Within the genera of fossil Echinodermata three junior homonyms are found and the following replacement names are proposed: Edrioblastocystis nom. nov. pro Blastocystis Jaekel, 1918 nec Aléxéieff, 1911 and consequently Edrioblastocystidae nom. nov. to replace Blastocystidae Jaekel, 1918; Euzonohymenosoma nom. nov. = Hymenosoma Lehmann, 1957 nec Desmarest, 1823; Pennsylvanicycloscapus nom. nov. = Cycloscapus Moore and Jeffords, 1968 nec Erdös and Novicky in Erdös, 1951. Accordingly, also three new combinations (comb. nov.) are established.

A new gobiiform fish Odontobutis hayashitokuei sp. nov. is decribed from middle Miocene freshwater deposits of the Chojabaru Formation in Iki Island, Nagasaki, Japan based on a single specimen. This new species differs from other species of the genus Odontobutis in having 21 caudal vertebrae and a smaller head. Odontobutis hayashitokuei sp. nov. is most similar to O. obscura in having almost the same position of dorsal and anal fins. This is the first fossil species of the genus Odontobutis and suggests that the origin of the genus extends to the middle Miocene, about 15 Ma.

Ontogenetic development of ornamentation and whorl geometry of the Cretaceous ammonoids Parajaubertella kawakitana and P. zizoh are studied based on well-preserved specimens collected from the lower Cenomanian in the Horokanai area, Hokkaido, Japan. Our results indicate that their comparably sized immature stages share identical ornamentation and shell morphology, while the size of their adult shells is distinctly bimodal. They also share the same stratigraphic ranges in the lower Cenomanian and have overlapping geographic distributions in Northwest Pacific region, and lastly, they co-occur in the same concretions. This evidence strongly suggests that the two taxa should be considered as dimorphs, microconch and macroconch of a single species, which is herein described as P. kawakitana.

The Carboniferous Ichinotani Formation in the Hida Marginal Terrane has lithologic and paleobiogeographic features of a continental margin affinity significantly different from those of the coeval seamountoriginated limestones widely distributed in the Japanese Islands. The fusuline fauna of the former is also different from that of the latter as exemplified by the restricted occurrence of late Moscovian Neostaffella and Hidaella in the former. The occurrence of these two genera is confined to the Podolskian Beedeina lanceolata Zone and are completely absent in the underlying and overlying biozones of the middle part of the Ichinotani Formation. Fusuline species mainly described in this paper are Beedeina lanceolata, Neostaffella umbilicata, Hidaella kameii, and Ozawainella vozhgalica prolific in and almost restricted to the B. lanceolata Zone, and Fusiella hayashii also characteristic and dominant in this zone.

Grazing traces attributed to gastropods and classified as incipient Radulichnus occur on eroded surfaces of Permian sandstones outcropping along the Godavari River in India, far beyond marine influences. Presumably, they were produced during monsoon flooding approximately four months before observations, probably by the apple snail Pila globosa (Swainson, 1822) of the family Ampullariidae feeding on biofilms. Even after such an extended period of time, their morphology is still well preserved. This demonstrates their preservation potential, especially when buried by sediment, and also suggests that such traces can be found as fossils in ancient fluvial environments.

In this study, we describe and illustrate a new fossil species of Nymphalidae (Lepidoptera, Papilionoidea), Neptis kabutoiwaensis sp. nov., based on an impression fossil from the Upper Pliocene Motojuku Group, Gunma Prefecture, central Japan, which is the first fossil representative belonging to the subfamily Limenitidinae of Nymphalidae. In addition, our study is the first to report the discovery of a named Papilionoidea fossil from the Pliocene Series. The fossil shares characteristics, such as the reduced forelegs, open discal cell in the forewing, and short Sc + R1 vein in the hindwing, with the tribe Neptini of Limenitidinae. However, the presence of the CuP vein in the forewing suggests that the studied fossil is clearly different from known species of tribe Neptini. This is an important discovery that can assist us in exploring the evolution of the tribe Neptini during the Pliocene, because this new species has the possible ancestral characteristic of a CuP vein in its forewing.