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The fauna of false fairy wasps (Proctotrupomorpha: Bipetiolarida: Mymarommatoidea) occurring in Early Cretaceous (Albian) amber from north and north-eastern Spain (Moraza, San Just, and El Soplao outcrops) is described. In total, 12 specimens have been recovered and four species recognized, all new: Alavaromma orchamum gen. nov. and sp. nov. (Alavarommatidae fam. nov.), Archaeromma hispanicum sp. nov. (Mymarommatidae), Galloromma alavaensis sp. nov., and G.turolensis sp. nov. (Gallorommatidae).

• Read more about False fairy wasps in Early Cretaceous amber from Spain (Hymenoptera: Mymarommatoidea)

Twenty-five gastropod taxa are reported from the Early Jurassic (Hettangian to Toarcian) of England. Of these, 14 are identified to species level, and the remaining 11 are treated in open nomenclature. One genus (Lensataphrus) and six species are introduced as new. The new species are Lensataphrus tatei, Lensataphrus tenuis, Tricarilda toddi, Cylindrobullina dorsetensis, Cylindrobullina ventricosa and Consobrinella greeni.

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Callistoe vincei Babot et al., 2002 is a Paleogene borhyaenoid known from exceptionally complete postcranial elements, which provides rare information about the anatomy and evolutionary history of metatherian predators during the South American Cenozoic. The axial skeleton of Callistoe is characterized by the peculiar transverse processes of the cervical vertebrae emphasizing lateral instead of sagittal traction. There is no clavicle and eighteen thoracolumbar vertebrae, of which only five are lumbars.

• Read more about Postcranial morphology, functional adaptations and palaeobiology of Callistoe vincei, a predaceous metatherian from the Eocene of Salta, north-western Argentina

The fossil record of the Canidae in North-western Africa begins near the Miocene–Pliocene boundary with a form close to Nyctereutes, a genus best known in the late Pliocene of Ahl al Oughlam. This site yields two other canids. Vulpes hassani sp. nov. is a small fox, probably ancestral to the modern V. rueppelli, recorded from the Middle Pleistocene onwards. Lupulella paralius sp. nov. is a primitive jackal that probably belongs to the clade of modern African jackals. In the middle Pleistocene, the most common canid is Lupulella mohibi sp.

• Read more about A revision of the fossil Canidae (Mammalia) of north-western Africa

The chondrocranium of the enigmatic Middle Triassic shark Acronemus tuberculatus is investigated using computerized tomography scanning and 3-D digital reconstitution techniques. The braincase reveals some autapomorphies, plus other features that suggest a phylogenetic relationship to both hybodontiform and neoselachian elasmobranchs, including evidence of features implicated in low-frequency semi-directional phonoreception.

• Read more about The braincase of the Middle Triassic shark Acronemus tuberculatus (Bassani, 1886)

An unusual, bilaterally symmetrical black structure that embraces the protoconch and the phragmocone and is overlain by a rostrum has been studied in the Santonian–early Campanian (Late Cretaceous) belemnite genus Gonioteuthis from Braunschweig, north-west Germany. The structure is here named the capsule. Energy dispersed spectrometry analyses of the capsule show a co-occurrence of sulphur with zinc, barium, iron, lead and titanium, suggesting their chemical association. The capsule was originally made of organic material that was diagenetically transformed into sulphur-containing matter.

• Read more about The capsule: an organic skeletal structure in the Late Cretaceous belemnite Gonioteuthis from north-west Germany

Several new taxa of snakeflies (Raphidioptera) are described from the Lower Cretaceous deposits of the Wealden, UK (Barremian), Montsec, Spain (Barremian) and the Crato Formation, Brazil (Aptian). Mesoraphidia ednae sp. nov. and M. hilli sp. nov. are described from the Wealden; Nanoraphidia lithographica sp. nov. and Iberoraphidia dividua gen. et sp. nov. are described from Montsec, and Baissoptera lisae sp. nov. is described from the Crato Formation. The geographical range of Nanoraphidia has potentially been extended.

• Read more about New snakeflies (Insecta: Raphidioptera) from the Lower Cretaceous of the UK, Spain and Brazil

A new species of penicillid watering pot shell, Kendrickiana coquinacola sp. nov., is described from the middle Miocene (Balcombian) Bryant Creek Formation of the Murray Basin, South Australia. The new species differs from the extant K. veitchi in its smaller size, much shorter posterior tube, fewer tubules in the anterior watering pot structure, absence of the pedal slit, discontinuous dorsolateral bands of pitted muscle scars on the internal surface of the anterior bulb and habit of cementing itself to the shells in its surrounding environment. The fossil record of Kendrickiana is reviewed.

• Read more about A new species of watering pot shell (Bivalvia: Anomalodesmata: Clavagelloidea) from the Miocene of the Murray Basin, South Australia

Cirripede remains (Thoracica, Verrucomorpha), found associated with the mosasaur Prognathodon waiparaensis Welles and Gregg, 1971 in glauconitic sands of the Late Cretaceous Conway Formation exposed along the Waipara River bank (mid-Canterbury, New Zealand), are identified as a new species, Verruca sauria sp. nov. On the basis of taphonomy, it is deduced that these verrucids grew on a postmortem accumulation of mosasaur bones under very quiescent conditions. The current amphitropical distribution of the earliest known verrucids, i.e. V. sauria sp. nov., V. prisca Bosquet, 1854, V.

• Read more about Taphonomy and systematics of a new Late Cretaceous verrucid barnacle (Cirripedia, Thoracica) from Canterbury, New Zealand

The recent description of an anterior caudal vertebra purportedly belonging to a diplodocid sauropod from the Early Cretaceous of China has the potential to drastically alter our interpretation of the evolution and timing of geographical dispersal of a major dinosaur lineage. However, comparison with a wider taxonomic sample points more strongly towards titanosauriform affinities for this specimen, which is in keeping with the affinities of all other sauropods known from the Cretaceous of Asia.

• Read more about Cretaceous diplodocids in Asia? Re-evaluating the phylogenetic affinities of a fragmentary specimen