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Twenty-five trilobite species belonging to twenty-three genera are recorded from the Caradoc Knockerk Formation of the Grangegeeth area, eastern Ireland. Arthrorhachis knockerkensis and Birmanitei salteri are new, while Barrandia sp. and Flexicalymene sp. possibly represent new species. The faunas occur predominantly in the lower parts of the Knockerk House Sandstones Member and younger Brickwork's Quarry Shales Member. The older fauna is of early Caradoc age and shows affinities with species from the Balclatchie and Lower Ardwell groups at Girvan.

• Read more about Early Caradoc trilobites of eastern Ireland and their palaeogeographical significance

Two genera of dipteridaceous ferns, Goeppertella and Hausmannia, are described for the first time from the Mesozoic Hope Bay and Botany Bay assemblages of the northern Antarctic Peninsula, and Goeppertella from the Clent Hills assemblage of New Zealand. These are the first gondwanan records outside Argentina of Goeppertella. Two new species of the genus, G. jeffersonii and G. woodii, are described from Hope Bay and Botany Bay.

• Read more about Dipterid ferns from the Mesozoic of Antarctica and New Zealand and their stratigraphical significance

The Middle Cambrian of the Georgina Basin, Queensland, Australia, has yielded a large association of secondarily phosphatized Palaeoscolecida in three-dimensional preservation. Many hitherto unknown details are described, such as the differentiated aboral end, irregularly distributed tubules on the outer surface, and a wide range of sclerites even on the same animal. Internal structure, functional morphology, ecological aspects and systematic relationships are also discussed. Nineteen species belonging to nine genera are described, of which the following are new: Austroscolex primitivus gen.

• Read more about Palaeoscolecid worms from the Middle Cambrian of Australia

A number of fossils from the Stephen Formation (Burgess Shale, Middle Cambrian, British Columbia) and Parker Slate (Lower Cambrian, Vermont) resemble Ediacaran taxa. Thaumaptilon walcotti gen. et sp. nov., known from three specimens, consists of a broad frond bearing a central rachis from which arise branches bearing possible zooids. The holdfast is relatively elongate and slightly swollen. T. walcotti approaches closely a number of Ediacaran frond-like fossils, especially Charniodiscus, Vaizitsinia and Khatyspytia. All these taxa appear to be pennatulacean anthozoans (Cnidaria).

• Read more about Ediacaran-like fossils in Cambrian Burgess Shale-type faunas of North America

Interfilamental cell-connections are considered important characters in the suprageneric and generic taxonomy of present-day nongeniculate coralline algae but to date they have not been used in the taxonomy of fossil corallines. SEM observations of polished and etched specimens allow recognition of interfilamental cell connections in fossils and therefore these characters can also be applied to the taxonomy of ancient coralline algae. The shape and number of epithallial cells, which are important diagnostic features in delimiting genera in the subfamily Melobesioideae, can also be recognized.

• Read more about New anatomical characters in fossil coralline algae and their taxonomic implications

Seven new species of comparatively large Neoproterozoic organic-walled acritarchs (Appendisphaera grandis, A. fragilis, A. tenuis, A.? tabifica, Cavaspina basiconica, Tanarium irregulare, T. tuberosum) are reported from two drilling sites in Yakutia, eastern Siberia. Two previously known form-species (Cavaspina acuminata comb. nov. and Tanarium conoideum) are also emended. The acritarchs derive from siliciclastic rocks of the Khamaka Formation, the lowermost part of the Vendian to Cambrian sedimentary succession in the central part of the Siberian Platform.

• Read more about Neoproterozoic (Vendian) phytoplankton from the Siberian Platform, Yakutia

Compared to their Late Jurassic record, sauropod dinosaurs are poorly known in the Cretaceous Period between 144 Ma and the terminal Cretaceous extinction event at 66 Ma. The Titanosauridae are the most widespread and common of Cretaceous sauropods. The titanosaurid species from the Dinosaur Beds of Malawi, Africa, here referred to Malawisaunis dixeyi comb, nov., has precoelous anterior caudal vertebrae, a characteristic of the family, but middle and distal caudals with gently biconcave ends.

• Read more about New material of an Early Cretaceous titanosaurid sauropod dinosaur from Malawi

Reconsideration of the form of the triplesiid pseudodeltidium, which has been used as a basis subdivision into subfamilies, together with the distinct forms of the forked cardinal process, indicates that while these criteria do form useful bases for generic distinction, variation both of combinations of characters an characters within some genera and species mitigate against any meaningful subdivision of this intriguing genetically plastic brachiopod family.

• Read more about Subdivision of the lower Palaeozoic articulate brachiopod family Triplesiidae

The holotype and only specimen of Ornithodesmus duniculus, a sacrum from the late Wealden (= Barremian) of the Isle of Wight, is redescribed and is shown not to be pterodactyloid as previously described. Comparison with sacral vertebrae of pterodactyloids and of advanced theropod dinosaurs shows it to resemble most closely those of the small theropod Saurornithoides. Because O. duniculus is the type species of Ornithodesmus, the genus is transferred to the Theropoda. It is assigned to the Troodontidae with uncertainty, because of the limited nature of the holotype.

• Read more about Ornithodesmus – a maniraptoran theropod dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of the Isle of Wight, England

Brachiopods from the Late Triassic Luning Formation are described from localities in the Pilot and Shoshone Mountains, Nevada. The spiriferids Balatonospira? cf. B. lipoldi, Zugmayerella uncinata, ?Z. sp., Spondylospira lewesensis, and the terebratulids Plectoconcha aequiplicata, P. newbyi sp. nov., Rhaetina gregaria, R. cf. R. gregaria and Zeilleria cf. Z. elliptica are described. This Luning fauna contains species known from western Europe (Z. uncinata and R. gregaria) and forms closely comparable to species known from western Europe are also present (B. ? cf. B. lipoldi and Z. cf. Z.

• Read more about Late Triassic brachiopods from the Luning Formation, Nevada, and their palaeobiogeographical significance