Near the end of the twentieth century, a medium-sized early proboscidean found in Dor El Talha (late Eocene to early Oligocene), Libya, originally identified as a small species of Barytherium, was described as a new species of Numidotherium and designated Numidotherium savagei. Poorly known, this taxon has been excluded from most of the recent debate about the origin and diversification of the order Proboscidea. New specimens described herein show strong structural similarities of the upper teeth with those of bunolophodont early proboscideans (e.g., Moeritherium and Phiomia) and document the shared presence of derived traits in the postcranial skeleton. The newly referred material also demonstrates some unique characteristics of this taxon, notably in its mandibular morphology and the microstructure of its dental enamel. Included for the first time in a cladistic analysis (207 anatomical characters applied to all early tethytheres), N. savagei is distinct from both Numidotherium and Barytherium, and lies in an “intermediate” position between the strictly lophodont Eocene proboscideans and the bunolophodont moeritheres and elephantiforms. Accordingly, the species is herein referred to a new genus, Arcanotherium. New data on its mandibular symphysis and, especially, on its lower incisors loci and morphology, bring new support to a hypothesis of homology between the lower incisors of early proboscideans and the ever-growing lower tusks of the elephantiforms, which are identified here as di1 and i1.

A new Late Cretaceous turtle, Angolachelys mbaxi gen. et sp. nov., from the Turonian (90 Mya) of Angola, represents the oldest eucryptodire from Africa. Phylogenetic analysis recovers Angolachelys mbaxi as the sister taxon of Sandownia harrisi from the Aptian of Isle of Wight, England. An unnamed turtle from the Albian Glen Rose Formation of Texas (USA) and the Kimmeridgian turtle Solnhofia parsonsi (Germany), are successively more distant sister taxa. Bootstrap analysis suggests those four taxa together form a previously unrecognized monophyletic clade of marine turtles, herein named Angolachelonia clade nov., supported by the following synapomorphies: mandibular articulation of quadrate aligned with or posterior to the occiput, and basisphenoid not visible or visibility greatly reduced in ventral view. Basal eucryptodires and angolachelonians originated in the northern hemisphere, thus Angolachelys represents one of the first marine amniote lineages to have invaded the South Atlantic after separation of Africa and South America.

A nothosaur skull recently discovered from the Lower Muschelkalk (early Anisian) locality of Winterswijk, The Netherlands, represents at only 46 mm in length the smallest nothosaur skull known today. It resembles largely the skull morphology of Nothosaurus marchicus. Differences concern beside the size, the straight rectangular and relative broad parietals, the short posterior extent of the maxilla, the skull proportions, and the overall low number of maxillary teeth. In spite of its small size, the skull can not unequivocally be interpreted as juvenile. It shows fused premaxillae, nasals, frontals, and parietals, a nearly co-ossified jugal, and fully developed braincase elements, such as a basisphenoid and massive epipterygoids. Adding the specimen to an existing phylogenetic analysis shows that it should be assigned to a new species, Nothosaurus winkelhorsti sp. nov., at least until its juvenile status can be unequivocally verified. Nothosaurus winkelhorsti sp. nov. represents, together with Nothosaurus juvenilis, the most basal nothosaur, so far.

European Russia has been the source of many procolophonoid taxa from both the Permian and Triassic, and a Permian origin for the procolophonoid family Procolophonidae has been based on the Russian taxon Microphon exiguus. Recently, this taxon was reclassified as a seymouriamorph and, in its place, the taxa Nyctiphruretus, Suchonosaurus, and Kinelia from the Middle and Upper Permian of Russia were suggested as “procolophons”, using evolutionary-systematic classification methods. In recent phylogenies, however, Nyctiphruretus has been recovered as a non-procolophonoid parareptile, whereas Kinelia and Suchonosaurus have never been included in a phylogenetic study. Re-examination indicates that Suchonosaurus is a member of the procolophonoid subfamily Procolophonidae based on the shape of the maxillary bone and the external naris, the laterally visible maxillary depression, and the number and type of maxillary teeth. Kinelia, on the other hand, is excluded from the Procolophonoidea because of its subpleurodont dental attachment and lack of any procolophonoid features. Thus, Suchonosaurus is the only confirmed Permian procolophonid from the Permian of Russia. Additionally, re-examination of the holotype of Microphon exiguus confirms that it is identical to the seymouriamorph specimens recently included in the genus Microphon and that it lacks procolophonoid features. The earliest unequivocal record of the subfamily Procolophonidae is confirmed from the Late Permian of Russia, making Russia the only region where, with certainty, both Permian and Triassic procolophonids have been discovered.

The fossil record of temnospondyls in South America has been greatly expanded in the last 10 years, increasing their overall significance. They occur in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, and range from the Guadalupian to the Late Triassic. The Early Triassic temnospondyl record in southern Brazil is mainly composed of fragmentary specimens, usually represented by dermal skull bones from the Sanga do Cabral Formation. Some of these fragments were tentatively referred to Lydekkerinidae and Rhytidosteidae based on their characteristic ridge-grooved “spider-web” pattern of ornamentation. In this contribution we report, for the first time, a temnospondyl skull fragment with pustulated sculpturing pattern, which is tentatively ascribed to Plagiosauridae. This new record could indicate the presence of a new temnospondyl taxon for the Lower Triassic of South America.

A new Dipterus-like lungfish, Harajicadipterus youngi, is described from the Givetian (Middle Devonian) Harajica Sandstone Member of central Australia. The material is comprised of five specimens representing the skull roof, orbital bones, tooth plates, operculo-gular bones, a partial pectoral girdle, centra and scales. Harajicadipterus can be distinguished from other dipnoans by its long postorbital cheek, broad B bone, lack of contact between E and C bones, and radiating tooth rows with some denticles evident between the rows. Results of a cladistic analysis of 81 characters for 33 dipnoan taxa resolved Harajicadipterus below the holodontid clade but as more derived than Dipterus and the chirodipterid clade.

A diverse vertebrate fauna, dominated by elasmobranch taxa, was collected from the upper Oligocene (Chattian) Chandler Bridge Formation in Summerville, Dorchester County, South Carolina. Nearly 3,500 teeth and dermal denticles are assigned to 29 species of sharks and rays, and our sample includes the oldest known occurrence of the whale shark, Rhincodon, as well as a new skate, Raja mccollumi sp. nov. The Chandler Bridge elasmobranch assemblage is comparable in species diversity to Chattian assemblages of Virginia and North Carolina, USA, and Germany. Notable absences from Germany include Rhincodon, Hemipristis, and Sphyrna zygaena, likely reflecting the influence of colder water on the North Sea Basin during the Chattian. Squaloids, pristiophoroids, and hexanchoids are known from Chattian deposits of the Albemarle Embayment (North Carolina), Salisbury Embayment (Virginia), and North Sea Basin, but these taxa are absent from the Chandler Bridge assemblage, perhaps because of shallow, warm water (20 to 25°C) conditions within the more southerly Charleston Embayment.

Three genera of xenacanths, based on isolated teeth, occur in the lepospondyl (amphibian)-dominated fauna from the upper Black Prince Limestone (late Bashkirian). Orthacanthus donnelljohnsi sp. nov. teeth, with carinae lacking serrations on the compressed principal cusps, and only one intermediate cusp, represent both adult and juvenile teeth. Heterodonty occurs in both adult and juvenile dentitions. The absence of serrations is unique among Pennsylvanian species of Orthacanthus. Teeth with often highly asymmetrical bases with an aborally-flexed lingual marginal flange (= anterolingual shelf) and a single intermediate cusp are assigned to Triodus elpia sp. nov. A central foramen occurs in the base, unlike most other species; the moderately compressed principal cusps bear generally straight cristae. They represent the first reported occurrence of Triodus in the Paleozoic of North America. Five teeth, with cristae extending from the cusps onto their bases, belong to Bransonella. Two are questionably assigned to Bransonella nebraskensis, one to B. ?lingulata with its labio-lingually elongated apical button and smaller than normal intermediate cusp, and one each to Bransonella sp. “A” and “B”. Bransonella sp. “A” has a base wider (labio-lingual) than long, the reverse of the other Bransonella teeth. Bransonella sp. “B” is distinctly different, as it lacks an intermediate cusp (as in some B. lingulata teeth), and the basal tubercle is beneath one of the cusps (with no evidence of deformity).

Conodonts, a large group of tiny extinct marine animals ranging in age from the Late Cambrian to Late Triassic (ca. 500 to 200 Mya), are usually considered as jawless vertebrates. Their only commonly occurring fossilized remains are minute, phosphatic, teeth-like elements of their feeding apparatuses. In most of the early conodonts the elements were conical and strongly elongated. Many of them are characterized by possession of a deep, longitudinal groove, usually associated with sharp edges or ridges. A comparative study of the grooved elements and venomous teeth and spines of living and extinct vertebrates strongly suggests that the groove in conodonts was also used for delivery of venom. Structural convergence of the conodont apparatus Panderodus with the grasping apparatus of chaetognaths, a group of extant, venomous invertebrate predators of similarly ancient origin, provides additional support for this conclusion.

Bryozoans from the Lower Permian Treskelodden and Wordiekammen formations of southern and central Spitsbergen respectively, Svalbard, have been studied. Twenty species are identified, including one new genus, Toulapora gen. nov., with Toulapora svalbardense as type species and one new species, Ascopora birkenmajeri sp. nov. The taxonomic composition is typical Lower Permian, with species in common with Timan-Pechora and the Urals (Russia) and Ellesmere Island (the Canadian Arctic). Growth habits reflect a moderately to deeper shelf environment.

More than forty specimens from the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale reveal the detailed anatomy of Isoxys, a worldwide distributed bivalved arthropod represented here by two species, namely Isoxys acutangulus and Isoxys longissimus. I. acutangulus had a non-mineralized headshield with lateral pleural folds (= “valves” of previous authors) that covered the animal's body almost entirely, large frontal spherical eyes and a pair of uniramous prehensile appendages bearing stout spiny outgrowths along their anterior margins. The 13 following appendages had a uniform biramous design—i.e., a short endopod and a paddle-like exopod fringed with marginal setae with a probable natatory function. The trunk ended with a flap-like telson that protruded beyond the posterior margin of the headshield. The gut of I. acutangulus was tube-like, running from mouth to telson, and was flanked with numerous 3D-preserved bulbous, paired features interpreted as digestive glands. The appendage design of I. acutangulus indicates that the animal was a swimmer and a visual predator living off-bottom. The general anatomy of Isoxys longissimus was similar to that of I. acutangulus although less information is available on the exact shape of its appendages and visual organs. I. longissimus is characterized by extremely long anterior and posterior spines. There are now seven Isoxys species known with soft-part preservation, I. acutangulus, I. longissimus from the Burgess Shale, I. auritus and I. curvirostratus from the Maotianshan Shale of China, I. communis and I. glaessneri from the Emu Bay Shale of Australia and I. volucris from Sirius Passet in Greenland. The frontal appendages of Isoxys strongly resemble those of other Cambrian arthropods, characterized by a single pair of “great appendages” with a shared prehensile function yet some variability in length and shape.

Radiolarians from Sites 845 and 1241 in the eastern equatorial Pacific were examined in order to evaluate the role of paleoceanographic perturbations upon the general faunal evolutionary pattern of tropical planktonic organisms during the last 17 Ma. Radiolarian appearance and extinction rates indicate no periods of mass extinctions during the past 17 Ma. However, a relatively rapid replacement of the species in the radiolarian assemblages occurs near the middle—late Miocene boundary. This replacement event represents the gradual extinction of a number of radiolarian species and their gradual replacement by evolving new species. The modern equatorial circulation system was formed near the middle—late Miocene boundary due to the closure of the Indonesian seaway. The minor faunal turnover appears to be associated with the formation of the modern equatorial circulation system near the middle—late Miocene boundary. Diatom assemblages in the equatorial Pacific became more provincial in character after about 9 Ma. The appearance and extinction rates of planktic foraminifers were relatively high near the middle—late Miocene boundary, and those of calcareous nannoplankton reached high values in the early late Miocene in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Thus, faunal evolution from the middle Miocene type to late Miocene types occurred first, being followed by floral evolution. The middle—late Miocene boundary is not a sharp boundary for planktonic microfossils, but marks a time of transition critical for faunal and floral evolution in both siliceous and calcareous microfossil assemblages in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.