A spectacular carbonate deposit from the western Meseta of Morocco consists of microbial and brachiopod limestones. The small, meter-sized Famennian limestone blocks are embedded in Carboniferous shales, implying later displacement. Primary deposition of the limestones apparently occurred below the depth limit of phototrophic organisms. The brachiopods belong to the genus Dzieduszyckia within the rhynchonellide superfamily Dimerelloidea. They occur in fantastic abundance, in a low-diversity faunal assemblage. The microbial limestones contain fossilized threadlike microorganisms of unknown affiliation. The enormous accumulation of brachiopods on the Famennian seafloor is best explained by the former existence of a seep. Crude oil was a major component of the seepage fluids, as indicated by the occurrence of pyrobitumen (metamorphosed petroleum) and δ¹³C_carbonate values as low as −12‰, akin to the isotopic composition of carbonates forming at modern oil seeps. The lowest δ¹³C values in the Dzieduszyckia deposit are found for a carbonate phase referred to as banded/botryoidal cement. It is a fibrous, low-Mg calcite cement in the form of isopachous rims and botryoids that precipitated directly on and within brachiopod shells. The microbial limestones predominantly consist of this phase and therefore can be classified as cement framestones. Reticulate patterns of botryoidal aggregates and an elevated Sr content agree with an aragonite precursor of the banded/botryoidal cement. The interpretation of the Dzieduszyckia deposit as seep related supports the hypothesis that Paleozoic and Mesozoic members of the rhynchonellide superfamily Dimerelloidea were a lineage long associated with seeps that survived from Late Devonian to Early Cretaceous time.

Exposures of the upper Eocene to middle Oligocene White River Formation in northeastern Colorado contain ichnofossil-rich paleosols in a meandering alluvial system. The paleoenvironmental, paleoecological, and paleoclimatic significance of these paleosols and ichnofossils record the effects on soil ecosystems of the initial stages of global cooling in the late Eocene and early Oligocene. Previous studies of Eocene-Oligocene paleosols in Wyoming and South Dakota suggest a transition from woodland to grassland ecosystems in response to global cooling and drying. We describe four paleosol types from the study area. Type I paleosols include compound Entisols characterized by shallow networks of fine rhizoliths and ichnofaunal assemblages of Planolites isp., Pallichnus dakotensis, Macanopsis isp., Celliforma ficoides, and vertebrate coprolites. Type II paleosols are compound Inceptisols characterized by elongate rhizoliths and ichnofaunal assemblages of Planolites isp., Pallichnus dakotensis, Macanopsis isp., and vertebrate tracks. Type III paleosols are cumulative Inceptisols characterized by elongate rhizolith and ichnofaunal assemblages of Planolites isp., Pallichnus dakotensis, Macanopsis isp., Parowanichnus isp., Edaphichnium isp., and backfilled burrows. Type IV paleosols include composite Inceptisols characterized by large rhizoliths and ichnofaunal assemblages of Edaphichnium isp., Fictovichnus parvus, and wasp cocoons. The vertical transition from less-well-developed (Type I) to better-developed (Type IV) paleosols records decreasing rates of sedimentation and erosion, increasing rates of pedogenesis, and a transition in landscapes from grasslands to savannahs and woodlands. The effects of global cooling on the paleosols and soil biota, therefore, appear to have been buffered by basin-scale, autogenic, sedimentologic, and hydrologic processes.

Over 14,000 specimens—5,204 brachiopods, 9,137 bivalves, and 178 gastropods—acquired from 30 collecting stations (0 to 45 m depth) in the Ubatuba and Picinguaba bays, southern Brazil, were compared for drilling frequencies. Beveled (countersunk) circular-to-subcircular borings (Oichnus-like drill holes) were found in diverse bivalves but also in the rhynchonelliform brachiopod Bouchardia rosea—a small, semi-infaunal to epifaunal, free-lying species that dominates the brachiopod fauna of the southern Brazilian shelf. Drill holes in bivalve mollusks and brachiopods are comparable in their morphology, average diameter, and diameter range, indicating attacks by a single type of drilling organism. Drill holes in brachiopods were rare (0.4%) and found only at five sampling sites. Drillings in bivalves were over 10 times as frequent as in brachiopods, but the average drilling frequency was still low (5.6%) compared to typical boring frequencies of Cenozoic mollusks. Some common bivalve species, however, were drilled at frequencies up to 50 times higher than those observed for shells of B. rosea from the same samples. Due to scarcity of drilled brachiopods, it is not possible to evaluate if the driller displayed a nonrandom (stereotyped) site, size, or valve preference. Drilled brachiopods may record (1) naticid or muricid predation, (2) predation by other drillers, (3) parasitic drillings, and (4) mistaken or opportunistic attacks. Low drilling frequency in brachiopods is consistent with recent reports on ancient and modern examples. The scarcity of drilling in brachiopods, coupled with much higher drilling frequencies observed in sympatric bivalves, suggests that drilling in brachiopods may have been due to facultative or erroneous attacks. The drilling frequencies observed here for the brachiopod-bivalve assemblages are remarkably similar to those reported for Permian brachiopod-bivalves associations. This report adds to the growing evidence for an intriguing macroecological stasis: multiple meta-analytical surveys of present-day and fossil rhynchonelliform brachiopods conducted in recent years also point to persistent scarcity and low intensity of biotic interactions between brachiopods and drilling organisms throughout their evolutionary history.

Pinnatiramosus qianensis Geng, a plant with a complex, extensive, pinnate branching system and pitted tracheids from marine Llandovery (lower Silurian) rocks in Guizhou Province, challenges long-held theories on the origin and early evolution of vascular plants in the Silurian and Devonian periods. This has led to the hypothesis that the fossils are not syngenetic with the entombing rock but represent the rooting systems of much younger plants, possibly of Permian age. Permian strata overly the Llandovery rocks unconformably in the succession. Leafless axes with less ordered branching occur closer to the boundary and may have had a similar source. Existing and new material of Pinnatiramosus has been subjected to detailed analyses in an attempt to resolve the problem. This has involved examination of the branching systems with respect to the surrounding matrix, comparative morphological descriptions of the systems, and anatomical investigations based on compression and permineralized fossils. The latter in particular indicate an endogenous origin of the lateral branches, typical of roots. Collectively such evidence is highly suggestive of roots of younger plants growing through lithified sediments—plants whose affinity and age remain to be determined but which show an amazing capacity to fill two-dimensional space efficiently, accompanied by an avoidance strategy that is also seen in recent angiosperms.

The importance of understanding ecophenotypy in studies of morphological evolution is widely appreciated. Behavioral traits can be environmentally plastic, yet studies of behavioral evolution often proceed without careful consideration of the environmental context. The interaction of Chione elevata with its epibionts and gastropod predators in two shallow marine facies from the Pleistocene of Florida, corresponding to the Bermont and the overlying Fort Thompson Formations, were examined.

Fort Thompson samples exhibit roughly an order of magnitude more abundant C. elevata and significantly lower predation intensities than those of the Bermont Formation. Predator size, as measured by the outer borehole diameter, does not differ between facies, but selectivity for larger-sized prey is significant only in the Fort Thompson Formation. These differences in predator behavior may have resulted from ecological differences between facies. Evolutionary studies of behavior that fail to consider the ecological context of each sample will be flawed.

The isotopic ecology of terrestrial snails from tropical island settings is not known despite the importance of such data sets for paleoenvironmental reconstructions. In this study, variations in carbon (¹³C/ ¹²C) and oxygen (¹⁸O/¹⁶O) isotope ratios obtained during whole-shell and sequential-rib analyses of the modern land snail, Cerion, reveal a record of diet and local environment on San Salvador, Bahamas. The mean δ¹³C value of adult Cerion shells collected from C₄ vegetation is higher by 1.0‰ relative to snails collected from C₃ plants, suggesting that carbon isotopes in shell carbonate reflect the dominant plant type in the diet, though the broad range of shell carbonate δ¹³C confirms a varied diet for this genus. The mean δ¹⁸O values of adult Cerion shells collected from the west coast of San Salvador are 0.8‰ higher than those collected from the east coast of the island. This difference may reflect the incorporation of water vapor derived from ¹⁸O-rich hypersaline lakes located in the island's western interior. Sequential-rib analysis of one adult Cerion shell reveals variations in δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O values through ontogeny that may reflect changes in food source and rainfall seasonality, respectively. This study lays the groundwork for future studies to establish fossil Cerion as a valuable paleoenvironmental proxy for San Salvador and the Bahamas.

All previously known dinosaur remains on the Adriatic-Dinaridic carbonate platform (ADCP) were described from Cretaceous deposits. A new trackbearing locality is late Tithonian in age and represents the oldest evidence of dinosaurs on the ADCP. The site is in an active quarry near the village of Kirmenjak in western Istria. Almost a thousand sauropod footprints including 23 single trackways have been found on the outcrop. Oval impressions represent pes prints, and horseshoe-shaped impressions represent manus prints; pes prints are 23 to 52 cm long. Calculated heights at the hip range from 153 to 306 cm. The main direction of dinosaur movement was toward the northeast, and some of the individuals were moving together. The trackways show a characteristic narrow gauge, and pace and stride lengths indicate a slow walk. The footprints are similar to Parabrontopodus ichnogenus, and the ichnocoenosis could be assigned to the Brontopodus ichnofacies. The presence of the sauropods on the Adriatic-Dinaridic carbonate platform during the Late Jurassic could be explained by connection with the African continent via its southern margins during emersion.

An exceptionally well-preserved fossil seagrass community occurs in the late Pliocene of the Greek Island of Rhodes. The siliciclastic deposits of the Kritika section (Kritika Member, Rhodes Formation) contain several beds of clay and fine-grained sand with abundant remains of the leaves of Posidonia oceanica. A coarser sand bed with in situ rhizomes of the same endemic Mediterranean phanerogam also was found. Samples yield a diverse skeletal assemblage of 121 species of crustose coralline algae, foraminifers, annelids, gastropods, bivalves, encrusting bryozoans, and ostracodes, some of which also live exclusively on the leaves of present-day P. oceanica. The community of organisms associated with the rhizomes is slightly poorer (57 species), with bivalves appearing as distinctively abundant components of this assemblage (21 species). An analysis of the relationships between skeletal organisms and fossil leaves and rhizomes shows that the majority of them lived together in the same seagrass-vegetated environment, were transported a short distance from their natural habitat, and buried very rapidly in fine-grained sediments, thus preserving this remarkable assemblage almost intact. The rhizomes were preserved in growth position within a coarse-grained sand trapped by their horizontal and vertical network. The fossil assemblage compares well in terms of major skeletal components with modern shallow-water P. oceanica meadows. This study also provides evidence for the presence during the Pliocene of an already well-established and widespread seagrass community with biotopes comparable to those of the present-day Mediterranean.

Paleobotanists have developed numerous methods for quantifying correlations between leaf form and climate, so that fossil leaves can be used to estimate past terrestrial climate. Approaches currently used can be broken into two classes: those using categorical, primarily qualitative shape characters (such as round base) and those describing shape as ratios or other abstract mathematical descriptors (such as perimeter-to-area ratio). Both classes of approach have limitations and are hard to compare to one another. We show how eigenshape analysis provides both interpretable characters and measures of continuous variation, thus potentially overcoming the limitations of both current approaches. We applied eigenshape analysis to a sample of 394 nonlobed leaves from extant assemblages to empirically identify independent leaf shape characters. This resulted in the identification of 20 shape characters. Of these, 13 reflected variation due to broad-scale asymmetry as well as asymmetry localized to the tip, base, and lamina-petiole junction. The remaining seven characters, in order of variance explained, corresponded roughly to base shape, tip angle, location of widest portion of the leaf (ovate to obovate variation), extent of widest portion of the leaf (elliptic to oblong variation), tip shape (blunt to drip tip), ovate to obovate variation localized to the middle of the leaf, and extension of the lamina along the petiole at the lamina-petiole junction. All 7 of these characters and only 1 of the 13 asymmetry characters had an association with climate. These characters corresponded to five of the seven broad categories of Wolfe's Climate-Leaf Analysis Multivariate Program shape descriptors, excluding only tooth shape and lobing. The results of this study indicate that eigenshape-generated measures of leaf shape merit further exploration.

Branch diameters within some species of sponges, corals, and bryozoans are known to decrease with depth. This relationship is here tested for inferring relative depth of deposition using three ramose, bushlike cyclostome bryozoans—Cinctipora elegans, Diaperoecia purpurascens, and Erksonea sp.—that are abundant on the continental shelf around New Zealand. Diameters were measured in broken branches of these species dredged from 15 benthic stations ranging in depth from 38–668 m. The expected inverse correlation between diameter and depth was apparent only in C. elegans and even then at a low level of significance and only at relatively shallow depths (<∼115 m). No depth pattern was discernible in either D. purpurascens or Erksonea sp. Further research is needed to ascertain exactly which depth-related environmental factor(s) influences branch diameter in cyclostome bryozoans and whether different species respond differently before bryozoan branch diameter can be used in paleobathymetry.