Neuropteran insects possess very distinct larval stages with prominent paired piercing sucking stylets and a specialised sclerite, the neck, between the head and the first thoracic segment. Some larva of Crocinae (Nemopteridae) are further specialised by possessing a very elongated neck region. The fossil record has already provided a large variety of neuropteran larvae, yet so far a truly long-necked form was missing. Here we report such a fossil larva, with an elongated neck region from 100-million-year old Burmese amber. The specimen possesses a unique combination of characters unknown in any modern or fossil neuropteran larva. Besides the elongated neck it possesses three distinct teeth in the stylets, a character mostly known in larval forms of owl flies (Ascalaphidae) and ant lions (Myrmeleontidae), and a slender trunk as known in aphid lions (larvae of the groups Chrysopidae and Hemerobiidae). We must therefore conclude that the fossil species must have evolved certain characters in convergence to other lineages of Neuroptera resulting in a chimera-like morphology. We discuss possible interpretations of character evolution of larvae within Neuroptera.

We briefly report fossil small-sized major chelae of alpheid snapping shrimps from the early Pliocene of Tuscany (central Italy). The studied specimens have been compared with the morphologically strictly similar fossil structures, recorded from worldwide Cenozoic sediments. This report represents the first record of alpheid shrimp snapping claw fingertips from the Pliocene of Italy.

A partial skeleton of a new small avian species is reported from marine sediments of the Rupelian locality Jamna Dolna 2 in southeast Poland. Carpathiavis meniliticus gen. et sp. nov. is characterized by an unusual furcula morphology with stout shafts (scapi clavicularum) and a long, rodshaped furcular apophysis. With regard to furcula shape and the proportions of the wing bones, the new species shows a resemblance to the taxon Eocuculus, which occurs in the late Eocene of North America and the early Oligocene of France. However, there are some distinct differences to Eocuculus, and in overall morphology C. meniliticus is also similar to the late Paleocene/early Eocene taxon Songzia, which is a putative representative of the Ralloidea (rails and allies). Even though a wellfounded phylogenetic assignment of the new species is impeded by the poor preservation of the skeleton, Carpathiavis clearly represents a distinctive new taxon that has not previously been reported from the Rupelian of Europe. In its skeletal morphology, the new taxon differs from all extant avian clades and substantiates previous evidence that in the early Oligocene morphologically distinctive representatives of extinct clades lived alongside essentially moderntype representatives of extant avian groups.

Insects enclosed in amber can provide unique insights into the morphology, but also behavioural aspects of extinct species, due to their often exceptional preservation. This is especially true in the cases of so-called ‘frozen behaviour', were animals were caught in the fresh and viscid resin while e.g. mating, egg laying, capturing prey or in rare cases, hatching. Here, we report a group of heteropteran insect nymphs preserved together with their eggs in 15–20 million-year-old Dominican amber. Two of the nymphs were caught in the act of hatching. The eggs form a cluster of 47 individuals and possess a morphology, as occurs in the eggs of some extant Reduviidae, especially Hapactorinae. Most notable are the operculum surrounding elongated extensions of the chorion at the apical part of the elongated eggs. The cluster strongly resembles the appearance of a composite flower. Details of the egg morphology of extinct insects are very scarce, and even if fossil remains can be identified as insect eggs, the corresponding insect group can rarely be determined. Rare cases of ‘frozen behaviour’, such the herein described, allow to observe aspects of the hatching process, but can also help to shed light on the morphology of the eggs from different extinct insect groups.

A three-dimensionally preserved fossil tanaidacean is reported from the Middle Jurassic of Southern Germany. The fossil is a fragment of the posterior region of the body. Many morphological details are visible, such as rows of punctures indicating the presence and distribution of setae. A principal component analysis based on measured ratios on the fossil was performed to evaluate the position of the fossil in the morphospace of various malacostracan groups. The analysis could substantiate the interpretation of the fossil as a tanaidacean remain. We furthermore discuss the fossil in comparison to the already known fossil record of tanaidaceans.

The braincase of the marine turtle Syllomus aegyptiacus (Calvert Formation, Virginia, Middle Miocene) is described and figured in detail for the first time. It reveals a ventral crest on the basisphenoid, a high dorsum sellae, an almost subequal diameter of the canals for the internal and lateral carotid arteries at a cross break and a canalis caroticus lateralis and internus that are still far separated from each other at level of the dorsum sellae. The braincase is compared to other known braincases of fossil and extant chelonioid turtles.

The slender-skulled temnospondyl Trematosaurus brauni forms the most common tetrapod in the Early Triassic of Germany, and is documented by numerous finds from Merkel's Quarry at Bernburg (Saale). The revision of the available material includes 75 skulls with a size range between 10.9 and 41 cm skull length, and a small suite of postcranial elements. T. brauni is characterized by a temporal sulcus of lateral line with two portions, a well-established occipital sulcus, a preorbital region slightly shorter than half skull length, and a wide interorbital distance with very small rounded orbits. Individual variation was substantial, ranging from wide-triangular-skulled morphs to ones with slightly elongate preorbital region. Despite the size range, few ontogenetic changes have been identified: (1) the length of orbit decreased gently proportionally with size, and (2) the width of postorbital skull table relative decreased proportionally with size. Phylogenetic analysis finds T. brauni to nest with the very similar Trematosuchus well within a clade of slender-skulled trematosauroids. Together, the two genera form the sister taxon of Tertrema and the rostrum-bearing lonchorhynchines, whereas Trematolestes and Tertremoides assume a more basal position within a monophyletic Trematosauridae, which forms the sister taxon of the short-snouted metoposaurid relatives.

A new species of soldier beetle of the genus Malthodes is described from Eocene Baltic amber of the Kaliningrad region, Russia. The new species is placed within the subgenus Libertimalthodes based on the long elytra covering the last abdominal segments, the last ventrite wide and little modified, and the markedly larger aedeagus. Malthodes (Libertimalthodes) spaceae sp. nov. is the third fossil species of the subgenus Libertimalthodes and is distinguished from congeners by the last ventrite narrower and not concave in the middle of the apex or by shorter last tergite and bigger aedeagus. The recent discovery of three specimens (including M. spaceae sp. nov.) with long elytra can shed light on the origin of the genus.

Thylacocephala is a group of extinct eucrustaceans of presumably predatory nature. We describe here a new genus and species of thylacocephalan crustaceans from the Upper Jurassic Solnhofen limestones of Eichstätt (Altmühltal Formation), Falcatacaris bastelbergeri n. g. n. sp. (about 150 million years old). Falcatacaris bastelbergeri n. g. n. sp. is the fourth species of Thylacocephala found in these deposits. The species differs significantly from other thylacocephalans, especially by characters of the shield. The shield of the specimen is rather low (short in dorsoventral extent) and it bears a long rostrum but no elongated posterior spine. For comparative purposes, we provide an overview of the shield morphology of known thylacocephalan species from literature as well as a morphological analysis of the group. An elliptic Fourier analysis is used to compare the different shield shapes of thylacocephalans to each other; results are presented in PCA plots. Shield length and anterior or posterior shield extensions are the characters with the most variation in thylacocephalan shield morphology.

We report the glypheoid lobster, Glypheopsis robusta (Feldmann & McPherson, 1980) (Glypheidae Zittel, 1885) from the Middle Jurassic (Bajocian – Bathonian) of British Columbia. The fossil record of this species is very rare in Canada, limited to date to the type locality located in the Prince Patrick Island (Northwest Territories). This new report enlarges the palaeogeographic distribution of this species, representing the second occurrence in North America.

A posterior moult assigned to Bathynomus A. Milne-Edwards, 1879 (Crustacea, Isopoda, Cirolanidae) is reported from turbidites of the early Oligocene Ranzano Formation cropping out near Parogna, Alessandria (Piemonte, NW Italy). This is the oldest fossil record of this genus from Italy, thus enlarging the scarce knowledge on its presence and distribution in the Proto-Mediterranean Basin.

A new fossil soldier beetle, Cacomorphocerus endecacerus sp. nov. (Coleoptera: Cantharidae), is described from Baltic amber. Aside from its size (7.3 mm), a unique feature of the new species is the 11-segmented antennae with the second to eighth antennomeres saucer-shaped or irregular and the final 3 antennomeres elongate. All previous species in this genus possess 12 antennomeres. Updates of the description of the genus and tribe are provided.