This paper records a new sessile cirripede from a nearshore, shallow-water facies at Předboj near Prague, Czech Republic. The new taxon, Archaeochionelasmus nekvasilovae gen. et sp. nov., is the earliest known neobalanoform barnacle, and while it may have been an obligate commensal of a cephalopod or marine reptile, that it was a shore barnacle cannot be ruled out. (Zoobank registration: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:177CC951-CEC1-425C-B693-46ADB83BD5D9)
A new species of acorn barnacle, Actinobalanus? sloveniensis, is recorded from Oligocene and Miocene deposits in Slovenia, representing the first record of extinct balanoids attached to plant remains from this country, and in fact from the entire central Paratethys. Assemblages
available include more than 200 specimens attached to tree branches and/or roots from a cypress forest (Taxodioxylon) and from estuarine mangroves (Carapoxylon). A taphonomic interpreta- tion is provided, suggesting that some of these remains represent fragments that were dislodged
during a storm event and quickly embedded in what were likely to have been anoxic sediments.
The relatively rich sabellid and serpulid polychaete oryctocenoses of the hemipelagic Upper Turonian of the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin are hereby revised. Seven species from six genera were identified and described from the present key locality of Úpohlavy near Lovosice. Ongoing revision of previously published literature as well as the recently collected material resulted in eight polychaete species from seven genera being identified from the hemipelagic Late Turonian sediments of the basin: sabellids Glomerula plexus (J. de C. Sowerby), G. lombricus (Defrance) and serpulids Pyrgopolon (Septenaria) macropus (J. de C. Sowerby), Neovermilia ampullacea (J. de C. Sowerby), Dorsoserpula wegneri (Jäger), Serpula? (Cementula?) biplicata (Reuss), Josephella subanulata Regenhardt and Neomicrorbis crenatostriatus (Münster in Goldfuss) with the subspecies N. c. crenatostriatus. Data gained from the Úpohlavy quarry allows us not only to accomplish the revision presented here, but also deepen our knowledge of life strategies and paleoecology of the tubiculous polychaetes living in soft bottom conditions of a shallow, epicontinental sea. Among other findings the strong tendency towards a cryptic mode of life in Neovermilia ampullacea is discussed and an extraordinarily well preserved sample of Glomerula plexus reeflets network is documented. Two groups with different ecological amplitude have been recognised in the Úpohlavy polychaete communities. •
Micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) allows non-invasive imaging of internal structures of various objects. Micro-CT devices (x-ray microscope, CT scanner) utilize x-rays to see inside the object and enable its three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction. Here, a large set of shells (>60 specimens) of varying composition and origin were visualized using micro-CT to test its efficiency for investigation of (micro-)borings and other colonization structures. The set covered various materials and structures of marine shells, from the Ordovician to recent, some of them being influenced by diagenetic changes; it comprised internal moulds of invertebrate body fossils preserved in the siliceous nodules, bryozoan colony from marls to clayey limestones, epibiontic interactions of bryozoan colonies and conulariid specimens with apatitic periderm from clay limestones sediments, calcareous shells of platycerid gastropods from organodetritic limestones, microborings in peloidal grainstone, calcitic or calcitic/aragonitic serpulid tube worms, organic-walled lacustrine egg-like bodies, and recent foraminiferas from the Mediterranean. We focused on various structures from minute microborings to macroborings, burrows, and epibionts. Optimal settings of micro-CT devices for different types of shells combined with different types of borings and their fillings, burrows, and epibionts are suggested. Three-dimensional visualization of the surfaces of fossil shelled organisms using surface modelling is proposed. The main benefits of micro-CT include its non-destructive nature (measurements can be repeated, valuable specimens can be preserved for further studies, etc.) and reasonable 3D visualization of inner structures. On the other hand, resolutions of less than 1 µm cannot be effectively achieved, and this may limit studies on microborings by bacteria and certain fungi.
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