A palaeospinacid shark from the Upper Triassic of south-west England

The fin spines of a new neoselachian shark are described from die Upper Triassic of Aust Cliff, Avon and Holwell, near Frome in Somerset. The spines are assigned to Palaeospinax rhaeticus sp. nov. This record adds to the known diversity of Upper Triassic marine vertebrates from Britain and extends the range of the palaeospinacid sharks into the Rhaetian.     

A new species of Lepidodasys (Gastrotricha, Macrodasyida) from Panama with a description of its peptidergic nervous system using CLSM, anti-FMRFamide and anti-SCPB

A new species of Lepidodasys (Gastrotricha: Macrodasyida: Lepidodasyidae) is described from sublittoral sediments in the Bocas del Toro archipelago in Panama and represents the first species of Lepidodasyidae described from the Caribbean. The new species possesses keeled scales that form a crossed-helical pattern across its dorsal and lateral surfaces and ventral scales that form a herringbone pattern between and lateral to the ciliary columns. A bilateral pair of three ventral adhesive tubes at the posterior end further differentiates this new species from its seven congeners. A confocal laser scanning microscope examination of the nervous system using antibodies to small cardioactive peptide B (SCP_B) and FMRFamides reveals a dumbbell-shape cerebral ganglion, paired pharyngeal neurites and paired posterior nerve cords. Expression patterns of immunoreactivity to both classes of neuropeptides show a high degree of similarity. Only within the lateral somata of the cerebral ganglion and a single median pharyngeal neurite is there a difference in immunoreactivity to FMRFamide (positive) compared to SCP_B (negative). Results from this investigation reveal that neuropeptides, among other neuronal markers, might provide phylogenetically informative characters in macrodasyidan gastrotrichs, especially regarding the topology of the cerebral ganglion.     

A new species of Copepoda Harpacticoida, Xylora calyptogenae spec. n., with a carnivorous life-style from a hydrothermally active submarine volcano in the New Ireland Fore-Arc system (Papua New Guinea) with notes on the systematics of the Donsiellinae Lang, 1948

A new species of harpacticoid copepods, Xylora calyptogenae spec. n., from Edison Seamount, a hydrothermally active submarine volcano in the New Ireland Fore-Arc system (Papua New Guinea) is described. The new species belongs to the Donsiellinae Lang, 1944, a highly specialised taxon, the members of which have previously been encountered only in association with decaying wood and/or wood-boring isopods. A closer relationship of the Donsiellinae with the Pseudotachidiidae Lang, 1936, can be stated on the basis of characteristics concerning the setation and/or segmentation of A1, A2, Mxl, Mxp, the shape of the female P5, anal somite, sexual dimorphisms on P2 and P3 and missing caudal seta I. Within the Pseudotachidiidae, the Donsiellinae again can be well characterized, e.g. by the setation and segmentation of A2, Mxl, swimming-legs, the shape of P1, female P5, male P2, sexual dimorphism and male P5. The Donsiellinae share some apomorphies with the pseudotachidiid subtaxon Paranannopinae Por, 1986: setation/segmentation of Mx, P1, A1. X. calyptogenae spec. n. is more closely related to Xylora bathyalis Hicks 1988 living in the deep sea wood substrata in New Zealand waters. Some traits of the evolutionary history of the Donsiellinae become evident, probably starting from the more primitive deep sea taxa X .calyptogenae spec. n., which lives in the hydrothermal seafloor in the absence of decaying wood, and X. bathyalis, which is found in decaying wood but not necessarily associated with the wood-boring isopod Limnoria Leach, 1814, towards the more advanced genera such as Donsiella Stephensen, 1936, which invades shallow waters and, further, clings to Limnoria, forming a close and, for the copepod, probably obligatory association. The specialised mouthparts of X. calyptogenae spec. n. seem to facilitate the grabbing and fixing of larger and/or active food items. This is confirmed by the presence of a large prey organism, presumably a copepod, consumed either alive or dead, in the gut of one of the available specimens. This morphology of the mouthparts is also shared by the closely related X. bathyalis.