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This study focuses on the analysis of sedimentary facies and ichnogenus variations to determine the palaeogeographic setting of turbidite deposits that are clearly exposed in the surroundings of Majalengka area, West Java, Indonesia. Lithofacies variation in turbidite deposits, identified from detailed stratigraphic sections, were visually presented as a composite log and indicated a thickening and coarsening pattern due to a regressive event. Trace fossils exposed in all stratigraphic levels consist of Thalassinoides, Chondrites, Cruziana and Planolites. They are commonly found in a series of thin to medium bedded fine grained turbiditic sandstones intercalated with shales. Hereinafter, the integration analysis in between sedimentology and ichnology data, the sediment shed into the basin in the submarine channelized related to slope system. Such findings cast no doubt as to whether integrated sedimentary facies and ichnofacies analysis can be viewed as precise methods for sedimentary basin interpretation, in which external parameter, for example magmatic processes, also are considered to play a role.

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The microspore genus Lycospora in its wider sense is produced by both heterosporous cones, Flemingites, and homosporous cones Lepidostrobus. Calculations are made of the number of microspores that are produced by cones and then by individual Pennsylvannian arborescent lycophytes. The distribution of the rooting rhizohores, Stigmaria can be extrapolated to a square kilometre of forest. A calculation of the number of spores produced in such a forest is enormous which explains why some dispersed spore floras are dominated by these spores. There are dispersed spore assemblages prepared from coal with high percentages of Lycospora. However, the methods of preparation and counting of the spores do not give enough information to make a meaningful calculation of their total numbers in the samples.

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Upper Ordovician shallow marine fine-grained sandstones and siltstones exposed in the Loděnice – vinice locality yielded a distinct and well-preserved tiering pattern of trace fossils. The two uppermost tiers are composed mainly of Bifungites and Nereites. Deeper in the sediment, tiers dominated by Thalassinoides, Zoophycos and Teichichnus occur. Most of the succession is completely bioturbated; however, several storm layers enabled study of a well-preserved frozen tiering pattern. Large portions of the bedding planes (ichnologic snapshots) showed a considerable patchiness of intensive surface bioturbation and a preferred orientation of Bifungites. The identified tiering pattern is one of the earliest examples of a well-documented complex tiering of burrows documented in detail.

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The use of CT scans in palaeontology has a long history. Most X-ray CT scans of fossils are carried out on previously prepared specimens and seldom on unprepared blocks of fossils. Here we report the use of a standard medical X-ray CT scanner to detect vertebrate and invertebrate fossils inside limestone blocks as an aid to subsequent preparation. The results were largely successful, with low-resolution images and radiodensity thresholds which nevertheless created sufficient contrast for identification of objects and their location inside blocks of limestone, thus optimizing the allocation of time and resources for palaeontological preparation. We conclude that the use of medical X-ray CT scanners for an initial visual inspection of limestone blocks for the presence of below the surface fossils is possible, cost effective and reliable. In addition, it allows the original raw data to be preserved as a digital object. The advantages of making use of standard medical X-ray CT scanners to facilitate palaeontological preparation under logistic or budgetary limitations is becoming more and more apparent.

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Two excellently preserved small strobili were obtained from a Wealden plant debris bed in the Lower Cretaceous (Barremian) Wessex Formation, south-east of Chilton Chine, on the Isle of Wight, southern England. The strobili are preserved as compressions and show the characteristic morphology of sporangiophore heads of Equisetales. Based on the morphology of the strobili, attribution to a certain species is not warranted. Therefore, the strobili have been left unassigned in the fossil-genus Equisetostachys which is commonly used for isolated strobili of fossil sphenophytes. From their size, shape and constitution, the strobili are interpreted as immature; the absence of preserved sporangia and spores is consequently not unexpected. Affiliation with Equisetum burchardtii might be an option. The strobili represent the first record of any equisetalean or sphenophyte remains from the Wessex Sub-basin of the English Wealden and are thus of considerable importance. The find is especially significant because previously known specimens from the Weald Sub-basin and the German Wealden are confined to subterranean rhizomes, adventitious roots, tubers and bases of aerial shoots, commonly preserved in situ, together with only fragmentary remains of sporangiophore heads from disarticulated strobili. These strobili finds are thus the first intact equisetalean reproductive structures from the Wealden of either England or Germany.

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Baragwanathia brevifolioides is established as a nomen novum for B. brevifolia P.Kraft et Kvaček, 2017, recently described from the Silurian of the Prague Basin, Czech Republic and revealed as a later homonym of B. brevifolia Hundt, 1952.

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The paper presents the results of a comparative analysis of the ultrastructure of tooth enamel (incisors, premolars and molars) in representatives of morphologically (and possibly phylogenetically) similar forms of small horses. These are both extinct forms of tarpan – Equus gmelini from various sites of the early Holocene of Ukraine (Myrne, Kamiana Mohyla and Hirzhevo) and modern forms – konik polski and E. przewalskii, and European wild ass – E. hydruntinus. Morphology of prisms in different layers of tooth enamel and its relative relationships in various taxa were thoroughly described. The data obtained in the form of tables and graphs, with the appropriate statistical processing thereof, show the morphological similarity of tarpan remains from different sites, and their similarity to the konik polski and Przewalski’s horse. However, the European wild ass differs significantly from the other groups studied. In equines, the radial enamel varieties (types І, ІІ and ІІІ) have evolutionary tendencies to strengthen the first and second types of hydroxyapatite prisms, while reducing the share of the IPM matrix in the enamel structure. In turn, the enamel of the incisors is characterized by lamellar enamel of the HSB uniserial type.

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Actinopterygians from the Permian sediments of the Czech part of Intra-Sudetic Basin, occurring in the Ruprechtice and Otovice Limestone horizons (Broumov Formation), are revised and redescribed based on both old material and newly discovered specimens. A new diagnosis and reconstruction of Paramblypterus vratislaviensis (Agassiz, 1833), the most numerous actinopterygian of the Ruprechtice Limestone Horizon, and the rare Paramblypterus zeidleri (Fritsch, 1895) are published. First actinopterygians from the Otovice Limestone Horizon were described. Most of the specimens from the Otovice Limestone are referred here to Paramblypterus cf. rohani and Paramblypterus sp. Representatives of Aeduellidae have also recently been discovered in the Otovice Limestone. Osteological fragments belonging to a new taxon exhibit the diagnostic features of the genera Aeduella and Bourbonnela. The reasons for the significantly different faunistic content in the stratigraphically close Ruprechtice Limestone Horizon and Otovice Limestone Horizon are discussed.

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This is a brief outline of the fossil content of the Wischgrund leaf-bearing clay (Lower Lusatia, Brandenburg State, Germany), which belongs to the youngest Neogene layers of Lower Lusatia (upper Miocene, Tortonian). It is a deciduous temperate flora, with a small proportion of evergreen species. The reconstructed vegetation can be assigned to an azonal swamp forest with Taxodium and a riparian forest with Liquidambar and Acer as the most frequent species. Furthermore, a zonal Mixed Mesophytic Forest characterized by Quercus and Fagus is proposed in upland positions. The flora consists of 78 species of leaves, 51 carpological species and 82 palynological groups. The climate belongs to Cfa-type according to Köppen. Two new species of leaves are described from there, Pyracantha pseudococcinea sp. nov. and Ternstroemites klettwitzensis sp. nov.

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Some undescribed suoid specimens from early and middle Miocene deposits at Moghara, Egypt, and Gebel Zelten, Libya, are of interest for biochronology. The fossils comprise maxillae and mandibles with incomplete dentitions, which are described and illustrated in detail. Three species of suids and one sanithere occur at Moghara. A huge edentulous suid mandible was collected at Gebel Zelten in 1997 during the Spanish-Libyan Palaeontology Expedition. In January, 2020, additional sanithere fossils were collected from Moghara by a team from Cairo University and the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris. A suid mandible with four teeth collected from Moghara in 1994, and now curated at the Cairo Geological Museum, confirms the presence of the species Libycochoerus massai at the site, previously represented by an isolated upper molar and two canines. A talus previously thought to be from Moghara is now known to have been collected at Wadi Natrun (late Miocene) and thus probably represents a tetraconodont rather than a kubanochoere. The age of the Moghara deposits is estimated to span the period ca. 19.5–16.5 Ma (late early Miocene, Faunal Sets PII–PIIIa) and the Zelten sequence is most likely to span the period ca. 17–14.5 Ma (late early Miocene to basal middle Miocene, Faunal Sets PIIIa–PIIIb).

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The Amphicyoninae of the early Miocene from the locality of Tuchořice, the Czech Republic, are represented by three species. Two of them are classified within the tribe Amphicyonini: Paludocyon bohemicus (Schlosser, 1899) as the type species of Paludocyon n. gen., and a large-sized amphicyonid determined as Megamphicyon carnutense (Antunes et Ginsburg, 1977). Dehmicyon n. gen. aff. schlosseri is determined by two small teeth. This new genus has been proposed for the species Amphicyon schlosseri Dehm, 1950 from Wintershof-West and is tentatively included in the tribe Pseudarctini nov. together with the genera Ictiocyon and Pseudarctos. This association of Amphicyoninae provides valuable information on the taxonomy and systematics of this subfamily during the early Miocene, at which time important environmental changes were taking place in Europe, which undoubtedly affected the evolution of Amphicyonidae.

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A new actinopterygian fauna from the Permian of the Brive Basin (Corrèze, Massif Central, France) is described in detail. It is represented by a new pygopterid taxon, Briveichthys chantepieorum gen. et sp. nov., erected and described here on the basis of several well-preserved specimens showing peculiar characters in the bones of the skull roof, parasphenoid, bones of the cheek and opercular apparatus. Other specimens from this new fauna are also described; they are referred to Progyrolepis heyleri Poplin, 1999, also known in the Bourbon-l’Archambault Basin, and Aeduella cf. blainvillei, which is relatively common in the Permian of France. These discoveries show the importance of the Brive Basin which was previously considered as a rather barren basin in term of palaeontology. This new fauna from Brive is compared with the other Permian ichthyofaunas from France: it is less rich in terms of specimen numbers than the faunas of Bourbon-l’Archambault and Autun, but it is more diversified in terms of number of taxa than the faunas of Lodève and L’Argentière (Ardêche). These actinopterygians, together with other aquatic vertebrates (e.g., acanthodians, sharks etc.), were widespread and diversified in the Hercynian Mountain Chain during the Permian. They indicate that the French basins were connected in time and space. The wide distribution of these aquatic taxa may have been favoured by numerous hydric systems (lakes, rivers etc.) which were well developed under the tropical climate.

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Fossil plants are extinct plants whose remains (referred to as plant fossils) are found preserved in sedimentary deposits. Plant fossils are classified using fossil-taxa as defined in the International Code of Nomenclature. Fossil-taxa differ conceptually from taxa of living plants in that they often do not refer to whole organisms, but to the remains of one or more parts of the parent organism, in one or more preservational states. There can be complications when two parts of a plant are shown to be connected, or when two preservational states are correlated, and to avoid disrupting the wider palaeobotanical taxonomy it is often best to keep the fossil-taxa separate. Extinct fossil plants reconstructed by piecing together the plant fossils are best not given formal
Linnean taxonomic names. There can also be problems using living plant taxa for fossils, even when there is a close morphological similarity of particular plant parts. Fossil-taxa for different plant parts can reflect different taxonomic ranks of the parent plants so care must be taken when using such taxa in floristic or phylogenetic studies. Because of taphonomic factors, a number of “artificial” fossil-taxa have proved useful, despite that they do not fully reflect the systematic positions of the parent plants.

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The discovery of fossil plants, marine molluscs and mammals in the Mazamba Formation, Cheringoma Plateau, Mozambique, opens a new chapter in the study of this part of the African Rift System. The evidence suggests that the Mazamba Formation is older than previously reported, probably late Eocene rather than Miocene. The fossil wood and stems indicate a frost-free tropical humid environment and a high water table soon after deposition, and the marine molluscs and mammals indicate proximity to the sea. There is also evidence for the occurrence of pans in the area during the late Eocene which also suggest a near-surface water table.
This paper discusses the history of interpretation of the geology of the Cheringoma Plateau and describes and interprets the fossil plants, molluscs and mammals collected in 2012 and 2013. It is concluded that the Mazamba Formation, which overlies the fully marine Lutetian-Bartonian Cheringoma Limestone, is a coastal facies (fluvio-deltaic, lagoonal and onshore deposits) that accumulated on top of the marine limestones as sea level dropped late in the Bartonian. Mammalian bones from the White Patch sites represent a heavily built species about the dimensions of a pygmy hippopotamus, probably belonging to the order Embrithopoda. If so, then the Mazamba Formation is likely to correlate to the latest Bartonian or early Priabonian rather than to the Miocene as previously assumed.

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