Survey of Columbia River Basin streams for Columbia pebblesnail Fluminicola columbiana and shortface lanx Fisherola nuttalli

At present, there are only two remaining sizable populations of Columbia pebblesnails Fluminicola columbiana; those in the Methow and Okanogan rivers, Washington. Smaller populations survive in the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River, Washington, and the lower Salmon River, Idaho, and possibly in the middle Snake River, Idaho; Hells Canyon of the Snake River, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, and the Grande Ronde River, Oregon and Washington. Neither large population is at present protected, and there has been a substantial documented reduction in the species' historic range. Large populations of the shortface lanx Fisherolla nuttalli persist in four streams: the Deschutes River, Oregon; the Hanford Reach and Bonneville Dam area of the Columbia River, Washington and Oregon; Hens Canyon of the Snake River, Idaho and Oregon; and the Okanogan River, Washington. Smaller populations, or ones of uncertain size, are known from the lower Salmon and middle Snake rivers, Idaho; the Grande Ronde Washington and Oregon; Imnaha, and John Day rivers, Oregon; and the Methow River, Washington. While substantial range reduction has occurred in this species, and the large populations are not well protected, the problem is not as severe as in the case of the Columbia pebblesnail. Both species appear to have been widespread historically in the mainstem Columbia River and the Columbia River Basin prior to the installation of the current dam system. Both are now apparently reduced within the Columbia River to populations in the Hanford Reach and possibly other sites that are now separated by large areas of unsuitable habitat from those in the river's major tributaries

A pyritized lepidocoleid machaeridian (Annelida) from the Lower Devonian Hunsrück Slate, Germany

A machaeridian, Lepidocoleus hohensteini sp. nov., is described from the Hunsrück Slate (Lower Emsian) of Germany. The available material includes a unique example preserving evidence of the soft tissues, only the second machaeridian specimen to do so and the first lepidocoleid. This specimen shows that the plates are attached to alternate segments in the trunk. The morphology is consistent with an annelid affinity of the Lepidocoleidae and confirms the unity of the Machaeridia. This discovery adds an important group to the known diversity of this famous late Palaeozoic marine Konservat-Lagerstätte

Late Ordovician (Hirnantian) Diploporitan Fauna of Anticosti Island, Quebec, Canada: Implications for Evolutionary and Biogeographic Patterns

Hirnantian (latest Ordovician) localities containing echinoderm fossils are rare; the few that have been discovered primarily contain disarticulated crinoid ossicles. Therefore, relatively little is known about echinoderm evolutionary dynamics across the Late Ordovician – early Silurian boundary, especially noncrinoid echinoderms. New diploporitan echinoderms, Holocystites salmoensis and an unidentified holocystitid, from reefal facies of the Upper Ordovician Ellis Bay Formation of Anticosti Island provide a critical data point concerning diploporitan biogeography and evolutionary pathways undertaken during the Ordovician and Silurian. These fossils also provide a crucial link in understanding the ancestry of the Silurian Holocystites Fauna, an unusual diploporitan fauna from the middle Silurian of North America, whose origination dates back at least 15 million years earlier than previously thought with the discovery of taxa described here. New fossil data such as these stress the importance of uncovering new localities from underrepresented times and places in Earth’s history, so that these evolutionary transitions can be better understood