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In a detailed study of the Blue Lias (Hettangian-Sinemurian) at four localities in southern Britain holothurian sclerites were found in 76% of samples, sometimes in abundance. There are eleven sclerite morphospecies, four of them new, including examples of the Dactylochirotida (Ypsilothuriidae), Dendro-chirotida (?Cucumariidae), Apodida (Achistridae, Chiridotidae and Synaptidae), Elasipoda and probably Molpadiida (Molpadiidae). Four types of calcareous ring are described and, where possible, their associated sclerite morphospecies identified.

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Two new cornutes, Chauvelicystis vizcainoi sp. nov., and Prochauvelicystis semispinosa gen. et sp. nov. are described. C. vizcainoi, from the lower Ordovician (Lower Arenig) of the South of France, has previously been synonymized with Chauvelicystis spinosa Ubaghs, 1969, and is shown to be the sister taxon of C. ubaghsi (Chauvel, 1966).

• Read more about Two new cornutes from the lower Ordovician of Shropshire and southern France

A horizon 46 m above the base of the Ozan Formation in the North Sulphur River north-west of Ladonia in Fannin County, Texas, yielded a fauna of Pachydiscus (Pachydiscus) paulsoni (Young, 1963), Eupachydiscus grossouvrei (Kossmat, 1898), Placenticeras sp., Menabites (Delawarella) delawarensis (Morton, 1830), M. (D.) danei (Young, 1963), M. (D.) vanuxemi (Morton, 1830), M. (D.) sp., Glyptoxoceras sp., Baculites sp. group of aquilaensis Reeside, 1927, Scaphites (Scaphites) sp. group of hippocrepis (DeKay, 1828), Trachyscaphites spiniger spiniger (Schliiter, 1872), and T. densicostatus sp.

• Read more about Campanian Trachyscaphites spiniger ammonite fauna in north-east Texas

The multituberculate suborders: Paulchoffatoidea (Hahn, 1961, new rank) and Plagiaulacoidea (Simpson, 1925), plagiaulacoid families Plagiaulacidae (with two subfamilies Plagiaulacinae and Eobaatarinae) and Allodontidae are re-diagnosed. The Arginbaataridae is assigned to a suborder incertae sedis. It is demonstrated that Plioprion Cope, 1884, based on lower jaws, is a junior synonym of Bolodon Owen, 1871, based on upper jaws. A dentary fragment and twenty-five isolated multituberculate teeth from the Upper Jurassic Purbeck Limestone Formation are described.

• Read more about Multituberculate mammals from the Upper Jurassic Purbeck Limestone Formation of southern England

Tubiphytes Maslov, 1956 is a problematic fossil which ranges from early Carboniferous to mid-Cretaceous and is common in Permian and Triassic reef and other shallow marine carbonate facies. It has been suggested to be a cyanobacterium, hydrozoan, sponge, red alga, foraminifer, and a cyanobacterium-chlorophyte consortium. Its distinctive morphological features include densely flocculent and layered skeletal structure, an axial canal system which may or may not be integral to Tubiphytes, and smoothly rounded to encrusting external form. Cyanobacterial and algal affinities are discounted.

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Herrerasaurids were predatory, obligatorily bipedal dinosaurs recorded in early Late Triassic rocks of South America. It has been suggested recently that the Herrerasauridae constitute a paraphyletic assemblage, but several apomorphic traits in the dorsal, sacral, and caudal vertebrae and the pectoral and pelvic girdles support the monophyly of this group. The relationships of Dinosauria with other members of Ornithodira are considered, supporting the monophyly of the newly recognized clade Dinosauriformes, constituted of Lagosuchus + (Pseudolagosuchus+ (Dinosauria)).

• Read more about Phylogenetic relationships of the basal dinosaurs, the Herrerasauridae

Distinctive crinoid columns with pentastellate to serrate circular nodal epifacets are probably derived from rhodocrinitid diplobathrid camerates and are placed in the morphogenus Floricolumnus (col.) gen. nov., which is only known from the Lower Llandovery of the British Isles, The type species, F. (col.) girvanensis sp. nov., is known only from the Newlands Formation of the Girvan district (late A4 to early B1). Nodals of this species are inflated; epifacet ' rays' are simple, bifid or multilobate; the column is strongly heteromorphic. F (col.) sp. cf. F.

• Read more about An unusual crinoid columnal morphospecies from the Llandovery of Scotland and Wales

The first Mesozoic pseudoscorpion (Arachnida, Pseudoscorpionida) from Cretaceous (Campanian) amber collected in southern Alberta, Canada, is described. The specimen is a deutonymph and belongs to the family Chernetidae, but further taxonomic assignment is impossible. Some observations and deductions on its palaeobiology are made.

• Read more about The first Mesozoic pseudoscorpion, from Cretaceous Canadian amber

The cornute Procothurnocystis owensi gen. et sp. nov.. from the Upper Arenig of South Wales, is reconstructed and described. Within the chordate stem-group, it probably represents a plesion between that of 'Cothurnocystis' fellinensis Ubaghs, 1969, on the anticrownward side, and that of Cothurnocystis elizae Bather, 1913, on the crownward side. On death by burial, the only known specimen of Procothurnocystis owensi seems to have swallowed a mouthful of mud.

• Read more about A new stem-group chordate from the lower Ordovician of South Wales, and the problem of locomotion in boot-shaped cornutes

Material recently collected from the Lower Lias (Lower Jurassic) of South Wales shows evidence of dimyarian musculature in Atreta intusstriata (Emmrich) proving that the previous assignment of Atreta to the monomyarian Plicatulidae Watson, 1930, by Cox (1964) is incorrect. The genus is therefore reassigned to the Dimyidae Fischer, 1886. A lectotype and paralectotypes are designated from material located in the Emmrich collection at the Geiseltal Museum, Halle, Germany.

• Read more about The relationship of the Mesozoic bivalve Atreta to the Dimyidae