Archive

Frequencies of predation on turritelline gastropods by drilling and peeling predators have not changed significantly during the course of the Cenozoic. Rates of drilling in the Cretaceous are lower than Cenozoic rates, but not significantly so. Conversely, rates of peeling and repair in the Late Cretaceous reach or exceed Cenozoic values.Turritelline shell form is not correlated with predation intensity. Highly sculptured species are not more immune to drilling and peeling predation than are less sculptured taxa.

• Read more about Drilling and peeling of turritelline gastropods since the Late Cretaceous

The high level classification of trilobites has proved particularly difficult. This paper discusses the classification of those trilobites which have been placed in the Order Ptychopariida, together with other relevant groups, including Agnostida. Although often considered 'generalized', the ptychoparioids have a distinctive derived character: the hypostome is not exoskeletally connected to the cephalic doublure (natant hypostomal condition).

• Read more about Ontogeny, hypostome attachment and trilobite classification

Promissum pulchrum Kovacs-Endrody, 1986, originally described as the earliest vascular land plant or an ancestor of the same, is shown to be a conodont. The species is represented by several spectacular bedding plane assemblages which occur in the Soom Shale Member of the Cedarberg Formation, Table Mountain Group, near Clanwilliam, South Africa. Invertebrate fossils from the Soom Shale indicate a late Ashgill (late Rawtheyan to Hirnantian) age. The conodont assemblages are the largest known, reaching 17 mm in length, with individual ramiform elements as long as 14 mm.

• Read more about Bedding plane assemblages of Promissum pulchrum, a new giant Ashgill conodont from the Table Mountain Group, South Africa

Trichoptera pupae are described for the first time in the Indusial Limestone Formation of Saint-Gerand-le-Puy, Allier, France. The caddisfly pupal cases, named Indusia tubulosa, constitute this limestone. The relationships of these pupae to extant families are analysed and they are placed in the Limnephilinae. Fossil preservation and palaeoenvironment are discussed.

• Read more about Caddisfly pupae from the Miocene Indusial Limestone of Saint-Gérand-le-Puy, France

A historical review of the classification of Foraminifera reveals that the latest by Loeblich and Tappan is in the central tradition, leading from the work of the early English School, in which it is attempted to relate test composition and fine structure to physiology in formulating a sound basis for distinction of suprageneric rank. Although the early English School first distinguished homologous from analogous structures, their view that Foraminifera constituted a primitive, plastic group has inhibited biological and stratigraphical work, and distorted classification down to the present.

• Read more about The classification of the Foraminifera – a review of historical and philosophical perspectives

European Callovian (and later) forms of Gryphaea (Bilobissa) arose not from earlier representatives of the subgenus but from Catinula, a much smaller, frequently ribbed form, here regarded as a subgenus of Gryphaea. Evolution was essentially gradualistic. G. (Catinula) itself arose from an early G. (Bilobissa) species at the Toarcian/Aalenian boundary. In this case evolution was rapid (and apparently restricted to a small geographical area) but there is little evidence of stasis before and afterwards. The earlier G. (Bilobissa) lineage became extinct in the late Bajocian or early Bathonian.

• Read more about Evolution of gryphaeate oysters in the mid-Jurassic of western Europe

Protolloydolithus sp. nov., from beds of Llandeilo age in north Portugal, is described and figured. The genus was previously unknown from Iberia, and the present record indicates faunal links with southern Britain during middle Ordovician times. The appearance of the genus is linked to a transgressive event following an early Llandeilo lowering of the sea level.

• Read more about The trilobite Protolloydolithus from the Middle Ordovician of north Portugal

The small well-preserved bones of ten avian fossils, species of the quail Turnix, from five Australian caves, ranging in age from 9000 to 38,000 years, were tested in a radioimmunoassay for collagen. Collagen was well preserved in all cave environments studied, whether 'wet' or 'dry', and nine of ten samples tested contained collagen, from 10% to 92% of the collagen content of fresh bone. The age of the bone was not clearly related to its collagen content, although the amount of collagen detected was significantly less in the older of the two samples for three of the five caves.

• Read more about Preservation of avian collagen in Australian Quaternary cave deposits

Critical-point-dried samples of recent biological soft tissues can be used to make accurate comparisons with exceptionally well-preserved fossil material. This technique has distinct advantages over thin sections of biological tissues, as palaeontologists are often more familiar with observing three-dimensionally preserved material. This technique offers important opportunities for comparative taphonomic and anatomical studies, especially for palaeontologists working with exceptionally well-preserved soft tissues such as may be found in early diagenetic concretions.

• Read more about An application of critical point drying to the comparison of modern and fossilized soft tissues of fishes

Tectonic deformation is liable to affect the diagnostic characters of fossils, but its effects can be removed with the help of a computer-graphic technique, which is here applied to trilobites for the first time. Dikelocephalusl discoidalis Salter, 1866, with its putative synonym D.? celticus Salter, 1866, is known only from distorted specimens collected from the upper part of the Parabolina spinulosa Biozone in the Dolgellau Formation (upper Cambrian) of North Wales. It has been reconstructed by removing tectonic deformation. D. ?

• Read more about Computer-aided restoration of a Late Cambrian ceratopygid trilobite from Wales, and its phylogenetic implications