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A dispersed miospore assemblage comprising 32 genera and 49 species is described from a shale core sample. Two miospore genera, Iraqispora and Mosulipollenites, and 27 species are new. The material is from Atshan well in the Chia Zairi formation near Mosul in northern Iraq. The miospore flora described here is compared with comparable spore floras of Permian age. On the basis of this study, it is suggested that this spore composition corresponds to an Upper Permian age.

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Lower Devonian rocks in British Columbia have yielded fragmentary remains of a number of ostracoderms, amongst which is a new species of Traquairaspis. The Knoydart Formation of Nova Scotia has provided new material of Traquairaspis symondsi (Lank.), a species hitherto recorded in Britain only. The stratigraphical and palaeogeographical implications of these new fossils are discussed.

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The pentameracean family Pentameridae is characterized by long, rod-like or blade-like brachial processes, buttressed at their posterior end by high plates extending forward far enough to enclose the brachial muscle field. Variations in the internal structure of the brachial valve, combined with changes in external form of the shell, permit the family to be divided into three subfamilies: Pentamerinae, Gypidulinae, and Clorindinae.

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Nanopora, a new genus of dasycladacean algae, is found abundantly in the Yoredale limestones at Hardrow Scar, Yorkshire, and in the uppermost D1 of the Avon Gorge. Specimens from Kazakhstan have previously been described by Maslov (as Anthracoporella).

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Premnoxylon iowense Pierce and Hall is recombined as Amyelon iowense. These cordaitean roots resemble the stilt roots of modern mangroves. They are usually siphonostelic and possess aerenchyma composed of phloem and phelloderm. Increase in circumference of a deep-seated periderm distended the outer part of the phloem. Aerenchymatous phelloderm was laid down and cortex was sloughed; leaving periderm the outermost tissue. Lenticels flank clusters of lateral rootlets.

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The commissures and valve-edges of many fossil brachiopods are deflected into a zigzag form. During ontogeny, this often produced radial ribs (costae) on the shell. Schmidt's hypothesis, that zigzag valve-edges acted as protective devices by transforming the apertures into narrow zigzag slits, is extended by determining the paradigm for this function. The zigzag deflexions of fossil brachiopods approximate, often very closely, to this paradigm; they are therefore interpreted as protective devices.

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The occurrence of a late Mississippian cephalopod, the genus Delepinoceras, is reported from Arkansas and Oklahoma. This fossil, not previously described from the Western Hemisphere, indicates precise correlation of the upper Chester Series and the late lower Namurian of Eurasia and Africa.

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The Nagri beds at Haritalyangar contain a rich mammalian fauna. The present paper deals primarily with the description of the primate fossils collected by the author in 1954 and 1962. A maxillary fragment consisting of three molars is assigned to Sivapithecus sivalensis. In addition, a few isolated upper and lower molars, an upper canine, and an upper premolar, belonging to different genera of anthropoid apes, have been briefly outlined.

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• Read more about Serial sectioning of steinkerns

The morphology of the genus Metriophyllum has been investigated with the aid of serial sections and the skeletal structure of the coral is described in detail. A review of all recorded species of Metriophyllum is made and a revised description is given of M. bouchardi and M. gracile; in addition a new species is described from the Ilfracombe Beds (Middle/Upper Devonian) of north Devon.

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