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Conulariid specimens that terminate adapically in a transverse wall, or schott, have been interpreted in several ways. These interpretations have been based more on analogy with extant organisms than on evaluation of fossil material.

• Read more about Anatomy, patterns of occurrence, and nature of the conulariid schott

Hensonella dinarica (Radoicic) is an Early Cretaceous, Tethyan microfossil, considered to be either a dasycladacean alga or a problematicum. This is because its preservation in yellowish radial calcite is highly unusual for dasycladacean algae, which are typically preserved in drusy calcite replacing the original aragonite. Petrological, cathodoluminescence and chemical microprobe studies of specimens of H. dinarica, principally from the Middle East, suggest that the original mineralogy of this microfossil was calcitic.

• Read more about Hensonella dinarica, an orginally calcitic Early Cretaceous dasycladacean alga

A new rhynchosaur (Reptilia, Diapsida), Otischalkia elderae, from the lower Dockum Group of West Texas is represented by two premaxillary fragments, two femora, and two humeri. The lower Dockum is early late Carnian (Paleorhinus biochron) in age.

• Read more about A new rhynchosaur from the Upper Triassic of West Texas, and the biochronology of Late Triassic rhynchosaurs

• Read more about Bajocian stephanoceratid ammonites from the Bakony Mountains, Hungary

Two groups within Azygograptus are identified on the presence or absence of adpressed growth of th 11(superscript) along the sicula. The second group has an unusual facies association and this is interpreted to reflect adaptation to a shoreward, and possibly r-selective environment. Adaptation to such an environment is argued to have the potential to affect proximal development and consequently the evolutionary origins of this group are obscure. The subgenera previously erected are not used because of difficulties with the type species.

• Read more about The Ordovician graptolites Azygograptus and Jishougraptus in Scandinavia and Britain

The Kimmeridge Clay of Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset, UK, includes several stone bands which electron microscopy shows are coccolith limestones dominated by the species Watznaueria fossacincta. The assemblage includes not only fully grown coccoliths but also specimens at earlier growth stages, including proto-coccolith rings. A complete ontogenetic sequence can thus be reconstructed. This interpretation is supported by the occurrence of early growth stages inside coccospheres, i.e. intracellular coccoliths preserved in the process of growth.

• Read more about An ontogenetic sequence of coccoliths from the Late Jurassic Kimmeridge Clay of England

The possibility of introducing contaminating amino acids while preparing fossils and rocks analysis is a major problem for molecular palaeontology. The most important source of contamination is human finger tips, which source approximately 100 times the concentration of amino acid than New Zealand fossil shells. Latex gloves can also transmit appreciable quantities of modern day amino acids.

• Read more about Amino acids from fossils, facies and fingers

Until now, no therapsid was known with any certainty from Malagasy. The present specimen, discovered in 1948, but never described, is the first record of a complete dicynodont skull from this country. A description of the skull is given and it is referred to a new species of the genus Oudenodon. The rarity of dicynodonts in Malagasy may be because of environmental differences from the adjoining landmass of Africa.

• Read more about The first dicynodont from the Late Permian of Malagasy

New morphological and microstructural information from Bifolium faringdonense (Davidson, 1874), Bosquetella campichei (de Loriol, 1872), Thecidiopsis tetragona (Roemer, 1839) and Thecidiopsis bohemica imperfecta Nekvasilova, 1967 indicates that the specimens assigned to T. bohemica imperfecta do not belong to Thecidiopsis. The organization and microstructure of the brachial valve, place T. bohemica imperfecta close to thecidellinids such as the Recent Thecidellina blochmanni Dall, 1920.

• Read more about Morphology and shell microstructure of Cretaceous thecideidine brachiopods and their bearing on thecideidine phylogeny

Intra-crystalline macromolecules isolated from the skeletons of nine species of Recent articulate brachiopods were compared by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to assess the relationships within the Order Terebratulida (Phylum Brachiopoda, Class Articulata). Immunological distance data indicated that the sub-division of this order into three suborders (based on the characteristics of the internal skeleton, particularly the brachial loop) is not valid.

• Read more about Immunological investigations of relationships with the terebratulid brachiopods