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A Cretaceous dipteran, Pseudoacarterus orapaensis gen. et sp. nov. is described from Botswana. It is the only Mesozoic record of the subfamily Hybotinae, and the first fossil assignable to the family Hybotidae from the southern hemisphere. P. orapaensis indicates that the Hybotidae originated and diversified at least 40 million years before the previously accepted date. P. orapaensis may be ancestral to the extant genera Sabinios and Syndyas, but not Acarterus.

• Read more about A new hybotine dipteran from the Cretaceous of Botswana

In the Radnice basin of Bohemia, fish and ethologically comparable amphibian ichnofossils of Upper Carboniferous (Westphalian C) age occur in limnic sediments that suggest humid, tropical conditions. Swimming trails of fish belonging to the subclass Actinopterygii, and probably to the order Palaeonisciformes, closely resemble trails in limnoglacial deposits of the Karroo Dwyka and Ecca Series in South Africa (Anderson 1970, 1976); the new trails are assigned to Undichna radnicensis ichnosp. nov.

• Read more about Fish and amphibian trace fossils from Westphalian sediments of Bohemia

Probably all the late Jurassic species of Belemnopsis from eastern Indonesia form part of the moluccana lineage which ranged from early Oxfordian to top Tithonian. B. moluccana, B. galoi and B. stolleyi appear in that order and form the main lineage, while B. alfurica and B. mangolensis represent impersistent branches with no descendants. Other previously recognized taxa are either synonyms, transitional forms or group names.

• Read more about The succession of Belemnopsis in the late Jurassic of eastern Indonesia

Nine species of fossil wood are described from localities in south-east England and western Scotland. These include a new genus, Eiggoxylon gen. nov. (Rosidae: Cunoniaceae? or Eucryphiaceae ?), from the Palaeocene of Eigg, Scotland, and five new species: Plataninium brettii sp. nov. (Eupteleaceae?, Fagaceae?, Icacinaceae? or Platanaceae?) from the Palaeocene of Mull, Scotland; Edenoxylonl atkinsoniae sp. nov. (Anacardiaceae) and Sapotoxylon atkinsoniae sp. nov. (Sapotaceae) from the Eocene of Sheppey, Kent; Tarrietioxylon hazzeldinewarrenii sp. nov. (Sterculiaceae) and T. cf.

• Read more about Dicotyledonous wood from the lower Tertiary of Britain

Decapod crustaceans are widespread in Cretaceous rocks of the mainly marine Mesozoic Neuquen, and Austral or Magallanes basins of continental Argentina as well as in western Antarctica. The Glypheidae are represented by Glyphea sp. from the Neocomian of the Neuquen basin and G. oculata Woods from the Santonian of the Austral basin. Meyerella rapax (Harbort) is described from the late Valanginian-early Hauterivian of the Neuquen basin. Palaeastacus terraereginae (Etheridge), P. sussexiensis (Mantell), Eryma sp. cf. E. sulcata Harbort and Enoploclytia sp. represent the erymids.

• Read more about The Cretaceous decapod Crustacea of Argentina and the Antarctic Peninsula

Geragnostus tullbergi (Novak 1883), G. cf. ingricus (Schmidt 1894), Arthrorhachis lentiformis (Angelin 1851)?, and Oculagnostus frici (Holub 1908a) are described from the Lower Ordovician Komstad Limestone Formation at Killerod, south-east Scania (Skane), southern Sweden. Geragnostella is a subjective junior synonym of Geragnostus. Conodonts and associated polymerid trilobites suggest the strata yielding these agnostids correlate with the Asaphus expansus Zone or basal A. 'raniceps' Zone of the lower Kunda Stage (uppermost Arenig or lowermost Llanvirn).

• Read more about Agnostid trilobites from the Lower Ordovician Komstad Limestone Formation of Killeröd, Scania, Sweden

A characteristic ornament of alternating ridges and grooves (pectinate ornament or kammartige Ornamentierung of Hagdorn, 1982) exists on the interpinnular surfaces of Encrinus liliiformis Lamarck from the German Oberer Muschelkalk (Upper Anisian to Ladinian). These ridges and grooves run transverse to the length of the pinnule and in life would have formed a very large number of microscopic interpinnular channels. These channels would probably have been ciliated and suggest that E. liliiformis, unlike most other crinoids, was at least in part an active filter feeder, i.e.

• Read more about The arm structure and mode of feeding of the Triassic crinoid Encrinus liliiformis

The genus Hemihoplites Spath is locally common in the Hauterivian-Barremian of the Austral Basin, southern Patagonia, Argentina. The taxonomic status of Hemihoplites is discussed, and the new species H. varicostatus and H. ploszkiewiczi are described. Extensive intraspecific variation occurs, and sexual dimorphism is reported for the first time within this genus. This is the first record of the Hemihoplitidae in the Southern Hemisphere.

• Read more about Hemihoplitid ammonoids from the Lower Cretaceous of southern Patagonia

The radiation of ruminant artiodactyls, bovids in particular, that characterized the latter part of the Neogene, appeared to be at the expense of the hindgut-fermenting ungulates (perissodactyls, proboscideans, and hyracoids), that showed a corresponding decrease in diversity and total numbers. However, climatic and vegetational changes may have been the cause for this decline, rather than direct competition with ruminants.

• Read more about A climatic explanation for patterns of evolutionary diversity in ungulate mammals

Size-selective transport of shells is demonstrated in the Dutch Wadden Sea for the Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) and the Oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus): only larger shells were transported. Size-selective transport of shells by predators is one of the taphonomic processes altering the size-frequency distribution of shells in the death assemblage: it results in mortality not recorded in the death assemblage forming where the animal lives. Such transport will occur particularly in intertidal areas.

• Read more about Size-selective transport of shells by birds and its palaeoecological implications