Abstract This study provides a description of the Devonian radiolarian associations of northern Eurasia and discusses their role in the evolution of Earth’s biosphere. It contributes to evolutionary studies of the Earth and its organic world by reconstructing the diversity dynamics of the Devonian radiolarian biota and the chorology of its components, at the same time revealing the biostratigraphic

Abstract Bacterial paleontology studies the roles played by organisms in the genesis of sediments and ores. It is, therefore, important to clearly distinguish in-situ biological objects present in the rock material from various contaminants of later origin and from mineral structures that merely resemble organisms. The same is crucial for correct interpretation of alleged biogenic structures found

Abstract— This work presents the results of the study of microbiomorphs (pollen, spores, phytoliths, diatoms, shells of testate amoebae, sponge spicules, plant tissue remains) from the paleosols of the Upper Quaternary deposits of the Kolyma Lowland. The analysis of their abundance and diversity, as well as the relationships between different types of biomorphs, made it possible to clarify the genesis

Abstract Biomarkers, due to their structure and biochemistry, are resistant to soil degradation and mineralization under particular environmental conditions, and therefore can provide molecular evidence of paleobiota and past land vegetation, and of the intensity of not only modern, but also past biochemical processes in the biosphere. Parameters of the humus group composition, optical densities of

Abstract The results of the phylogenetic analysis and analysis of the physiological characteristics of metabolic activity of strains isolated from frozen sedimentary rocks collected in the Antarctic and the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago are reported in this article. A comparable abundance of cultured cells and close morphological diversity of colony morphotypes were revealed in all samples. Representatives

Abstract This article reports the first results of studies on microbially mediated organomineralization in carbonate ooids from the Paleozoic sections of the Timan–Northern Ural region, which were formed in different environments and had different original mineral composition (calcite, Mg-calcite, and dolomite). Using a scanning electron microscope, mineralized microbial biofilms preserved in various

Abstract The use of X-ray microtomography, neutron tomography, scanning electron microscopy and X‑ray microanalysis in the study of stromatolites is discussed, and the advantages of each of these methods are summarized. Scanning electron microscopy allows study of the morphology of the object surface. Information about the composition and ratio of chemical elements of surface structures can be obtained

Abstract Early Pleistocene volcanic soil series exposed in archaeological sites of the Lori Plateau and the Upper Akhurian Lowland of the Armenian Upland were studied. The study considers the isotopic composition of organic carbon and the content of n-alkanes, not previously analyzed in this area. Both these parameters indicate the waterlogged conditions of Early Pleistocene soil formation as is also

Abstract— This review summarizes the results of the study of bacterial communities of seasonally thawed soil horizons in the polar tundra of Russia. It has been shown that the representatives of different physiological groups of microorganisms developing in the soils of this extremely cold habitat are involved in the global biological cycle of carbon. Light has been thrown upon the role of microorganisms

Abstract Proportions of 13C/12C and 15N/14N isotopes were identified in different woody compartments of birch (Betula pendula Roth), pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and aspen (Populus tremula L.) trunks in preforest-steppe and pine-birch forests of the Middle Urals using mass spectrometry. The data were analyzed and interpreted from the perspective of the biochemical processes of carbon and nitrogen metabolism

Abstract A gigantic shell of a rudist of the genus Valletia is described for the first time from the Lower Berriasian of Southwest Crimea. The lithology and geological age of the host rock are discussed.

Abstract Some characteristic features of the colonial morphology of the bryozoan order Melictrititida Pergens, 1890 are discussed. Although this order belongs to the class Stenolaemata, these features were not indicated in the diagnosis of this class. These features include funnel-shaped zooids, either elongated or shaped like shortened chambers; calcareous facettes, rhomboidal, pentagonal, or hexagonal;

Abstract Twenty types of conodont element pathology are considered, and the examples of Abrasio, Accessio, Caudatio, Depressio, Diminutio, Duplicatio, Fusio, Impressio, Jugatio, Occlusio, and Suppressio pathologies identified in the Devonian of the Voronezh Anteclise are illustrated in detail. All pathological phenomena are assigned to five genetic groups: (1) mechanical damage to hard tissue; (2)

Abstract— The first kotlassiid species of the Vyazniki Faunal Assemblade, Microphon terminalis sp. nov., is described from the terminal Permian of the Bykovka locality (Vladimir Region, Russia). The diagnostic characters of M. terminalis are the preservation of nasolacrimal duct throughout ontogeny and some features of the marginal teeth, such as the moderately thickened proximal parts of the crowns

Abstract A crown of Streptoiocrinus gen. nov., with its articulated stem, the columnals of which have long been known in the Billingen and Volkhov regional stages (Floian and Dapingian stages) of the Leningrad Region and Estonia are described. A detailed study of the crown and stem morphology showed that the new genus belongs to the disparid crinoid superfamily Ioсrinacea. This genus is the first mass

Abstract In Mongolia, fossil mammals are known from the Upper Jurassic, Lower and Upper Cretaceous, all series of the Paleogene and Neogene, as well as the Pleistocene. Over 335 new species and more than 185 new genera of fossil mammals (not including synonyms) were described from Mongolia up to the end of 2019. The most important results in the last hundred years of research, that most strongly influenced

Abstract One new damselfly genus and species, Progophlebia tarasenkovae gen. et sp. nov., and two new species from known genera: Progoneura kityakensis sp. nov. and Kennedya tyulkinensis sp. nov. of the family Kennedyidae (Odonata: Protozygoptera) from several Permian localities (Vyazovka, Kityak, and Tyulkino) of European Russia are described. All known representatives of the family are briefly reviewed

Abstract This article examines the geological and stratigraphic context of several types dinosaur tracks discovered in Lower Cretaceous deposits exposed in the vicinity of city of Kislovodsk (Caucasian Spa Country; Stavropol Krai). The tracks occur on the bedding surfaces of Lower Cretaceous (Valanginian) limestones, dolostones and marls. Two track morphotypes are described. Some ideas are proposed

Abstract Two new Ostracoda species are described from Aptian sediments of the Crimean Mountains, Protocythere whatleyi Karpuk, sp. nov. (Protocytheridae Lyubimova, 1955) and Homocythere spinasphaerica Karpuk, sp. nov. (Mandocytheridae Gründel, 1969).

Abstract— Axophyllum cavum Trautschold, 1879 (Rugosa: Stauriida: Axophyllidae), a common solitary coral in the Moscovian stage of the Moscow Basin, is briefly redescribed. It is characterized by the small size of adult individuals (a few centimeters) and a high occurrence frequency of rootlet structures on the epitheca that supported the attachment of the coral on the substrate. The extensive collection

Abstract— Based on examination of the collection of stemmed echinoderm holdfasts from the Ordovician of the Leningrad Region (Russia), all holdfasts are divided in two large groups: “unbranched” and “branched”. In total, 11 morphotypes of unbranched holdfasts are identified and described in detail.

Abstract Tachinymphes koraiensis sp. nov., a new member of the family Mesochrysopidae (Neuroptera), is described from the Lower Cretaceous Jinju Formation (South Korea), constituting the first record of fossil lacewings from the Korean Peninsula. The evolutionary history of Mesochrysopidae is discussed, and myrmeleontoid-like modifications of wing venation associated with improved flying ability are

Abstract The Devonian and Early Carboniferous brachiopod assemblages of the order Rhynchonellida from Transcaucasia (Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan and Armenia) are described. The succession of dominating rhynchonellid superfamilies and ecological types has been identified. Rhynchonellids were numerous in the Devonian; in the Early and Middle Devonian, the representatives of the superfamily

Abstract Five new species of Early Permian radiolarians are described from the South Urals and Western Mugodzhary: Spongentactinia crassitunicata sp. nov., S. ordinaria sp. nov., S. tenuireticulata sp. nov., Polyentactinia sakmarica sp. nov., and Microporosa interisol sp. nov.

Abstract This study describes the microanatomical and histological structure of the femur and hypocentra of the neotenic temnospondyl amphibian Dvinosaurus campbelli from the Late Permian locality Gorokhovets, Vladimir Region (Upper Vyatkian Substage, subzone Chroniosuchus paradoxus of the Scutosaurus karpinskii zone). The femur of D. campbelli is characterized by a “pachyosteous” structure (dense

Abstract Svalbardia osmanica Petrosjan et Radczenko from the Middle Devonian deposits (Izyly Formation) of Kuznetsk Basin is re-studied from the type material (CNIGR-museum, Saint-Petersburg). An emended diagnosis of S. osmanica including new data on morphology and anatomy of sterile plant fragments and fertile structures with in-situ spores from the microsporangia is given. Dispersed spores from the

Abstract New materials on “Rhodospiza” shaamarica Zelenkov et Kurochkin, 2012 from the Upper Pliocene of Shaamar (Northern Mongolia) and Beregovaya (Southern Transbaikalia; Russia) localities are described. It is shown that R. shaamarica should be assigned to the genus Emberiza (Emberizidae): thus, this is the first fossil bunting species found in Asia. The morphological similarity of Emberiza shaamarica

Abstract Representatives of the family Medlicottiidae (Ammonoidea) from the Permian of the Verkhoyansk Region are revised. Medlicottiids in the region are represented only by the subfamily Uddenitinae and are only known from four stratigraphic levels in the Lower Permian. Prouddenites evolutus sp. nov., representing the terminal phase of the morphogenetic development of the genus Prouddenites is found

Abstract The first fossil monotypic genus of the subfamily Necrophilinae (Coleoptera, Agyrtidae), Palaeonecrophilus buryaticus gen. et sp. nov., is described from a positive and negative imprint found at the Early Cretaceous Khasurty locality in Western Transbaikalia. The beetle is similar to modern Necrophilinae in the presence of notches on the apical antennomeres and the wide and flattened edges

Abstract A new subspecies of the fossil European water buffalo, Bubalus murrensis extremus, is described from an almost complete skull found in the Upper Pleistocene deposits of the Lukerino village near the city of Kolomna (Moscow Region). The fossil is dated to the Allerød interstadial (12.8 cal. kyr). Until now, the species was only known from the Middle and early Late Pleistocene of Europe. New

Abstract A new species of the fossil genus Prionomyrmex, P. gusakovi sp. nov., represented by three workers from Baltic amber (Late Eocene, Priabonian, 33.9–37.2 Mya), is described. Prionomyrmex longiceps Mayr was first identified in the coeval Rovno amber from Ukraine. The differences between the species described and other known species of the genus are presented. The main problems of evolution and

Abstract New taxa of Nematocera are described from the Lower Cretaceous Khasurty locality (Western Transbaikalia, Russia). These are Praearchitipula ribeiroi sp. nov., P. kaluginae sp. nov., P. podenasi sp. nov. (Pediciidae), ?Protanyderus madrizi sp. nov. (Tanyderidae), Eoptychoptera fasbenderi sp. nov. (Ptychopteridae), Gilkania transbaikalica gen. et sp. nov. (Chironomidae), Amorimyia robusta gen

Abstract The historical sequence of Early Triassic tetrapod communities in the Obshchii Syrt area includes eight consecutive faunal assemblages: this degree of detail in the identification of evolutionary stages is unique on a global scale. Temnospondyl amphibians are the dominant elements in these tetrapod assemblages, with three capitosauromorph groups (capitosaurids, benthosuchids, and trematosaurids)

Abstract Based on published data and material from several Ordovician sections of the Siberian Platform and northeastern Russia housed in the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the ostracode family Egorovellidae Schallreuter, 1966 is revised. The family is of great importance for biostratigraphic correlation. The diagnosis of the genus Bodenia V. Ivanova, 1959 is clarified

Abstract The microstructure of the shell material in the protegulum brephic shells, and adult shells of Lingulipora gradata Batrukova, 1955 from the Upper Devonian deposits (Frasnian Stage) of South Timan is described. The structure of the interior part of the ventral valve was studied. The character of porosity was different in two species of the genus Lingulipora.

Abstract New and little known Gryllones insects (Insecta: Gryllones) from the Triassic of Eurasia are described. The genus Yontala Aristov, 2005 from the Lower Triassic locality of Yontala (Induan Stage of the Vologda Region, Russia) is re-described and transferred to the family Sylvabestiidae of the order Cnemidolestida. Sharovala triassica gen. et sp. nov. (Cnemidolestida: Sylvabestiidae) from the

Abstract The holotype and topotypes of Camarotoechia ferganica Nalivkin, 1930 are restudied. This species was erected based on a single complete shell, and subsequently assigned by M.A. Rzhonsnitskaya to the genus Ferganotoechia Rzhonsnitskaya in Rzhonsnitskaya, Kulikova et Petrosyan, 1978. However, the generic diagnosis was not published earlier. Here the shell interior of F. ferganica is first described

Abstract The study of the contents of the trunk and buccal cavity of a the remains of mammoth calf (Mammuthus primigenius) from Yakutia using scanning electron microscopy has revealed 14 species and varieties of Bacillariophyta and three forms which have been identified only to genus. The obtained data on the diatom species composition expand knowledge of the Pleistocene flora of Bacillariophyta in

Abstract The morphological diversity and stratigraphic distribution of filamentous microfossils in the Vendian deposits of the Nepa Regional Stage of the interior of the Siberian Platform were analyzed. Hormogonian cyanobacteria of five genera (Nepia gen. nov., Talakania, Oscillatoriopsis, Obruchevella, and Siphonophycus) were identified in the composition of the Nepa biota. A monographic study was

Abstract The shell microstructure and its postmortem alteration were studied for two Early–Middle Cambrian paterinid families constituting the order Paterinida. The paterinid shells during life were organophosphate; most of the shell substance was organic. The organic matter after the death played an important role in the processes of postmortem alteration of the original microstructure. The conditions

Abstract— Remains of small phasianid birds from several Pliocene and Pleistocene localities in the Northern Black Sea Region and Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Moldova, Poland, Czech Republic, and Hungary) are traditionally, based on similar proportions, assigned to Plioperdix pontica (Tugarinov, 1940). Our study of the bone material from Ukraine has shown that they in fact belong to several taxa of Galliformes

Abstract Inoceramus-like bivalves of the bipolar species Atomodesma variabile Wanner were first found and precisely associated with the Upper Permian (Wuchiapingian) section in the Southern Verkhoyansk Region. The appearance of this exotic taxon in Boreal basins is associated with the short-term invasion of several Tethyan taxa into high-Boreal basins due to transgression. It is concluded that the

Abstract A new bryozoan species Dianulites altaicus sp. nov. (order Esthonioporata) is described from the Sandbian Stage of the Upper Ordovician of the environs of Lake Teletskoe in Gorny Altai. A collection of bryozoans of the genus Dianulites Eichwald, 1829 from the Lower and Middle Ordovician of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago and Vaygach Island in the Russian Arctic has been revised. Bryozoans from

Abstract Possible variants of systematic position of Cambrian problematic fossils of the family Mobergellidae are discussed. An affinity between mobergellids and Sipuncula, a phylum of marine benthic worm-like lophotrochozoans possibly related to annelids, is proposed for the first time. The mobergellid discoidal sclerites are interpreted as caudal shields of sipunculans.

Abstract Old and new ammonoid collections from the Devonian–Carboniferous Boundary Section in Berchogur (Western Kazakhstan) are examined. The ammonoids come from the Acutimitoceras Genozone, from beds similar in age to the Stockum Fauna of Germany. The assemblage includes mostly species of the genera ?Imitoceras and Acutimitoceras, with diverse shapes of initial whorls. The new species Acutimitoceras

Abstract New finds of cephalopod jaw apparatuses from the upper part of the Niortense Zone and the lower part of the Parkinsoni Zone (Upper Bajocian) from the interfluve of the Kuban and Urup rivers (Northern Caucasus) are described. Two isolated valves of aptychi which are considered to be ammonoid lower jaws are assigned to the superfamilies Haploceratoidea and Stephanoceratoidea. Two upper jaws

AbstractElliptoglossa Cooper, 1956 is reported for the first time from the Frasnian, Upper Devonian of the Volga–Ural region. A new species E. kononovae sp. nov. is described. The microstructure of the inner surfaces of the ventral and dorsal valves and outer surface of the dorsal valve are described in detail. The shell microstructure is studied for the protegular and adult shell regions. The protegulum

AbstractThe first endophytic oviposition from the Upper Permian of the Pechora Basin (Talbeyskaya Formation, Severodvinian–Vyatkian) is described in a formal system. Paleoovoidus krassilovi sp. nov. is a linear oviposition arranged in two oppositely directed rows on a leaf of Phylladoderma arberi Zalessky, 1913; it was probably produced by an odonatan insect. Cuticle punctures that probably represent

Abstract—The lizard Epileolis reshetovi gen. et sp. nov., Agamidae is described from the late Paleocene of South Mongolia. The new form is established based on a find of the left dentary with teeth. The new taxon is distinguished by the narrow-based prenatal teeth, seven canine-like teeth and the high coronoid process of the dentary.

AbstractA second species of the genus Protaneuretus Wheeler, 1915, P. mirabilis sp. nov., is described from the late Eocene Bitterfeld amber. The new species is compared with the type species of the genus and key to species of Protaneuretus is provided.

AbstractA new species, Anthonomus aphelomerus Legalov and Poinar, sp. nov. from Early Miocene Dominican amber is described. The new species differs from Anthonomus browni Poinar and Legalov, 2015 in the smaller body size, thinner, weakly curved rostrum and weakly clavate femora; it is differs from Anthonomus clarki Legalov, 2019 in the longer rostrum and slightly convex body; it also differs from Anthonomus

AbstractTodies (Aves: Todidae)—endemic to the Greater Antilles and one of the most characteristic components of the modern fauna of Cuba—have not yet been represented in the island’s fossil record. This article describes the first fossil find of a representative of this family in Cuba. A coracoid from the Upper Pleistocene of the cave El Abrón (Pinar-del-Río province) in general morphology and size

AbstractA new gastropod genus Alanstukella gen. nov., from the family Trochonematidae is described. The type species A. rossica (Stuckenberg, 1905), belongs to a small group of the largest Late Paleozoic representatives of the class Gastropoda. A. rossica has been shown to have pedomorphic features. Despite the extreme rarity of finds, the species has a wide geographical and stratigraphic distribution:

AbstractA new benthosuchid Benthosuchus lukyanovi sp. nov. is described from the Early Triassic deposits of the Bludnovo locality in the Vologda Oblast (Yug River Basin). The new species has the largest skull among the known Benthosuchus specimens. Morphological differences between B. lukaynovi and the other representatives of the genus mostly concern the trematosauroid features: the position of the

Abstract—New representatives of the family Vitimotauliidae (Multimodus amplus sp. nov., Purbimodus parvulus sp. nov., Burimodus novus gen. et sp. nov.) and a new species of the family Philopotamidae (Juraphilopotamus callidus sp. nov.) from the Lower Cretaceous of Russia (Republic of Buryatia, Khasurty locality) are described. Keys to of genera of the family Vitimotauliidae and species of genera of

AbstractThe environments of the Upper Vendian microscopic and macroscopic fossil organisms of the northwestern Russian Platform were reconstructed, and vertical distribution was analyzed. Five assemblages of the Kotlin age were determined: one impoverished transit assemblage and four abundant ones. A monographic restudy of the following filamentous algae was carried out: Aataenia reticularis Gnilovskaya

Abstract—A distinct change in the taxonomic and ecological structure of assemblages of brachiopods of the order Spiriferida is observed at the Devonian and Carboniferous boundary of Transcaucasia. Representatives of the superfamily Cyrtospiriferoidea dominated in the assemblages in the Late Devonian, and became extinct by the end of the Devonian, while the Early Carboniferous is dominated by the superfamily

AbstractSome ammonites of the subfamily Garantianinae are revised based on the study of new collections from the lower part of the upper Subformation of the Djangura Formation (Upper Bajocian Strenoceras niortense Chronozone, Middle Jurassic) near the village of Krasnogorskaya on the Kuban River (Russia, Karachay-Cherkessia). The dimorph pair Strenoceras acre [m]/Orthogarantiana humilis [M], taxa,

AbstractSiberian representatives of the family Ilyocyprididae are revised based on Neogene–Quaternary ostracod collections assembled by T.A. Kazmina, I.I. Tetetrina, and the author of this article. Ilyocyprididae is represented in the region by two genera, Ilyocypris Brady et Norman, 1889 and Fossilyocypris Schornikov et Krstić, 2004. Species composition and stratigraphic position of 12 taxa of this

AbstractFive bivalve species (Arcomytilus sanctaecrucis, Neithea valangiensis, Plagiostoma dubisiensis, Prohinnites renevieri, and Protocardia broili sp. nov.) are described from a new locality in Southwestern Crimea. These species, along with the gastropod Phaneroptyxis broili and the foraminifer Bramkampella arabica, indicate the Early Berriasian age of the carbonate deposits examined. The transition