New records of Pennsylvanian plants, in situ and dispersed cuticles from the Kladno-Rakovník Basin, Radnice Member, Czech Republic

New collection from the spoil heap of the Lužná mine in Lužná near Rakovník contains about 23 species of lycopsids, sphenopsids, ferns, pteridosperms, progymnosperms and cordaitaleans. The exploited coal seam is called the Upper Radnice Coal seam and belonged to the Radnice Member, Kladno Formation of the upper Duckmantian Substage (lower Moscovian Stage). Plant remains were discovered in tuffaceous partings (so called Velká opuka) and roof shales (here called Mydláky). As roof shales are friable, only a few fossils were found, e. g., Lepidodendron aculeatum Sternberg and Calamites cf. cistii Brongniart that are considered here as autochthonous or parautochthonous. Tuffaceous partings (Velká opuka) yielded a diversified assemblage, including large fragments including for instance progymnosperms (Noeggerathia foliosa Sternberg) and pteridosperms (Spheno pteris pulcherrima Crépin), in some layers also including allochthonous small fragments of undeterminable plant debris and pinnule fragments of medullosalean pteridosperms e. g. Laveineopteris tenuifolia (Sternberg) Cleal, Shute et Zodrow and other species. Noeggerathia foliosa Sternberg is the dominant species in this locality. Cuticles obtained from coal can be classified into several groups. Most of the fragments belong probably to the sporangium wall of the subarborescent lycopsid Omphalophloios feistmantelii (Němejc) Bek et al. Other cuticles correspond to leaf cushions of arborescent lycopsids (Lepidodendron Sternberg and Lepidophloios Sternberg), and others lacking cell and stomatal structures are undeterminable. Pteridosperm or fern cuticles from rachises or midvein areas without stomata are difficult to classify. Also, bizarre multicellular bodies of uncertain affinity are present. Sphenopsid and cordaitalean cuticles were absent in the dispersed cuticular spectra.

Conodont association of the Bashkirian-Moscovian boundary interval of the Donets Basin, Ukraine

Ten sections spanning the Bashkirian-Moscovian boundary interval were studied in the Donets Basin. Six of them contain most representative conodont and foraminifer associations. In this paper we focused on three the most complete sections that include stratigraphically important conodont species, which belong to the Declinognathodus, Idiognathoides, Idiognathodus, Neognathodus, “Streptognathodus”, Mesogondolella and Diplognathodus genera. The majority of those species are widely distributed, which makes the correlation to other areas reliable. Two biotic events in conodont evolution were discovered in these sections. Two conodont lineages established here are considered as potential markers for the definition of the lower boundary of the Global Moscovian Stage: D. marginodosus – D. donetzianus and Id. sulcatus sulcatus – Id. postsulcatus. The conodonts D. donetzianus and Id. postsulcatus, both proposed before as potential markers for the de? nition of the GSSP at the Bashkirian-Moscovian boundary, are described and compared to those from the other areas. The entry of D. donetzianus is updated and con? rmed to the top of the limestone K1 in both sections, the Zolota Valley and the Malo-Mykolaivka sections. The other proposals for the de???? nition of the lower Moscovian boundary by conodonts are discussed. Three conodont zones characterize the Bashkirian-Moscovian boundary interval. These are, in ascending order: the Id. tuberculatus – Id. fossatus Zone and D. marginodosus Zone from the upper Bashkirian, and D. donetzianus Zone from the lower Moscovian. They were recently described and shortly given in this paper.

A crown group priapulid from the early Cambrian Guanshan Lagerstätte

A well-preserved fossil priapulid worm, Xiaoheiqingella sp., is reported from the early Cambrian Guanshan Lagerstätte (Cambrian Series II, Stage 4) near Kunming City, Yunnan Province, SW China. The body of the animal consists of four sections: a swollen introvert, a constricted neck, a finely annulated trunk and a caudal appendage. The body configuration exhibits a close resemblance to that of the crown group priapulid Xiaoheiqingella peculiaris from the early Cambrian Chengjiang Lagerstätte. The new discovery provides another striking example of crown group priapulids, representing the third occurrence of crown group fossil priapulids after the Chengjiang Lagerstätte (Cambrian Series II, Stage 3) and the Mazon Creek Lagerstätte (late Moscovian Stage, Pennsylvanian). The discovery also sheds new light on the early diversity and evolution of priapulid worms.

The youngest trigonotarbid Permotarbus schuberti n. gen., n. sp. from the Permian Petrified Forest of Chemnitz in Germany

A new trigonotarbid (Arachnida: Trigonotarbida) is described as <i>Permotarbus schuberti</i> n. gen., n. sp. from the Early Permian Petrified Forest (Rotliegend) of Chemnitz in Saxony (Germany). At ca. 290 Ma it represents the youngest record of this extinct arachnid order discovered to date. Its familial affinities are uncertain, but may lie close to the Aphantomartidae. The distribution of the trigonotarbid genera through time is summarised, together with a list of their seventy-seven fossil-yielding localities. Together they offer a broad overview of the group's fossil record, which is heavily biased towards the Moscovian Stage (ca. 307–312 Ma) of the Late Carboniferous in Europe and North America. This is due in no small part to numerous localities associated with coal mining districts, and trigonotarbids are found less frequently after this stage. While it is tempting to associate this with biological events – such as a putative "Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse" dating to ca. 305 Ma – it is difficult to differentiate the effects of genuine extinction patterns from artefacts caused by fewer appropriate localities in the economically less relevant latest Carboniferous and Early Permian strata. Nevertheless, trigonotarbids became extinct at some point after the Early Permian and loss of the Coal Measures forests remains one of the most likely possible causes. <br><br> doi:<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mmng.201300012" target="_blank">10.1002/mmng.201300012</a>