A new heliolitid tabulate coral Avicenia kocyani n. sp. is described from Silurian erratic boulders from Pomerania (Poland). The new species has higher intracolonial variation than other heliolitids. The growth pattern in corallites of the new species is not correlated with the growth pattern in coenenchymal tubes. This phenomenon is probably caused by different gene expressions in corallites and common tissue. Coenenchymal corals with a common skeleton, developed as polygonal tubes may have two levels of colonial integration: lower, with uncoordinated growth of corallites and common tissue (as for example in Avicenia kocyani n. sp.) and higher, with a unified growth pattern throughout the colony (as for example in Heliolites diligensis Bondarenko, 1966). Heliolitids are known to show strong provincialism during the Silurian. The discovery of Avicenia Leleshus, 1974 in Europe (previously known only from Central Asia) shows that at least some of them had a wider distribution than previously thought.

Lower Devonian (Lochkovian pro parte-Emsian) sedimentary environments of the Saoura-Ougarta (North-Western Sahara, Algeria).

The lower Devonian (Upper Lochkovien to Emsian) rocks of the Saoura-Ougarta offers an example of mud-dominated platform with sandstone and limestone tempestites (Dkhissa Formation) bearing benthic fauna, and shales-sandstones beds with limestone episodes (Teferguenite Formation). The facies successions show retrogradational and progradational trends with an evolution from the offshore transition to shoreface (lower member) and from offshore transition to foreshore (upper member) with some carbonate intercalations with SCS structures and stromatolithic crusts. At the base of the Teferguenite Formation, the limestone episodes (A, B and C bars) reflect brutal change of the environmental conditions with sedimentation on carbonate ramp, in its mid position, interfingering with siliciclastics phases. They represent, in the Saoura-Ougarta, rapid transgressive episodes alternating with silicilastics phases in high marine level. The sedimentary dynamic is largely dominated by storms without any direct continental influence (fluvial) ruling out previous deltaic environnement interpretation in the lower Devonian of the Saoura-Ougarta. Our analysis shows that each limestone episode of the Dkhissa Formation corresponds to the tempestites while the limestone bars of the Teferguenite Formation may reflect eustatic variations. For the first time, we define tectono-eustatic T–R cycles (Ld1, Ld2, Ld3, Ld4 and Md1) which correlate with regional events on of the Saharan Western platform. Finally, when we integrate regional data, we remark that the transgressive episodes (bars A, B and C) of the Teferguenite formation, coincides with regional emersion in the Ahnet. Corresponding to what Elmi (1990) called “Haug effect” (“effet Haug”) for a same dynamic when the basin (here the Saoura) is in deepening regime and the plateform (north border of the Touarg shield) shows exondation (transect Ahnet-Bed el Mass and foum Belrem ridge).

The collection “Marie Legrand-Blain” contains a diverse fauna of Carboniferous corals from the marine strata of the Algerian Sahara. Among 96 specimens, there are 34 rugose coral taxa and four tabulate coral taxa. Saharaphrentis tirechouminoidense n. gen., n. sp., ?Amplexizaphrentis illizidensis n. sp. and Haplolasma paraarciferum n. sp. are new. The supposed high coral diversity of the Sahara basins is confirmed by the present study. The interspecific and intraspecific variabilities are hardly known, because the number of specimens is limited; commonly a single or few specimens. Thus populations could not be studied and in some cases only an assignment at generic level is possible. Two main coral associations can be distinguished. Undissepimented solitary rugose corals (“zaphrentids”) and michelinid tabulate corals dominate the shaly environments. Larger and more complex solitary and colonial rugose corals occur mainly in carbonate environments. The Mid-Carboniferous Boundary is an important faunal break. It is characterized by the disappearance of typical Mississippian solitary and colonial taxa. “Colonial aulinid” corals have only been found below and above the boundary level. The new Bashkirian coral stock shows palaeobiogeographic connections to the western United States and the Donets Basin. The studied coral fauna does not support the assignment of a Bashkirian age for strata in the Iliizi Basin and the Ahnet and Reggane basins. The Marie Legrand-Blain collection is a good example of the utility of such old collections for the study of Carboniferous corals from the often remote and hardly accessible Algerian basins.

The holotype of Phylobktta gaudryi (Agnus, 1903), provided from the famous deposit of Commentry (Allier, France), exhibits a pair of forewings and a hind wing in connection, well preserved. Forewings show a network of veinlets in the area between M and CuA, and evidence of a fusion of some branches of M with CuA. It is concluded that the m-cua veinlets belong to M and that a reticulated fusion between M and CuA occurs. This fusion is considered as a homologue of the “dictyopteran forewing arculus”, but as an intermediate polymorphic state between “occurrence of a single discrete arculus“ and “no arculus”. The preserved hind wing is devoid of an m-cua arculus, has a multi-branched AA vein on the remigium, and has a vannus of limited extent. The new data on P. gaudryi might allow the phylogenetic position of Pennsylvanian stem-dictyopterans with respect to crown-dictyopterans to be better assessed.

Short history of the Gazola's collection of fossil fishes from the Eocene of Monte Bolca (Italy) housed in the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris.

The history of Gazola's collection of fossil fishes from Monte Bolca (Italy) is generally incompletely known as reference is only made to the requisitioning of this collection, in May 1797, by commissioners who accompanied the French troops which occupied Verona. However, the study of manuscript sources has allowed to show that Giovanni Battista Gazola stayed in Paris for a long time during the year 1803 and that, on the 10th of May (20 Floreal an 11), he wrote a letter to the administrators of the french Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, for proposing them to offer new specimens that could complete the part of his collection which had been seized five years earlier.

A comprehensive systematic review of the Bovidae from the fossiliferous sites of Maragheh, Iran, based mainly on the collections stored in the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris and the Laboratory of Evolutionary Biology in Howard University, Washington, DC, is undertaken here. We identify 18 species, including the newly nominated genus Demecquenemia n. gen. We further recognize two species of Gazella Blainville, 1816, four species of Prostrepsiceros Major, 1891, including Pr. cf. vinayaki (Pilgrim, 1939) that is documented for the first time in Maragheh, as well as the presence of Palaeoryx Gaudry, 1861 and the possible presence of Palaeoreas Gaudry, 1861. Our revision includes new material and improved systematic understanding of both Urmiatherium polaki Rodler, 1889 and of the boselaphines from Maragheh. The biostratigraphic distribution of Maragheh Bovidae is discussed in the light of the new data and a thorough comparison of the Maragheh bovid assemblage with those of Pikermi, Samos and other sites in the region is conducted. We demonstrate that Maragheh was a biogeographic crossroads of several Late Miocene Zoogeo-graphie provinces of Eurasia.

Large mammalian fossil fauna of the Ivand locality in northwestern Iran is reported for the first time. This new locality is situated north of the city of Tabriz in the geographical proximity of the famous Maragheh fossil sites. A large hipparion, represented by an almost complete skull and mandibles, is recorded from this locality. The skull, most likely of Hipparion giganteum-Hipparion brachypus lineage, represents significant evidence of the presence of large hipparionine horses in northwestern Iran in the Late Miocene. A small number of horn-cores attributed to Oioceros atropatenes Rodler & Weithofer, 1890 and Gazella sp., in addition to some indeterminate dentition, represent the bovid material in the Ivand fossil assemblage. Postcranial evidence also points to the presence of Deinotherium giganteum Kaup, 1829 and Rhinocerotinae indet., while other material adds carnivorans, giraffes and large porcupine rodents to the list of the fauna. Based on the occurrence of these taxa, the Ivand locality can be correlated with the Middle and Upper Maragheh biostratigraphical intervals, thus demonstrating a middle Turolian age (c. 8–7 Ma).

We evaluate the taxonomic affinities of an Hystricid from the Plio-Pleistocene hominid site of Uraha (Chiwondo Beds), northern Malawi. At the cross roads between eastern and southern Africa, these deposits are both unique and interesting because of their age (they encompass a period of major climatic change and have yielded early Homo remains). We describe here the third upper molar found in Uraha and compare it with Hystrix leakeyi Denys, 1987 and H. makapanensis Greenwood, 1958 specimens. The new specimen is smaller than H. makapanensis and H. leakeyi. It also differs from the fossil species by the absence of posteroloph and a smaller lingual sinus and oblique labial lophs. The new Hystrix Linnaeus, 1758 specimen has a small size and is bunodont, which differentiates it from the modern species found in Malawi today like H. cristata Linnaeus, 1758 and H. africaeaustralis Peters, 1852. It could belong either to a new species or enter into the variability of the described ones, but due to the low degree of knowledge of Hystrix molar morphology and variability as well as the very low number of specimens for comparison, we retain an indeterminate status for this specimen. Further, we ascribe the absence of small mammals and especially small rodents in these lake-shore deposits to taphonomic and palaeoecological phenomena.

Cocculinella freti n. sp., from Archi and Valanidi (Reggio Calabria) and Cocculinela bertolasoi n. sp., from Valanidi (Reggio Calabria) and Capo Milazzo (Messina, Sicily), are described from three southern Italian Lower Pleistocene outcrops (bathyal assemblages). No species of the genus Cocculinella Thiele, 1909 is known from the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, whereas three living species are known from the Indo-Pacific. Very little, mostly questionable information is known on fossil species of the genus. The present report is the first unequivocal fossil record of Cocculinella, allowing the stratigraphic and biogeographic range of the genus to be extended to the Lower Pleistocene of the Mediterranean.