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All attached epifaunal species have the potential to colonize floating substrates such as driftwood, externally shelled cephalopods, Sargassum-like algae and marine vertebrates. Such pseudoplankton are preserved in a much wider range of facies than their benthic relatives. However, they are never as abundant as benthos due to the rarity of attachment sites. Pseudoplanktonic species utilize five attachment strategies: cemented, adpressed, pendent, boring and clinging.

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Calcareous concretions from middle and upper Cenomanian (Cretaceous) shale sequences in Montana and Wyoming yield, on rare occasions, abundant minute ammonites. Some are juveniles of large species, and give valuable evidence on early ontogeny and evolutionary affinities of these taxa. They provide evidence for the probable evolutionary origins of a series of hitherto undescribed progenic dwarf genera, adult at 4-5-16-5 mm diameter that are a remarkable feature of these assemblages.

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The exceptionally fine preservation and large number of specimens from a single late Palaeozoic locality makes the hyoliths in the Humboldt Oolite (Osagean, lower Mississippian) unique. All specimens are assigned to Gerkella humboldti n. gen., n. sp., family Hyolithidae, order Hyolithida. There is considerable variation in certain morphological features, such as transverse shape, nature of ornament and apical curvature; however, these differences are judged to be gradational.

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A discoglossid frog, Eodiscoglossus oxoniensis sp. nov. is described from the Upper Bathonian Forest Marble of Oxfordshire. It closely resembles Eodiscoglossus santonjae from the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary of Spain but can be distinguished by characteristics of the ilium and premaxillary. The E. oxoniensis specimens represent the earliest European material critically identifiable as a frog and the earliest discoglossid yet recognised.

• Read more about A discoglossid frog from the Middle Jurassic of England

An unusual late Tertiary - early Quaternary brachiopod assemblage from shallow water shoreline deposits on the Namaqualand coastal plain of South Africa is described. New species described are Kraussina, rotundata, K. laevicostata, K. cuneata and Cancellothyris platys, with subspecies C. platys platys and C. platys petalos. In situ specimens, shell growth, abrasion and epizoans all indicate crowded living conditions, commonly on bedrock.

• Read more about Late Cainozoic brachiopods from the coast of Namaqualand, South Africa

Four new specimens of spiders (Chelicerata: Araneae), from Lower Cretaceous (Berriasian-Valan-ginian) lithographic limestones of the Sierra de Montsech, Lerida Province, north-east Spain, are described, as Cretaraneus vilaltae gen. et sp. nov., Macryphantes cowdeni gen. et sp. nov. (two specimens), and Palaeouloborus lacasae gen. et sp. nov. All belong to the infraorder Araneomorphae.

• Read more about Lower Cretaceous spiders from the Sierra de Montsech, north-east Spain

Large microfossils from a single phosphatic pebble in the late Riphean-early Vendian ( > 612+ 18 — 665+ 10 Ma) Biskopas Conglomerate in the Hedmark Group in southern Norway were described by Spjeldnaes (1963) under the name Papillomembrana compta and interpreted as a possible dasycladacean alga. The microfossils are evidently organic-walled and here regarded as giant acanthomorph acritarchs. The diagnosis of Papillomembrana compta is emended. Possibly related Proterozoic taxa are discussed. A new acanthomorph acritarch, Ericiasphaera spjeldnaesii gen. et sp. nov., found with P.

• Read more about Giant acanthomorph acritarchs from the Upper Proterozoic in southern Norway

Most drawings and photographs of fossil cephalopods show the shell upside down in respect to the animal's living position. As there is no advantage in this way of making illustrations, presumably based ot tradition, the author suggests that fossil as well as living cephalopods should be illustrated in life position. This is particularly important today, as functional morphology is of vital interest to cephalopod workers. To facilitate understanding of the behaviour of fossil cephalopods, the first step must be to see them orientated in the same way as they saw each other.

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An eocrinoid similar to Gogia, but having single or partitioned epispires with dome-shaped calcite cover, is described as Gogia (Alanisicystis) andalusiae subg. et sp. nov. It is from the Lower Cambrian (Marianian stage) of Alanis (Seville), Andalusia, Spain, and it is the second species of Gogia from the Lower Cambrian.

• Read more about A new eocrinoid from the Lower Cambrian of Spain

Coniferous woods from the Kogosukruk Tongue of the Prince Creek Formation (Campanian-Maastrichtian), central North Slope, Alaska (U.S.A.) have narrow growth rings, abundant false rings, and high ratios of late wood to early wood. These characteristics are the same across several taxa, and suggest that summers were cool and growing conditions variable.

• Read more about Latest Cretaceous woods of the central North Slope, Alaska