rocks. As an example, retrodeformation of the trilobite Angelina sedgwickii Salter rapidly gave results that compare favourably with previous restorations of the same species.

• Read more about Retrodeformation of fossils &ndash; a simple technique

Four species are assigned to the Llandovery graptolite genus Spirograptus. S. andrewsi from the upper Aeronian, is the earliest representative and is recorded here for the first time outside Australia. S. turriculatus and S. guerichi sp. nov. occur in the lower Telychian. S. guerichi is distinguished from S. turriculatus by its lesser dorso-ventral width, rhabdosome apical angle and whorl diameter. The subspecies S. turriculatus minor is here considered a junior synonym of S. turriculatus. S. minimus is found only in the middle Telychian of Russia and is not described here.

• Read more about Taxonomy, evolution and biostratigraphical importance of the Llandovery graptolite Spirograptus

Intracrystalline proteins and amino acids were extracted from within the shells of several species of Recent brachiopods from New Zealand. These molecules were characterized both by amino acid analysis and by SDS-PAGE and the data derived from this summarized by multivariate statistical analysis. Results indicate that the amino acids from within the shell may be used as objective taxonomic discriminators, and that the groupings recognized by this method are generally in confirmation with those from the Treatise 01 invertebrate paleontology.

• Read more about Implications of the amino acid composition of Recent New Zealand brachiopods