The late Dr. Rodney Feldmann had a remarkably long and productive career in paleontology spanning more than six decades (1962–2025), primarily focused on arthropod paleontology (1971–2025). His dedication to research and his students inspired many across the entire world, and he is very deserving of a special issue honoring his contributions. This special issue was proposed on 12 July 2023 and accepted without hesitation by the editorial board of the Journal of Paleontology. Rod was an enthusiastic supporter of the Paleontological Society and the Journal of Paleontology, having published nearly 100 papers in it and serving as a co-editor from 1977 to 1983. Sadly, Rod passed away on 1 May 2024, well before the completion of this issue.

This issue starts with two articles about Dr. Feldmann: a memorial about Rod’s life (Schweitzer et al., Reference Schweitzer, Casadío, Feldmann and Waugh2025a), followed by a more formal article about his prolific scientific career (Babcock and Klompmaker, Reference Babcock and Klompmaker2025). Subsequently, this special issue continues with 17 research articles spanning a variety of topics and arthropod groups, reflective of Rod’s diverse interests in arthropods. Fittingly, specimens collected from each of the seven continents are included in this issue because Rod worked on fossil arthropods from all continents and he also inspired others from all over the world to work on fossil arthropods. The papers span the Phanerozoic record of arthropods, which is also fitting. Consistent with Rod’s career focus, most papers have a systematic component to them. Some articles cover paleoecology and taphonomy, two of Rod’s special interests. In total, six new arthropod genera and 19 new arthropod species are described, and eight species are recombined. Of the new taxa, five new species and one new genus are named after Rod Feldmann: Carpilius feldmanni Ferratges et al., Reference Ferratges, Artal, Van Bakel and Zamora2025; Cretatrizocheles rodfeldmanni Gašparič et al., Reference Gašparič, Fraaije, Jagt, Van Bakel, Hitij and Wallaard2025; Lobetelson feldmanni Klompmaker et al., Reference Klompmaker, Garassino, Pasini and Cantrell-Suazo2025a; Rodneyellus feldmanni Lima et al., Reference Lima, Alcântara, Aguilera and Tavares2025a; Uralocyclus feldmanni Mychko et al., Reference Mychko, Alekseev and Schweitzer2025a; and Rodneyellus Lima et al., Reference Lima, Alcântara, Aguilera and Tavares2025a.

The first scientific paper discusses marine arthropod Lagerstätten (Babcock, Reference Babcock2025), and it summarizes work touched on in many of Rod’s publications as well as those of his many students and colleagues. Subsequent scientific papers are organized stratigraphically: from Paleozoic, non-decapod crustacean papers through Mesozoic and Cenozoic papers on decapod crustaceans. The first of these articles discusses segmentation patterns expressed primarily in Ordovician and Devonian xiphosurans (Lamsdell and Ocon, Reference Lamsdell and Ocon2025), showing that the loss of segment boundaries occurred multiple times within this clade. Branchiopods are also represented in this special issue by a paper on Early Devonian specimens from Luxembourg, synonymizing some species and describing a new one (Poschmann et al., Reference Poschmann, Hegna, Numberger-Thuy and Thuy2025). A paper on the malacostracan order Belotelsonidea includes a stratigraphic and paleobiogeographic overview of the group, which is known only from the Carboniferous of Euramerica, plus a description of a new species (Klompmaker et al., Reference Klompmaker, Garassino, Pasini and Cantrell-Suazo2025a, Reference Klompmaker, Garassino, Pasini and Cantrell-Suazo2025b). An enigmatic group, the Cyclida, is featured in a paper that includes two new species from the Carboniferous and Permian of Russia (Mychko et al., Reference Mychko, Alekseev and Schweitzer2025a).

The decapod crustacean section starts with a paper on lobsters, one of Rod’s favorite arthropod groups. This paper provides a stratigraphic overview of the family Glypheidae and includes a restudy of a species from the Early Jurassic of Argentina (Damborenea et al., Reference Damborenea, Manceñido, Echevarría and Harguindeguy2025). Mychko et al. (Reference Mychko, Schweitzer and Feldmann2025b) report on the first Jurassic occurrences of Anomura and Brachyura from Russia, substantially expanding the knowledge of Late Jurassic reef-associated decapods to the far southeastern part of Europe. Another paper on lobsters, the family Mecochiridae from the Jurassic and Cretaceous of Europe, includes a revision of the family and the erection of a new species (Charbonnier et al., Reference Charbonnier, Garassino, Schweigert, Gendry and Simpson2025). Gašparič et al. (Reference Gašparič, Fraaije, Jagt, Van Bakel, Hitij and Wallaard2025) report on a new species of paguroid anomuran from the Early Cretaceous of Slovenia. Building on Antarctic research spearheaded by Rod and colleagues in the 1980s (Fig. 1), Lima et al. (Reference Lima, Franco, Tavares, Figueiredo, Sayão, Kellner and Ghilardi2025b) erect a new brachyuran species from this continent, underscoring faunal exchange between the Northern and Southern hemispheres during the Late Cretaceous. Near the end of the Late Cretaceous, large populations of brachyurans inhabited and were preserved in the Mississippi Embayment of the USA, providing data for an ontogenetic study in which three crab species are synonymized and one new genus is erected (Schweitzer et al., Reference Schweitzer, Feldmann and Findling2025b). Issues with systematic placement have surrounded two Paleocene species previously, but they are now firmly placed within a brachyuran family that survived across the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary in the southern USA (Schweitzer et al., Reference Schweitzer, Klompmaker and Luque2025c), with a new genus. The Eocene witnessed further diversification among brachyurans, as clearly highlighted in a paper erecting 10 new species and three new genera from the early Eocene of Spain (Ferratges et al., Reference Ferratges, Artal, Van Bakel and Zamora2025). Nearly all papers in this special issue directly document aspects of the arthropods themselves, but a paper by Beschin et al. (Reference Beschin, Busulini, Tessier and Sanfilippo2025) demonstrates that serpulid worm specimens, representing a new species, had a commensal relationship with brachyurans during the middle Eocene in what is now Italy. From Slovakia, Hyžný and Heteš (Reference Hyžný and Heteš2025) describe an assemblage of four decapod species from the late Eocene, also highlighting taphonomic and paleoecological aspects. Galatheoids remain understudied in the fossil record, but a detailed paper revising early and middle Miocene species of the family Munididae from Japan, including one new species (Karasawa and Kato, Reference Karasawa and Kato2025), exemplifies continued progress. Increased research on Cenozoic decapods has been carried out in tropical America in the last two decades, as further illustrated by a new genus and species of brachyuran from the middle to late Miocene of Brazil in the final paper in this special issue (Lima et al., Reference Lima, Alcântara, Aguilera and Tavares2025a).

Figure 1.

Dr. Rodney Feldmann mapping rocks that include fossil decapods in Antarctica (?Seymour Island) in the early 1980s.

Altogether, this collection of papers demonstrates substantial progress in arthropod paleontology, building on and honoring the vast and lasting professional legacy of Dr. Rodney Feldmann. Furthermore, these papers demonstrate his success in encouraging and supporting multiple generations of researchers, sparking new research, and opening new avenues of scientific inquiry.