The scientific name Sorex niger Ord, 1815 (Mammalia, Soricidae) was originally applied to a North American species that George Ord called the “Black Shrew.” The origin of the name “Black Shrew,” however, was obscure, and Samuel Rhoads subsequently wrote that the species represented by this name could not be determined. The names Sorex niger Ord and Black Shrew have since been mostly forgotten. Two of Ord's contemporaries, however, noted that Ord's use of these names probably alluded to Benjamin Smith Barton's Black Shrew, whose discovery near Philadelphia was announced by Barton in 1806. Examination of two unpublished illustrations of the Black Shrew made by Barton indicates that the animal depicted is Blarina brevicauda (Say, 1822). Had the connection between Ord's and Barton's names been made more clearly, one of the most common mammals in eastern North America would bear a different scientific name today. This connection also would have affected the validity of Sorex niger Horsfield, 1851. While Sorex niger Ord remains a nomen nudum, the animal it referenced can now be identified.

The original description of Crotalus scutulatus (Chordata: Reptilia: Squamata: Viperidae) was published in 1861 by Robert Kennicott, who did not identify a type specimen or a type locality. We review the history of specimens purported to be the type(s) and various designations of type locality. We provide evidence that ANSP 7069 (formerly one of two specimens of USNM 5027) is the holotype and that the appropriate type locality is Fort Buchanan, near present-day Sonoita, in Santa Cruz County, Arizona.

Fossils of woodpeckers (Picidae) occur on Bermuda in late Pleistocene and Holocene deposits. Most of these are from a flicker (Colaptes), presumably derived from the North American Colaptes auratus that was smaller than all mainland forms of that species. The Bermuda flicker was larger than C. a. gundlachi of Grand Cayman and is named as a new species Colaptes oceanicus, that probably persisted into the colonial period (1600s). Three fossils are referred to the migratory Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius), which winters in small numbers on Bermuda. One distal end of a tarsometatarsus of a woodpecker appears to differ from either of the previous species, but its identity was not further determined. Colaptes oceanicus would probably have excavated nest holes in the resident palm trees (Sabal bermudana) and in rotten limbs and stumps of hardwoods. These excavations would have been crucial for the evolution of the small owl Aegolius gradyi and probably provided shelter for other Bermuda organisms as well.

Paciforchestia gageoensis new species, a new species of beach-hopper, was collected from gravel beaches in South Korea. This new species can be easily distinguished from other congeners by the morphology of its gills, coxal plate 5, pereopodal dactylus, pleopods, and uropods. A description of the morphological characteristics for P. gageoensis and a comparison of it and related species are provided in the text.

Ilyocypris Brady & Norman, 1889 is a globally distributed freshwater ostracod genus, with 27 Recent species described so far. In the present paper we describe I. hanguk, new species, collected from a stream in South Korea. This species is very closely related to I. dentifera Sars, 1903 and I. angulata Sars, 1903, both originally described from China and also reported from Korea and Japan. Due to their limited descriptions, the two species were often synonymized in the past, and I. angulata was considered a parthenogenetic form of I. dentifera. In order to re-examine morphological characteristics of I. dentifera and I. angulata, as well as to compare them with the new Korean species, we have studied the type material deposited in the Zoological Museum in Oslo. This revealed that I. dentifera Sars, 1903 and I. angulata Sars, 1903 are valid species, with clear morphological differences. We have also discovered males of I. angulata in the type series. In addition, another form, which we identify as I. cf. angulata, is found within the type series of both species. Ilyocypris cf. angulata has an intermediate carapace form between I. angulata and I. dentifera. Dissection of its soft parts, however, indicates unambiguous difference from I. dentifera, and a high similarity with I. angulata. It was left in the open nomenclature because many species of the genus Ilyocypris are still very poorly known and characters of the hemipenis that may define this form as a clear species are missing from many species descriptions. Ilyocypris hanguk can be easily distinguished from these two species by the morphology of the hemipenis, and other details of the soft parts. Although a widely distributed species, Ilyocypris bradyi Sars, 1890, is recorded from South Korea for the first time. This is also the first record of the bisexual population, and we describe males in detail. In the present paper we also provide a cladistic analysis of the genus Ilyocypris based on 20 morphological characters and 21 species.

Fossils of a single pteropod species were found in an isolated carbonate deposit within middle Eocene deep-water strata of the Humptulips Formation in western Washington State, U.S.A. The carbonate formed at a cold seep where fluids containing high concentrations of hydrocarbons, principally methane, emanated from the seafloor. Anaerobic oxidation of the methane by prokaryotes caused localized and rapid precipitation of calcium carbonate that encased biogenic detritus including wood fragments and mollusk shells; in this case even the minute and delicate aragonitic shells of the pteropod Heliconoides nitens (Lea, 1833), the first certain record of this taxon for the Pacific Basin. The presence of H. nitens in the Humptulips Formation allows us to recalibrate the age of the formation as late Lutetian or early Bartonian, up to 8 million years younger than previously thought. Heliconoides nitens has been found in temporally equivalent strata elsewhere in the world, and this is another example of some fossil pteropods having utility for long distance biostratigraphic correlations. Pteropod shells rapidly dissolve in deep-water environments, thus cold seep deposits may be a source of pteropod fossils in deep-water strata where they otherwise would not occur.

Cancellaria corrosa Reeve, 1856, a species described from an unknown locality and believed by early authors to inhabit “China Seas,” has been found to be a component of the sublittoral fauna of western Central America. A more detailed description of the shell and radula of this species is provided. As specimens have been misidentified in collections as C. decussata Sowerby I, 1832 or C. gemmulata Sowerby I, 1832, features useful to distinguish these species are provided. Examination of the fossil literature for the region indicates that the lineage giving rise to C. corrosa has been present since at least the middle Miocene.