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Several sporocarps of a slime mould are preserved on a plant fragment in a piece of Baltic amber (Tertiary, Eocene). The fossil is assigned to the extant genus Protophysarum (Myxomycota sensu stricto, Physarales) and described as P. balticum sp. nov. It is the third record of fossil sporocarps of a slime mould and the second record of the subclass Myxogasteromycetidae. All three records of fossil sporocarps are inclusions in Baltic amber. The find provides new insights regarding the occurrence and phylogeny of myxomycetes in the Palaeogene.

• Read more about An archaic slime mould in Baltic amber

A new species of primitive bandicoot, Yarala kida sp. nov., is described from Kangaroo Well, a site in the Northern Territory of Australia. This species is possibly ancestral to Yarala burchfieldi, the type species of the Yaraloidea, and supports a late Oligocene age for the Kangaroo Well Local Fauna. The yaraloid bandicoots are likely to become important biochronological tools for Australian faunas of late Oligocene to early Miocene age, as they are widespread and diverse.

• Read more about A new species of bandicoot from the Oligocene of northern Australia and implications of bandicoots for correlating Australian Tertiary mammal faunas

A new Lower Devonian sea spider (Arthropoda: Pycnogonida) from the Hunsruck Slate, Germany, is described as Flagellopantopus blocki gen. et sp. nov. This is only the sixth fossil pycnogonid species to be described. Its most remarkable and unique aspect is the long, flagelliform telson. Although our fossil apparently lacks chelifores (an apomorphy), the retained telson and the segmented trunk end behind the last pair of legs resolve F. blocki to a fairly basal position in the pycnogonid stem lineage.

• Read more about A new sea spider (Arthropoda: Pycnogonida) with a flagelliform telson from the Lower Devonian Hunsrück Slate, Germany

This papers deals with the description of the ferns found in the recently discovered Anisian locality of Kuhwiesenkopf (Monte Pra della Vacca). A revision of the genera and species involved has been undertaken where necessary. Because of transitional material found at Kuhwiesenkopf, the number of Neuropteridium species found in the European Middle Triassic floras is reduced from five to three: N. voltzii (Brongniart) Schimper, N. elegans (Brongniart) Schimper and N. grandifolium (Schimper et Mougeot) Compter.

• Read more about Middle Triassic (Anisian) ferns from Kühwiesenkopf (Monte Prá della Vacca), Dolomites, northern Italy

A portion of pterosaur skull from the Romualdo Member of the Santana Formation (?Albian-?Turonian, Cretaceous) of north-east Brazil provides new data on the morphology and ontogeny of azhdarchoid pterosaur cranial crests. The specimen consists of parts of the cranial bones posterodorsal to the nasoantorbital fenestra, including partial nasals, lacrimals, frontals and possibly the parietals. A posterodorsally directed premaxillary crest with a concave posterior border is located dorsal to the posterior border of the nasoantorbital fenestra.

• Read more about Cranial crest development in the azhdarchoid pterosaur Tupuxuara, with a review of the genus and tapejarid monophyly

Well-preserved cranial remains of a small sphenodontian lepidosaur from the Upper Triassic Caturrita Formation of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, are the first record of the genus Clevosaurus Swinton, 1939 from South America. They represent a new species, Clevosaurus brasiliensis, which is distinguished by a very short antorbital region of the skull (corresponding to about 20 per cent of skull length) and the presence of teeth in addition to two longitudinal rows on the pterygoid. C. brasiliensis most closely resembles C. bairdi from the Lower Jurassic of Nova Scotia (Canada) and C.

• Read more about A new species of Clevosaurus (Lepidosauria: Rhynchocephalia) from the Upper Triassic of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Three new species, attributed to the extinct family Xyelydidae of the Pamphilioidea (Order Vespida = Hymenoptera), are described from the Middle Jurassic of Daohugou, Inner Mongolia, China: Ferganolyda scylla sp. nov., F. charybdis sp. nov. and F. chungkuei sp. nov. The new material demonstrates that the genus Ferganolyda, which was previously considered to be a morphologically ordinary group of web-spinning sawflies, is in fact a highly unusual insect taxon.

• Read more about Bizarre fossil insects: web-spinning sawflies of the genus Ferganolyda (Vespida, Pamphilioidea) from the Middle Jurassic of Daohugou, Inner Mongolia, China

The Neotropical fossil amber Hersiliidae are revised. Prototama Petrunkevitch is a senior synonym of both Priscotama Petrunkevitch and Neotama Baehr and Baehr. Fictotama Petrunkevitch and Perturbator Petrunkevitch are removed from synonymy and are considered nomina dubia because the fossils are poorly preserved. The following new combinations are established for the fossil fauna: Prototama antiqua (Petrunkevitch), P. maior (Wunderlich), P. media (Wunderlich), and P. minor (Wunderlich), and for the extant fauna: P. cunhabebe (Rheims and Brescovit), P. forcipata (F. O. P.-Cambridge), P.

• Read more about Tertiary Neotropical Hersiliidae (Arthropoda, Araneae) with new combinations for the extant fauna and comments on historical biogeography of the family

Bulk screening of Early Cretaceous (Barremian) strata of the Wessex Formation, exposed in sections on the south-west and south-east coasts of the Isle of Wight, southern England, has resulted in the recovery of mammal remains, the first to be obtained from Wealden Group strata since the early 1970s. The fauna comprises at least six taxa represented by isolated teeth and in addition, in the case of an as yet undescribed spalacotheriid, a partial dentary.

• Read more about A gobiconodontid (Mammalia, Eutriconodonta) from the Early Cretaceous (Barremian) Wessex Formation of the Isle of Wight, southern Britain

A taxonomic revision of mackerel-like fishes (Scombridae, Scombroidei, Perciformes) from the Monte Bolca localities in Italy is presented as part of continuing research into phylogenetic relationships of fossil and Recent scombroids. Three new genera are proposed: +Godsilia, +Pseudauxides and +Thunnoscomberoides. In addition, species generally known as +Thynnus bolcensis, +Thynnus lanceolatus, +Scombrosarda propterygia, +Scomberomorus speciosus and +Scomberomorus tenuis are renamed +Thunnoscomberoides bolcensis comb. nov., +Godsilia lanceolata comb. nov., +Auxides propterygius comb. nov.

• Read more about A revision of scombrid fishes (Scombroidei, Perciformes) from the middle Eocene of Monte Bolca, Italy