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Parenchodus longipterygius n. g. et sp. belonging to the Enchodontidae is described on the basis of eight specimens. These were found in platy limestones of the late Cenomanian Kefar Shaul Formation, in the vicinity of Jerusalem, Israel. The species is characterized by a short, high body, a fenestra-less premaxilla, and by the long and narrow postcleithrum reaching the ventral margin of the belly.

• Read more about A new enchodontid fish genus from the upper Cenomanian of Jerusalem, Israel

A freshwater mollusc fauna from the Early Miocene Gumba beds of Rusinga Island, Kenya, is re-examined. The fauna consists largely of mutelid bivalves, and two new species of the genus Pleiodon, P. lanceolatum and P. rusingae, are described. The Gumba fauna is compared with those of the contemporary Mohari Formation of the Edward-Albert Rift and the early Miocene Turkana Grits in northwestern Kenya. None of the early Miocene freshwater faunas thus far described contains representatives of the presently widespread and diverse bivalve family Unionidae and gastropod family Viviparidae.

• Read more about Biogeography and evolution of African freshwater molluscs: implications of a Miocene assemblage from Rusinga Island, Kenya

The occurrence of a widespread, distinctive, and sometimes well-preserved bivalve fauna from the Lower Longvillian (Ordovician, Caradoc) rocks of North Wales is recorded, especially from the Allt-Tair-ffynon Beds at Allt y Gadair, south of Llanfyllin, Powys. Six species are described, of which Cymatonota verisimilis sp. nov., Myodakryotus deigryn gen. et sp. nov., and Pseudarca celtica sp. nov. are new. The new family Myodakryotidae is established to accommodate the new genus Myodakryotus.

• Read more about Caradocian bivalve molluscs from Wales

ED spectroscopy of Ca and other elemental densities indicate differences in the rates of secretion and growth among crystallite infrastructures, acanthostyles, the median lamina, zooecial wall, and stages of ontogeny and astogeny in Peronopora. Growth rate (inversely proportional to Ca density) was highest within the granular skeleton of the median lamina and 'A-type' acanthostyles (paurostyles). Growth rate decreased exponentially from the median lamina through the recumbent zone, endozone, and exozone.

• Read more about Skeletal structure, development and elemental composition of the Ordovician trepostome bryozoan Peronopora

Soft-bodied metazoans, trace fossils, and metaphytes occur throughout several hundred metres of post-tillite, pre-Cambrian strata in the Wernecke Mountains, east-central Yukon Territory. The fossils occur in three unnamed units of siltstone deposited under shallow shelf and deeper water conditions. The oldest fossiliferous unit, the 'Goz siltstone', contains Charniodiscus? and Cyclomedusa sp. Siltstone unit 2 has yielded macrofossils (Beltanelliformis brunsae, Medusinites asteroides, Rugoconitesl sp.), trace fossils (Planolites montanus), and carbonaceous compressions (Vendotaenidl sp.).

• Read more about Ediacaran biota of the Wernecke Mountains, Yukon, Canada

An early Arenig acritarch assemblage is described from the Meitan Formation of Tongzi, Guizhou Province, south-west China. Twenty-four species belonging to twenty genera are included. One new genus, Tongzia, and four new species, Rhopaliophora membrana, Pirea sinensis, Schizodiacrodium? multiramiferum, and Tongzia meitana are proposed. The assemblage belongs to the Mediterranean Province and shows that a homogeneous Arenig assemblage extended from east Newfoundland through the Mediterranean to south-west China.

• Read more about Ordovician acritarchs from the Meitan Formation of Guizhou Province, south-west China

Hibolites, a Tethyan-derived genus, was the dominant belemnite in north-west Europe for most of Hauterivian to earliest Barremian (Early Cretaceous) time, while the Boreal genus Acroteuthis continued to thrive in more northerly latitudes. Rare Acroteuthis occur in the Hibolites beds and are easily confused with the slightly younger Aulacoteuthis. Two new Acroteuthis species belonging to the subgenus Boreioteuthis are described here by Pinckney: A. (B). rawsoni and A. (B.) stolleyi.

• Read more about The belemnite Acroteuthis in the Hibolites beds (Hauterivian–Barremian) of north-west Europe

A new specimen of the Lower Cretaceous nodosaurid ankylosaur Polacanthus foxi was found in the Wealden formation of the Isle of Wight in 1979. Three types of presacral spine are now recognized and new dermal elements of unknown position were found. Cranial and cervical fragments are described for the first time, including an axis formerly identified by Seeley, 1876, as ?lguanodon. The sacrum shows a widening of the neural canal, as in Stegosaurus and others, and the tail plates differ from those of the holotype. The systematic status of P.

• Read more about The armoured dinosaur Polacanthus foxi, from the Lower Cretaceous of the Isle of Wight

The Eocene lobsters from the London Clay, Bracklesham and Barton Beds are revised. Nine species of lobster are represented, three new, Homarus morrisi, Hoploparia wardi, and H. victoriae, belonging to six genera. Trachysoma scabrum Bell is placed in Glyphea. The remaining species, H. gammaroides M'Coy, Archaeocarabus bowerbanki M'Coy, Linuparus eocenicus Woods, L. scyllariformis (Bell), and Scyllarides tuberculatus (Konig), are redescribed with further information. The stomatopod Squilla wetherelli Woodward is redescribed and placed in Bathysquilla.

• Read more about English Eocene Crustacea (lobsters and stomatopod)

A single incomplete specimen of a xiphosuran, Pasternakevia podolica gen. et sp. nov., from the Ludlow Series of Podolia, Ukraine, USSR, is described. It has a smooth, spatulate carapace and rounded genal cornua. The opisthosoma bears nine free tergites (second to tenth); the first tergite is reduced and hidden beneath the carapace. The tergites have a broad axial region and small pleurae; the second tergite is hypertrophic. Telson and appendages are not preserved. P.

• Read more about A new Silurian xiphosuran from Podolia, Ukraine, USSR