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A decapod crustacean faunule from the lower Miocene (upper Burdigalian, ‘Karpatian’) of the Slovakian part of the Vienna Basin comprise five new species: Callianopsis marianae (Ctenochelidae), Crosniera schweitzerae (Thomassiniidae), Agononida cerovensis and Munidopsis lieskovensis (both Galatheidae) plus Mursia harnicari (Calappidae). The new species of Callianopsis is the first undoubted member of the genus to be recorded from Europe; it is based on sexually dimorphic major and minor chelae as well as on portions of carapace and abdomen. Crosniera schweitzerae sp. nov.

• Read more about An early Miocene deep-water decapod crustacean faunule from the Vienna Basin (Western Carpathians, Slovakia)

Compared with crocodylomorph body fossils, the record of fossil crocodiloid eggs is scarce and poorly understood, a gap partially attributed to their typically thin eggshell, which is not conducive to preservation. A remarkable new association of well-preserved eggs and eggshells from the Adamantina Formation (Bauru Group, Upper Cretaceous) is described and compared to other known materials, while the significance of their unique oological features is discussed. These eggs constitute a new ootaxon, Bauruoolithus fragilis oogen. et oosp.

• Read more about Crocodylomorph eggs and eggshells from the Adamantina Formation (Bauru Group), Upper Cretaceous of Brazil

The two odontocete taxa Squalodon grateloupii and Patriocetus ehrlichii, both the type species of their respective genera, have been at the centre of a great deal of taxonomic confusion. Originally regarded to be conspecific, these two taxa have been the subject of a bewildering taxonomic debate lasting for more than a century, which recently led to the suggestion to abandon these widely used names and replace S. grateloupii with the similar, yet independently and later proposed name S. gratelupi as the type species of Squalodon.

• Read more about Lost in translation - a history of systematic confusion and comments on the type species of Squalodon and Patriocetus (Cetacea, Odontoceti)

Recent investigations into Permian aged floras from China have highlighted the widespread occurrence of callistophytalean pteridosperms that challenge previous understanding of their spatial and temporal distribution and diversity. In China, the group spans the Permian period and constitutes a distinctive but rare component in many peat-forming environments.

• Read more about Callistophytalean pteridosperms from Permian aged floras of China

Large collections of Eccentrotheca helenia sp. nov. from the lower Cambrian Wilkawillina and Ajax limestones in the Arrowie Basin, South Australia, contain abundant low, cap-shaped and high, laterally compressed isolated sclerites in addition to partially articulated tubular specimens. The scleritome of Eccentrotheca helenia sp. nov. is fully described for the first time and shown to be formed by ontogenetic fusion of sclerites into successively stacked sclerite rings, forming a larger, tubular structure.

• Read more about Scleritome construction, biofacies, biostratigraphy and systematics of the tommotiid Eccentrotheca helenia sp. nov. from the Early Cambrian of South Australia

The described fauna of well-preserved Llandovery (Telychian) echinoderms from the North Esk Inlier, including six crinoids, one echinoid and seven starfish species, is mainly allochthonous. Most of these taxa are known only from starfish beds, channel fill deposits probably representing submarine mass flows and preserving a biota probably derived from elsewhere, presumably shallower water. Only one crinoid species, Pisocrinus cf.

• Read more about Aspects of crinoid palaeontology of the North Esk Inlier, Scotland (Silurian, Llandovery, Telychian)

Brachiopods are marine Lophotrochozoa whose soft parts are enclosed in a bivalved shell. Although brachiopods are represented by a rich record from the Early Cambrian to the present, the origin of their bivalved body plan remains controversial. The Early Cambrian organophosphatic tommotiids Micrina and Paterimitra from Australia have been proposed as stem brachiopods. Here, we describe their earliest ontogeny, indicating that tommotiids possessed bivalved planktotrophic larvae.

• Read more about First record of a bivalved larval shell in Early Cambrian tommotiids and its phylogenetic significance

Two new genera and species of ophiuroid, Inexpectacantha acrobatica new gen. et sp. and Eirenura papillata new gen et sp., are described on the basis of 39 articulated specimens and several hundreds of arm fragments and isolated skeletal parts. The material was extracted from a lumachellic bed in a late early Pliensbachian succession of argillites at Sedan, French Ardennes. The material is unusually well preserved with even finest structures of the skeleton discernible.

• Read more about Exceptionally well-preserved brittle stars from the Pliensbachian (Early Jurassic) of the French Ardennes

Circumorbital dermal bones are found in most groups of early vertebrates that have dermal bony plates on the head. Taxonomic distribution of dermal sclerotic plates on the eye itself is less clear, partly because the eyeball is rarely preserved and sometimes because sclerotic bones have been misinterpreted as circumorbital bones. Based on the examination of climatiid Climatius plus mesacanthid, cheiracanthid and acanthodid acanthodiform acanthodians, we conclude that most, if not all, acanthodiforms and climatiids had sclerotic rings.

• Read more about Sclerotic plates or circumorbital bones in early jawed fishes?

The nothrotheriine sloth from riverbank deposits of the Río Acre region of Peru in western Amazonia was originally assigned to Nothropus priscusBurmeister, 1882. Although relatively complete, with essentially the pes unknown, its description was accompanied only by limited information on its cranial remains. The remains of this sloth, actually of late Miocene age, were extensively prepared.

• Read more about A new genus and species of nothrotheriid sloth (Xenarthra, Tardigrada, Nothrotheriidae) from the Late Miocene (Huayquerian) of Peru