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A new genus and species of elasmobranch, Surcaudalus rostratus, is described from the Late Permian Rangal Coal Measures, Blackwater, central Queensland. Surcaudalus is characterized by a palatoquadrate with a well-developed ethmoidal articulation, cladodont (phoebodontiform) dentition, absence of ribs, dorsal fin-spines with an anterior keel and a flat to concave posterior wall whose posterolateral margins bear three rows of barb-like denticles, and a non-lunate caudal fin with a well-developed epicaudal lobe.

• Read more about A Late Permian freshwater shark from eastern Australia

An ammonite from the Penarth Group (Upper Triassic?) at Chipping Sodbury, Avon, England, is described. This is believed to be the first ammonite to be reported from these beds or from any rocks in Britain currently regarded as Triassic in age. It is small, but its characters are similar to those of Jurassic psiloceratids rather than to those of late Triassic families.

• Read more about A psiloceratid ammonite from the supposed Triassic Penarth Group of Avon, England

The skull of Fulengia youngi Carroll and Galton, a supposed lizard from the Upper Triassic/Lower Jurassic of China, is re-examined and compared with contemporary prosauropod dinosaurs. On the basis of its teeth, and the construction of the maxilla and mandible, the skull of Fulengia is reinterpreted as that of a juvenile prosauropod dinosaur. It most closely resembles specimens of Gyposaurus sinensis Young, now generally acknowledged to be juveniles of the common Lufeng anchisaurid Lufengosaurus. Fulengia youngi is formally proposed to be a junior synonym of Lufengosaurus huenei.

• Read more about Fulengia, a supposed early lizard reinterpreted as a prosauropod dinosaur

The richest and best-preserved Silurian trilobite fauna to have been discovered from Ireland, from two localities in the Annascaul inlier, County Kerry, is described. The specimens belong to eight families, thirteen genera, and sixteen species. Five species are new: Interproetus galvani, Conoparia hollandi, Calymene endemopsis, Primaspis mendica, and Leonaspis parkini. The precise age of the two limestone lenses which yielded the material is uncertain, but it is likely that they fall within a mid-Wedlock to mid-Ludlow time interval, with several faunal elements indicating a late Wenlock age.

• Read more about Silurian trilobites from the Annascaul inlier, Dingle Peninsula, Ireland

A review of more than 250 genera has established the taxonomic composition, patterns of geographical and stratigraphical distribution, and faunal links for the Ordovician ostracodes of the British Isles, Ibero-Armorica, and Baltoscandia. Compositional and diversity changes of the faunas can be correlated with tectonic and ecological controls.Four orders (Beyrichiocopa, Platycopa, Podocopa, and Leperditiocopa), comprising over fifty families and more than 800 species are represented. In the three regions ostracodes show high diversity at all taxonomic levels, especially in Baltoscandia.

• Read more about The composition and palaeogeographical significance of the Ordovician ostracode faunas of southern Britain, Baltoscandia, and Ibero-Armorica

Celtocrinus ubaghsi gen. et sp. nov., from the Middle Arenig of Dyfed, South Wales, is only the second lower Ordovician camerate known. It is of approximately the same antiquity as the other Arenig camerate, the diplobathrid Proexenocrinus inyoensis Strimple and McGinnis, but the Welsh species is a monobathrid.

• Read more about A new camerate crinoid from the Arenig of South Wales

The discovery of sources of material of Aalenian (Middle Jurassic) age has enabled restudy of Moorellina dundriensis (Rollier). Although in general morphology the species resembles other monoseptate moorellinins, the absence of brachial lobes, together with the characteristically thickened shell and distinctive skeletal shell fabric, clearly separates it from all other contemporaneous representatives of Moorellina. On this basis it is assigned to a new genus Pachymoorellina.

• Read more about Evaluation of a thecideidine brachiopod from the Middle Jurassic of the Cotswolds, England

This paper reconstructs, describes, and places systematically the mitrate Barrandeocarpus norvegicus sp. nov. from the Upper Ordovician (Hirnantian stage, Ashgill series) of Rambergoya in Oslo Fjord, Norway. This new species is the first mitrate described from Norway and a stem-group craniate in the plesion of Mitrocystella. To locate the species within its plesion in an objective manner, without using traditional categorial ranks, a number of new terms are proposed: a scion is a monophyletic group comprising a crown group and an adjacent crownward part of a stem group.

• Read more about A new mitrate from the Upper Ordovician of Norway, and a new approach to subdividing a plesion

Details of the precise change in brachiopod faunas from the Ordovician to the Silurian systems are elusive. A rich shelly fauna spans the Ordovician/Silurian boundary in the Oslo Region. The brachiopods are the most prominent group represented in the lower Silurian Solvik Formation and among these the enteletaceans are most abundant Several of these earliest occurring enteletaceans show a Bohemian affinity. Many of the genera described mark their first or last world-wide occurrence in this region.

• Read more about The Llandovery enteletacean brachiopods of the central Oslo region, Norway

Species previously assigned to Arachnophyllum and related genera from the Silurian of north-west Europe and North America are revised and their phylogeny and biogeography are discussed. Intraspecific variation, particularly in the English sample of Arachnophyllum murchisoni, is described in detail. The genera Arachnophyllum and Prodarwinia are redefined on the basis of redescriptions of their type species, A. murchisoni and P. speciosa. In addition the species A. sinemurum, A. separatum, A. pentagonum, A. striatum, A. pygmaeum, P. striata, P. mamillaris, and P.

• Read more about Amural arachnophyllid corals from the Silurian of the North Atlantic area