The lacewing family Nevrorthidae (Insecta, Neuroptera) is reported from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber for the first time. This paper describes the new genus and species Cretarophalis patrickmuelleri. Moreover, fossil nevrorthid larvae are recorded in Burmese amber for the first time. These mid-Cretaceous lacewings are the hitherto oldest representatives of the family Nevrorthidae.

To distinguish two closely related species, like the pine marten (Martes martes) and the beech marten (Martes foina), most scientists use the cranial features. The aim of this paper was to define other characteristic, morphological and metric sections to determine both sex and species of the German martens. For these we used measurable postcranial sections, which also were suitably found in archeological sites. Our analysis indicated that some morphological traits on atlas and scapula are useful to divide between beech marten and pine marten. To distinguish sexes, the metric analysis of the long bones and the pelvis gave good results.

The known material of the small therocephalian Silphoictidoides ruhuhuensis von Huene, 1950, is re-investigated. Additional description of the cranial osteology and a new diagnosis of the taxon are provided. It is demonstrated that contrary to recent claims Silphoictidoides represents a valid genus that is so far endemic to the Ruhuhu Basin and distinct from any described forms from the South African Karoo Basin. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that the genus is one of the most basal known representatives of the important therocephalian clade Baurioidea.

Herein we present an account of the fossil terrestrial and freshwater gastropods from the locality of Hohenmemmingen (Baden-Württemberg state, SW Germany) based on museum collections. The fossil outcrops belong to the Silvana Beds of the Upper Freshwater Molasse, being of Early/Middle Miocene age. In total, 23 gastropod species, all pulmonates, are documented in the material (whereas 33 species had been previously reported in the literature): five freshwater species and 18 terrestrial. From an actualistic palaeoecological approach, this palaeoevironment featured a humid and warm forest cover, with a well-vegetated and likely shallow water body.

We here present a synopsis of the litho- and biostratigraphy of the Middle Jurassic Sengenthal Formation (Lower Bajocian, Discites Zone to Lower Oxfordian, Cordatum Zone) in the section Polsingen-Ursheim (Nördlinger Ries, Bavaria). The ammonite biostratigraphy, based on bed-by-bed collections from three excavation pits, is correlated with the microfauna (ostracods, foraminifera) from the nearby drillcore VB Polsingen-Ursheim. Our results are compared with literature data from other regions. The distribution of ostracods confirms the zonation for the Middle Jurassic of Southern Germany (Franz et al. 2014a; Ohmert 2004) when correlated with the ammonite biostratigraphy of the Nördlingen Ries area (Dietze & Dietl 2006; Dietze et al. 2002, 2007). This positive correlation could be underlined by the presence of seven biostratigraphically valuable species of foraminifera. The synoptical analysis of the three fossil groups leads to a more detailed subdivision of the Sengenthal Formation and to a more precise correlation.

We examined 91 specimens recovered as beach wash on the shores of Dauphin Island and the nearby Sand/ Pelican Island Complex located in the northern Gulf of Mexico in Mobile County, Alabama, USA. A total of 12 unequivocal taxa were identified within our sample, including Carcharias taurus, Carcharodon carcharias, Cosmopolitodus hastalis, Carcharhinus leucas, Carcharhinus sp. cf. C. longimanus, Carcharhinus obscurus, Carcharhinus sp. cf. C. plumbeus, Negaprion brevirostris, Galeocerdo cuvier, Hemipristis serra, Aetobatus sp., and Diodontidae. Although not collected in situ, the preservation of the teeth, the biostratigraphic ranges of the taxa, and local stratigraphy suggests these fossils were derived from the shallow lower Pleistocene, Biloxi Formation and may be as young as Calabrian in age. Two extinct taxa in our sample, C. hastalis and H. serra, are among the stratigraphically youngest occurrences for each species. A comparison to extant representatives suggests this fossil assemblage preferred a warm, shallow, near-shore habitat with a water depth of 100 m or less. These fossils represent the first Quaternary marine vertebrates reported from Alabama.

A representative of the extant East Asian genus Istrisia Lewis, I. vithlandica sp. nov., is described and illustrated from Eocene Baltic amber of Europe. The described Salpinginae from this fossil resin are keyed. The landscape and habitats of the Baltic amber forest are discussed. The overall character of the beetle assemblage of Baltic amber fits best to lowland.

Mantimalthinus balticus gen. et sp. nov. is described upon one specimen embedded in Eocene Baltic amber from the Polish coast of Gdańsk Bay. The distinctive morphological characters of the new genus are: head rounded behind the eyes, pronotum transverse with hind margin strongly bordered, elytra nearly entirely covering the last abdominal segments and metatrochanter strongly elongated. No extant or fossil genus shows these features, and only Malthinellus malickyi Wittmer, from Thailand, seems to be morphologically related to the new species.

The former Königsberg collection of Baltic amber, currently stored in the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, contains an amber specimen showing a group of Glaesacarus rhombeus (Koch & Berendt, 1854) (Acari: Glaesacaridae) on or close to an inclusion of the tettigonid Eomortoniellus handlirschi Zeuner, 1939 (Orthoptera: Tettigonidae). One adult female's mouthparts are in direct contact with the main inclusion's leg, appearing to have fed from the stuck orthopteran at the moment of trapping. The conserved behaviour as well as the frequency of G. rhombeus and its syninclusions point towards this mite species not just being a mycetophagous borehole dweller that was flushed out by resin flows, but rather having a more diverse lifestyle that involved foraging on hardened resin surfaces and possibly feeding on carrion.

The fossil flower Tropidogyne pikei Chambers, Poinar & R. T. Buckley, previously described from Burmese amber has five spreading, epigynous sepals with five major veins and branched, anastomosing veinlets. On top of the inferior ovary is a broad, flat nectar gland from which project three short, arched styles (Chambers et al. 2010). The present paper describes the flowers of another species of this genus, T. pentaptera sp. nov., based on seven separate specimens from the same amber bed. The new species has spreading, veiny sepals, a nectar disc, and a ribbed inferior ovary like T. pikei, but differs in being bicarpellate, with two elongate, slender styles, and in the ribs of its inferior ovary lacking darkly pigmented terminal glands. A relationship of these fossils to the family Cunoniaceae is proposed, in particular to Ceratopetalum D. Don, an extant Southern Hemisphere genus known from fossils of the Tertiary Period.