Stomatopods (mantis shrimps) are important predators in Recent tropical shallow-water communities. Despite a long geological history, they are poorly preserved as fossils, and traces of their predation have never been identified from the fossil record. Here we report on Plio-Pleistocene gastropods (mostly Strombus) from Florida with distinctive holes “punched” into their body whorls. The similarity of these holes to holes punched into live gastropods by Gonadactylus implicates gonodactyloid stomatopods as the predators that made them. Recent gonodactyloids break gastropod shells as thick and thicker than those of the Plio-Pleistocene strombids that were punched. Because our data underestimate the incidence of stomatopod predation, the frequency of holes in these strombids (8–13 percent) suggests that stomatopod predation may be of considerable importance in the ecological and evolutionary history of tropical benthic assemblages.

Coccoid and filamentous microfossils in the Borden Rift Basin on northwestern Baffin Island and western Bylot Island are reported from 14 localities at six general stratigraphic levels in the Society Cliffs Formation, and one in the Victor Bay Formation. At least seven of 12 fossiliferous Society Cliffs samples, and one of two Victor Bay samples, are from cherty dolostones formed in shallow restricted, peritidal evaporitic environments. The remaining six fossiliferous samples accumulated in somewhat deeper, less restricted waters. The assemblage is preserved in black chert nodules and layers and comprises 30 taxa, including the filamentous forms Archaeotrichion? sp., Tenuofilum septatum, Eomycetopsis robusta, Siphonophycus inornatum, S. kestron, Rhicnonema antiquum, Brachypleganon sp., Eomicrocoleus sp., Uluksanella baffinensis n. gen. and sp., Talakania? sp., the coccoid taxa Eosynechococcus medius, E. grandis, Archaeoellipsoides obesus, Sphaerophycus parvum, S. medium, Myxococcoides minor, M. grandis, Melasmatosphaera spp., Phanerosphaerops capitaneus, Palaeoanacystis sp., Tetraphycus hebeiensis, Eogloeocapsa bella, Gloeodiniopsis magna, G. sp. 1, G. mikros, Polybessurus bipartitus, Cymatiosphaera? sp., the fusiform Eupoikilofusa? sp., and rare specimens of two unidentified and problematic taxa.

The uppermost Precambrian(?)–Lower Cambrian of the Avalon Zone in the northern Antigonish Highlands is composed of two dissimilar sequences in thrust contact. These include the sandstones and slates of the Doctor's Brook allochthon and the volcanoclastic-rich Malignant Cove authochthon.

Lithostratigraphy of the “Black John Formation” (designation abandoned) in the Doctor's Brook allochthon is comparable to the uppermost Precambrian–Lower Cambrian in eastern Placentia Bay, southeastern Newfoundland, and Cape Breton Island. A unified stratigraphic nomenclature is appropriate in these Avalonian areas. The lower part of the “Black John” is an unconformity-bounded depositional sequence with subaerial rift facies (Rencontre Formation, 178+ m), overlying marine siliciclastic mudstones and fine sandstones (Chapel Island Formation, 59 m), and a quartzite cap (Random Formation, 2.05 m). The Chapel Island Formation has the oldest faunas from mainland Nova Scotia (Watsonella crosbyi Zone, lower Placentian Series). A post-Random unconformity known in Newfoundland and Cape Breton Island lies at the Random-Bonavista Group (Cuslett Formation) contact in the upper “Black John Formation.”

Fossiliferous Lower Cambrian limestones and siliciclastic mudstones previously reported from the Malignant Cove autochthon are actually clasts in basalt pebble-dominated slope deposits of the Arbuckle Brook Formation. These clasts were eroded from shallow-marine facies comparable to those in the Doctor's Brook allochthon during local uplift associated with Middle Cambrian(?) extension and mafic volcanism.

Eight species are illustrated from the Placentian and Branchian Series. Anabaritellus Missarzhevsky, 1974, emend. (=Selindeochrea Valkov, 1982) is a Lower Cambrian calcareous tube-dwelling metazoan(?) known from tri- through multisulcate conchs that are morphologically intermediate between Anabarites and Coleoloides.

Articulate brachiopods from the Aptian–Coniacian (Kotick Point and Whisky Bay Formations, Gustav Group) and the Santonian–Campanian (Santa Marta Formation, Marambio Group) of James Ross Island are described. A new terebratulid species, Rectithyris whiskyi n. sp., is described from the late Albian–early Coniacian of the Whisky Bay Formation. The record from the late Albian is supported by palynological evidence making it contemporaneous with other species of Rectithyris from Europe. The relative abundance of Rectithyris whiskyi n. sp. in late Turonian to early Coniacian sections indicates an extended biohorizon that may aid biostratigraphic correlation in the James Ross Island region.

The brachiopods have some affinities with faunas described from Europe, northern Siberia, North America, Madagascar, southern India, Western Australia, and Alexander Island, Antarctic Peninsula. Elements of the James Ross Island brachiopod fauna probably migrated by the following routes: 1) from northern high latitudes via the Eastern Pacific; 2) from Europe via the north and central Atlantic and opening south Atlantic Ocean; and 3) via Eastern Tethys, the East African Seaway, to the south Atlantic Ocean. Brachiopod evidence supports a fully marine connection between the central Atlantic and south Atlantic Ocean (Route 2) possibly as early as the late Albian (as do ammonite faunas from western Africa), and certainly by the late Turonian. Route 3 was established in the Cretaceous by the Aptian?–Albian to eastern Africa and Madagascar and to the Antarctic Peninsula by the late Turonian. Faunal links between James Ross Island and Western Australia support the Late Cretaceous juxtaposition of these plates.

A distinct austral brachiopod fauna may be present in the Cretaceous from the Aptian onwards (although current evidence is scant). Antarctic Peninsular and Western Australian faunas yield five brachiopod genera (and their species) endemic to Gondwanaland's southern marine fauna. Other genera known from the Antarctic Peninsula (Kingena, Ptilorhynchia, and Rectithyris) and the Northern Hemisphere may have species endemic to Gondwanaland.

The trochid archaeogastropod Margarites (Pupillaria) columbiana n. sp., the mytilid bivalve Modiolus (Modiolus) willapaensis n. sp., and the vesicomyid bivalve Calyptogena chinookensis n. sp. are described from the earliest known fossil communities associated with subduction-related methane seeps. The communities are in very localized limestones of late middle to late Eocene age along the southwestern margin of Washington. These limestones contain large numbers of chemosynthetic bivalves and worm tubes, as well as other macrobenthos, that colonized around cool-temperature methane seeps along the landward slopes of an ancient subduction-zone complex.

Calyptogena chinookensis n. sp.is the earliest known species of this genus, which was previously known from Miocene to Recent.

This study represents a preliminary analysis of variation in size and shape in a large and diverse molluscan clade, the Strombina group, over the past 20 million years. Restored height and width were measured on 5,099 individuals of 72 species and 5 genera. Size was estimated by adding height and width, and shape was estimated by dividing height by width. Patterns of variation were analyzed quantitatively among species, subgenera, and genera using univariate statistical tests comparing means and variances and linear regression.

Results of univariate tests show that both shape and size vary among species within subgenera (the specific level) and among genera (the generic level). However, only shape varies among subgenera within genera (the subgeneric level). Regression analyses for each species show that the relationship between height and width is linear, indicating that growth is never allometric with respect to these characters. Because of this nonallometric growth, rates of shape relative to size change can never vary, imposing a severe constraint on shape change and, in turn, shape evolution. Regression models for species within subgenera have equal slopes but differ slightly in intercept. Subgeneric models differ more in intercept. Generic level models differ in slope. These results suggest that formation of species within subgenera primarily involves extension or contraction of trajectories between height and width within species (=static vectors), resulting in size change without shape change. Shape change is more important in the evolution of higher categories.

To examine overall morphologic change in the clade through time, mean sizes and shapes of species were analyzed using nonparametric statistics. Only a slight tendency exists within the clade for increase in species size, and this tendency is best expressed within two species-rich subgenera having long stratigraphic ranges. No directional trends exist for change in species shape. No relationship is found between species size and probability of speciation or extinction, or between species size and species duration, thus negating the role of species selection. Nevertheless, species are smaller in size in the northern Caribbean, a region characterized by extreme fluctuations in temperature. Larger species occurred only after a taxonomic radiation in the eastern Pacific, a more restricted region possibly characterized by reduced environmental disturbance. During this radiation, normal patterns of morphologic change associated with speciation appear to have been disrupted.

The Cenomanian ammonites of the Helvetic Domain (French-Swiss Western Alps) are revised and illustrated for the first time since the middle of the Nineteenth Century. The faunas occur in remarkable condensed hemipelagic glauconite-rich biomicrites that also contain planktic foraminifera and small stromatolites. Thirty-three ammonite species referred to 15 genera are described; the assemblage extends from the lower part of the Lower Cenomanian Mantelliceras mantelli Zone (Neostlingoceras carcitanense Subzone) to the lower part of the Middle Cenomanian Acanthoceras rhotomagense Zone (Turrilites costatus Subzone). The assemblage comprises 57 percent trachyostracous forms, 41 percent heteromorphs of the standard N.W. European sequence, and 2 percent leiostracous forms, which inhabited an external shelf biome. The biogeographic affinity of this fauna is essentially cosmopolitan (69 percent), but 31 percent of the specimens belong to the European Boreal biota, with no Tethyan taxa.

Bivalves comprise a major component of the faunules of the Mississippian Mauch Chunk Group in northern West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania. Twenty-eight species representing 22 genera have been recognized. Of these, three new species are proposed—Limipecten greerensis, Streblochondria tiltoni, and Prothyris (Prothyris) acuticarinata.

A new genus, Novoameura, is erected with the type species Anisopyge mckeei Cisne. Delaria macclintocki Cisne from the Kaibab Formation of Arizona is herein regarded as a junior synonym of Delaria sevilloidia (Chamberlain), which was originally described from the Phosphoria Formation of Wyoming. The Leonardian (Permian) San Andres Formation of the Sacramento Mountains, central New Mexico, contains trilobite species known both from the Kaibab Formation of Arizona and the Phosphoria Formation of Wyoming, but lacks trilobite species known from the nearby Permian of West Texas.

Actinocrinites Miller from the Mississippian stratotype region of Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri are redescribed and redefined based upon study of the type material and morphometric analyses. Actinocrinites pernodosus, A. lowei, A. jugosus, A. gibsoni, and A. probolos n. sp. are recognized as valid species that occur in these strata. A combination of both metric and qualitative characters must be used to differentiate these species. Actinocrinites is known from the Montrose Chert Member of the Keokuk Limestone, the Keokuk Limestone, and the lower part of the Warsaw Formation, all late Osagean, in the stratotype region. In addition, Actinocrinites pernodosus and A. lowei are reported from the early Meramecian upper part of the Warsaw Formation, which is the first Meramecian occurrence of Actinocrinites in the stratotype region. Actinocrinites probolos n. sp. was ancestral to A. lowei, and the latter was probably ancestral to A. pernodosus.

Nomenclatural and systematic acts include the following: 1) Actinocrinites lowei (Hall, 1858) is the senior synonym of Actinocrinus brontes Hall, 1860, Actinocrinites lobatus (Hall, 1860), and A. unicarinatus (Hall, 1860); 2) Actinocrinites jugosus (Hall, 1860) is the senior synonym of A. augustatus Miller and Gurley, 1894; and 3) the concept applied incorrectly to A. lobatus by Wachsmuth and Springer (1897) represents a distinct species, Actinocrinites probolos n. sp.

Twenty-nine conodont species are represented in formations comprising the upper part of the Clinton Group and the Lockport Group at four localities in Niagara County, New York, and adjacent Ontario, Canada. Four previously unrecognized species of Ozarkodina represented in two samples from the Oak Orchard Formation are described. Ozarkodina sagitta rhenana (Walliser) and O. sagitta sagitta (Walliser) appear to form an evolutionary lineage in which the latter evolved from the former during the late early Wenlockian by slight modification of the Pa element. Elements in the other corresponding positions in their respective apparatuses are virtually identical.

The Williamson Shale, Irondequoit Limestone, Rochester Shale, and DeCew Formation of the Clinton Group belong in the upper part of the Pterospathodus amorphognathoides to the middle part of the Ozarkodina sagitta sagitta Chronozone, and are early to early middle Wenlockian in age. The Gasport, Goat Island, Eramosa, and Oak Orchard Formations of the Lockport Group belong in the middle part of the O. sagitta sagitta to the lower part of the Ancoradella ploeckensis Chronozone, and are early middle to late Wenlockian in age.

The existence of the Malvinokaffric Realm during the Silurian (Boucot, 1990) is based on the presence of three endemic brachiopod genera (Anabaia, Clarkeia, Heterorthella), and their absence in the coeval North Silurian Realm, where roughly 100 other brachiopod genera Aegiria to Zygospiraella are present. Within the Malvinokaffric Realm the vast reaches of the Paraná Basin, covering an area almost equivalent to the United States east of the Mississippi River, has previously yielded only Anabaia, and that from a single area. In light of this, the recognition of both Clarkeia and Heterorthella within the confines of the Paraná Basin is noteworthy.

There are relatively few large collections of decapod crustacean fossils in the museums of the world. Most of them are well known and serve as depositories for numerous type and figured specimens that are documented in the literature. The purpose of this note is to call attention to the extensive decapod crustacean collection in the Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Brussels–a collection that is largely attributable to the efforts of the late Dr. Victor Van Straelen.