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Marine shelf diversity patterns correlate with macroecological features of basic importance that may play causal roles in macroevolution. We have investigated the global diversity pattern of living Bivalvia, which is dominated by the latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG), maintained by high tropical origination rates. Generic-level lineages expand poleward, chiefly through speciation, so that species richness within provinces and globally is positively correlated with generic geographical ranges.

• Read more about Origins of marine patterns of biodiversity: some correlates and applications

• Read more about Macroecology in deep-time

Ordovician strophomenoidean and plectambonitoidean brachiopods are reviewed and partially redescribed from the Caradoc (Sandbian to Early Katian) age rocks of Wales and the Welsh Borderland of England, then forming part of the Avalonia Terrane. There are 51 nominal species available, of which 12 are synonymised here and many transferred to different genera.

• Read more about Caradoc strophomenoid and plectambonitoid brachiopods from Wales and the Welsh Borderland

This article presents a detailed description and reconstruction of the palate of Chroniosaurus dongusensis, a chroniosuchid tetrapod from the Upper Permian of Russia, based on a new, chemically prepared specimen representing a juvenile animal with skull length of about 70 mm. It provides new information on this poorly known portion of the skull. The vomer, palatine and ectopterygoid are elongate bones bearing tusks on their lateral margins: six on the vomer, at least nine on the palatine and at least seven on the ectopterygoid.

• Read more about The anatomy of palate of Chroniosaurus dongusensis (Chroniosuchia, Chroniosuchidae) from the Upper Permian of Russia

Eleven randomly chosen outcrops in the Miocene Pakhna Formation of Cyprus were sampled for holoplanktonic Mollusca. Four species of Heteropoda were found, and 24 of Pteropoda, a substantial increase from the two species recorded until now from the Miocene of Cyprus. One pteropod species, Peracle charlotteae sp. nov. (Gastropoda, Pseudothecosomata), is introduced.

• Read more about Holoplanktonic Gastropoda (Mollusca) from the Miocene of Cyprus: systematics and biostratigraphy

Eight skulls of beaked whales (Cetacea, Odontoceti, Ziphiidae), in six cases associated with elements of the mandible, were collected from a limited area (about 1.5 km2) and roughly from the same stratigraphic horizon at Cerro Colorado, 35 km south-south-west of the city of Ica (Peru), where the late Middle Miocene basal strata of the Pisco Formation crop out. They represent the highest concentration reported of fossil Ziphiidae.

• Read more about High concentration of long-snouted beaked whales (genus Messapicetus) from the Miocene of Peru

A large collection of lizard vertebrae from northern Africa represents the oldest unambiguous occurrence of the genus Varanus. The fossils come from late Eocene and early Oligocene freshwater deposits of the Fayum, Egypt, an area noted for many significant primate finds. The recovery and identification of this material indicate that the genus Varanus arose in Africa, before dispersing to Australia and Asia. This dispersal occurred prior to the early to mid-Miocene, by which time fossil Varanus are known from Australia and Eurasia.

• Read more about Oldest known Varanus (Squamata: Varanidae) from the Upper Eocene and Lower Oligocene of Egypt: support for an African origin of the genus

The aglaspidid arthropod, Australaglaspis stonyensis gen. et sp. nov., is described from the Idamean (Upper Cambrian) of Stony Point, Montagu, north-western Tasmania. The dorsal exoskeleton comprises a semicircular cephalon with a well-defined marginal rim, acute genal angles, oval eyes, subtriangular glabella area and a subtrapezoidal hypostome. The trunk bears eleven somites with well-developed pleural spines that progressively curve backwards. Paired postventral plates cover the last trunk tergites and the base of the tailspine, which is long and characterized by a medial cleft.

• Read more about A new aglaspidid arthropod from the Upper Cambrian of Tasmania

The exquisitely preserved holotype of the pliosaur ‘Rhomaleosaurus’victor (SMNS 12478) is described from the Toarcian Posidonien-Schiefer (Upper Lias, Lower Jurassic) of Holzmaden (Baden-Württemberg), Germany. The specimen presents a novel combination of synapomorphies and unique morphometric proportions separating it from Rhomaleosaurus sensu stricto and warranting the erection of a new genus, Meyerasaurus gen. nov. Historically, the name ‘Thaumatosaurus’ has been interchangeable with Rhomaleosaurus and is frequently associated with SMNS 12478 in the literature.

• Read more about A new genus of pliosaur (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) from the Lower Jurassic of Holzmaden, Germany

We update the systematics and comparative anatomy of the genus Hispanomeryx Morales, Moyà-Solà and Soria, 1981 through the description of a new and abundant fossil material from the middle Miocene localities of Toril-3, Manchones-1 and Manchones-2, Zaragoza Province, Spain. Hispanomeryx was only known by dental remains, mainly mandibles and lower teeth, and very scarce postcranial material; the fossil sample studied here includes cranial, mandibular, dental and postcranial remains, and it allows us to describe in depth, for the first time, the anatomy of the genus.

• Read more about The genus Hispanomeryx (Mammalia, Ruminantia, Moschidae) and its bearing on musk deer phylogeny and systematics