bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
First record of the Tethyan genus Volutilithes (Gastropoda: Volutidae) in the Paleogene of the Gulf Coastal Plain, with a discussion of Tethyan molluscan assemblages in the Gulf Coastal Plain and Florida
Authors: Givens Charles R.
Published: August 2016

Lapparia sp. A of Toulmin (1977), from the early Eocene Hatchetigbee Formation of Alabama, is referable to the Tethyan genus Volutilithes and is conspecific with Voluta clarae Harris. This is the first certain record of Volutilithes in the Paleogene of the Gulf Coastal Plain and only the third record of the genus in North America. Trans-Atlantic migration of this tropical genus to the New World apparently occurred during the early Eocene. Its northward expansion into the higher latitudes of Alabama and southern California was probably in response to early Eocene climatic warming.

In addition to Volutilithes, many other molluscs with Tethyan affinities are present in the Paloegene deposits of the Gulf Coastal Plain. These Tethyan elements, however, differ from those reported from the Eocene of peninsular Florida. The presence of a filter-bridge barrier, the Suwannee Channel, between the eastern Gulf shelf and the Floridian carbonate platform during the Paleogene may account for this difference.
Redeposited Elvinia Zone (Upper Cambrian) trilobites from the Collier Shale, Ouachita Mountains, west-central Arkansas
Authors: Hohensee Steven R. , Stitt James H.
Published: August 2016

Trilobites assigned to the Elvinia Zone (Lower Franconian, Upper Cambrian) have been recovered from the Collier Shale in the Ouachita Mountains of west-central Arkansas. The trilobites are preserved as disarticulated exuviae, and are found in both dark-colored limestone clasts and dark, thinly-bedded carbonate layers. Field observations and petrologic/petrographic evidence indicate that these trilobites were originally deposited in a deep-water, outer shelf setting, and that shortly after deposition they were transported by sediment gravity flows to the continental slope or basinal plain.

The faunal assemblage is very similar taxonomically and taphonomically to faunas of the Elvinia Zone previously reported from North American shelf environments. Two distinctive trilobite assemblages occur in the Collier Shale. Most common is a diverse fauna that is correlative with the middle to upper part of the Elvinia Zone in Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. One locality yielded numerous trilobites characteristic of the Irvingella major Subzone, which occurs at the top of the Elvinia Zone in these areas. These Elvinia Zone trilobites belong to the North American Faunal Province, a largely endemic group restricted to shelf environments around the perimeter of the North American craton. Their occurrence in the Collier Shale strongly indicates that the original site of Collier deposition was proximal to the Upper Cambrian shelf margin and that the Ouachita sedimentary section is not an exotic terrane.

More than 7,900 trilobites were identified during this study; they are assigned to 26 genera and 27 species. The family Cliffidae is proposed for a group of trilobites that includes species of Cliffia Wilson, Aphelotoxon Palmer (junior synonym Ponumia Hu), Drabia Wilson, and possibly Elyaspis Kurtz. Three new genera are erected (Kymagnostus, Pyttstrigis, and Jessievillia) and 10 new species are described and illustrated (Apachia genaitholix, Cliffia magnacilis, Dellea planafrons, Iddingsia hapsis, Jessievillia radiatus, Kymagnostus harti, Neoagnostus? dilatus, Aphelotoxon lumaleasa, Pulchricapitus fetosus, and Pyttstrigis dicilia).
Paolia vetusta Smith, 1871 (Insecta: Protorthoptera), from the Mansfield Formation (Pennsylvanian), Indiana
Authors: Maples Christopher G.
Published: August 2016

Paolia vetusta Smith, 1871a, from the Hindostan whetstone beds of Indiana (Namurian), thought to have been lost since 1918, has been found and currently is housed at Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana. Paolia vetusta is illustrated photographically for the first time. The major character difference between Smith's (1871a) figure and the actual specimen is the lack in the latter of an extensive archedictyon extending over the entire specimen. Currently, the family Paoliidae is defined as having Sc terminating on R. Paolia vetusta clearly shows Sc terminating on C. Therefore, the Sc terminus should have no taxonomic significance at the family level.
An anomalous specimen of the unstalked Cretaceous crinoid Uintacrinus socialis Grinnell, 1876: regeneration or taphonomy?
Authors: Schneider Jay A.
Published: August 2016

A specimen of the unstalked Cretaceous crinoid Uintacrinus socialis Grinnell, 1876, has a theca with an anomalous appearance that may be attributed to either inaccurate regeneration or unusual taphonomy. The former would entail regeneration of brachials from pinnulars, and inaccurate regeneration of the arms themselves. The latter would imply that the theca was broken into at least three pieces, and then the pieces were rotated with respect to each other. The presence of broken plates and sediment in the line of breakage indicates that the specimen was broken after death, and the taphonomic explanation is favored. Of the hundreds of known specimens of this species, this is the only one with such an appearance.
Compaginatichnus: a new ichnogenus from Ordovician flysch of eastern Canada
Authors: Pickerill Ron K.
Published: August 2016

Upper Ordovician flysch of the Matapédia Group of New Brunswick, eastern Canada, contains many examples of burrows that possess an upper meniscate portion and a fecal pellet-packed lower portion. A new ichnogenus,Compaginatichnus, is proposed for these burrows and its type ichnospecies,C. forbesi, is described in detail.
Giant late Eocene marine birds (Pelecaniformes: Pelagornithidae) from northwestern Oregon
Authors: Goedert James L.
Published: August 2016

Fossil bird bones from the late Eocene Keasey Formation and the latest Eocene Pittsburg Bluff Formation in northwestern Oregon are the earliest records of the pelecaniform family Pelagornithidae for the Pacific Basin. These fossils also represent the first late Eocene records of the family from the Northern Hemisphere, the second late Eocene record worldwide, and indicate that these animals were among the largest of flying birds. Unfortunately, the fragmentary condition of these fossils and the currently confused state of pelagornithid systematics prevents the assignment of these specimens to new species at this time.
Trends in the description of extinct genera among mammalian orders
Authors: Peczkis Jan
Published: August 2016

Probably 90 percent of extant mammals are already known (Goto, 1982), while extinct ones are continually being discovered. Seldom, if ever, has there been an analysis of the approximate rates of discovery of extinct genera per order. Specialists work within their groups and seldom see how their orders compare with those outside their specialty. Questions about intensity of research (on a given order), splitting versus lumping, and general collective interest in an order can partly be answered through a comparative analysis with other orders.
A cryogenic density separation technique for conodont and heavy mineral separations
Authors: Morrow J. R. , Webster G. D.
Published: August 2016

Procedures for the use of the nontoxic sodium polytungstate for heavy mineral separations in the study of conodonts or heavy minerals have been described by Callahan (1987), Krukowski (1988), and Savage (1988). These procedures are rapidly being adapted in industrial and university laboratories because they are easy to apply, provide excellent results, and avoid the potential toxicity of most heavy mineral separation mediums. However, the settling time required for most described techniques using sodium polytungstate solution (sp. gr. 1.0-3.1 gcm-3) is considerable and most of the fluid is not immediately reusable. Thus, large quantities of this expensive fluid are required to process multiple samples. Merrill (1987) described the cryogenic density separation of conodonts, noting the rapidity of the technique. The purpose of this paper is to describe modifications of the cryogenic technique. These modifications allow immediate reuse of unwashed portions (80-95 percent per sample) of the heavy medium (thus requiring smaller amounts of the heavy fluid) and increase the rapidity of the technique, especially when separating larger samples (7-25 g).
Lyre-shaped hornerid bryozoan colonies: homeomorphy in colony form between Paleozoic Fenestrata and Cenozoic Cyclostomata
Authors: McKinney Frank K. , Taylor Paul D. , Zullo Victor A.
Published: August 2016

Reticulate Hornera reteramae (Bryozoa, order Cyclostomata) have been discovered as free-lying, lyre-shaped colonies in the Castle Hayne Limestone (Eocene) in North Carolina. These specimens represent a striking instance of homeomorphy in colony form with the Late Mississippian genera Lyropora and Lyroporella of the order Fenestrata.

Bryozoans with reticulate growth habit most commonly develop upright colonies. Living representatives generally grow in quiet environments or microenvironments, and fossils are generally found in situ in quiet-water deposits. However, lyre-shaped Hornera reteramae occur in skeletal packstones inferred to have been deposited in a moderate-energy, shallow, open shelf environment near normal wave base. Upper Mississippian lyre-shaped colonies are preserved in skeletal packstones and grainstones in localized channels or on upper surfaces of low-angle cross-bedded sheets interpreted as high-energy, marine shoal deposits. Modification of the reticulate growth habit to low, peripherally weighted, free-lying structures apparently allowed invasion of higher energy sand bottoms, both in Mississippian and Eocene times.
Paleoecological significance of a turritelline gastropod-dominated assemblage in the Cretaceous of South Carolina
Authors: Allmon Warren D. , Knight James L.
Published: August 2016

Blocks of sandy limestone dredged from the bottom of a quarry in eastern Lee County, South Carolina, contain a turritelline gastropod-dominated macrofossil assemblage, including age-diagnostic Maastrichtian ammonites. Although turritelline-dominated assemblages are common in other areas and ages, this is the first report of such an assemblage of any age from South Carolina and the first Cretaceous turritelline-dominated assemblage from eastern North America. Whereas the matrix of the turritelline layer is calcareous, the carbonate is present only as cement and the fossil assemblage did not form in a typically carbonate-dominated environment. This fact agrees with the observed absence of “turritella limestones” in the Cretaceous. Such limestones are common in the Paleogene but absent in the Neogene. This pattern is consistent with the hypothesis that turritellines as a group have become less thermophilic since the Cretaceous.
Mississippian (Chesterian) bivalves from the Pennsylvanian stratotype area in West Virginia and Virginia
Authors: Hoare R. D.
Published: August 2016

Diverse bivalve faunules in the Upper Mississippian (Chesterian) Bluestone and Hinton Formations in southern West Virginia and southwestern Virginia contain 49 species representing 29 genera. Of these, six new species are proposed: Ptychopteria pusilla, Streblochondria mutata, Streblopteria girtyi, Ectogrammysia inaffecta, E. prolata, and Cardiomorpha obovata. The Hinton and Bluestone Formations fall into Mamet's Foraminiferal Zones 18 and 19, respectively.
Mackenzie Gordon, Jr. (1913–1992)
Authors: Henry Thomas W. , Dutro J. Thomas
Published: August 2016

Mackenzie Gordon, Jr., 78 (Figure 1), was a geologist and paleontologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for more than 40 years. Mac, as he was affectionately known, died of cardiac arrest at his home on 30 January 1992 after a very brief illness. He is survived by his wife Barbara Walker Gordon of Washington, D.C.
Hurricane effects on shallow-water cryptic reef molluscs, Fiji Islands
Authors: Kobluk David R. , Lysenko Mary A.
Published: August 2016

An assemblage of 343 species of cryptic, shelled molluscs was identified in three large samples from shallow subtidal and intertidal shelter habitats under rubble and corals at Malololailai Fiji in 1983, 1984, and 1985. One species was a polyplacophoran, 273 were gastropods (38 families), and 69 were bivalves (21 families). Cryptic gastropods were more abundant than bivalves, but showed a reduction in abundance relative to bivalves from 1983 to 1985. The abundances of many cryptic molluscs show dramatic adjustments from 1983 to 1985, chiefly due to hurricanes in 1983 and 1985, showing a decrease in equitability with increased physical disturbance. The abundance and diversity of molluscan predators in the crypts means that predation in these habitats may be substantial.

The gastropod sample diversity showed the greatest change during the 1984 post-hurricane recovery period. The 1985 hurricanes affected the sample diversity by shifting the gastropod diversity closer to what it was after the 1983 hurricane. The bivalves underwent a similar shift in sample diversity, although larger numbers of individuals in proportionately more species survived the hurricanes.

The cryptic bivalves exploited space in new crypts, while maintaining their rate of increase in abundance in the recovery period after the 1983 hurricane and through the two hurricanes in 1985. The gastropods declined in abundance after the 1983 hurricane. They recovered after the 1985 hurricanes by doubling their abundance, showing that they could exploit new resources in crypts. This increase in the gastropod population was not proportional to the increase in available cryptic space. This may mean they were still recovering in August 1985, or they may have been unable to capture their portion of cryptic space in competition with other organisms during recovery.

The 1985 hurricanes did not have much effect on the overall molluscan diversity, a possible result of pruning by the 1983 hurricane of molluscs unable to survive storms. Because there was only a short interval between the hurricanes, many molluscs that survived the 1983 event were still in the population, so that the cryptic molluscs probably were better able to deal with the effects of the 1985 hurricanes than they would have been before the 1983 hurricane. The result was that the sample diversity after the 1983 hurricane increased during the recovery period but did not decline later even though the population was devastated by hurricanes in 1985. This lends support to intermediate disturbance models linking increasing or stable diversity with disturbances spaced at intervals allowing recovery.
The Pandorinellina? boucoti lineage (Lochkovian, Devonian, conodonts)
Authors: Murphy Michael A.
Published: August 2016

Pandorinellina? boucoti (Klapper) is based on material from the Lochkovian–Pragian (Devonian) section at Royal Creek, Yukon Territory, Canada, where it is found with species of the pesavis and sulcatus Zones. The species is also a rare element in the late Lochkovian–early Pragian faunas in the Toquima Range, central Nevada, where it is found within the same zones. Pandorinellina? boucoti has been recovered from 17 beds in sequence at the IK IV section in the McMonnigal Limestone and shows a morphologic change from a Pa element with a simple blade, small lateral lobes, and an enlarged triangular anterior denticle to a Pa element with ornamented pillars surmounting both platform lobes. The simple blade form is present in beds IK IV 21–16. The next overlying bed yields specimens with a single pillar-like enlargement of the larger platform lobe and a slight swelling on the smaller platform lobe. The following beds (IK IV 14–6) have only morphotypes with the pillar-like enlargement on both platform lobes.

This morphologic change effectively divides the upper pesavis Zone into two segments in the IK IV section. The rarity of this species, however, will probably limit the usefulness of the lineage in refined biostratigraphy and the sequence of morphotypes needs to be verified in other areas. Nevertheless, where present, P.? boucoti should improve the accuracy of correlation in the late Lochkovian and early Pragian.
Transfers of algal, microfossil, plant, and vertebrate materials to the University of California Museum of Paleontology
Authors: Lipps Jere H. , Wetmore Karen L.
Published: August 2016

The university of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP), located on the Berkeley Campus, is a major repository of fossils and paleontological materials. The collection, one of the largest in the nation, originated in 1873 and has been added to continuously since then. In 1921, the Museum of Paleontology was officially initiated with an endowment though the generosity of Annie Alexander of Oakland, California (Grinnell, 1958). The UCMP collections are divided into four specimen collection management units and one collection of paleontological materials, such as rock, sediment, and amber samples, and various teaching collections. The specimen collection units are Fossil Prokaryotes and Protists, Fossil and Recent Invertebrates, Paleobotany and Palynology, and Vertebrate Paleontology. Each of these units has its own manager and each consists of hundreds of thousands of specimens or more and thousands of primary and secondary type specimens. The Museum is supported by the Annie Alexander Endowment and the University of California, Berkeley. It has a staff of 11, and a group of faculty curators, affiliate faculty curators from other University of California campuses, research associates, and associated graduate and undergraduate students. It is a general purpose research museum open to the scientific community and, although it does no formal instruction, it provides instructional exhibits and teaching collections at Berkeley and other campuses. It publishes Paleobios (ISSN 0031-0298), an occasional publication containing a variety of paleontological, peer-reviewed papers. UCMP is also involved in public and school activities at the Museum in Berkeley and at the University of California, Berkeley, Museum of Science, Art and Culture, at Blackhawk Plaza, Danville, California.
Heronallenella boltovskoyiandPlanulinoides srinivasani, new species of benthic foraminifera from the Indian Ocean
Authors: Gupta Anil K. , Gupta Barun K. Sen
Published: August 2016

Two new species of benthic foraminifera,Heronallenella boltovskoyiandPlanulinoides srinivasani, are present at four Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) sites in the tropical Indian Ocean (Table 1 and Figure 1). Both species are rare, each constituting less than 1 percent of the assemblage (> 149μm size fraction) in which it occurs. The former, belonging to a new genus, occurs in Pliocene to Holocene sediments of DSDP sites 219, 237, 238, and 253, whereas the latter is present in the late Pleistocene of sites 237 and 238. The stratigraphic placement of the samples is after Srinivasan and Singh (1989) for site 219 and after Gupta (1987) for sites 237, 238, and 253. The descriptions of the new taxa are given below; the suprageneric classification is taken from Loeblich and Tappan (1987).
Crescenticythere, a new enigmatic ostracode from the Tertiary of New Zealand
Authors: Ayress Michael A.
Published: August 2016

During examination of the large ostracode assemblage collections at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Geology & Geophysics, Lower Hutt, New Zealand, a single specimen of unusual shape was encountered. So unusual is the crescentic outline and infolding of the entire shell periphery that assignment even to a phylum was difficult, and it was only upon scanning electron microscopic study that subcentral muscle scars were clearly observed and these enabled confident identification of the specimen as an ostracode. One specimen is not usually considered sufficient to propose a new taxon; however, in this case there is no doubt that this unique specimen clearly represents a new species, genus, and probably family of Ostracoda. A search for additional specimens from the type unit is underway, but has, as yet, been unsuccessful to find this rare intriguing ostracode. Unlike other unusual ostracodes described from the Southern Hemisphere such as the punciids, this specimen appears to have no similarity with Paleozoic taxa.
New hexactinellids from the Siluro-Devonian of the Snake Mountains, Elko County, Nevada, and a new locality forGabelia
Authors: Rigby J. Keith , Maher Brian J. , Browne Quentin J.
Published: August 2016

New specimens ofGabelia pedunculusRigby and Murphy, 1983, and of the new speciesGabelia gigantaandGabelia fasciculaare described from the Siluro-Devonian(?) Roberts Mountains Formation from Loomis Creek Canyon in the Snake Mountains, northeastern Elko County, Nevada. Stalk fragments ofG. pedunculusare similar to the holotype from the northern Roberts Mountains, Eureka County, Nevada.Gabelia gigantan. sp. is a large species with skeletal elements in the stalk twice the size of elements inG. pedunculus. Gabelia fasciculan. sp. is based on thick-walled, cup-like upper parts where a gastral layer of coarse, diagonally oriented spicules contrasts to a dermal layer of regular vertical and horizontal bundles of hexactine-based spicules of at least two orders around parietal gaps. The specimens are all part of a probably transported seafloor assemblage.
Permian corals from the Spring Mountains, Nevada
Authors: Wilson Edward C.
Published: August 2016

Rugose and tabulate corals from the Lower Permian (Wolfcampian, Leonardian) Bird Spring Group in the Lee Canyon section of the Spring Mountains, Clark County, Nevada, are referred to eight genera and ten species. New taxa are Fomichevella nevadensis n. sp., F. waltersi n. sp., Mccloudius parvus n. sp., and Paraheritschioides richi n. sp. The fauna is most similar to the shelf fauna in eastern Nevada, but there are significant similarities to corals from the Antler Highland embayments of central Nevada and southern Idaho and to faunas of the same age in northern California and northern British Columbia. The paleogeography is interpreted as shallow water near the east side of the mouth of a south-opening coastal sea, bordered on the east by the continent and on the west by the Antler Highland. Corals migrated south along the western shores of the Antler Highland and mixed with the shelf fauna, perhaps with some corals crossing from Tethys to the coast. The modern eastern Pacific tropical coral faunas, which have several hermatypic coral genera and species derived from the western Pacific in the Pleistocene, may occupy a somewhat similar geography near the mouth of the modern Gulf of California.
Late Neogene marine Ostracoda from Tjörnes, Iceland
Authors: Cronin Thomas M.
Published: August 2016

On the western side of the Tjörnes Peninsula in northern Iceland exposures of fossiliferous marine sediments, basalts, and glacial tills record the climatic history of this region of the North Atlantic Ocean. Seventy-five marine ostracode species were recovered from the Pliocene Tjörnes sediments and Quaternary sediments known as the Breidavik beds. The ostracode assemblages contain many warm-water genera that do not inhabit Iceland today and indicate early to middle Pliocene (4.5–3.0 Ma) winter and summer bottom-water temperatures that averaged 5–6°C and 14–16°C, respectively (maximum 20°C in summer, rarely below 3°C in winter except during a brief cooling 3.5–3.2 Ma). An intensified North Atlantic Drift and a diminished or absent East Greenland Current account for warm-water oceanographic conditions at 66°N. Late Pliocene marine climates were cooler with winter and summer averages of about 9°C and 8°C. Early Pleistocene ostracode assemblages dated at 1.7–1.3 Ma contain extant arctic–subarctic species that indicate winter and summer temperatures of about − 1.5°C and 4–5°C. New speciesBensonocythere eirikssoni, Robertsonites williamsi, Hemicythere rekaensis, Thaerocythere mayburyae, Thaerocythere whatleyi, Leptocythere tjornesensis, Tetracytherura bardarsoni, andCytheromorpha einarssoniare described.
Stratigraphically significant Early and Middle Ordovician gastropod occurrences, western and northwestern Canada
Authors: Rohr David M. , Norford B. S. , Yochelson Ellis L.
Published: August 2016

Several biostratigraphically important gastropod genera are described from Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon Territory, and the District of Mackenzie.Malayaspirais present in the mid-Ibexian Kechika Group.Palliseria, Maclurites, Teiichispira, Malayaspira, Barnesella, andCeratopeaoccur in the Skoki Formation (highest Ibexian and lower Whiterockian) andHelicotomaandPalliseriain the Sunblood Formation (lower Whiterockian). The largest knownTeiichispiraoperculum is illustrated. The forms are particularly useful for age determination within relatively narrow limits and most of the taxa are readily identified in the field.
Borings in Devonian and Mississippian blastoids (Echinodermata)
Authors: Baumiller Tomasz K. , Macurda D. Bradford
Published: August 2016

Previously undescribed holes on the calyx of single specimens of the blastoidsPentremitesandCordyloblastusare circular in plan view, penetrate the test at a right angle, and are found in the interambulacral region. The same features characterize holes on 23 specimens of the Mississippian blastoidOrophocrinus.The holes are interpreted as biogenic in origin; examples of multiple complete holes on individual specimens and of incomplete holes on some blastoids indicate that the holes represent parasitism rather than predation. The similarity of these holes to those previously described in nucleocrinids and crinoids suggests that they were produced by platyceratid gastropods or closely related taxa.
A new deer from the lower Turolian of Spain
Authors: Azanza B. , Montoya P.
Published: August 2016

A new genus and species of deer,Lucentia iberica, is described from the lower Turolian (MN 11) locality of Crevillente 2 (Alicante province, Spain).Eostyloceros pierensisThomas, 1951 from Piera (Barcelona province) is also included in the new genus. The two-tinedLucentiais not a representative of Muntiacinae. From the emplacement on the cranial cavity and moderate backward inclination of the pedicles, and from the monopodial construction of the antlers,Lucentiais probably the sister group of the clade Cervinae + Odocoileinae. The hypothesis thatLucentiais most closely related to Cervinae is poorly supported by dental features. The Cervinae-Odocoileinae split must have occurred during the late Miocene and it being later, during the Pliocene, when the different lineages acquired the lateral metacarpal reduction, either plesiometacarpal or telemetacarpal states.
A new cyclocystoid (Echinodermata) from the Late Ordovician of Kentucky, U.S.A.
Authors: Smith Andrew B. , Wilson Mark A.
Published: August 2016

Cyclocystoids are one of the rarest and most enigmatic of the extinct echinoderm groups. Despite recent systematic revision (Smith and Paul, 1982), their basic anatomy and functional morphology remain poorly understood. Smith and Paul (1982) recognized eight genera and 39 species ranging in age from Lower Ordovician to Late Devonian. Since then, one new genus and species,Monocycloides oelandicus, has been established by Berg-Madsen (1987), and the range of the genusSievertsiahas been extended to the Middle Devonian of the U.S.A (Fluegeman and Orr, 1990). In addition, undescribed cyclocystoid marginal ossicles have been found in the Lower Carboniferous of Ireland (G. D. Sevastopulo, personal communication). Here we record an additional new species from the Late Ordovician of Kentucky.
Upper Cambrian and lowest Ordovician articulate brachiopods from the Arbuckle and Wichita Mountains, Oklahoma
Authors: Freeman Rebecca J. , Stitt James H.
Published: August 2016

Brachiopods assigned to eight genera and 15 species have been recovered from Upper Cambrian (Franconian and Trempealeauan Stages) and lowest Ordovician strata in the Arbuckle and Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma. Species ofOcnerorthisandEoorthisoccur in the Reagan Sandstone and Honey Creek Limestone of the Timbered Hills Group. Species ofBillingsellaappear in the Honey Creek and range upward into the overlying Fort Sill and Signal Mountain Limestones of the Arbuckle Group. Species ofCymbithyris, Finkelnburgia, Nanorthis, andApheoorthissucceed each other upsection in the Signal Mountain Limestone. Five brachiopod zones and one subzone have been established that can be used to correlate the measured sections in the Arbuckle and Wichita Mountains, and to correlate with varying degrees of confidence from Oklahoma to similar brachiopod occurrences in other areas in the United States.
Epizoans on Flexicalymene (Trilobita) and implications for trilobite paleoecology
Authors: Brandt Danita S.
Published: August 2016

Epibionts on specimens of Flexicalymene (Late Ordovician, Cincinnati Arch region, U.S.A.) that were encrusted while alive show an apparent preference for attachment along the relatively elevated sagittal axis of the exoskeleton (glabella, axial rings of thorax and pygidium) or the medial portion of the cephalic doublure. This site-specificity supports an interpretation of a semi-infaunal habit for this trilobite and may indicate a commensal relationship between the epizoan and host (e.g., epizoan bryozoans exploiting the trilobite exoskeleton as a hard substrate and perhaps benefitting from feeding currents generated by the trilobite). Epizoans are found only on larger individuals of this trilobite, suggesting a terminal molt stage for Flexicalymene.

Although the number of previously reported encrusted trilobites is small, a survey of the literature suggests the following hypotheses concerning the relationships between trilobite life habit and susceptibility to epizoan colonization: 1) infaunal (burrow dwelling) trilobites were generally free of epizoans; 2) a small proportion of shallow-burrowing (semi-infaunal or “ploughing”) trilobites were suitable hosts for epizoans, but the epizoans preferentially colonized the elevated or anterior portions of the exoskeleton; 3) epifaunal (and some pelagic?) trilobites were more susceptible to encrustation.
A horned dinosaur from the El Picacho Formation of west Texas, and review of ceratopsian dinosaurs from the American southwest
Authors: Lehman Thomas M.
Published: August 2016

Fragmentary remains of a long-frilled ceratopsian dinosaur from the El Picacho Formation (Maastrichtian) of West Texas pertain to an undescribed form. The remains are, however, insufficient to fully characterize this species. This ceratopsian has long thick squamosals with marginal undulations, nasals lacking a discrete horncore, a thin parietal, and large trihedral epijugals. The braincase has very thick lateral walls, and a well-developed postfrontal foramen. Four species of horned dinosaurs are known from Upper Cretaceous strata of the American Southwest:Pentaceratops sternbergii, Chasmosaurus mariscalensis, Torosaurus utahensis, and the El Picacho ceratopsian. All of these belong to the subfamily Chasmosaurinae.
Clarification of an index nannofossil species for the Paleocene/Eocene boundary
Authors: Wei Wuchang
Published: August 2016

The first occurrence of Discoaster diastypus Bramlette and Sullivan is a marker for the CP8/CP9 zonal boundary in the widely used nannofossil zonation of Okada and Bukry (1980). This zonal boundary has commonly been used to approximate the Paleocene/Eocene boundary (e.g., Berggren et al., 1985; Perch-Nielsen, 1985). In spite of the frequent use and importance of D. diastypus in biostratigraphy, there has been some confusion about this species in the literature, including some of the most used references. For instance, Bramlette and Sullivan (1961), who first described the species, incorrectly defined D. diastypus in terms of its ray number and size (see Figure 1), and included a specimen of Discoaster falcatus Bramlette and Sullivan as an isotype of D. diastypus (Bramlette and Sullivan, 1961, pi. 11, fig. 6). Perch-Nielsen (1971, pi. 51, figs. 8 and 10) figured a specimen of Discoaster barbadiensis Tan and another specimen of Discoaster bifax Bukry as D. diastypus. These mistakes apparently have gone unnoticed and were adopted by Romein (1979, p. 168) and incorporated in the Handbook of Cenozoic Calcareous Nannoplankton (Aubry, 1984, p. 46, fig. 111; p. 48, figs. 114 and 115).
Crinoid plate circlet homologies
Authors: Ausich William I.
Published: August 2016

A model for crinoid plate circlet homologies is proposed based on a tricyclic (four-circlet) aboral cup, withAethocrinusthe characteristic tricyclic crinoid. The plate circlets in the aboral cup ofAethocrinus,from bottom to top, are lintels (named herein), infrabasals, basals, and radials. In this model, traditional interpretation is maintained for the aboral cup plates of most crinoids. Cladids, flexibles, articulates (primitively), and diplobathrid camerates are dicyclic and are composed of infrabasal, basal, and radial circlets. Monobathrid camerates are monocyclic, and they have basal and radial circlets. Disparid plate circlet homologies are reinterpreted. Among disparids, “basals” are lintels, “inferradials” and “radials” are infrabasals, and “superradials” are radials.

The “Law of Wachsmuth and Springer” is judged to be a relationship that has most fidelity applied to lumen angles. This “law” is considered to be only a consequence of development and not an invariable basis by which to determine plate homologies. In the model presented here, plates cannot be shifted around after the juvenile calyx is sutured, and arms may grow on either radials or infrabasals, whichever plates are at the top of the cup when arms begin to grow.
A new ptyctodont (Placodermi) from the Upper Devonian Martin Formation of Northern Arizona, and an analysis of ptyctodont phylogeny
Authors: Johnson Heidemarie G. , Elliott David K.
Published: August 2016

Ptyctodonts from the Upper Devonian Martin Formation on Mt. Elden, northern Arizona, were hitherto known only from tooth plates ascribed toPtyctodus bradyi.Recent collections include dental elements ofP. bradyias well as body and skull plates and dental elements of a previously unknown ptyctodont, described here asDenisonodus plutonensisnew genus and species. Comparison with other ptyctodonts suggests that the new genus has close affinities to other North American forms. As the holotype ofPtyctodus bradyihas been lost a neotype is designated here.
Reclassification of vertebrate trackways from the Permian of Scotland and related forms from Arizona and Germany
Authors: McKeever Patrick J. , Haubold Hartmut
Published: August 2016

The large number of ichnospecies in Permian vertebrate ichnology literature is often a result of a failure to recognize substrate or gait-controlled variations in trackway morphology. Additionally, regional studies were often performed in isolation from studies in other areas. Nomenclatural priority applies to the names first assigned to trackways from the Corncockle and Locharbriggs Sandstone Formations (Permian) of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Only one ichnogenus, Chelichnus, and four ichnospecies are recognized here and all had been identified in the studies of Jardine in 1850 and 1853. Chelichnus represents tetrapod trackways with rounded manus and pes impressions, subequal in size with up to 5 short digits where preservation is complete. The normal trackway pattern shows a pes pace angulation of up to 90° with the manus and pes being impressed close together or possibly with a slight overlap of the manus by the pes. Chelichnus bucklandi shows a pes size of 10 to 25 mm, C. duncani shows a pes size of 25 to 75 mm, C. gigas shows a pes size of 75 to 125 mm, and C. titan displays a pes size exceeding 125 mm in length. This restriction to four ichnospecies is more in accord with the low faunal diversity to be expected from an eolian environment of Late Permian age than was the former taxonomic classification. The Permian ichnofaunas of the Coconino Sandstone of Arizona and the Cornberger Sandstein of Germany are also composed largely of these four ichnospecies.
Atlanticocoelia, new leptocoeliid (Brachiopoda) genus from the Devonian of eastern North America
Authors: Koch William F.
Published: August 2016

Various workers have assigned Atrypa acutiplicata Conrad, 1841, to a number of leptocoeliid genera. Restudy of specimens previously examined by Boucot and Rehmer (1977) as part of a study of the community paleoecology of brachiopods of the Emsian and Eifelian strata of eastern North America has shown that A. acutiplicata does not belong to any existing genus of leptocoeliid. Therefore, the new genus Atlanticocoelia is proposed, with A. acutiplicata as the type species, for leptocoeliid brachiopods with a small, knoblike cardinal process, a brachial valve of moderate convexity, a broad sulcus, strong plications, subparallel dorsal adductor scars, and cordate pedicle diductor scars. Atlanticocoelia occurs in benthic assemblage 4 to 5 communities of the Emsian through Eifelian Appohimchi Province of the Eastern Americas Realm.
Byzantia: A new genus (Gastropoda: Neritopsidae) from the Permian of west Texas
Authors: Kosnik Matthew A.
Published: August 2016

This paper describes Byzantia obliqua, new genus and species. Byzantia is a small, distinctively ornamented, gastropod genus from the middle Permian (Leonardian-Guadalupian) of West Texas. This provides further evidence of the diversity of the Neritacea in the middle Permian and of the diverse endemic fauna of west Texas.
Condensing lenses and shell microstructure inCorculum(Mollusca: Bivalvia)
Authors: Carter J. G. , Schneider J. A.
Published: August 2016

The microstructure of the non-window portions of the shell ofCorculum cardissaresembles other Fraginae, with predominantly fibrous prismatic outer, branching crossed lamellar middle, and complex crossed lamellar inner layers. Both the anterior and posterior windows in its shell reflect reduced pigmentation and incursion of the outer shell layer, but the posterior windows involve deeper incursion plus reduction of the outer and middle sublayers of the outer shell layer and microstructural modification of the middle shell layer to enhance light transmission. The planoconvex shape of the posterior windows has more likely evolved to direct and focus light toward the deeper, zooxanthellae-rich gills and anterior mantle, than to merely disperse light.
Ontogeny and relationships of the Ordovician odontopleurid trilobite Ceratocara, with new species from Argentina and New York
Authors: Chatterton Brian D. E. , Edgecombe Gregory D. , Vaccari Norberto E. , Waisfeld Beatriz G.
Published: August 2016

A growth series is described for a new species of Ceratocara Ramsköld, 1991, C. argentina, from the Upper Ordovician (Caradoc) part of the Las Aguaditas Formation, near Jáchal in San Juan Province, Argentine Precordillera. Another new species of Ceratocara, C. shawi, is described from the Middle Ordovician (lower Chazy) Crown Point Formation of New York. A phylogenetic analysis is presented for these species, other well-known Ordovician species of Ceratocara, and some Ordovician species of Ceratocephala, with Ceratocephalina tridens Whittington, 1956, as outgroup. The analysis presented supports the monophyly of both Ceratocara and Ceratocephala Warder, 1838, their divergence having occurred by the middle Arenig. The ontogenies of the Ceratocara species from Argentina and New York, complete from protaspid to holaspid growth stages, are some of the best preserved odontopleurid ontogenies described to date. Material of Ceratocephala triacantheis Whittington and Evitt, 1954, from the Crown Point Formation of the Chazy Group of New York, is discriminated from that of Ceratocara shawi.
Mazon Creek Cycloidea
Authors: Schram Frederick R. , Vonk Ronald , Hof Cees H. J.
Published: August 2016

The Mazon Creek Cycloidea contain four taxa: Cyclus americanus Packard, 1885, Cyclus obesus, new species, Halicyne max, new species, and Apionicon apioides, new genus, new species. We conclude, based on a cladistic analysis, that cycloids are specialized maxillopodan crustaceans and a possible sister group to the Copepoda. They may have filled a niche similar to modernday crabs.
The youngest record of fossil land mammals from Antarctica; its significance on the evolution of the terrestrial environment of the Antarctic Peninsula during the late Eocene
Authors: Vizcaino S. F. , Bond M. , Reguero M. A. , Pascual R.
Published: August 2016

The record of fossil land mammals from Antarctica has been restricted previously to the middle levels of the Eocene-?early Oligocene La Meseta Formation in Seymour Island, Antarctic Peninsula. This mostly shallow-marine sequence was divided informally into seven subunits (Tertiary Eocene La Meseta or TELM 1 to 7) by Sadler (1988). Land mammals, representing South American lineages of marsupials, edentates, and ungulates were recovered from TELM 3, 4, and 5 (Marenssi et al., 1994; Vizcaíno et al., 1994). The purpose of the present note is to report the discovery of a well-preserved ungulate tooth from the uppermost level of the La Meseta Formation (TELM 7) and to discuss its paleoenvironmental implications.
Fusulinids from piston cores, Northwind Ridge, Amerasia Basin, Arctic Ocean
Authors: Stevens Calvin H. , Ross Charles A.
Published: August 2016

Fusulinaceans from the flank of Northwind Ridge in the Arctic Ocean indicate that this feature is underlain by miogeoclinal upper Paleozoic strata, and that the fauna belongs to the Middle Carboniferous through Early Permian Arctic Fusulinacean Province. This province stretched from the Canadian Arctic Islands eastward to Svalbard where it merged with the similar Ural Fusulinacean Province in the western Ural Mountains. Because these provinces did not extend into Siberia, the Northwind Ridge assemblage indicates that these rocks originally were adjacent to, or a part of, the Canadian Arctic Islands Carboniferous-Permian shelf margin.
Parastrophinella (Brachiopoda): Its paleogeographic significance at the Ordovician/Silurian boundary
Authors: Jin Jisuo , Copper Paul
Published: August 2016

The type species of Parastrophinella, P. reversa, a pentamerid brachiopod from the uppermost Ordovician (Hirnantian) Ellis Bay Formation of Anticosti Island, Quebec, shows that the genus is characterized by three features: 1) a ventral median septum apically buried in a thickened valve floor, but anteriorly rising above valve floor; 2) prominent alate plates, which are homologous to brachial processes; and, 3) a pseudocruralium consisting of a dorsal median septum, which is largely buried in the valve floor posteriorly, and outer plates that are connected to the median septum via prismatic substance (with poorly developed lamellar layer at the junctions) at, or slightly above, the valve floor. These constitute criteria by which many species previously assigned to Parastrophinella are excluded from the genus. Late Ordovician species that fit the redefinition of Parastrophinella are now confined to eastern North America. The genus crosses the Ordovician/Silurian boundary without major morphologic change, and Early Silurian species of Parastrophinella occur in both eastern North America and Great Britain. In the Late Ordovician, the pentamerid fauna of North America (Laurentia) contrasted sharply with that of Baltica and Kazakhstan, where the Holorhynchus fauna was dominant. Typical elements of the Holorhynchus fauna, such as the large-shelled Holorhynchus and Proconchidium, are known only in the northern parts of Laurentia (Baffin Island, Greenland, and Kolyma), and are absent in the Hudson Bay and Williston basins and southwards.
New information on the forefin of Utatsusaurus hataii (Ichthyosauria)
Authors: Motani Ryosuke
Published: August 2016

Utatsusaurus hataii, an Early Triassic ichthyosaur from Japan, is represented by exceptionally well preserved materials but is poorly known because of incomplete preparation. Further preparation of the holotype and one of the paratype specimens has revealed nearly complete forefins that are pentadactyl, with no more than five phalanges in any of the digits. The first digit is not well developed, and the fifth distal carpal appears to be absent. The phalanges along the fin margin tend to be lunate; others are flattened cylinders. These findings indicate that the relationship of Utatsusaurus with other Early Triassic ichthyosaurs must be reconsidered.
Catopsalis (Mammalia: Multituberculata) from the Paleocene of New Mexico and Utah: Taxonomy and biochronological significance
Authors: Lucas Spencer G. , Williamson Thomas E. , Middleton Michael D.
Published: August 2016

Recently collected specimens of Catopsalis fissidens from the Torrejonian interval of the Nacimiento Formation in the San Juan Basin, New Mexico significantly augment knowledge of the morphology and dental variability of the species. This new knowledge suggests C. foliatus Cope, 1882 (=C. johnstoni Fox, 1989) is a valid Puercan species and that C. fissidens Cope, 1884a is a subjective senior synonym of C. utahensis Gazin, 1939. This latter synonymy further increases taxa shared between the Dragon Canyon local fauna of Utah and the Torrejonian fauna of the San Juan Basin, thus supporting previous inclusion of the Dragonian land-mammal “age” in the Torrejonian.
Evolutionary significance of sexual and asexual modes of propagation in Neogene species of the bryozoan Metrarabdotos in tropical America
Authors: Cheetham Alan H. , Jackson Jeremy B. C. , Sanner Joann
Published: August 2016

Three new Miocene-Pliocene species of the cheilostome bryozoan Metrarabdotos from Venezuela are atypical in showing significant evidence that as many as half the colonies originated asexually (clonally) by “regeneration” from previously existing colonies, rather than almost exclusively from ancestrular zooids (products of metamorphosis of sexually produced larvae), as is characteristic of the genus. The extremely low proportion of zooids (less than two percent) recognizably committed to producing larvae (ovicelled) in these Venezuelan species agrees with that reported in a variety of Danian (Paleocene) genera in which clonal propagation has been reported to predominate. However, all but two of 17 other living and fossil species of Metrarabdotos also have fewer than two percent of their zooids ovicelled, even though all but one of more than 250 colony bases examined originated from ancestrulae. The lack of significant correlation in Metrarabdotos between frequencies of ovicelled zooids and of ancestrular colonies suggests that clonal propagation may not have diverted resources from sexual reproduction. This inference is supported by the retention in these species of a level of heritable morphologic variation (estimated by partitioning among-colonies and within-colonies variance in zooid characters) that is commensurate with that estimated for species of Metrarabdotos in which propagation was apparently entirely by sexual means. Thus, sexual reproduction throughout the genus was apparently sufficient to maintain the genetic diversity from which speciation could proceed at normal rates. As estimated by both cladistic and nearest-neighbor morphologic-stratigraphic methods, the three Venezuelan species occupy quite different positions in the inferred phylogeny of Metrarabdotos. Thus, the elevated level of clonal propagation in these species appears to be a response to local conditions, most probably high productivity associated with upwelling, that promoted more rapid vegetative growth while leaving the level of sexual reproduction unchanged.
Biodiversity: Past, Present, and Future
Authors: Sepkoski J. John
Published: August 2016

Biodiversity is the number and variability of genes, species, and communities in space and time (Norse et al., 1986; Wilson, 1988; Heywood and Baste, 1995). The fundamental question that has governed its study in modern times is Hutchinson's (1959): “Why are there so many kinds of animals?” In more recent decades, a somber subquestion has been added: How many species are dying every year (e.g., Wilson, 1992)?