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Sections of Cambrian articulate brachiopods from the U.S.S.R. show that the calcareous shell of the billingsellacean Nisusiidae probably consisted of normally developed primary and secondary layers with orthodoxly stacked fibres. Disposition of the recrystallized fibres further suggests that whereas Nisusia was impunctate, the related Kotujella was permeated by simple canals which must have been indistinguishable from the caeca accommodated within endopunctae of younger, unrelated articulate brachiopods.

• Read more about Shell structure of the billingsellacean brachiopods

Epimastopora malaysiana sp. nov., from the Malayan Permian, is described from a unique whole solid specimen: normally remains of any Epimastopora sp. are extremely fragmentary. Also described are Harlanjohnsonella annulata gen. et sp. nov., and Suppiluliumaella polyreme gen. et sp. nov., from the Yugoslav and Turkish Cretaceous respectively, and both considered related to Dissodadella.

• Read more about Three new Tethyan Dasycladaceae (calcareous algae)

The three Cretaceous species-groups Arctostrea colubrina (Lamarjsk), A. ungulata (Schlotheim), and A. diluviana (Linnaeus) are described. Particular attention is paid to the detailed morphology of A. colubrina, from which its life history is reconstructed. It is inferred that the unusual characters of the genus (especially the arcuate shape, the zigzag commissure and the funnel spines) relate to the size and importance of the gills as primary food-collecting organs. The subspecies A.

• Read more about Functional studies on the Cretaceous oyster Arctostrea

Eskdalia minuta Kidston has previously been described as a fern stem, but closer examination of its macroscopic features and a study of its cuticle shows it to be a ligulate lycopod stem. The genus of Russian paper coal cuticles, Porodendron Zalessky, is shown to be a synonym of Eskdalia.

• Read more about A revision of the Carboniferous lycopod genus Eskdalia Kidston

Compression fossils of a new species of Lycopod sporophyll, Lepidostrobophyllum alatum, are interpreted in terms of their compression history. Three superficially different types of fossil are assigned to the same species as a result of this interpretation. These, it is suggested, are determined by the original orientation of the sporophylls in the sediment prior to compression; either upright, inverted, or lateral. The species has an alated pedicel, and the evolutionary significance of this is discussed.

• Read more about A species of compressed lycopod sporophyll from the upper Coal Measures of Somerset

Operculina sindensis L. M. Davies 1927 is made the type of a new genus Sindulites (Nummulitidae).

• Read more about Sindulites, a new genus of the Nummulitidae (Foraminiferida)

Conocoryphe? bucephala Belt, 1868, from the Upper Ffestiniog and Lower Dolgelly Beds of Wales and possibly England, is re-illustrated; the pygidium is described for the first time; the species is transferred from the Olenid genus Beltella to which it was referred by Lake (1919) to Parabolinoides Frederickson, a genu: widely known in the approximately contemporaneous Conaspis Zone in the U.S.A.Sphaerophthalmus major Lake, 1913, though regarded by Henningsmoen (1957) as of questionable validity is distinguishable from other species of Sphaerophthalmus; S.

• Read more about Revision of two Upper Cambrian trilobites

Two species of the genus Clavatipollenites Couper are described. One is a redescription of the type species, Clavatipollenites hughesii, from the Upper Barremian part of the Wealden Series. The other, Clavatipollenites rotundus, is a new species from the Middle Albian Lower Gault. Three species of tricolpate angio-spermous grains are described. Only one of these, Tricolpites albiensis, from the Upper Albian, occurs in sufficient quantity to be formally named as a new species. These forms constitute the earliest record of recognizable angiosperm grains from England.

• Read more about Probable angiosperm pollen from British Barremian to Albian strata

Dendrocrinus cambriensis is re-described from new material and referred to Ramseyocrinus gen. nov., and placed in the family Eustenocrinidae.

• Read more about On 'Dendrocrinus' cambriensis Hicks, the earliest known crinoid

The partial skeleton of a small ichthyosaur associated with the gastric mass is described from the Lower Lias of Lyme Regis. The gastric mass was oval in shape and composed of minute dibranchiate cephalopod booklets in random orientation. Four distinct types of booklet are recognized in these gastric contents.Examination of published records and museum specimens suggests that gastric contents composed of cephalopod remains are more commonly preserved than those of fish remains.

• Read more about The gastric contents of an ichthyosaur from the Lower Lias of Lyme Regis, Dorset