A new ailuravine rodent, Meldimys musak sp. nov. (Mammalia: Rodentia, Ischyromyidae), is recorded from the lower Eocene lignites of western India. It is the oldest record of Rodentia from India. M. musak is more derived than the earliest Eocene ailuravine Euromys cardosoi from Portugal and more generalized than late early Eocene E. inexpectatus and Ailuravus michauxi from France. Its dental morphology closely corresponds to the middle early Eocene species M. louisi, which lived about 52 Ma in Western Europe. Meldimys was previously known only from Europe, and ailuravines were previously reported only from Europe and North America. Its occurrence in India allows the first direct correlation between the early Eocene land mammal horizons of Europe and India, and raises the possibility of a terrestrial faunal exchange between India and Eurasia close to the Palaeocene—Eocene transition.

We report the discovery of basal abelisaurid and carcharodontosaurid theropods from the mid Cretaceous (Aptian—Albian, ca. 112 Ma) Elrhaz Formation of the Niger Republic. The abelisaurid, Kryptops palaios gen. et sp. nov., is represented by a single individual preserving the maxilla, pelvic girdle, vertebrae and ribs. Several features, including a maxilla textured externally by impressed vascular grooves and a narrow antorbital fossa, clearly place Kryptops palaios within Abelisauridae as its oldest known member. The carcharodontosaurid, Eocarcharia dinops gen. et sp. nov., is represented by several cranial bones and isolated teeth. Phylogenetic analysis places it as a basal carcharodontosaurid, similar to Acrocanthosaurus and less derived than Carcharodontosaurus and Giganotosaurus. The discovery of these taxa suggests that large body size and many of the derived cranial features of abelisaurids and carcharodontosaurids had already evolved by the mid Cretaceous. The presence of a close relative of the North American genus Acrocanthosaurus on Africa suggests that carcharodontosaurids had already achieved a trans-Tethyan distribution by the mid Cretaceous.

Several hundred disarticulated dinosaur bones have been recovered from a large quarry at Wulaga (Heilongjiang Province, China), in the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Yuliangze Formation. The Wulaga quarry can be regarded as a monodominant bonebed: more than 80% of the bones belong to a new lambeosaurine hadrosaurid, Sahaliyania elunchunorum gen. et sp. nov. This taxon is characterised by long and slender paroccipital processes, a prominent lateral depression on the dorsal surface of the frontal, a quadratojugal notch that is displaced ventrally on the quadrate, and a prepubic blade that is asymmetrically expanded, with an important emphasis to the dorsal side. Phylogenetic analysis shows that Sahaliyania is a derived lambeosaurine that forms a monophyletic group with the corythosaur and parasauroloph clades. Nevertheless, the exact position of Sahaliyania within this clade cannot be resolved on the basis of the available material. Besides Sahaliyania, other isolated bones display a typical hadrosaurine morphology and are referred to Wulagasaurus dongi gen. et sp. nov., a new taxon characterised by the maxilla pierced by a single foramen below the jugal process, a very slender dentary not pierced by foramina, and by the deltopectoral crest (on the humerus) oriented cranially. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that Wulagasaurus is the most basal hadrosaurine known to date. Phylogeographic data suggests that the hadrosaurines, and thus all hadrosaurids, are of Asian origin, which implies a relatively long ghost lineage of approximately 13 million years for basal hadrosaurines in Asia.

A previously unreported large skull of the mastodonsaurid temnospondyl Xenotosuchus africanus, from the Cynognathus Assemblage Zone (Early to Middle Triassic) of the Beaufort Group, Karoo Basin of South Africa, is described. The species is plesiomorphic in most aspects of its cranial anatomy, and only one autapomorphy is tentatively identified herein, namely contact between the left and right exoccipitals posterior to the parasphenoid. The new specimen permits recognition of a growth series for X. africanus from sub-adult (all previously known specimens) to fully adult (new specimen) stages. Ontogenetic changes associated with this include changes in skull proportions, and changes in the morphology of the lacrimal flexure, frontal, postfrontal, cultriform process and body of the parasphenoid, and the transvomerine tooth row.

Thelodont scales are described from the Silurian Niur Formation in the Derenjal Mountains, east central Iran. The material studied herein comes from four stratigraphic levels, composed of rocks formed in a shallow water, carbonate ramp environment. The fauna includes a new phlebolepidiform, Niurolepis susanae gen. et sp. nov. of late Wenlock/?early Lud-low age and a late Ludlow loganelliiform, Loganellia sp. cf. L. grossi, which constitute the first record of these thelodont groups from Gondwana. The phlebolepidiform Niurolepis susanae gen. et sp. nov. is diagnosed by having trident trunk scales with a raised medial crown area separated by two narrow spiny wings from the lateral crown areas; a katoporodid-type histological structure distinguished by a network of branched wide dentine canals. Other scales with a notch on a smooth rhomboidal crown and postero-laterally down-stepped lateral rims have many characters in common with Loganellia grossi. Associated with the thelodonts are indeterminable acanthodian scales and a possible dentigerous jaw bone fragment. This finding also provides evidence of a hitherto unknown southward dispersal of Loganellia to the shelves of peri-Gondwana.

The objective of this report is to document first Mesozoic occurrences of chemosynthesis-based communities developed on large marine reptile carcasses. Micro-grazing provannid gastropods (typical of chemosynthetic communities) are associated with plesiosaurid skeletons in the Upper Cretaceous deposits of Hokkaido, northern Japan. The cancellous bones of the examined plesiosaurid bones contain a ubiquity of iron sulfides within the bone trabeculae, which provides evidence of anaerobic sulfate reduction of the bone lipids. We also report numerous microborings in the bone trabeculae, which might result from the activity of sulfur-oxidizing bacteria. This finding addresses the hotly debated problem of the emergence and radiation of whale bone faunas. We postulate that vertebrate bone environments in the Northwest Pacific region were settled repeatedly by animals from a regional pool of chemosynthesis-based communities that flourished in the methane seeps and/or hot vents that were present during the Late Cretaceous—Miocene.

The new retiolitid graptolite Kirkigraptus inexpectans gen. et sp. nov., from the Neodiversograptus nilssoni Biozone of the Bartoszyce borehole, Poland is described. It is unique among the retiolitids not having a preserved virgella or ancora. Instead the most proximal structures are two round proxi-lateral lists, joining the two genicular lists of the first thecae, connecting the two sides of the rhabdosome. The lists are interpreted as a possible homologue of the distal edge of the ancora umbrella in typical retiolitids. The size of rhabdosome with large proximal lateral orifices, and the ventral panels of thecae with mid-ventral lists, are similar to those of Plectograptus, whereas the two ancora sleeve panels consisting of spaced horizontal lists only, resemble those of Valentinagraptus. It is possible that the new retiolitid may represent a new pattern of development of the proximal end of the rhabdosome, different from that in all other retiolitids.

A new theoretical morphological model is proposed for the analysis of growth, form and morphospace of ammonoid shells. In this model, the shape of a radial cross section through the shell is simulated by “piggybacking” of successive whorls. The “piggyback whorls model” is defined in terms of the enlarging rate of the perimeter and the proportion of the dorsal wall to the whorl periphery, if an isometric relationship is assumed between perimeter and area of the cross-sectioned whorl. Allometric coefficients on these growth parameters determine how compressed and evolute shells are formed. The present model successfully reproduced some correlations among purely geometric variables that have been reported in previous works and were also observed in our biometric analyses. This model yields a hypothesis of “constructional linkages” between aperture shape and coiling geometry that might provide a functional coupling between hydrostatic and hydrodynamic characters. The model may partly explain Buckman's Law of Covariation between rib features and shell shapes.

Dictyopteran assemblages (cockroaches, mantises and termites) from Mongolia were uniform, being composed of the same genera throughout the Early Cretaceous (more than 30 million years), corresponding to the “dry and warm Baissa type” assemblages from Siberia. The assemblage from Shin-Khuduk is exceptional, consisting of a single identifiable blattulid species, Vrtula soma gen. et sp. nov. Assemblages from Eastern Erdenyi-Ula, Khurilt, Kholbotu-Gol, and Shar-Tologoy are composed of species already known from the richest Lower Cretaceous locality Bon Tsagaan, but species representation in the various assemblages differs considerably. Nuurcala srneci sp. nov. from Khurilt Bed 210/24, with a forewing length under 12 mm, is the smallest and best-studied example of the cosmopolitan Mesozoic family Caloblattinidae. The last occurrence of the predominantly Palaeozoic family Phyloblattidae is reported from Bon Tsagaan.

Apart from the Phyllopod Bed of the Burgess Shale (Middle Cambrian) polychaete annelids are practically unknown from any of the Cambrian Lagerstätten. This is surprising both because their diversity in the Burgess Shale is considerable, while to date the Chengjiang Lagerstätte which is equally impressive in terms of faunal diversity has no reliable records of any annelids. Here we describe, on the basis of about 40 specimens, Phragmochaeta canicularis gen. et sp. nov. from the Lower Cambrian Sirius Passet Lagerstätte of Peary Land, North Greenland. This makes it by far the oldest known polychaete, with a likely age of lower to middle Atdabanian, The body consists of approximately 20 segments, each bearing notochaetae and neurochaetae. The former appeared to have formed a felt-like covering on the dorsum, whilst the neurochaetae projected obliquely to the longitudinal axis. Apart from minor differences in chaetal size at either end there is no other tagmosis. Details of the head are obscure, and presence of palps, tentacles and eyes are conjectural. Jaws appear to have been absent. The gut was straight, and flanked by massive longitudinal musculature. P. canicularis was evidently benthic, propelling itself on the neurochaetae, with the dorsal neurochaetae conferring protection. Its stratigraphic position and generalized appearance are consistent with P. canicularis being primitive, but the phylogenetic relationships within the polychaetes remain problematic, principally because of paucity of relevant morphological information.

This study describes the largest known Palaeozoic boring trace, Osprioneides kampto igen, et isp. nov., found within a stromatoporoid Densastroma pexisum from the Upper Visby Formation (lower Wenlock, Silurian) on the island of Gotland, Sweden. Differences between the physical properties of the stromatoporoid and the dense micritic infilling of the borings allowed the application of the CT-scan technology for the 2D and 3D-visualisation of this rare trace. The additional application of a stereoscopic technique on these CT images and movies enhances its value for unravelling spatial orientations. This non-destructive method has a great potential for future macro- as well as microboring analyses. The trace maker, most likely a worm, infested the hosting colony post-mortem with up to 120 mm long borings measuring 5–17 mm in diameter. Smaller forms of Trypanites and Palaeosabella within the same stromatoporoid preferentially occur in the outer coenosteum and occasionally in abandoned borings of O. kampto. The stratigraphic position of O. kampto follows the “Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event” in time, and reflects the increase in diversity of boring species. Borings with penetration depths of 120 mm are, however, unique findings for the Palaeozoic and were not exceeded until some 260 million years later (Bajocian, Middle Jurassic) when the “Mesozoic Marine Revolution” led to convergent reinventions as a result of enhanced predation, grazing pressure, and ecospace competition.