A new species of Echiura, Vitjazema micropapillosa (Family: Bonelliidae), is described from the North Atlantic Ocean. The echiuran specimens were loaned to the author by the curator of the Invertebrate Section of the MCZ, Harvard University for the purpose of identification. The species is distinguished in possessing a thin and transparent integument covered with microscopic papillae at the anterior and posterior ends of the trunk; a truncate proboscis with the lateral margins free at the base; one pair of spherical, postsetal gonoducts with distally located tubular gonostomes and tubular anal vesicles. The specimens occurred at depths ranging from 2604–4632 m. This is a first report on the occurrence of the genus Vitjazema in the Atlantic Ocean.

Additional archival information on the history of the holotype of Testudo nigra (=T. californiana) confirms that there is probably no possibility of establishing its island of origin within the Galapagos. Both names should be suppressed as nomina dubia, despite the fact that T. nigra was relatively recently resurrected as the species name for all Galapagos tortoises. The status of the name Testudo nigrita as a nomen dubium is here further confirmed by the fact that its lectotype no longer exists.

A new species of Stylaster (Group A, previously known as Allopora) is described from the southern coast of Oman, Arabian Sea. This region is known for its complex hydrography, which leads to a high diversity of marine life in shallow-water habitats. Stylaster omanensis n. sp. differs from all other described species of the genus in lacking dactylostyles.

The new colonial dendrophylliid coral genus Cairnsipsammia is described from the Lower Cretaceous Schrattenkalk Formation (upper Barremian–lower Aptian) of western Austria (Vorarlberg). The new genus is characterized by plocoid to submeandroid types of polyp integration, compact to porous costosepta, and corallites that are united by their perithecal walls or embedded in a narrow (up to 2 mm wide) porous, reticulate and costate coenosteum with granular surfaces. It represents the oldest colonial genus of the family Dendrophylliidae. The occurrence of Cairnsipsammia in a shallow-water, reefal environment (Schrattenkalk Formation), in combination with both the relatively high degree of corallite integration (submeandroid) and massive growth form points to the hypothesis that Cairnsipsammia may have been zooxanthellate.

A new species of the family Cyatholaimidae Filipjev, 1918 was collected from Gwangyang Bay, Korea. The new species belongs to the genus Marylynnia Hopper, 1977 on the basis of the following morphological characters: 1) two types of cuticular pores, 2) dorsal tooth with a pair of small subventral teeth, 3) cup shaped precloacal supplements, and 4) conico-cylindrical tail. Marylynnia denticulata n. sp. is closely related to Marylynnia malsa (Hopper, 1972) by virtue of body length, the number of cervical setae, spicule length, the presence of denticles lining the distal portion of the gubernaculum, and gubernaculum length. However, the new species differs from M. malsa by the location of the cervical setae, the shape of the spicule and gubernaculum, and the number of precloacal supplements. This is the first description of the family in the study area.