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Astacidean and thalassinidean macrurans (Glyphea sp., ?Eryma sp. and Protaxius sp.) and a new longodromitid crab, Planoprosopon kashimaensis, are recorded from the Upper Jurassic (upper Kimmeridgian to lower Tithonian) of Fukushima Prefecture, northeast Japan. Material was collected from the Tatenosawa Sandstone Member of the Nakanosawa Formation, Somanakamura Group, from which abundant Tethyan-type marine invertebrates are known. Planoprosopon kashimaensis sp. nov. closely resembles P.

• Read more about Late Jurassic decapod crustaceans from northeast Japan

A new fossil microfungus, Kryphiomyces catenulatus gen. et sp. nov., occurs as an endobiotic mycelial thallus in a large spore of a glomeromycotan fungus from the Lower Devonian Rhynie chert. The thallus consists of branched (?pseudo-)septate hyphae with numerous catenulate swellings. Some hyphal tips produce spherical reproductive structures or propagules. Hyphal morphology in K. catenulatus is reminiscent of that in certain extant Hyphochytridiomycota, Chytridiomycota, and even Ascomycota, but specific diagnostic features that allow assignment of the fossil to modern groups are absent.

• Read more about An unusual microfungus in a fungal spore from the Lower Devonian Rhynie chert

The taxonomic status of the sauropodomorph dinosaurs from the Newark Supergroup of north-eastern USA is reviewed. The inclusion of the three articulated skeletons from Wolcott's Quarry, Manchester, Connecticut in a single species is supported. Despite claims to the contrary the Manchester skeletons can be referred to the species Anchisaurus polyzelus, which is based on a fragmentary specimen from Massachusetts. Two autapomorphies: dorsoventrally flattened ischial blades set at a low angle to each other and slender sacral ribs of the first sacral vertebra, link the holotype of A.

• Read more about A revision of the problematic sauropodomorph dinosaurs from Manchester, Connecticut and the status of Anchisaurus Marsh

The complex history of description of the anomalocaridids has partly been caused by the fragmentary nature of these fossils. Frontal appendages and mouth parts are more readily preserved than whole-body assemblages, so the earliest work on these animals examined these structures in isolation. After several decades of research, these disarticulated elements were assembled together to reconstruct the anomalocaridid body plan, and a total of three Burgess Shale genera, Anomalocaris, Laggania and Hurdia, were described in full.

• Read more about New anomalocaridid appendages from the Burgess Shale, Canada

We present the first record of the cardiid genus Monodacna from the Pliocene of Anatolia, Turkey. Monodacna imrei sp. nov. was found in the Pliocene Killik Formation from the western margin of the Baklan Basin, in very marginal brackish to freshwater lacustrine deposits. The new record extends the stratigraphic range of the modern Ponto-Caspian genus back into the Pliocene and adds to earlier evidence that modern Ponto-Caspian taxa originated in the Pliocene of south-western Turkey.

• Read more about A new cardiid bivalve from the Pliocene Baklan Basin (Turkey) and the origin of modern Ponto-Caspian taxa

We describe bones from the Late Cretaceous of Alberta – including bones of large dinosaurs, a femur from the aquatic reptile Champsosaurus, and a dentary from the marsupial Eodelphis– that bear tooth marks made by animals with opposing pairs of teeth. Of the animals known from the Late Cretaceous of North America, only mammals are capable of making such tooth marks. In particular, multituberculates, which have paired upper and lower incisors, are the most likely candidates for the makers of these traces. The traces described here represent the oldest known mammalian tooth marks.

• Read more about Mammalian tooth marks on the bones of dinosaurs and other Late Cretaceous vertebrates

Cambrian trilobites mainly lived on the sea floor, and up till now few, if any, unequivocally planktonic trilobites have been reported from earlier than the Ordovician. The late Cambrian (Furongian) to late Ordovician olenids are a distinctive group of benthic (sea-floor dwelling) or nekto-benthic trilobites. Here we show, however, that one recently described, miniaturized and very spiny olenid species, Ctenopyge ceciliae must have been planktonic (passively drifting or feebly swimming in the upper waters of the sea).

• Read more about A tiny eye indicating a planktonic trilobite

The supposed vestige of a cephalopod gladius from Turonian platy limestones at Vallecillo, north-east Mexico, named Palaeoctopus pelagicus by Fuchs et al. in 2008, is reinterpreted and shown to be a gular plate of a coelacanth fish, possibly of the genus Megacoelacanthus. In addition to the gular plate, two extrascapulars and fin rays of all fins are preserved on one slab and its counterpart. This is the first record of a coelacanth from these lower Turonian strata at Vallecillo, which are rich in fish.

• Read more about Palaeoctopus pelagicus from the Turonian of Mexico reinterpreted as a coelacanth (Sarcopterygian) gular plate

Here, we describe a new species of Azendohsaurus from the Middle–Late Triassic of Madagascar, extending the geographical range of a taxon known otherwise only by a single species from Morocco. Although Azendohsaurus has consistently been regarded as an early dinosaur (based on various advanced dental and gnathic features resembling those characterizing certain dinosaur subgroups), the relatively complete skeletal material, now available from Madagascar, argues strongly against its dinosaurian affinities.

• Read more about A new species of Azendohsaurus (Diapsida: Archosauromorpha) from the Triassic Isalo Group of southwestern Madagascar: cranium and mandible

A large arthropod from the Lower Old Red Sandstone of Tredomen Quarry, near Brecon, Powys, southeast Wales is described as Bennettarthra annwnensis gen. et sp. nov. The animal is incomplete, preserved to a length of 30 cm, and displays a trunk of at least ten, non-diplopodous segments.

• Read more about A large arthropod from the Lower Old Red Sandstone (Early Devonian) of Tredomen Quarry, south Wales