bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Group Insurance
Authors: Fagg R. J.
Published: August 2016

Under the heading group insurance may be included all types of insurance contract whereby a number of persons are by one policy covered against a given risk. In present day practice, however, its use is chiefly confined to the one special policy under which the lives of a group of persons—usually a firm's employees— are assured on a One Year Renewable Term basis, usually without medical examination.

Group insurance in this form originated in America and has proved extremely popular both in that country and in Canada. In this country it has not received so warm a welcome and it is only within recent years that British offices have given it their serious attention.
Application of the Powers System to Ordinary Branch Work
Authors: Hickox W. E. H.
Published: August 2016

Any mechanical aid which makes it possible to extract records and then analyse them rapidly and economically must command the serious attention of actuaries and attract increasing interest from those intimately connected with progress and development in Industry or Commerce. Powers machines are one of the most important of these mechanical aids and are readily adaptable to the business of Life Assurance. Invented in America, they have been improved and placed on the market in this country by the Accounting and Tabulating Corporation of Great Britain.

The rationale of the Powers System is that many particulars relative to a given contract, such as a policy, may be placed on permanent record by means of punching holes in a card. Then such punched cards can, by entirely mechanical processes, be sorted and duplicated and the information contained thereon tabulated and cast; as a result of which we may collect our desired information in a very much more speedy, economical and efficient manner than was possible under the old clerical system.
Anglo-American economic relation A rejoinder
Authors: Zentler A. P.
Published: August 2016

Mr A. F. Murray's paper published in the July issue of thisJournalcovers such a wide and complex field that it is obviously impossible to discuss it adequately in three to four pages. Within this limited space I have selected for comment a few points which not only constitute the main props in Mr Murray's arguments, but are also, largely for accidental reasons, of rather special interest. Their interest derives from the fact that in the last article written by the regretted Lord Keynes, these points are discussed in great detail and—most important—entirely different conclusions are reached.

If I understand him rightly Mr Murray's argument is roughly this. Multilateral international trade can function properly only if the following two conditions are satisfied:

(i) each of the participating nations must pursue a policy of full employment at home;

(ii) each nation must pursue abroad an economic policy such that its balance of payments over a long term is of manageable dimensions.
Note on the probability distribution arising in the study of the Institute's examinations
Authors: Wishart John
Published: August 2016

The distribution discussed by Mayhew and Vajda (J.S.S.Vol. vi, 1946, pp. 67–75 (70)), is the binomial with negative index (having origin, i.e. first term, atninstead ofo), about which a good deal has been written, and their problem is the one discussed by Yule in 1910 (J.R. Statist. Soc.Vol. LXXIII, p. 26). The authors base their proof on an idea of Laplace, but the full power of the characteristic function derivation can be seen if we go further than they did. The results are of some interest, particularly as Kendall (Advanćed Theory of Statistics, Vol. 1, §5.13) does not go beyond deriving mean and variance by the elementary method in this case.
Continental Building Societies
Authors: Vajda S.
Published: August 2016

In 1923, lack of capital in Germany led to a system of financing house-building which later conquered large parts of central and south-eastern Europe. The ‘Gesellschaft der Freunde’ (in translation ‘Society of Friends’, but entirely unconnected with the body commonly known under that name in this country) was the first Continental Building Society that worked on the following principle:

Members entering the society pay an entrance fee E and undertake to pay periodically thereafter amountsaper annum. All payments of a member are accumulated at a certain rate of interest and credited to his individual account. Whenever there is enough money in the pool to pay an amount of 1, say, then the member next on the list, in the order of entry, receives this amount and becomes a debtor for the difference between unity and the accumulated amount of his previous payments. He undertakes to pay from then onb, say, per annum until all his payments E,aandb, reach unity, when he is released from all obligations and ceases to be a member of the community.
The measurement of mortality and fertility.
Authors: Daw R. H.
Published: August 2016

One of the principal problems of demography is that of comparing the mortality and fertility of different populations or of one population at different periods of time. This note defines and discusses briefly some of the measures which have been used for this purpose.

Notation

aPxnumber of persons in age groupxin the population being considered (the ‘actual’ population).

amxdeath-rate in age groupxin the actual population.

sPx,8mxthe corresponding number of persons and death-rate in a population chosen as standard (the ‘standard’ population).

aM crude death-rate in the actual population.

sM crude death-rate in the standard population.

txnumber of ages included in age groupx.

The standard population may, and in fact usually will, be an actual population in the sense that it is a population which existed at some particular time.
The trend of future cost in group life and pension schemes
Authors: Eschrich W.
Published: August 2016

The volume of group life and pension scheme business transacted by life offices in this country is considerable, and is increasing steadily. A great deal of work is being spent in the preparation of quotations for such schemes. Readers may, therefore, be interested in a method of reducing to a minimum an especially uninteresting part of the work arising in connexion with quotations for schemes in which the cost of pension benefits for future service or of life assurance benefits is calculated on the ‘single-premium’ basis.

In these schemes it is customary for the amount of life assurance cover provided during any Scheme Year, and the amount of pension earned in respect of that year, to depend only on the salary of the member and not on his age. The employee normally contributes an amount, also fixed in relation to his salary, to purchase part of the pension by means of a deferred annuity providing a return of premiums without interest in the event of his death. The employer in each year pays the single premium required to purchase the balance of the pension accruing in respect of that year's service (usually by a deferred annuity without return of premiums in the event of the employee's death), and also to purchase the whole of the temporary life assurance granted during that year. The employer's premiums are recalculated each year on the basis of the ages attained in that year and thus for any individual employee the cost to the employer increases from year to year. Considering the scheme as a whole, this rise is partly or wholly compensated by deaths, withdrawals and retirements, and it may be quite reasonable to expect that the cost in the future will only rise by a small amount, or even decline.
Inflation and the balance sheet
Authors: Turner N. C.
Published: August 2016

It will be appreciated that inflation is not a purely war-time or post-war phenomenon. The last two wars have considerably increased the rate of inflation, but the process has been more or less continuous for a very long time. Any appreciable degree of inflation can have very far-reaching effects on the accounts of a trading company. It is the intention of this paper to consider the effects of inflation on the Balance Sheet and the Profit and Loss Account and on the interpretation of the figures in these accounts after inflation has done its work, and to consider the extent to which such accounts give a true picture to the Company's Board of Directors and Shareholders.

The preparation of accounts has as its purpose the provision of information to shareholders and to those whose duty it is to control the policy and to undertake the day-to-day management. The needs of the two groups vary to some extent, particularly as regards volume and detail of information. In both cases, however, the immediate aim of accountancy is the provision of a summary record of financial progress during (usually) a year's operations and of financial standing at the end of the period. The standard method of preparing this record uses only actual past figures of income and expenditure, expressed in units of currency.
Applications of Sequential Methods to Mortality Data
Authors: Johnson N. L. , Moore P. G.
Published: August 2016

In recent years the statistical technique known as ‘sequential analysis’ has been developed to a considerable degree of refinement and applied in many varied fields. The technique may, however, be new to some readers, and some examples and illustrations of the application of sequential methods to data of the type encountered in actuarial work should therefore prove of interest.

Theraison d'êtreof sequential analysis is the reduction of the average number of observations required to reach conclusions from observed data without altering the degree of reliability specified in the usual fixed sample size technique. If such a result can be achieved a saving in both time and money may be effected.

In the usual fixed-sample size techniques the size of sample necessary to achieve a given degree of reliability in the conclusions reached can be computed. However, in the course of the selection and examination of the sample it often becomes apparent, at quite an early stage, what form of conclusion is likely to be reached.
Sampling Techniques and Some Applications
Authors: Moore P. G.
Published: August 2016

The idea of a census goes back into the mists of antiquity. It is reported that the Romans under Servius Tullius, the sixth King of Rome about the sixth century B.C., took a census every fifth year and the right of citizenship depended on the making of a complete return. The main objects of the census seem to have been the raising of men and money for further conquests. But the concept of sampling which is often thought to be of more modern origin must have been there even if dormant, for the process of taking a small quantity of material for tasting or testing in order to determine the quality of the bulk has gone on for centuries. However, the big impetus for ideas and practical applications of sampling methods seems not to have come until just after the immense strides taken around 1600 in the field of probability by such men as Cardano, Galileo and later Pascal and Fermat. There is direct evidence that Pascal's work inspired De Witt, the Dutchman who calculated the first life annuities, and no doubt others were similarly inspired.
Variable Annuities
Authors: Blunt R. H. , Lane L. H.
Published: August 2016

The object of this paper is to provide a basis for a discussion on the advisability or otherwise of life offices issuing ‘variable annuities’ in this country on a commercial basis.

As this is a relatively new subject it is, perhaps, as well to define our terms at the outset. The form of contract which has come to be referred to under the name of ‘variable annuity’ is one under which the annual amount payable is not a fixed sum in terms of money, but a fixed number of annuity units the cash equivalent of which varies from time to time in accordance with the variations in the market value of the assets in which the fund is invested.

The substance of the paper was originally written about a year ago as an internal office memorandum summarizing reports and notices appearing in the financial and insurance press both here and in the U.S.A. about this new American idea, and the authors were of the opinion that as the subject had received little other attention in this country it would form a suitable topic for discussion at one of the Students' Society meetings.
The Past Population of Britain: An Archaeological Approach
Authors: Renn D. F.
Published: August 2016

Conjectural estimates of the early population of Britain are subject to wide margins of error. Professor Grahame Clark (1957) has put forward tentative figures of early prehistoric numbers, based upon the native population density in newly colonized lands. The Upper Palaeolithic population density of Britain was compared to that of Alaska in 1867 and the North-West Territories in 1911, and the Mesolithic to that of Tasmania. Since prehistory has no specific dates, being measured in periods of hundreds or even thousands of years, overall numbers must be similarly imprecise in date. Again, the colonial figures themselves are only estimates (the two Palaeolithic estimators being in the ratio 20:3), so that the estimates of prehistoric population might not even be of the correct order of magnitude.

Estimates of between a half and one and a half million have been made for the population of Roman Britain in the second century A.D., based upon different interpretations of the evidence for population density of town and country (Wheeler, 1930). Here we have agreement on the order of magnitude, but the estimates are still imprecise in date and size.
Some Legal Aspects of Reversionary Transactions
Authors: Johnson H. W.
Published: August 2016

The course of reading for the examination does no more than touch on the way in which the business of purchasing, or granting loans on, reversions is influenced by legislation. The object of this paper is to peel a second layer off the fruit of reversionary knowledge, rather than to bite too deeply at one point on its circumference. The standard work by Withers, running to 480 pages, gives evidence of the number of layers left undisturbed.

Whilst most of the matters mentioned on the following pages fall primarily within the province of the solicitor, the partnership between solicitor and actuary will be more efficient and beneficial to the client if each partner has a rudimentary grasp of the affairs of the other.
Some Statistical Problems arising from the Transaction of Motor Insurance Business
Authors: Beard R. E.
Published: August 2016

When the word statistics is used in connexion with non-life insurance the first reaction of most of those concerned with the day-today requirements of the business is to think in terms of the relationship between premiums and claims. In my talk tonight I shall not be concerned with this aspect but will be concerned with the structure of the risk processes underlying the business. In order to try to bring out some of the essential characteristics I have used the minimum of mathematics, using numerical examples to illustrate the points. Furthermore, in order to limit my talk to a reasonable time and to make it ‘live’ I have deliberately omitted many of the finer points which arise in practice to which regard must be had in using mathematical or statistical models to describe the actual situation.

At rock bottom the insurance industry rests on the operation of laws of chance. A hazard is recognized as being liable to give rise to a potential pecuniary liability, and in no time at all someone is prepared to provide a policy against such liability. In devising the policy, and in assessing the rate of premium to be charged, it is necessary to define the event which must happen before a claim can be admitted under the policy and to be satisfied that the happening of the event is fortuitous as far as the proposer is concerned. In life insurance difficulty seldom arises under either count but in non-life insurance the position is frequently very troublesome.
‘O & M’ and Job Evaluation
Authors: Cuthill J. G.
Published: August 2016

An Organization & Methods department is essentially advisory and should not have authority tomakeother departments adopt its recommendations. It is also consultative and cannot investigate any field of activity without an express invitation from whoever is responsible for that activity. It can of course always ask to be invited!

Organization and Methods is basically an examination into all aspects of a clerical organization, its methods and procedures and related activities.

‘Organization and Methods’ can be applied to:

Office equipment:Studying the machines and equipment available, and advising on equipment most suitable.

Office accommodation:Considering requirements for accommodation and how the best use can be made of the space available according to the nature of the work of individuals.
Variable Annuities and Variable Life Insurance in the United States of America
Authors: Leckie S. Hamilton
Published: August 2016

The purpose of this paper is to outline the development and current status of variable annuities and variable life insurance in the United States of America. The author was fortunate in being granted a Fellowship by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust which enabled him to travel extensively in North America for two months in the summer of 1971. It is pointed out that this paper is the result of a large number of impressions formed by the author and has no claim to be a comprehensive treatise on the subjects. However, it is hoped that the paper will be of real interest to actuaries and others in the United Kingdom.

Part I of the paper deals with variable annuities, Part II with variable life insurance, and Part III with the special problem of providing minimum death benefit guarantees and maturity value guarantees for these variable products. Variable annuities are much more established in the United States than in this country, but variable life insurance is just in the process of being developed. Mention will be made of the broader issues as well as of actuarial matters.
Paleoecology of a Pliocene coral thicket from North Carolina: an example of temporal change in community structure and function
Authors: Bailey Richard H. , Tedesco Steven A.
Published: August 2016

A two meter stratigraphic interval within the Chowan River Formation of North Carolina contains a thicket of branching coral,Septastrea crassa(Holmes), associated with a diverse macrofaunal assemblage. The thicket modified a local shelf habitat by providing protection and feeding opportunities for certain vagrant epifaunal species. Faunal adjustments wrought by the thicket and thicket growth represent autogenic succession. Coral growth rates and preservation suggest a time span of about 100–300 years for thicket development.

Bottom shoaling, associated with a eustatic regression, caused movement of a depth controlled environmental gradient during thicket growth. As the habitat changed, a plane bottom macrofaunal assemblage replaced the thicket assemblage by reordering abundances of intergradational species and introducing a few new species. Faunal density, diversity, trophic structure, and modes of life of component species were altered during replacement.

Observed temporal community changes are best explained as gradual faunal adjustments along a shelf stress gradient. Short term allogenic or autogenic events may temporarily perturb gradual changes. Changes associated with thicket development are interpreted as a brief autogenic perturbation of long term community replacement.
Systematics, hinge, and internal morphology of the Devonian bivalve, Nuculoidea corbuliformis (Hall and Whitfield)
Authors: Bailey J. Bowman
Published: August 2016

Although Nuculoidea corbuliformis (Hall and Whitfield) is the most widespread Devonian nuculid species in North America, the hinge and internal morphology have not been adequately described. A newly excavated hinge shows the dentition and resilifer to be fundamentally similar to those of other species of Nuculoidea, while the resilifer morphology and shell shape more closely link N. corbuliformis to post-Devonian nuculid species. An internal mold of a probable N. corbuliformis found among Hall's original syntypes (here restudied) shows typical nuculid interior morphology. These new data allow the problematic genus Nuculoidea Williams and Breger to be further clarified.

Comparisons with N. corbuliformis suggest that N. aquisgranensis (Beushausen), N. herzeri (Nettleroth), N. neda (Hall and Whitfield), N. niotica (Hall and Whitfield), N. trigona (Spriestersbach), N. macrorhyncha (Spriestersbach), and N. subtrigona (Simpson) are subjective junior synonyms.
First occurrence ofXenopus(Anura: Pipidae) on the Arabian Peninsula: A new species from the Upper Oligocene of Yemen
Authors: Henrici Amy C. , Báez Ana Maria
Published: August 2016

A freshwater interbed of the Yemen Volcanic Group in central western Yemen yielded impressions of numerous, articulated, mostly complete frog skeletons. Recent dating of the volcanics and the stratigraphic position of the fossil bearing bed in the sequence support a Late Oligocene age for the frogs. These frogs are described as a new species ofXenopus, a genus that is today mostly confined to subsaharan Africa, and they provide evidence of the former, wider distribution of this genus on the Afro-Arabian Plate. The new species,X. arabiensis, differs from otherXenopusin its long maxilla and maxillary tooth row. It resemblesX. muelleriin its dentate, azygous vomer and prominent, cone-shaped, distally-pointed prehallux, but differs fromX. muelleriin having an atlantal intercotylar notch and longer distal prehallux bone. Climatic changes during the Neogene probably led to the extinction ofXenopuson the Arabian Peninsula; however, the timing of this event is not certain.
The influence of Trypanites in the diagenesis of Devonian stromatoporoids
Authors: Pemberton S. George , Jones Brian , Edgecombe Gregory
Published: August 2016

Stromatoporoids from the Late Devonian (early Frasnian) Waterways Formation near Fort McMurray, Alberta, contain well preserved Trypanites Mägdefrau. The stromatoporoid heads are formed of an initial growth of Clathrocoilona inconstans Stearn that is encased by a second stage growth of Trupetostroma papulosum Stearn. These two stages were separated by a period of no growth and erosion. The first two generations of boring penetrated the skeleton of C. inconstans while the third generation borings penetrated both C. inconstans and T. papulosum. The borings in the stromatoporoids are filled with light colored micrite, dark colored micrite, skeletal fragments, dolomite, non-ferroan calcite, and ferroan calcite. Analysis of the borings, the growth stages of the stromatoporoids, the boring fill, and the orientation of the geopetal fabrics indicates that the stromatoporoids were subjected to repeated cycles of growth-boring-filling and reorientation. This complex interaction of biologic and physical reworking had a profound influence on the diagenetic transformation of the stromatoporoid heads. This example clearly illustrates the role that biogenic agents can play in the production of diagenetic fabrics of hard carbonate substrates.
Intra- and interspecific variation in internal structures of the genus Stenosarina (Brachiopoda, Terebratulida) using landmarks
Authors: Tort A. , Laurin B.
Published: August 2016

Although a number of brachiopod genera have been defined mainly from their internal structures, the fixity of those structures has rarely been investigated. Variability of the rather simple loops of two New Caledonian species of the Recent genus Stenosarina (Terebratulida), one species having a variant with endemic morphology, provides insight into the relationship between the two species. Procrustes methods based on landmarks are used. Intra-population variability is found to be of the same order of magnitude as inter-population variability. Moreover, the morphological distance between the endemic variant and the other specimens is greater than the distance between the two species of Stenosarina. The study also identifies a morphocline between the three forms of Stenosarina under study.
Phenotypic bradytely in the Costalocrinus-Barycrinus lineage of Paleozoic cladid crinoids
Authors: Kammer Thomas W.
Published: August 2016

Two new species of primitive cladid crinoids, Costalocrinus ibericus and C. thymos, from the Lower Devonian (Emsian) of northwest Spain, provide important information on the evolution of the Costalocrinus-Barycrinus lineage during the Devonian and Mississippian. Costalocrinus ibericus n. sp. is morphologically similar to Barycrinus rhombiferus (Owen and Shumard, 1852) from the Mississippian, except for the characters of the anal X plate and degree of calcification of the anal sac. These two species are separated by approximately 55 m.y. and provide evidence of slow morphologic change, or phenotypic bradytely, in this lineage. Such slow morphologic change is consistent with the previous interpretation of Barycrinus as an ecologic generalist. Very few other genera of Paleozoic crinoids evolved at such a slow rate. Costalocrinus thymos n. sp. is more typical of other species of Costalocrinus from the Middle Devonian and Lower Mississippian. Phylogenetic analysis suggests the ancestral lineage of the Mississippian genus Barycrinus evolved from Costalocrinus near the base of its radiation in the Early Devonian (Emsian).
Tommotiids from the Lower Cambrian of South China
Authors: Morris S. Conway , Menge Chen
Published: August 2016

Tommotiids are a geologically short-lived group of early skeletal fossils, most abundant in the Lower Cambrian. Redescriptions of a lapworthellid (Lapworthella reteYue, 1987) and a tannuolinid (Tannuolina zhangwentangiQian and Bengtson, 1989) from the Jiulaodong Formation, Maidiping, Sichuan, augment previous accounts.Lapworthella reteapproaches theL. dentata–L. schodackensiscomplex, but has a prominent external pattern of polygons that probably represent imprints of epithelial cells. Description ofTannuolina zhangwentangiemphasises ultrastructural features, including the mode of growth, development of canals, and possible epithelial imprints on the interior surfaces. Data on size variation of epithelial imprints in tommotiids are reviewed to try to infer possible variations in genome content of the cells. In addition, poorly preserved lapworthellids (Lapworthellasp.) are described from the Qiongzhusi Formation, Meishucun, Yunnan.
An unusual new lepidopleurid polyplacophoran (Mollusca) from the Germanic Muschelkalk (Triassic)
Authors: Geyer Gerd , Kukla Peter A.
Published: August 2016

A fragmentary and probably immature polyplacophoran shell from the Middle Triassic Germanic Muschelkalk is presented. Morphological peculiarities of the specimen are a stiff connection of the head valve to the adjoining intermediate valve and the presence of a yet undescribed brim-like shell constituent, informally called border-plate herein. The unusually well-preserved shell structure is discussed in detail comprising tegmentum, crossed-lamellar p. hypostracum and the (articulamental?) border-plate. Characteristics indicate a systematic position within the order Lepidopleurina.
Aristocystites, a recumbent diploporid (Echinodermata) from the Middle and Late Ordovician of Bohemia, ČSSR
Authors: Parsley Ronald L.
Published: August 2016

The Ordovician diploporidAristocystitesBarrande lived recumbently on the seafloor but never evolved marginal frame plates or flexible tesselated surfaces. Flume studies on 1:1 scale models clearly indicate that this genus lived attached by an aboral holdfast with the aboral end of the theca facing into the current. The oral end, with its paired brachioles, fed in vortices generated in the lee of the theca. Optical current velocities for feeding probably ranged from 6 to 18 cm/sec. Growth of thecal plates and diplopore structures originated in galleried stereom. Secondary thickening occurred by growth of labyrinthine stereom.Aristocystitesprobably pressurized its gut as is suggested by the massive anal pyramid. Peristaltic waves through the gut would have enhanced body-fluid circulation and circulation through the diplopores.Aristocystitesshows no signs of simplification in the ambulacral area. The transversely oriented, bilateral, ambulacral system is considered to be primitive. Other species synonymized withAristocystites bohemicusBarrande from the Caradocian Zahořany Beds of Bohemia areA. desideratus, A. grandisculum, A. idealis, andA. rudis. Aristocystites metroiParsley and Prokop, n. sp., is described from the upper Zahořany shale facies and the Bohdalec Formation from the Prague area.
Late Ordovician solitary rugose corals of the St. Lawrence Lowland, Québec
Authors: Elias Robert J. , Brandt Danita S. , Clark T. H.
Published: August 2016

Two species of solitary rugose corals occur in Late Ordovician strata of the St. Lawrence Lowland. Grewingkia canadensis (Billings, 1862) appears in the upper part of the Nicolet River Formation (upper St. Hilaire Member) and is far more common in the overlying Pontgravé River Formation. A single specimen of Streptelasma divaricans (Nicholson, 1875) is known from the Pontgravé River. Their presence confirms that this area is situated within the Richmond Province and that the upper Nicolet River, as well as the Pontgravé River, is Richmondian in age. Solitary Rugosa were introduced to this biogeographic province during an early Richmondian transgression, marked in the upper Nicolet River Formation by a coarser clastic interval. That event permits correlation between the St. Lawrence Lowland in the eastern part of the Richmond Province and the North American type Upper Ordovician (Cincinnatian Series) of the Cincinnati Arch region in the western part of the province.

A comparative morphologic, paleoecologic, and biostratinomic analysis of solitary corals indicates that normal, low-energy conditions were interrupted occasionally by high-energy events (probably storms) during deposition of the upper Nicolet River and Pontgravé River Formations. Water depth increased northwestward in the St. Lawrence Lowland area. Deposition of these siliciclastic prodelta to delta front sediments was generally continuous and the sedimentation rate was usually high because of rapid basin subsidence and comparatively close proximity to the Taconic Mountains. In the western part of the Richmond Province, farther from the source area, carbonate as well as clastic sediments accumulated, periods of nondeposition were more frequent, and the sedimentation rate was relatively low. Corals disappeared from the St. Lawrence Lowland area during the Richmondian, when delta top facies of the Bécancour River Formation succeeded the Pontgravé River Formation due to a glacio-eustatic regression and progradation of the Queenston Delta.
Middle Jurassic corals from the Wallowa terrane, west-central Idaho
Authors: Stanley George D. , Beauvais Louise
Published: August 2016

New colonial corals from near Pittsburg Landing, Idaho, are clearly dated as Middle Jurassic (Bajocian) in age. They consist of Coenastraea hyatti (Wells) and Thecomeandra vallieri n. sp., and occur abundantly with molluscan fossils in thin, biostromal limestone beds in the Coon Hollow Formation. These fossils are the youngest shelly faunas yet known from the Wallowa terrane. The similarity of the coral and bivalve fauna to endemic faunas of the Western Interior suggests that during Middle Jurassic time, the Wallowa terrane was close enough to the North American craton for faunal exchange with the Western Interior Embayment. The Pittsburg Landing corals appear dissimilar from Middle Jurassic corals known from other terranes of the western Cordillera.
Modiomytilus, a new mytilid bivalve from the Tertiary of southern Patagonia
Authors: Griffin Miguel
Published: August 2016

Modiomytilus n. gen. is described from Tertiary sediments exposed in the southwestern corner of Santa Cruz province (Argentina). This large mytilid is characterized by its ornamentation of strong comarginal undulations, its smooth ligamentary ridge, and its relatively large anterior adductor muscle. Two new species are assigned to it: Modiomytilus argentinensis n. sp., from the Centinela Formation (Miocene) south of Lago Argentino, and Modiomytilus mercerati n. sp., from the Río Turbio Formation (Eocene) in Sierra Dorotea. Although other species belonging to this new taxon and previously referred to Mytilus have been described from Tertiary sediments in the region, none are known so far from rocks of comparable age outside Patagonia.
New Eocene marine bivalves from Baja California Sur, Mexico
Authors: Squires Richard L. , Demetrion Robert
Published: August 2016

A new genus, a new subgenus, and five new species of pterioid bivalves are described from shallow-marine faunas in the middle lower to middle Eocene Bateque Formation in the vicinity of Laguna San Ignacio to about 105 km southward, Pacific coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico. Batequeus n. gen. is a medium-sized pectinid with equally convex valves, a short byssal notch, anterior auricles smaller than the posterior ones, the left valve with numerous very closely spaced radial riblets that show the imbricated growth lines very well, the right valve with about 30 low, flat-topped radial ribs that can be grooved, and intercalary ribs on both valves. It is only known from its type species, Batequeus mezquitalensis n. sp., which is from the middle Eocene part of the Bateque Formation. Spondylus batequensis n. sp., a very spinose species, is from the middle lower Eocene part of the Bateque Formation and is only the second reported Spondylus from the lower Eocene of the west coast of North America. Pycnodonte (Phygraea) pacifica n. sp., a species characterized by a radial sulcus that originates in the umbo area, occurs in both the middle lower and middle Eocene parts of the Bateque Formation. Phygraea has not been reported previously from the west coast of North America. Pycnodonte (Pegma) n. subgen. has a plicate left valve with a large attachment area (that can cover the entire valve) and a right valve that usually has an inflated smooth central area surrounded by plicate margins. It is only known from its type species, Pycnodonte (Pegma) bajaensis n. sp., which occurs in both the middle lower and middle Eocene parts of the Bateque Formation. Cubitostrea mezquitalensis n. sp., a strongly ornamented species, is from the middle Eocene part of the Bateque Formation and is the first occurrence of this genus from the west coast of North America.
Late Permian ammonoid cephalopod Cyclolobus from Western Australia
Authors: Glenister Brian F. , Baker Cathy , Furnish W. M. , Dickins J. M.
Published: August 2016

A single specimen of Cyclolobus persulcatus Rothpletz (1892), a species interpreted as a primitive member of the genus, is described from the Cherrabun Member of the Hardman Formation, Liveringa Group, Canning Basin, Western Australia. It is the youngest Permian ammonoid known from Australia. Type and other representatives of C. persulcatus from Indonesia (Timor) are part of the “Amarassi fauna,” which is considered post-Guadalupian. Cyclolobus is sporadically abundant and widely distributed in the Dzhulfian Stage, and probably extends into the overlying Dorashamian Stage.
Sphenothallus (“Vermes”) from the Tremadocian Dumugol Formation, Korea
Authors: Choi Duck K.
Published: August 2016

Specimens of Sphenothallus ruedemanni (Kobayashi, 1934), which were originally assigned to Serpulites, are described from the Asaphellus Zone (Tremadocian) of the Dumugol Formation, Korea. Previously, Sphenothallus was known to occur in Middle Ordovician to Permian rocks, thus making Sphenothallus ruedemanni the earliest record of this genus. This species is characterized by a distally expanding tube with smooth to variously wrinkled surface. The tube is presently composed of quartz, chlorite, and/or muscovite, which appear to have replaced calcium phosphate. The zoological affinity of this tube-building animal is still uncertain.
Enigmatic eight-meter trace fossils in the Lower Pennsylvanian Lee Sandstone, central Appalachian Basin, Tennessee
Authors: Wnuk Christopher , Maberry John O.
Published: August 2016

Enigmatic tubular trace fossils up to eight meters long occur in the Lower Pennsylvanian Middlesboro Member of the Lee Formation. Two morphotypes occur: type 1 trace fossils are plain, smooth, vertical, nonbranching, parallel-walled, tubular structures; type 2 trace fossils branch, have walls with faint vertical striations, regularly or irregularly spaced nodes, and funnel-shaped terminations. Sandstone casts filling type 2 structures have helical spiral morphology, and, in rare individuals, faint meniscate fills have been observed. Both trace-fossil morphotypes have poorly cemented wall linings containing framboidal pyrite, amorphous carbon, quartz sand, and poorly preserved fecal material.

The trace fossils occur in a massive, structureless, channel-form sandstone, originating at the contact between a channel lag and the overlying massive fill. The stratigraphic sequence is interpreted to represent a barrier island transgressing an estuarine facies. A tidal inlet within the barrier facies scoured into the underlying estuarine sediments. Subsequent rapid filling of the inlet led to the deposition of the massive sandstone.

Origin of these structures is uncertain. The preponderance of evidence favors the hypothesis that the structures are escape burrows of animals that had colonized, or were concentrated in, the lag and were suddenly buried by the deposition of the massive sand. However, no likely burrower has been identified, and several characteristics of the structures and the enclosing sediments indicate that they may be completely inorganic in origin.
Reidentification of Portheus patagonicus Ameghino, 1901, a supposed fish from the middle Tertiary of Patagonia, as a delphinoid cetacean
Authors: Cione Alberto Luis , Cozzuol Mario Alberto
Published: August 2016

Portheus patagonicus Ameghino, 1901, described on the basis of an isolated tooth from the Leonian Stage (Upper Oligocene–Lower Miocene) of Patagonia, was interpreted as belonging to an ichthyodectiform fish. Recently, the holotype was relocated and an additional tooth was found. Comparison of both specimens and some additional information permit the identification of the teeth as belonging to a delphinoid cetacean of the family Kentriodontidae. This is the first report of this family in the southern Atlantic region.
Medusaegraptus mirabilisRuedemann as a noncalcified dasyclad alga
Authors: Duca Steven T. Lo
Published: August 2016

Medusaegraptus mirabilisRuedemann was originally described as a dendroid graptolite and is currently listed in theTreatise on Invertebrate Paleontologyamong graptolites incertae sedis. Recently, several localities yielding abundantM. mirabiliswere discovered, prompting renewed interest in the taxonomic affinities of this species. Based on a study of the morphology and paleoecology ofM. mirabilis, this species is herein considered to represent a noncalcified dasyclad alga. Other species ofMedusaegraptusare similarly considered.

Medusaegraptid-bearing strata commonly contain other exceptionally preserved fossils and represent conservation lagerstaetten. Consideration of medusaegraptids as dasyclad algae restricts the depth at which these deposits could have occurred.
The constructor of the ichnofossil Chubutolithes
Authors: Genise Jorge F. , Bown Thomas M.
Published: August 2016

The name Chubutolithes was proposed by Ihering (1922) for an unknown type of fossil occurring in Eocene continental rocks of Patagonia, Argentina. Bown and Ratcliffe (1988) demonstrated that Chubutolithes is a trace fossil; specifically, it is the fossil nest of a mud-dauber. The latter authors also suggested that Chubutolithes was constructed by an insect belonging to the hymenopteran family Sphecidae, and coined the specific name C. gaimanensis for the unusual trace fossil. Comparison with a Recent nest of the mud-dauber Auplopus (Pompilidae; Figure 1.1) suggests that Auplopus is a much more likely candidate as the architect of Chubutolithes than are any sphecid mud-daubers.
Cambrian and Devonian invertebrate collections at the Milwaukee Public Museum
Authors: Sumpter Paula M. , Sheehan Peter M. , Watkins Rodney
Published: August 2016

The Milwaukee Public Museum has recently completed the computerized curation of its Cambrian and Devonian invertebrate fossil collections. This notice is intended to alert the paleontological community of the availability of these collections for study. The curation was supported by the Biological Research Resources Program of the National Science Foundation. The Cambrian and Devonian collections have approximately 87,000 specimens from 1,977 localities. Isolated specimens were counted directly, but counts of multiple specimens on slabs are conservative. Thus, the number of specimens represents a minimum number of fossils and more careful counting of material on slabs will increase the total.
Notice of transfer of specimens figured by Rousseau H. Flower
Authors: Wolberg Donald L.
Published: August 2016

During a long and productive career in paleontology, Rousseau H. Flower (1913-1988) described and figured more than 400 taxa. The bulk of the very significant fossil collection that Rousseau worked with remains at the NMBM&MR in Socorro. Material from these collections continues to be in demand by paleontologists and efforts at the NMBM&MR are intended to make described material available. Every effort is being made to return material Rousseau borrowed from other institutions. The NMBM&MR is also concerned that the results of Rousseau's studies concerned with NMBM&MR collections be preserved in manner as coherent as possible. This is the first notice of transfer of NMBM&MR specimens; material listed herein is now reposited at the Smithsonian Institution. The material listed here was published in 1964 as part of NMBM&MR Memoir 12,The Nautiloid Order Ellesmeroceratida (Cephalopoda). Because of the nature of the collections, the process of identifying described material and checking data against the published record and our internal catalog is difficult and time consuming. In addition, Memoir 12 dealt with a great deal of material. Therefore, the transfer of the remainder of the fossils described in Memoir 12 will be noted at a later date.
Small shelly fossils from Antarctica: an Early Cambrian faunal connection with Australia
Authors: Evans K. R. , Rowell A. J.
Published: August 2016

Kennardiids, members of a family of organisms that bore phosphatic sclerites, are present in Antarctica; previously, they had been found only in Australia. This new occurrence reinforces the concept of a faunal province shared between the continents during Early Cambrian time. Although the two known genera of kennardiids,DailyatiaBischoff andKennardiaLaurie occur in Antarctica and Australia, no species are common to both continents.

Dailyatiais interpreted as having had tightly fitting sclerites that armored a bilaterally symmetrical, bipolar body; two alternative reconstructions are presented. Taxa include two new species,Dailyatia braddockiandDailyatia odyssei, and two unnamed species ofKennardia.
Late Eocene Decapod Crustacea from North Westland, South Island, New Zealand
Authors: Feldmann Rodney M. , Maxwell Phillip A.
Published: August 2016

Eight species of brachyuran decapod crustaceans are recorded from coastal outcrops of Island Sandstone between Perpendicular Point and Punakaiki, Westland, New Zealand. The fauna consists of three raninids—Laeviranina pororariensis (Glaessner), L. keyesi n. sp., Lyreidus bennetti n. sp.; two portunids—Rhachiosoma granuliferum (Glaessner), Pororaria eocenica Glaessner; a goneplacid—Carcinoplax temikoensis n. sp.; and two majids—Leptomithrax griffini n. sp., Notomithrax allani n. sp. Together, they form the most diverse brachyuran assemblage yet described from New Zealand. The decapods are preserved in unusual elliptical masses, with their long axes typically parallel to bedding, containing superbly preserved cuticle often surrounded by well-formed fecal pellets, probably of decapod origin. The accumulations are interpreted to be mechanical concentrations within depressions produced by decapods or associated spatangoid echinoids. Although seven of the species have been recorded only from the Island Sandstone, Rhachiosoma granuliferum (Glaessner) is now known to occur in the correlative deep-water facies of the Kaiata Formation in North Westland, as well as in the Tapui Sandstone, North Otago (middle Eocene), and from coeval rocks at Snowdrift Quarry, southeast Otago. The raninids suggest comparison with congeneric forms from Snowdrift Quarry and the Tapui Sandstone, as well as with the La Meseta Formation, Seymour Island, Antarctica. Based upon associated foraminiferans, a Kaiatan–Runangan (late Eocene) age is assigned to this fauna. The occurrences of Carcinoplax, Leptomithrax, and Notomithrax represent paleobiogeographic and stratigraphic records for the genera.
Conodonts of Caradocian (Late Ordovician) age from the Cliefden Caves Limestone, southeastern Australia
Authors: Savage Norman M.
Published: August 2016

New species ofAphelognathus, Belodina, Taoqupognathus, andYaoxianognathushave been identified in the Late Ordovician Cliefden Caves Limestone Group in central-western New South Wales, Australia. Of theAphelognathusspecies,Aphelognathus percivalin. sp. andA. webbyin. sp. occur in the basal Gleesons Limestone Member andA. packhamin. sp. andA. stevensin. sp. occur 30 m higher in the Wyoming Limestone Member. It seems likely from the similarity of several of the elements thatA. packhamiis closely related toA. percivali, andA. stevensitoA. webbyi. Yaoxianognathus wrightin. sp. occurs in the Gleesons Limestone Member but not in the Wyoming Limestone Member.Belodina confluens, Belodina hillaen. sp.,Belodinan. sp.,Panderodus gracilis, Taoqupognathus philipin. sp., andPhragmodus? tunguskaensisoccur at both horizons. The conodonts suggest a middle to late Caradocian (mid-Shermanian to mid-Edenian) age for the lowest part of the Cliefden Caves Limestone. The occurrence in southeastern Australia of the formsTaoqupognathus, Yaoxianognathus, andPhragmodus?tunguskaensissuggest affinities to coeval faunas in China and eastern Siberia. The four new species ofAphelognathusare distinct from known species in the Late Ordovician of North America and Europe but they may help characterize a paleobiogeographic region that includes eastern Australia and southeast Asia.
Paleoenvironmental distribution of microfossils and stromatolites in the Upper Proterozoic Backlundtoppen Formation, Spitsbergen
Authors: Knoll Andrew H. , Swett Keene , Burkhardt Elizabeth
Published: August 2016

The Upper Proterozoic (ca. 700–800 Ma old) Backlundtoppen Formation, northeastern Spitsbergen, preserves an abundant and varied record of ancient microbial life. Five distinctive microfossil assemblages occur in five equally distinct sedimentary settings; differences among the assemblages appear to reflect original ecological heterogeneity, although taphonomic circumstance may contribute to some distinctions. Microfossil assemblages occur in: oncolites, oolites, and pisolites; stratiform stromatolites and associated intraclastic rudites; partially silicified micrites; and siltites interbedded with quartz arenites. Individual assemblages contain one to eight differentiable taxa; a minimum of 17 distinct populations is present in the formation as a whole. Additional microbial community diversity can be inferred from the presence of domal, columnar, pseudocolumnar, and coniform stromatolites, none of which contains microfossils. On the basis of macrostructure, four stromatolite types appear to be present, but only three distinct mat-building communities can be inferred from microstructural features.Eohyellaelongata n. sp., a euendolithic cyanobacterium found in silicified pisolites, is described as new.