Herein as a preface to Jukar's ongoing comprehensive systematic review, we introduce the fossil vertebrate collection made by G. Edward Lewis in 1932 as part of the Yale-North India Expedition to British India, and briefly discuss its historical and scientific significance. The collection, which consists of approximately 1,300 specimens collected from 106 sites, was made 100 years after the first fossils were reported by Europeans in the Siwalik deposits of the Indian subcontinent, and includes several important specimens, most notably fossil primates. Studies of the fossils collected by Lewis on this 1932 expedition have had a substantial and long-lasting influence on Siwalik paleontology, and motivated much subsequent work in this region by both western and local Indian and Pakistani researchers. Studies of primate specimens collected and first described by Lewis have also heavily influenced the field of paleoanthropology and debates surrounding the origin of our species.

The genus Lepidisis was established by Verrill in 1883 for three species collected from the continental slope in the western North Atlantic Ocean. Over the intervening years, several species were assigned to this genus using conflicting characters taken from Verrill's original description. Using what remains of Verrill's syntype specimens and a new specimen collected from off of the coast of the New England region, USA, we show that Verrill made a serious mistake in his description of the type species, and that mistake has caused some of the confusion surrounding this genus. We redescribe the type species, then use that description to evaluate the other species currently assigned to the genus.

The dajid parasite Holophryxus alaskensis is reported from Pasiphaea pacifica Rathbun, 1902 collected at 1,200 m depth near Baja California, Mexico. This represents the southernmost record for this species at approximately twice the depth of prior records. A juvenile specimen of Holophryxus attached to Parapasiphae sulcatifrons Smith, 1884 collected at 1,625 m depth from the Bear Seamount (an underwater volcano in the western Atlantic Ocean) was found to be similar in morphology to juveniles of H. alaskensis. However, it is also not possible to determine whether it is conspecific with either of the known Atlantic species of Holophryxus (H. acanthephyrae and H. richardi ). This is the first record of P. sulcatifrons as a host for any epicaridean. Finally, H. acanthephyrae is reported for the first time from off the Bahamas, where it was found on Acanthephyra pupurea A. Milne-Edwards, 1881 collected at 2,134 m depth. A discussion of the global distribution and taxonomic issues in the genus Holophryxus is provided.