The Middle Jurassic La Voulte-sur-Rhône Lagerstätte preserves with remarkable details a highly diversified bathyal palaeocommunity dominated by arthropods. Polychelida Scholtz & Richter, 1995 are particularly abundant and are currently represented by Eryon ellipticus Van Straelen, 1923, Proeryon giganteus (Van Straelen, 1923), Hellerocaris falloti (Van Straelen, 1923), and Willemoesiocaris ovalis (Van Straelen, 1923). This new investigation reveals the presence of two new genera and three new species in this crustacean community: Voulteryon parvulus n. gen., n. sp., Cycleryon romani n. sp., which is the oldest occurrence of the genus, and Adamanteryon fourneti n. gen., n. sp., an enigmatic polychelidan of uncertain affinities. The genus Proeryon Beurlen, 1928 is also revised to solve problems of homonymy, and as a consequence we here propose the replacement name Proeryon zehentbaueri pro Proeryon giganteus Beurlen, 1930, non Proeryon giganteus (Van Straelen, 1923). These new results place the La Voulte polychelidan lobster community at the first rank in terms of familial and generic diversity (three families, seven genera) and at the second rank in terms of species diversity (seven species) just after the Late Jurassic Eichstätt Lagerstätte (eight species). Thanks to modern techniques, such as X-ray tomography, this study also documents structures never observed before such as thoracic appendages of Proeryon giganteus and Hellerocaris falloti. In the case of Hellerocaris falloti, these new observations suggest it is one of the closest fossil relatives to extant polychelids.

Serpulid polychaete tubes are described from Volgian-Ryazanian sediments (?Pyrgopolon decorata (Stolley, 1912), ?Pyrgopolon aff. nodulosum (Lundgren, 1883)) and four contemporaneous hydrocarbon seep deposits (?Pyrgopolon aff. nodulosum, ?Pyrgopolon sp. A, Propomatoceros sp. A, Nogrobs aff. quadricarinata Münster in Goldfuss, 1831) from Spitsbergen, Svalbard. These are the oldest serpulid tubes yet described from fossil hydrocarbon seep deposits, and comprise the most diverse fossil seep serpulid fauna known to date. The genera Propomatoceros Ware, 1975 and Nogrobs de Montfort, 1808 have their first fossil occurrence elsewhere in the Early Jurassic and then appear in the Svalbard seeps much later. This is the first report of ?Pyrgopolon de Montfort, 1808 from a fossil seep site.

A collection of bryozoans from the Oligocene of Latdorf, Germany, first described by Ferdinand Stoliczka in 1862 and not examined since, has been reexamined. Stoliczka had recognized 47 species, 24 of them new. Of these latter, 14 names remain valid; the remainder are synonyms of previously described taxa or, owing to the originally inadequate state of the fossil material examined, taxonomically indeterminable. The genera Orbitulipora Stoliczka, 1862 and Stichoporina Stoliczka, 1862, both introduced by Stoliczka in 1862 along with their type species, are still valid. Two of his species, one of which had not been examined since its first description, comprise a new bryocryptellid genus, Stoliczkella n. gen., which superficially resembles the celleporid genus Galeopsis Jullien & Calvet, 1903. Diagnoses or descriptions are provided herein for all of the taxa in the collection and lectotypes selected. The results of this revision will be applied to a forthcoming analysis of a recent extended excavation of the Latdorf section by the University of Leipzig, in which bryozoans are among the most abundant fossil groups.

This fauna results from the short-time excavation of a restricted fossiliferous level, following the opening of a trench for the installation of a gas conduit. Even if the amount of sediment is limited, the diversity of the fauna approaches that of other contemporaneous localities. Among the 40 vertebrate species, a few are amphibious, and most terrestrial. Among them, biochronological markers like Issiodoromys pauffiensis Vianey-Liaud, 1987 (Rodentia, Theridomyidae) are better defined. This species is compared with the type population of the MP 26 Mammalian Paleogene standardlevel (Mas-de-Pauffié, Lot; early Chattian). In addition, evolutionary grades hitherto unknown are described for several less well represented species: a sciurid rodent Comtia n. gen., a molossid bat (Cuvierimops sp.), a probable talpid, and the hyaenodontid Thereutherium thylacodes Filhol, 1876. The familial assignment of the snake Platyspondylia Rage, 1974 is discussed. The locality yielded the possible earliest shinisaurian lizard. The diversity of this new vertebrate fauna is compared to that of several localities from the same biochronological level (mainly Mas-de-Pauffié, Saint-Menoux, Saint-Henri/Saint-André, Mümliswil-Hardberg and Oensingen 11). The choice of Mas-de-pauffié as the reference-locality for MP 26 is therefore supported.

Albert Gaudry and the fossil vertebrates from Luberon. The history of a reference collection.

The collection of fossil vertebrates from Luberon on the one hand, and the description of the fossil animals from “Mont Léberon” by Gaudry, Fischer & Tournouër in 1873 on the other, played a major role in the emergence in France of what can be called evolutionary palaeontology. Gaudry decided to excavate the locality of Luberon (also called Cucuron) to compare its fauna to that of Pikermi described by him a few years before. In the section of the monograph devoted to vertebrates, Gaudry especially developed the biostratigraphical, paleobiogeographical, and evolutionary aspects of the fauna in a very modern manner. From the evolutionary viewpoint, Gaudry discussed the question of identifying chronological and/or geographical “races”, that is subspecies, and species. This genuine work is mainly based on the collection housed in the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris (MNHN), so that both the monograph and the collection are milestones in the history of palaeontology. The fate of the collection since Gaudry's time is analyzed from the curators' viewpoint. The previous state of the fossils is described as well their restoration.

The fossils were previously disseminated in several areas of the palaeontology building due to their different sizes. They are now located in one place opened for study and revision (a few is exhibited in the public gallery). The basic cleaning and restoration of the material was also associated with the taxonomic and geographic identification since several specimens studied by Gaudry had been in the past erroneously transferred to other localities such as Maragheh (Iran). One explanation, except previous poor curation, is the greyish colour due to dust, decades after decades, that makes the different late Miocene fossils of various localities look alike (and even from middle Miocene). One example is one exquisite cranium of Gazella deperdita (now  MNHN.F.LUB681) figured by Gaudry in his monograph dated 1873, which bore other undue numbers with the MAR acronym for Maragheh (Maragha in the French litterature), and previously thought to be lost.

Once cleaned, the specimens were restored and consolidated with an acrylic emulsion (a methyl methacrylate/n-butyl methacrylate polymer), with different concentrations depending on different operations. Generally speaking the collection was in a very bad state and numerous specimens figured by Gaudry broken and incomplete since their description. The worst case is a specimen broken in seven parts. As an example, let us cite one tibia-fibula of the rhinocerotid Dihoplus schleiermacheri figured by Gaudry was found in six pieces, some of them discovered in a drawer containing miscellaneous middle and late Miocene mammal fragments. Others were not even completely separated from the matrix, a situation not always demonstrated by Gaudry's drawings which are sometimes more reconstructions then mere reproduction. Ultraviolet light was used to identify old hand writing. Many fossils of Gaudry's collection from Luberon bore the number 156, but not all. This number corresponds to the first catalogue number of Gaudry's collection. Other specimens from Luberon are from Christol, Caire, Conil, Lartet, Saporta and Depéret's collections (some Saporta's specimen bore also Gaudry's number 156). All the collection is now labelled with the acronym LUB for Luberon, that is, 988 numbers for 1201 elements. The electronic catalogue is complete and available online at the address:  http://science.mnhn.fr/institution/mnhn/collection/f/