Three dinosaur footprints were found, preserved as natural casts, on the roof of a First World War tunnel in the Pasubio Massif (Trentino Alto-Adige, northeastern Italy). The Austro-Hungarian Army used the tunnel until 1918, presumably to connect the front- with the back line. The tracks are tridactyl, two of which are organized in a trackway, and provide evidence for the presence of medium-sized theropods. The track-bearing horizon is situated at the base of the Rotzo formation (Calcari Grigi Group), within shallow-water black shale deposits characterized by oligotypic small bivalves, oligohaline ostracodes, and thecamebians. Vertebrate remains, represented by crocodyloform teeth and fish scales, were also identified from the same stratigraphic portion. The occurrence of dinosaur footprints from black shale levels sheds light on their controversial interpretation, confirming the occurrence of terrestrial environment in the Trento carbonate platform during the late Sinemurian. Dinosaur tracks indicate the emersion of a sector of the tidal flat during the deposition of the basal Rotzo formation, and suggest a complex paleonvironmental scenario in which tidal flats were associated with freshwater ponds and islands.

The temporally extensive late Middle through Late Devonian biotic crisis involved at least three distinct peaks of elevated extinction intensity during an interval spanning ∼25 myr and resulted in the preferential elimination of certain shallow-marine, warm-water taxa, especially members of reef communities. By the end of the second peak, delimited by the Frasnian–Famennian (F–F) boundary, the stromatoporoids, members of the dominant constructor guild in mid-Paleozoic reefal ecosystems, had ceased building reefs in most parts of the world. The northern Dugway Range in west-central Utah, United States, however, represents one of the few locations globally where stromatoporoids continued reef building into the Famennian. Two measured sections there, which are constrained biostratigraphically using conodonts, indicate that the biohermal sequences occur within the middle Palmatolepis crepida biozone and are early Famennian in age. The post-F–F extinction Dugway reefal faunas are depauperate and dominated by labechiid and stylostromid stromatoporoids, as is characteristic of other early Famennian reefs. In this region, evidence for reefal development is episodic, with stromatoporoid-bearing units interbedded with peloidal and coated-grain carbonate units lacking evidence of reef construction. The stromatoporoid survivors, although fairly minor constituents of Frasnian reef communities, belong to long-ranging clades and may represent so-called extinction-resistant taxa that flourished, albeit locally in Laurentia, following the F–F mass extinction.

Integrated Plant Record (IPR) vegetation analysis is a semi-quantitative tool developed as a proxy to assess zonal vegetation classification. It is based on fossil plant taxa categorized into zonal taxonomic-physiognomic components reflecting key autecological characteristics. The proportions of these components in the fossil assemblages define the main vegetation types. Modern vegetation studies in areas of South China (Mount Emei, Mount Longqi, Meili Snow Mountains) and in Japan (Shirakami Sanchi, Mount Fuji, Nara, Yokohama, Yakushima Island) are performed here to test this fossil-based technique and achieve fine-tuning and corroboration. Thirty-five units of different vegetation types generally defined as broad-leaved evergreen forests, mixed mesophytic forests, broad-leaved deciduous forests, and subhumid sclerophyllous forests were investigated. IPR vegetation analysis results obtained from this modern vegetation largely support the originally defined proportions of the important zonal woody angiosperm groups, i.e., broad-leaved deciduous, broad-leaved evergreen, sclerophyllous, and legume-type components, and cluster analysis also confirms these results. Nonetheless, the data suggest that the new definition of ecotones and adaption of the threshold value of the broad-leaved evergreen component for the definition of broad-leaved evergreen forests are necessary. The results of this study of modern vegetation reveal a distinct underrepresentation of zonal herbs in the fossil record, regardless of whether dealing with leaf, pollen, or fruit assemblages. The vegetation scheme based on IPR vegetation analysis is therefore extended to properly reflect the zonal herb diversity present in modern vegetation. The results also confirm a higher diversity of zonal herbs in modern broad-leaved deciduous versus broad-leaved evergreen forests, as observed in the Neogene European record.

A newly discovered vertebrate assemblage is reported from the Upper Pennsylvanian (mid- to upper Kasimovian) Cohn Coal Member of the Mattoon Formation of southeast Illinois, United States. Teeth, scales, and spines of xenacanth (Dicentrodus, Orthacanthus, Triodus, Xenacanthus) and euselachian (Sphenacanthus) sharks dominate the assemblage. Less common are the teeth, scales, and centra of holocephalan (Helodus) and actinopterygian fishes, together with rare tetrapod (mainly pelycosaur) phalanges and centra. The assemblage occurs within a broad, shallow channel incised into a prominent Vertisol. The channel is interpreted as having been cut during a seasonally dry glacial phase when sea level was low, but filled during a subsequent transgression triggered by deglaciation. We interpret this as a brackish water (estuarine) assemblage, based on the co-occurrence of the vertebrate material with spirorbids (putative microconchids) and paleoecological inferences gleaned from a critical analysis of the literature dealing with Pennsylvanian fish ecology. This interpretation is broadly consistent with taphonomic data and the results of ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr isotope analysis of shark material. The pelycosaur material may have been reworked from the lowstand Vertisol, however, and these animals occupied dryland niches that developed during glacial phases.

The taphonomic effects of heat and or fire on bones, conodonts, and plant tissues have received much attention from paleontologists and geologists, but the effect of high temperatures on amniote eggshell has been unknown. We compared the effects of heat on extant avian eggshell, which is constructed primarily of CaCO₃ deposited within a protein matrix. Ostrich (Struthio camelus) and glaucous-winged gull (Larus glaucescens) eggshell fragments were heated to temperatures up to 800 °C for varying lengths of time. A series of dramatic color changes, similar to those reported for conodonts, began to occur at about 200 °C, especially in ostrich eggshell. Reverse curling of eggshell was observed at temperatures above 600 °C. Thermogravimetric analysis showed a negligible decrease in mass below 200 °C, which was attributable to water loss. For both eggshell types, sharp decreases in mass occurred at about 710 °C and the remaining CaO residue represented 55% of the original mass. Heat should not be overlooked as a factor contributing to the variability of fossil eggshell, including color differences and reverse curling. Existence of these features, in turn, may provide important clues for understanding environmental conditions and events preceding or accompanying eggshell fossilization.

The alien razor shell Ensis americanus (Binney) is a common bioclast on Dutch beaches. It is uncommonly encrusted by the balanid Balanus crenatus Brugière on both the interior and exterior surfaces of both valves. This occurs postmortem, but before the ligament breaks. A well-preserved specimen from Zandvoort is described which confirms that this pattern of skeletozoan infestation is initiated in dead shells still in the burrow, but protruding above the sediment surface. After exhumation, the recumbent shell can be further infested by subsequent balanid spatfalls. Such a pattern of encrustation is only likely in burrowing bivalves with a permanent and prominent gape to the shell.

Here I provide critical notes on a multiauthored paper purported to show the absence of a major gap in the Upper Pennsylvanian stratigraphic succession in North America (and, by inference, in northern Western Europe). It is observed that intellectually satisfying explanations for the discontinuities in the North American successions, having recourse to climate-driven alterations, do not take into account that the more continuous succession in northwestern Spain only shows gradual changes in floral composition. Inaccuracies in the use of scientific literature are pointed out.