A Portland Formation Lower Jurassic (Hettangian) dinosaur tracksite in Granby, Massachusetts, USA, has yielded a diverse dinosaur footprint assemblage. The tracksite preserves 140 theropod dinosaur footprints, ranging in length from 15 to 35 cm; the ichnofauna includes Anchisauripus, Eubrontes, Grallator and other extremely small theropod dinosaur footprints. The small tracks are compared with similar ichnites from the Lower Jurassic of western North America and central Poland. The small theropod footprints, which are described in detail, show some resemblance to the poorly known ichnogenus Stenonyx (Lull, 1904), which is considered an invalid ichnotaxon by many other workers. The footprints exhibit a distinct morphology of the metatarsophalangeal area, suggesting that these small ichnites are closely related to Kayentapus and Grallator. These small tracks are the first reported from the Hartford Basin of Granby, Massachusetts.

The skull and mandible of the Miocene hegetotheriine notoungulate Hegetotherium mirabile are described. Although conventional models of hegetothere biology propose that these animals filled a lagomorph-like ecological niche, study of the cranial and dental anatomy of Hegetotherium suggests that this extinct South American ungulate may have fed by breaking through wood in order to eat xylophagous grubs and other organisms. This mode of life is seen in two extant mammals, the monotypic Malagasy primate Daubentonia madagascariensis and diprotodont marsupials of the genus Dactylopsila. It has also been proposed as a feeding mechanism for two extinct groups of mammals: the “proteutherian” apatemyids from the Paleogene of Europe and North America, and the enigmatic marsupial Yalkaparidon from the early Miocene of Australia. Collectively, these living and extinct taxa have been proposed as mammalian woodpeckers. They are defined by a suite of morphological characteristics, including unusually developed and continually growing incisors, molars adapted to have a constantly sharp edge, exaggerated klinorhynchy, deep zygomatic arches and a shortened snout. Hegetotherium mirabile shares almost all characteristics common to the mammalian woodpeckers, although it lacks several features that are likely to be adaptations for an arboreal, nocturnal lifestyle. This suggests that although the feeding techniques of this species were similar to those of the mammalian woodpeckers, H. mirabile occupied a diurnal, cursorial niche, feeding on grubs and insects within fallen trees and logs.

The identification and taxonomy of papillated leeches of the genus Placobdella have been extremely problematic, confounded by vague descriptions, redescriptions of species without reference to type material or type locality, and more than a century of numerous dubious taxonomic acts. Leeches collected on August 5 and 6, 2011, from North Dakota, USA, the type locality of Clepsine ornata rugosa Verrill, 1874, were determined to be conspecific with Placobdella rugosa (Verrill, 1874) Moore, 1901 on the basis of comparison to the syntype series. The acquisition of these specimens from the type locality facilitated resurrection and redescription of P. rugosa. Placobdella rugosa is similar to P. ali but differs in salivary gland morphology and ventral pigmentation. Molecular comparison of CO-I revealed differences of 16.1% between P. rugosa and P. ali.

We studied the diet of Chalcides ocellatus (Forskål, 1775) from southern Egypt using stomach contents from a large series of specimens collected during the Yale University Prehistoric Expedition to Nubia. Only 2.5% of specimens contained identifiable prey items. Insect larvae, coleopterans and orthopterans were the most important prey items. The first two of these prey categories are typically among the most important in the diet of this species in other areas of its broad distribution. Males and females differed somewhat in their diets and had a dietary overlap of 0.607. Males had relatively larger head widths than females, but this is likely to be related to sexual selection rather than dietary segregation.

Cycliophorans represent a phylum of small multicellular animals previously recorded only from the mouthparts of three species of lobsters in the family Nephropidae. In a survey of museum material representing a broad sampling of crustacean taxa, cycliophorans were found on several nephropid specimens but on specimens of no other crustacean species. This suggests that cycliophoran host range is indeed limited.