Seven sedimentary facies have been identified in a 40-m-thick portion of the Kanawha Formation near Chelyan in southern West Virginia. Lithology, sedimentary and biogenic structures, body fossils, paleocurrent patterns, and facies geometry have been used to identify the following paleoenvironments: Facies 1, fluviodeltaic channels represented by thick, cross-stratified channel sandstone; Facies 2, crevasse splays and tidal creeks represented by thin, cross-stratified wedge and channel sandstone; Facies 3, coastal swamps and lakes represented by coal seat and carbonaceous shale; Facies 4, restricted bay and upper tidal flats represented by dark-gray shale, mudstone; Facies 5, interdistributary bays represented by olive-gray siltstone and shale with brachiopods; Facies 6, bay or tidal flat scour fills represented by sandy limestone with brachiopods and pelmatozoans; and Facies 7, low to mid tidal flats and distributary mouth bars represented by thinly interbedded, rippled sandstone and siltstone.

Trace fossils representing 17 ichnogenera are present with most being restricted to certain sedimentary facies. Three ichnoassemblages are recognized. 1) An annulated vertical burrow assemblage, consisting of arthropod(?) dwellings, occurs in an abandoned fluvial channel facies. 2) A Phycodes–Zoophycos assemblage is associated with dark-gray shales and mudstones of a restricted bay and/or upper tidal flat environment. Additional ichnogenera include Planolites and ?Conostichus. 3) An Olivellites assemblage with a high abundance and a high diversity of trace fossils occurs within a rippled sandstone/siltstone facies; trace fossils include (in order of abundance) Olivellites, Teichichnus, Planolites, Aulichnites, transversely ridged surface trails, Rosselia, Scolicia, Curvolithus, Helminthopsis, Tasmanadia, Petalichnus, Ancorichnus, and ?Asterosoma. The associated depositional environments are interpreted as low to mid tidal flats and possibly distributary mouth bars.

The occurrence of salinity-sensitive trace fossils such as the assemblages described herein within otherwise faunally barren intervals facilitates the recognition of marine-influenced coastal facies in which stenohaline or brackish body fossils are lacking.

Middle and Late Permian sphinctozoan sponges described here are from the Middle Permian Maokou and the Upper Permian Wujiaping and Changxing Formations. Most are from near Xiangbo, northwestern Guangxi, but a few are from Upper Permain patch reefs from Laolongdong in eastern Sichuan. The new genera, the porate Imbricatocoelia and the aporate Glomocystospongia, are described, the latter as the type genus for the new family Glomocystospongiidae. New species described include Amblysiphonella specialis, Amblysiphonella spinosa, Amblysiphonella sp. A, Amblysiphonella sp. B, Colospongia maxima, Colospongia sp. A, Imbricatocoelia elongata, I. irregulara, I. obconica, I. paucipora, Neoguadalupia explanata, Subascosymplegma? paracatenulata, Rhabdactinia depressa, R. irregulara, R. squamula, Salzburgia nana, Glomocystospongia gracilis, Sollasia absita, and S. spheroida. New occurrences of Amblysiphonella merlai? Parona, 1933, Lichuanospongia typica Zhang, 1983, Polycystocoelia huajiapingensis Zhang, 1983, Intrasporeocoelia hubeiensis Fan and Zhang, 1985, Rhabdactinia columnaria Yabe and Sugiyama, 1934, Uvanella irregulara Ott, 1967, Stromatocoelia asiatica Zhang and Fan (in Fan and Zhang, 1985), and Tebagathalamia cylindricum Senowbari-Daryan and Rigby, 1988, are reported. The described assemblage represents the most diverse Permian sphinctozoan sponge fauna known from Asia.

Elasmostoma bajaensis n. sp., a pharetronid calcareous sponge, is described from the lower Eocene (P8 or P9 Zone) portion of the Bateque Formation, Baja California Sur, Mexico. This is the first Tertiary record of this genus and its first Western Hemisphere occurrence. Elasmostoma has been previously reported only from Jurassic and Cretaceous strata of Western Europe.

Praehyalocylis cretacea (Blanckenhorn, 1889), a pteropod previously known only from upper Eocene to middle Miocene strata in Europe and Turkey, is reported for the first time in similar age rocks in the northwestern United States. Of the 238 specimens, most occur as molds and casts in concretions in deep-water deposits from the Keasey Formation in Oregon, and from the Quimper Sandstone, Blakeley Formation, Pysht Formation, and Astoria Formation of Washington. Praehyalocylis has not been reported previously from the Western Hemisphere.

Clio berglundi n. sp. and C. goederti n. sp. are reported from upper Oligocene to lower Miocene rocks in Washington. Eleven specimens were found mostly as internal molds in concretions in deep-water deposits of the Lincoln Creek, Pysht, and Astoria Formations of Washington. Cenozoic species of Clio have not been reported previously from the West Coast of the United States.

Anthraconaia sp. occurs in the thin nonmarine interval that lies between the Upper Millersburg Coal Member and the Lower Millersburg Coal Member (Pennsylvanian, Desmoinesian) in Warrick County, Indiana. Specimens of Anthraconaia sp. resemble Anthraconaia that occur in Pennsylvanian and Permian rocks of the Appalachian Basin, but they differ slightly in size, form ratios, or both. Specimens were found in massive, nonfissile gray mudstone; buff-colored, laminated limestone (ostracodal biomicrite, wackestone); and platy black shale. The only statistically significant variation between shells from these different lithologies is that shells recovered from the limestone tend to be more ovate than shells from the other two lithologies. This contradicts the findings of previous investigations in which more ovate Anthraconaia were found in the more organic-rich sediments of a given stratigraphic sequence. This difference is probably caused by the lack of discernible change in energy level through the depositional history of the interval and suggests that changing energy levels may be more important to the control of the morphology of Anthraconaia than the level of organic carbon in the sediment.

The benthic, free-living oyster Texigryphaea was the dominant constituent of many late Albian marine communities in the Texas and southern Western Interior regions. Large topotypic assemblages of three common lower–middle Washita Group species (T. navia and T. pitcheri in Oklahoma and T. tucumcarii in New Mexico) each display considerable morphological variation in valve shape and the proportions and expression of various features. Variation within an assemblage is partly due to ontogenetic changes but is mainly ecophenotypic, with local variation in nature of substrate, water turbulence, length of attachment time, and other factors influencing the final morphology of the mature shell. The T. navia assemblage is distinct in several important morphological characters from the other species, and the differences become more pronounced with growth. Texigryphaea navia appears to have been adapted to relatively firm substrates in moderately agitated conditions, in contrast to the other species, which occupied softer substrates in quieter environments. The essentially contemporaneous T. pitcheri and T. tucumcarii assemblages display much overlap in all measured dimensions of the left valve and in the range of intergrading morphs that compose each assemblage. Accordingly, T. tucumcarii is considered a synonym of T. pitcheri, representing populations of that species that lived in the West Texas-New Mexico area and developed only minor differences from the eastern populations. Within the T. navia topotypic assemblage are specimens intermediate between T. navia and T. pitcheri, and the eastern and western T. pitcheri assemblages contain forms apparently transitional to two other species, T. washitaensis and T. belviderensis. Ecophenotypic variation in the T. pitcheri assemblages appears to be greater than that in European Jurassic Gryphaea species and mirrors to some extent phyletic variation in European Jurassic Gryphaea lineages.

Biostratigraphic correlations of the Conasauga Formation in the southern Appalachians have been hindered by unreliable trilobite taxonomy. New fossil collections and re-examination of type specimens allow revision or confirmation of assignments for several Middle Cambrian trilobite taxa. These revisions reveal sufficient relationships with trilobites outside the region to place fossiliferous strata in Floyd County, Georgia, into the Oryctocephalus and Bolaspidella assemblage zones of the Middle Cambrian section defined for the Great Basin.

Trilobite taxa considered are: (Agnostida) Baltagnostus centerensis (Resser, 1938) and Peronopsis cf. P. cuneifera (Barrande, 1846); (Ptychopariida) Alokistocare americanum (Walcott, 1916), Elrathia antiquata (Salter, 1859), Asaphiscus gregarius Walcott, 1916, and Glyphaspis cf. G. capella (Walcott, 1916).

Thin sections and acetate peels of the sediment within, and adhering to the outsides of, tests of Late Eocene echinoids from the southeastern United States have proven to be useful checks on inferences from test morphology concerning substrate preference. Previous characterizations of species' sediment preferences have concentrated primarily on the functional morphology of spatangoids, and relied particularly heavily upon Recent relatives of nonspatangoids. Reassessment of the preferences of spatangoids has led to a few discrepancies between interpretations herein and those of previous workers. In addition, this study attempts a more thorough assessment of functional morphology of nonspatangoid irregular echinoids than has previously been tried.

Carbonate sand-dwelling species from the Ocala Limestone (thin sections are clean grainstones) include Oligopygus, Echinolampas, Rhyncholampas, fibulariids, Durhamella, Neolaganum, Agassizia, Macropneustes, some species of Plagiobrissus and Periarchus, and most species of Eupatagus. All these have been interpreted previously as preferring clean sand. Species that preferred, or at least tolerated, significant carbonate mud in the substrate (thin sections are poorly washed grainstones and packstones) include all the regular echinoids and the irregular echinoids Schizaster, Ditremaster, Brissopsis, Brissopatagus, Amblypygus, Eurhodia, Weisbordella, Wythella, Paraster, some species of Periarchus and Plagiobrissus, and perhaps some species of Eupatagus. The last seven of these have previously been interpreted as sand-dwellers.

In general, species preferring mud-rich sands are found in the upper Ocala of peninsular Florida and in the middle to upper Ocala equivalents in the rest of the Gulf Coast. Sand-dwellers are most often found in the lower Ocala strata of both regions and up into the middle Ocala in Florida. These generalizations are consistent with existing paleoenvironmental models for the region.

The Upper Devonian–Lower Mississippian sequence in the subsurface of north-central Iowa and southeastern Nebraska consists of the Lime Creek, undifferentiated Sheffield–Maple Mill, English River, Prospect Hill, and Chapin Formations. The Lime Creek is restricted entirely to the Polygnathus biofacies where conodonts are present and correlates with an interval from Zone 4b to Faunal Interval 8 of the Canadian (Alberta) Rockies zonation based on conodonts and foraminifers. The oldest identifiable Famennian units range in age from the crepida–rhomboidea Zones at locality 1 to the Upper marginifera Zone or younger at localities 2 and 3. The youngest Devonian strata may occur in the Upper expansa Zone at locality 1 and Middle expansa Zone at localities 2 and 3. Famennian faunas are present in the Polygnathus biofacies at localities 1 and 3 and in the Icriodus biofacies at locality 2. A total of 50 species and subspecies are identified, four of which have not been previously described (Icriodus sp. A, Hemilistrona sp. A, Polygnathus depressus n. sp., and Polygnathus sp. B).

Previously undescribed specimens of Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis allow partial description of the anterior braincase and a preliminary examination of change of dome shape with age. The two morphs of dome shape recognized in adults are also present in juvenile specimens with dome lengths half that of mature adults. A new specimen of Stegoceras edmontonense in the same geographic and stratigraphic provenance as P. wyomingensis establishes that the two pachycephalosaur genera could exist sympatrically.

Previously described faunas of Early Silurian through Late Pennsylvanian age from the Alexander terrane have been endemic, or have variously suggested North American or Asiatic affinities, leaving the paleogeographic history of the terrane uncertain although indicating a location closer to North America than to Asia (Armstrong, 1970; Douglass, 1971; Savage, 1981, 1985, 1989; Savage et al., 1978; Savage and Barkeley, 1985; Soja, 1988; Vaskey, 1982). The occurrence reported here of the Canadian Arctic brachiopods Nanukidium cf. N. cunninghamensis and Atrypoidea scheii in the Alexander terrane during the Late Silurian could be additional evidence supporting the view that the Alexander terrane was not far removed from the North American craton during middle Paleozoic time.

Detached rostral teeth of fossil sawfishes of the family Sclerorhynchidae Cappetta (1974) are relatively common in Late Cretaceous marine strata of Texas. Most such teeth are referable to various species of Ischyrhiza and Onchopristis (Slaughter and Steiner, 1968). The extraordinarily large rostral teeth described herein are not referable to any sawfish presently known from North America. They belong to Onchosaurus pharao (Dames, 1887), which is known elsewhere from Egypt, Nigeria, Zaire, Angola, and Brazil (Arambourg, 1940; Tabaste, 1963; Cappetta, 1987). The specimens are the largest reported for any sawfish.

When i described the Mazon Creek tanaidacean crustacean and named it Cryptocaris hootchi Schram, 1974, two problems presented themselves. First, all specimens but one were in private collections, and none of their owners then seemed inclined to donate them to an established natural history museum. Second, the collections of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago at that time contained only a single specimen, P32053, of what appeared to be the Mazon Creek tanaidacean. This specimen is peculiarly preserved and of only mediocre quality. Consequently, I based the description of the Mazon Creek tanaidacean almost entirely on the privately held specimens, noting their numbers and private repositories, but designated the Field Museum specimen, P32053, as the holotype. A subsequent review of all fossil tanaidaceans (Schram et al., 1986) focused exclusively on the privately held specimens collected from Mazon Creek sites.