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Compressed cuticles of the dorsiventral, presumed parenchymatous land plant Spongiophyton are described from several late Lower Devonian (Emsian) localities in northern New Brunswick and Gaspe, Quebec. They are assigned to Spongiophyton minutissimum Krausel. Thalli branch dichotomously several times in more than one plane and also produce short vertical branches. No reproductive structures are present. The cuticle is thicker dorsally, often being up to 250 micro m thick as opposed to 30-60 micro m for the ventral cuticle.

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A diverse bryozoan fauna has been discovered in South Wales in the Slade and Redhill Beds (upper Rawtheyan, Ashgill), exposed in a new road-cutting near Whitland. This is the first account of a moderately diverse Ordovician bryozoan fauna from Britain. The fauna is represented by 15 species belonging to four orders, the majority being Trepostomata. One new genus is described, Pinnatoporella (Fenestrata), and three new species Heterotrypa sladei, Dekayia pengawsensis, and Anaphragma gwyndyense (all Trepostomata).

• Read more about A new upper Ordovician bryozoan fauna from the Slade and Redhill Beds, South Wales

The Cow Head Group of western Newfoundland preserves a sequence of carbonate-rich sediments ranging from middle Cambrian to middle Ordovician. It yields a rich graptolite fauna both with flattened specimens in black shales and cherts, and three-dimensional and flattened material in nodular limestones which may be isolated from the rock by acid extraction. A continuous succession is present across the Tremadoc-Arenig boundary, containing a well represented graptolite assemblage which is here referred to the A. victoriae Zone.

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Ediacaran body fossils and trace fossils occur sporadically throughout more than one kilometre of strata in the upper part of the Windermere Supergroup in the western Northwest Territories of Canada. The oldest fossiliferous unit, the Sheepbed Formation, contains body fossils (Beltanella gilesi, Charniodiscus? sp., Cyclomedusa plana, Cyclomedusa sp., Eoporpita sp., Kullingia sp. and Medusinites asteroides) and very rare trace fossils (Planolites montanus). The Blueflower Formation contains rare body fossils (Chamiodiscus? sp., Ediacaria sp., Inkrylovia sp., Pteridinium sp.

• Read more about Ediacaran fossils from the Sekwi Brook area, Mackenzie Mountains, northwestern Canada

A new species of late Campanian or Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) pholadid bivalve, Pholadidea (Hatasia) wiffenae, is described from shallow marine transgressive Maungataniwha Sandstone, northwestern Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. It represents the earliest confirmed record for both genus and subgenus. The new species is known from exceptionally well-preserved material, which permits detailed knowledge of external morphology, including all accessory plates, and to a lesser degree, internal morphology. It is assigned to Pholadidea (Hatasia) based largely on the nature of accessory plates.

• Read more about A new species of Late Cretaceous wood-boring bivalve from New Zealand

The graptolite faunas described by Baily in 1871 from County Down, N. Ireland are re-examined and assigned to the middle part of the Monograptus turriculatus Biozone of the Telychian (Upper Llandovery). One of Daily's new species, Graptolithus plumosus, is redescribed and a neotype selected. It is suggested that G. plumosus is the valid type species of the genus Streptograptus Yin, 1937, but was misidentified by Yin as M. nodifer Tornquist, 1881. An emended generic diagnosis for Streptograptus is given.

• Read more about On the graptolites described by Baily (1871) from the Silurian of Northern Ireland and the genus Streptograptus Yin

The oldest known well-preserved trilobite eyes are described in the Lower Cambrian eodiscids Neocobboldia chinlinica Lee and Shizhudiscus longquanensis S. G. Zhang and Zhu, the latter being slightly older. The material, from south central China, is preserved as moulds or by partial replacement in phosphate, and gives fine details of lens structure. Shizhudiscus eyes have biconvex lenses, polygonal and closely packed as in normal holochroal eyes, whereas those of Neocobboldia have round, separated lenses, and compare with Middle Cambrian eodiscid eyes previously described as 'abathochroal'.

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The new genus and species, Metabrograptus scoticus, of the family Abrograptidae is described from the Upper Ordovician (Glenkiln Shales) of southern Scotland. The new genus bears the same relationship to Abrograptus as Dicranograptus bears to Dicellograptus. The recognition of this further type in the family perhaps adds some weight to Finney's (1980) reference of Reteograptus to the Abrograptidae. Although there are problems of homologizing stipe structure, it is clear that the biserial retiolitoid condition in Ordovician forms can be derived in more than one way.

• Read more about A new genus of abrograptid graptolite from the Ordovician of southern Scotland

New vertebrate material from the Otter Sandstone Formation of Devon includes a cleithrolepidid fish, temnospondyl amphibians, a procolophonid reptile, and a tooth which may be attributed to a tanystropheid reptile. The Cleithrolepididae is represented by several specimens of Dipteronotus cyphus. The temnospondyl amphibian material includes two skull roof fragments referable to Mastodonsaurus lavisi, a skull and fragments assignable to the benthosuchid Eocyclotosaurus sp., and one mandibular fragment of an indeterminate large capitosaurid.

• Read more about Vertebrates from the Middle Triassic Otter Sandstone Formation of Devon

Quasicaecilia texana gen. et sp. nov., from the Lower Permian of Texas, is a very small microsaur in which the nasal bones form the front margin of the skull and the cultriform process of the parasphenoid is not in contact with the sphenethmoid. The bones of the otic-occipital region are fused to one another, and the otic capsule and stapes are very large relative to other cranial dimensions, giving a superficial resemblance to modern caecilians. Many of the unusual cranial features of this species may be attributed to its small size.

• Read more about A tiny microsaur from the Lower Permian of Texas: size constraints in Palaeozoic tetrapods