The anatomy of the cavum tympanicum (middle ear region) and os quadratum (quadrate) is described for the Falconiformes. Sixty specimens representing all four recognized families are included. Pathways of nerves and blood vessels and their foramina are described as are other important anatomical characters. It is difficult to conclude anything about the naturalness of the Falconiformes based on cavum tympanicum characters. More work at both morphological and molecular levels is needed to fully understand relationships within the Falconiformes and indeed, where to place the order within birds. Nevertheless, an understanding of the anatomy of middle ear structures will be important to taxonomists who are looking for characters on which to test their hypotheses of relationships.

A distinctive new species of sturnirine bat, Sturnira (Sturnira) koopmanhilli, new species (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae: Stenodermatinae), is described from 49 specimens collected in the Pacific drainage of the western Andes, at 300–2000 m in western Ecuador and Colombia. This yellow-shouldered bat is endemic to this Chocoan region where it is known from nine localities in Ecuador (Esmeraldas and Chimborazo) and Colombia (Chocó, Valle del Cauca, and Nariño). This moderately large Sturnira species (forearm length, 48.1–52.4 mm) is compared with Sturnira mordax (Goodwin, 1938) (forearm length, 43.0–49.2) and Sturnira ludovici Anthony, 1924 (forearm length, 43.9–49.5). Salient characters that distinguish the new species from these two cogeners include a bicolored appearance of dorsal fur, recessed hypoglossal foramina, presence of a sulcus on posterior faces of upper canines, and teeth P2 > M2. Teeth I1 and i1 are protrudent and robust, which set the new species apart from other Sturnira species. Spacing between teeth P1-M3 and p1-m3 is present in the new bat and with the subgenus Corvira. The new species is placed in the subgenus Sturnira.

Oligocene and Miocene fossil decapods from Puerto Rico and Cuba have been poorly known; new collections from these regions as well as from the Dominican Republic have now yielded several new reports. One new genus, Psygmophthalmus, and several new species (Neocallichirus aetodes, Neocallichirus? quisquellanus, Calappa pavimenta, Necronectes collinsi, Portunus yaucoensis, and Psygmophthalmus lares) are named herein. New combinations include Euphylax domingensis (Rathbun 1919), Megokkos feldmanni (Nyborg et al. 2003), and Neocallichirus vaughni (Rathbun 1918). Specimens of a callianassoid and brachyuran indeterminate at the family, genus, and species level are also described and illustrated, and emended descriptions are provided for Euphylax domingensis and Megokkos feldmanni. Scylla costata Rathbun, 1919, and three indeterminate species of Portunus are also reported. Ceronnectes De Angeli and Beschin, 1998, is a member of the Cancridae, not the Portunidae as originally reported. Most of the Caribbean taxa reported herein belong to tropical or subtropical extant genera that inhabit both carbonate and siliciclastic, soft, shallow marine substrates, supported by the occurrence of most of the fossils in clastic units. The Cenozoic genera reported herein exhibited either a Tethyan or North Pacific distribution, typical of Eocene and Oligocene decapods of the region. The open Caribbean Seaway facilitated dispersal of fauna throughout the region between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.