Sea cucumber fisheries have continued to expand during the past decade at a fast rate, despite the predictable drop during the COVID-19 period. The exploitations are now qualified as ‘serial’ and ‘contagious’. The most recent trends are shown through the analysis of Food and Agriculture Organization’s capture data, collected from different countries and territories. The mean captures per year, in fresh weight, are over 90.103 tonnes. The mean trade data for years 2019–2021 are given by category of commodities, which complicates the trade analysis. The imports, in quantity and value, show the usual importance of China and Hong Kong, and now of Saudi Arabia. The exports show the importance of the frozen products from Canada. The statistics from Hong Kong in quantities and values (for imports and re-exports) are analysed for the past decade. Globally, catches have increased in comparison to previous studies, with new countries and territories developing export fisheries, new species targeted from new regions, and new products traded. The continued growth and expansion of the global sea cucumber trade is alarming as the sustainability of many species-specific fisheries remains of great concern. Stronger conservation measures, and their implementation, at national, regional, and international levels, are required to effectively protect biodiversity, promote sustainable resource use, and address the escalating impacts of the increasing exploitation efforts.

We report the results of radiocarbon dating performed at the ETH laboratory on soft tissue of the mummified body found in September 1991 on the Hauslabjoch in the Ötztaler Alps (near the Similaun Mountain), South Tyrol. Over the past three decades, additional analyses of the sample, which had been stored frozen in a glass jar, have improved the precision of the first published radiocarbon ages. The frozen jar and the story of a mummified body found in the Alps fascinated visitors to the laboratory, mostly primary and high-school students. As part of educational projects, 11 samples were prepared and analyzed, yielding a combined radiocarbon age of 4525 ± 7 BP. This agreement with 4550 ± 27 BP, i.e., the very first results by Bonani et al. (1994), highlights the quality of the analysis performed decades ago. The combined age of all the 14C ages measured at the ETH laboratory is 4527 ± 7 BP.

Two Late Ordovician cornulitid species, Cornulites richmondensis (Miller, 1874) and Cornulites hemistriatus new species, from the Ellis Bay and Vaureal formations of Anticosti Island, eastern Canada, are each shown in this study to have a thick, punctate, cross-bladed lamellar, calcitic conch wall, a crested fold, a septate juvenile part, and endoconic chamber deposit. These Late Ordovician, free-living (i.e., nonencrusting) forms of Cornulites Schlotheim, 1820 have characters intermediate between Cornulites and the late Silurian-Devonian forms of Tentaculites Schlotheim, 1820, particularly by having incipient inner layers and poorly fused annuli, but lacking cornulitid-type vesicular microstructures. The described cornulitids are similar to brachiopods in their cross-bladed lamellae and pseudopunctae, but their lamellar layers are considerably finer and much less distinct than those of brachiopod shells.

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This study presents a comprehensive systematic analysis of a cold-water brachiopod fauna from the upper Cisuralian (lower Permian) Kharnuden Formation, exposed at the Hovsugol section in southeastern Mongolia. Taxonomic investigation identifies 40 species belonging to 28 genera, including three newly described taxa: Paramarginifera pentagona n. sp., Linoproductus planiconvexus n. sp., and Jilinmartinia hovsugolensis n. sp. Biostratigraphic evidence tentatively indicates a Kungurian age, with possible extension down into the Artinskian. The assemblage likely originated along the southern margin of the Siberian Craton, within the Paleo-Asian Ocean (PAO). The fauna exhibits strong biogeographic affinities with contemporaneous faunas from the Beishan orogenic belt (northwestern China), Inner Mongolia, South Primorye (Russia), and selected Japanese terranes, yet differs significantly from assemblages in Transbaikal and central-northeastern Mongolia. These contrasts support the presence of the Sino-Mongolian Seaway—a transitional marine corridor within the closing PAO. The fauna is characterized by elements of the northern Boreal biogeographic realm, with a dominance of cold-adapted and endemic taxa and a complete absence of paleotropical elements. Associated paleoecological indicators suggest the influence of cool-temperate conditions at a relatively high-latitude paleogeographic position as well as geographic isolation. This paleobiogeographic pattern sheds light on the responses of Permian marine ecosystems to plate convergence, latitudinal climate gradients, and oceanic current reorganization during the final stages of the PAO closure.

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This study reports the first record of Caprella moradi Momtazi, Sari & Darvish, 2020 from India. The specimens for this study were collected from Diu and Veraval coast of Gujarat State, India. Caprella moradi can be identified by the presence of four rows of small setae on body surface, curved anterior margin of male gnathopod 2 propodus and unequal size of gills 3 and 4. Caprella moradi can be differentiated from its close congener Caprella danilevskii; Czerniavski, 1868 by these consistent morphological characters. Examination of materials collected from Gujarat and their comparison with published figures indicates that the previous report of C. danilevskii from India actually corresponds to C. moradi.