A substantially complete skull of a small crocodyliform recently found on the foreshore near Yaverland on the southeast coast of the Isle of Wight, southern England is described. The locality, mode of preservation and associated matrix indicate that it is derived from one of the plant debris beds of the Lower Cretaceous Wessex Formation (Barremian, Wealden Group). The dentition, unique among crocodyliforms, serves to confirm that the specimen is referable to the, until now, monotypic family Bernissartiidae. Apomorphies, including placement of the choana entirely within the pterygoids and disposition of cranial sutures demonstrate that the Isle of Wight skull cannot be referred to Bernissartia fagesii, known from contemporaneous strata. Furthermore, these characters indicate that the specimen should not be referred to a new species of Bernissartia. It is therefore placed in a new genus and species, Koumpiodontosuchus aprosdokiti. The systematic position of Bernissartiidae, and characters used to diagnose Eusuchia, including placement of the choana(e) within the prerygoids, are discussed. Until recently this condition was thought to be restricted to Eusuchia with all non-eusuchian neosuchian crorocdiliforms possessing choanae bounded posteriorly by the pterygoids and anteriorly by the palatines. While the choana of Koumpiodontosuchus aprosdokiti gen. et sp. nov. is entirely bounded by the pterygoids it differs from the choanae of eusuchians in lacking a median septum, being anteroposteriorly elongate and in its anterior placement.

The tiny gastropod Coelodiscus minutus is superabundant in concretions of the Early Jurassic Posidonia Shale of South Germany which were formed under anoxic or extremely dysoxic conditions. Previous suggestions that C. minutus was a holoplanktonic organism are corroborated based on new evidence from exceptionally well-preserved specimens. The measurements of shell thickness show that the shell of Coelodiscus is very thin (mean 11 µm). In contrast to previous suggestions, the shell of Coelodiscus was not formed in three ontogenetic phases (embryonic, larval and adult shell) but in two phases comprising an embryonic and a secondary shell, the latter forming during an extended larval phase. Hostile conditions on the sea floor, absence or extreme scarcity of epibenthic animals as well as the small size also argue against a benthic life style of this gastropod. Coelodiscus minutus is the oldest known holoplanktonic gastropod. We speculate that Coelodiscus evolved during the Early Jurassic from a benthic precursor, which had a planktotrophic larval development. Probably under the influence of increasing frequency of dysoxic episodes along with hostile benthic conditions, the larval phase was extended neotenously and eventually, a holoplanktonic species evolved. During the Early Toarcian anoxic event, C. minutus was highly abundant in the plankton and dead shells rained down to the anoxic or dysoxic sea bottom. These thin and fragile shells formed an ooze similar to the pteropod ooze in the modern deep sea. The shells were preserved due to the absence or low level of deposit feeding and bioturbation as well as the formation of early diagenetic concretions.

The family Zardinophyllidae (Pachythecaliina) represents one of the most enigmatic coral groups known from the beginning of Mesozoic record of stony corals. They share some features with Paleozoic rugosans (overall architecture of the corallite) but also modern-day scleractinians (aragonite mineralogy). Fossil record of zardinophyllids was up to now restricted to the Triassic. Here we describe a new coral genus Cryptosepta collected in the oldest known Jurassic (Hettangian) reef in the Ardèche department in southern France. Cryptosepta gen. nov. has poorly developed (cryptic) septa, which is a peculiarity that extends the boundaries used to distinguish post-Palaeozoic corals and an oversimplification that could support reinitialisation of the evolutionary clock during extinction events or that support an adaptation to specific environmental conditions. Occurrence of Cryptosepta gen. nov. in Jurassic suggests zardinophyllid survival through the Triassic—Jurassic boundary, and may represent (possibly with Sinemurian genus Pachysmilia) a missing link to Amphiastreidae.

Central Asia is a key area for crocodylomorph evolution, lying midway between the highly documented deposits in Europe and North America, but crocodylomorph fossils from this part of the world are rare. Included among these are specimens collected in the 1970s and 1980s by the Soviet-Mongolian Expeditions in the Jurassic and Cretaceous of Mongolia, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan. Three species, “Sunosuchus” shartegensis, Kansajsuchus extensus, and Turanosuchus aralensis are redescribed and subjected to phylogenetic analysis for the first time. “Sunosuchus” shartegensis and Kansajsuchus are relatively derived goniopholidids, and part of a pan-east-Laurasian radiation of goniopholidids from which the European goniopholidids subsequently radiated. No characters can be used to distinguish “Sunosuchus” shartegensis from “S.” thailandicus; the two species are therefore synonymized. Turanosuchus aralensis is here considered a nomen dubium. Cladistic analysis suggests that Sunosuchus is polyphyletic, indicating a higher degree of diversification than was previously thought, but also pointing to the need for further systematic revision.

A diverse elasmobranch fauna was collected from the early Danian Rødvig Formation and the early to middle Danian Stevns Klint Formation at Stevns Klint and from the middle Danian Faxe Formation at Faxe, Denmark. Teeth from 27 species of sharks are described including the earliest records of Chlamydoselachus and Heptranchias howelli from Europe. The fauna collected at the Faxe quarry is rich in large species of shark including Sphenodus lundgreni and Cretalamna appendiculata and includes no fewer than four species of Hexanchiformes. The species collected yield an interesting insight into shark diversity in the Boreal Sea during the earliest Paleogene. The early Danian fauna recorded from the Cerithium Limestone represents an impoverished Maastrichtian fauna, whereas the fauna found in the slightly younger bryozoan limestone is representative of a pronounced cold water fauna. Several species that hitherto have only been known from the Late Cretaceous have been identified, clearly indicating that the K–T boundary was not the end of the Cretaceous fauna; it lingered and survived into the early Danian.

The type species of the extinct lamniform genus Cretalamna, C. appendiculata, has been assigned a 50 Ma range (Albian—Ypresian) by a majority of previous authors. Analysis of a partly articulated dentition of a Cretalamna from the Smoky Hill Chalk, Kansas, USA (LACM 128126) and isolated teeth of the genus from Cenomanian to Campanian strata of Western Australia, France, Sweden, and the Western Interior of North America, indicates that the name of the type species, as applied to fossil material over the last 50 years, represents a large species complex. The middle Cenomanian part of the Gearle Siltstone, Western Australia, yielded C. catoxodon sp. nov. and “Cretalamna” gunsoni. The latter, reassigned to the new genus Kenolamna, shares several dental features with the Paleocene Palaeocarcharodon. Early Turonian strata in France produced the type species C. appendiculata, C. deschutteri sp. nov., and C. gertericorum sp. nov. Cretalamna teeth from the late Coniacian part of the Smoky Hill Chalk in Kansas are assigned to C. ewelli sp. nov., whereas LACM 128126, of latest Santonian or earliest Campanian age, is designated as holotype of C. hattini sp. nov. Early Campanian deposits in Sweden yielded C. borealis and C. sarcoportheta sp. nov. A previous reconstruction of the dentition of LACM 128126 includes a posteriorly situated upper lateroposterior tooth, with a distally curved cusp, demonstrably misplaced as a reduced upper “intermediate” tooth. As originally reconstructed, the dentition resembled that of cretoxyrhinids (sensu stricto) and lamnids. Tooth morphology, however, indicates an otodontid affinity for Cretalamna. The root is typically the most diagnostic feature on an isolated Cretalamna tooth. This porous structure is commonly abraded and/or corroded and, consequently, many collected Cretalamna teeth are indeterminable at species level.

Pseudofurnishius is a late Anisian (Pelsonian)—early Carnian (Cordevolian) conodont genus of gondolellid stock, characteristic for the Sephardic Province and restricted to the “Southern Tethys” region of the northern margin of Gondwana. Its most commonly found species, Pseudofurnishius murcianus, appears at the base of the Ladinian (Fassanian). The Ladinian material of Spain reveals its ontogeny characterised by initial lateral protrusions from the carina that may develop first mono-platform and later bi-platform units, finally evolving into elaborated multi-denticulated forms. The late Anisian—early Carnian phylogenesis of Pseudofurnishius priscus → P. shagami → P. murcianus is proposed. At the end of the Ladinian, Pseudofurnishius expanded to the entire “Southern Tethys” shelf and into Cimmerian terranes that drifted away from northern Gondwana, now accreted to Eurasia, such as the Sibumasu terrane (Southwest China—Malayan Peninsula).

Rhynchonelliformean brachiopods, belonging to 17 genera, are described from the East Baltic Porkuni Regional Stage, correlated with the global Hirnantian Stage. The brachiopod genera Paromalomena, Proboscizambon?, Kinnella, Drabovia, and Coolinia, which are described from the region for the first time demonstrate together with characteristic Hirnantian species of the genera Hirnantia, Dalmanella, Plectothyrella, Eostropheodonta, and Hindella a greater than previously thought commonality of the Baltic fauna with the terminal Ordovician Hirnantia brachiopod fauna of the Kosov Province. The samples containing brachiopods were collected from 43 drill core sections in Central East Baltic. The study area belongs to the Livonian Tongue of the Central Baltoscandian Facies Belt in the Baltic Basin. The brachiopods occur mainly in the skeletal and silty limestone of the Kuldiga Formation within the lower half of the Porkuni Stage. Few brachiopods are known from the sandy or oolitic limestone of the Saldus Formation in the upper part of the stage. Due to excellent preservation some brachiopod species (e.g., Cliftonia psittacina and Dalmanella testudinaria) yield key morphological information, relevant to their classification and phylogeny. This taxonomic study of the East Baltic brachiopods presents essential groundwork for analysis in progress on the distribution and onshore-offshore successions of the Hirnantia brachiopod fauna within both a Baltoscandian and global context.

An assemblage of mineralised skeletal fossils containing molluscs, hyoliths, halkieriids, chancelloriids, tommotiids, lobopodians, paleoscolecids, bradoriids, echinoderms, anabaritids, hyolithelminths, hexactinnelid, and heteractinid sponges is described from the early Cambrian Emyaksin Formation exposed along the Malaya Kuonamka and Bol'shaya Kuonamka rivers, eastern flanks of the Anabar Uplift, northern Siberian Platform. The sampled succession is attributed to the Tommotian—Botoman Stages of Siberia and correlated with Stage 2 of Series 1—Stage 4 of Series 2 of the IUGS chronostratigraphical scheme for the Cambrian. Carbon isotope chemostratigraphy is applied herein for regional correlation. The fauna contains the earliest Siberian and probably global first appearances of lobopodians, paleoscolecids, and echinoderms, and includes elements in common with coeval faunas from Gondwana, Laurentia, and Baltica. For the first time from Siberia, the latest occurrence of anabaritids is documented herein from the Atdabanian Stage. Problematic calcium phosphatic sclerites of Fengzuella zhejiangensis have not been previously known from outside China. The sellate sclerites, Camenella garbowskae and mitral sclerites, C. kozlowskii are unified within one species, C. garbowskae. In addition to more common slender sclerites, Rhombocorniculum insolutum include broad calcium phosphatic sclerites. A number of fossils described herein demonstrate excellent preservation of fine details of skeletal microstructures. Based on new microstructural data, sclerites of Rhombocorniculum are interpreted as chaetae of the type occurring in annelids. A new mollusc Enigmaconus? pyramidalis Kouchinsky and Vendrasco sp. nov. and a hyolith Triplicatella papilio Kouchinsky sp. nov. are described.