Fossil whale barnacles (Balanomorpha: Coronulidae) deposited in the Mizunami Fossil Museum, are classified. Seven species in three genera of whale barnacles from the Pliocene–Pleistocene deposits of Japan are recorded and illustrated. Cetopirus complanatus (Mörch) from the Middle Pleistocene, Coronula reginae Darwin from the Lower Pleistocene (Calabrian), and Cryptolepas rachianecti Dall from the Lower Pleistocene (Gelasian) are first reported in the Japanese fossil records. Coronula Lamarck comprises five species, C. barbara Darwin from the Lower Pleistocene, C. bifida Bronn from the Lower Pliocene–Lower Pleistocene (Gelasian), C. diadema (Linnaeus) from the Lower Pleistocene (Calabrian)–Middle Pleistocene, C. reginae from the Lower Pleistocene (Calabrian), and C. sp. from the Middle Pleistocene. A compartment of an undetermined coronulid genus and species from the Lower Pleistocene (Gelasian) compared with that of Tubicinella major Lamarck and Cetolepas hertleini Zullo is also described.

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Seven species of decapod crustaceans were described from the Miocene Itsukaichimachi Group based mainly upon examinations of the museum collection. Decapod fossils are stratigraphically limited to the Kosho and Tateya formations and characterized by the predominance of Callianopsis titaensis (Nagao, 1941). Five and two additional species were obtained from these formations, respectively. Trichopeltarion ryouheii, Kato n. sp. and Carcinoplax antiqua (Ristori, 1889) are the first recognized decapod species common to the adjacent Miocene Chichibu Basin in Saitama Prefecture.

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James Splaine (1834–1901) was a Jesuit missionary working in Jamaica in the early 1870s whose manuscript Diary is an important source on Jamaican history. The marginalia in his copy of the fifth edition of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, which are available for viewing on Darwin Online, are here transcribed and analysed within their historical context. Although he was not a scientist, Splaine’s marginalia are a sharp and well-informed critique of Darwin’s logic and arguments for natural selection. They also make clear Splaine’s preference for divine intervention in the process of speciation.

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The holotype and sole specimen of Palaeopetrochirus enigmus Bishop, 1991, thought to be lost, has been rediscovered, its description emended, and re-illustrated.

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The chronostratigraphy of the Kazusa Group in the Tokorozawa observatory well, Saitama Prefecture, was determined by Sr isotope age and calcareous nannofossil biostratgraphy. This group is lithlogically divided into three parts; lower (depth 873-1,027 m), middle (depth 573-873 m) and upper (depth 66-573 m), and the upper part is interleaved with two pumice-bearing layers. The top of the group is estimated to be 1.5-1.4 Ma, which is in harmony with the uppermost age of the Bushi Formation. The base of the group is also estimated to be 2.2-2.1 Ma, which is slightly younger than the base of the Kazusa Group in the Boso Peninsula. The group is composed of a sedimentary cycle with marine transgression and regression whose maximum transgression is about 2.0 Ma.

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Cladid crinoid crown spines showing evidence of breakage followed by regeneration are relatively common and generally regarded as evidence of attempted predation, most likely by snipping fishes. Herein, we describe a minute spine from the Upper Pennsylvanian (Kasimovian) Wann Formation of northeastern Oklahoma, USA, that represents a stellarocrinid axillary spine. The specimen con-tains a single plane of breakage and subsequent regeneration, making this the first detailed descrip-tion of predation-generated regeneration in an ossicle of this type, and one of few examples of re-generation in a stellarocrinid prey target. Predation-generated breakage of stellarocrinid spines is not surprising and probably reflects a general lack of attention to isolated crinoid ossicles. This occur-rence of attempted predation provides further suggestive evidence that such biotic interactions likely drove the spinosity characteristic of this group.

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A fossil shrimp-like crustacean is described from the Gwin Coal Seam of Alabama, U.S.A., Anthracophausia rheamsi n. sp. The specimen represents the first Late Carboniferous arthropod recognized from the Black Warrier Basin and supports affinities with contemporaneous rocks in Illinois, U.S.A., and Scotland, U.K.

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A new fossil taxon assigned to the family Pseudoziidae, Osonacarcinus n. gen. is recorded from outcrops of Lutetian age of regions of the Barcelona and Girona provinces (Catalonia). The new taxon is compared with distinct present and fossil genera assigned to the family, mainly with all the species of the genus Euryozius. The current pseudoziid fossil genera are known from United States, Hungary, Italy and New Zealand. This is the first record of a pseudoziid crab in the Iberian Peninsula.

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A new specimen of the mid-Cretaceous portunoid Eogeryon elegius, preserving complete frontoorbital features, confirms the preliminary interpretations that were made based on the holotype and complemented with pictures and a cast of a second specimen unavailable for study. The particular fronto-orbital pattern of Eogeryon elegius, can be considered of taxonomic value, and it turns out to be very similar to that of other portunoids from the Late Cretaceous, as well as those of other Cenozoic portunoids, in particular some geryonid genera. These similarities, among others, could suggest a certain degree of phylogenetic relationship, which deserves a more in-depth study to explore this hypothesis.

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Planktonic foraminiferal zones PL4 and PL5 were correlated to the siltstone facies of the Shimajiri Group distributed in Miyagi-jima and adjacent islands, east of Okinawa-jima. The base of the Chinen Formation has yielded Pleistocene CN13b calcareous nannofossils and N22 planktonic foraminiferal zones. The Yonabaru and Shinzato formations in southern Okinawa-jima are demarcated by a distinct tuff bed near the base of Zone PL5 defined by the last occurrence of Dentoglobigerina altispira. However, this boundary key bed is absent in Miyagi-jima and adjacent islands, likely due to limited channel-fill sediment distribution. Neogene deposits of Okinawa-jima and Miyagi-jima have incorrectly been correlated with each other in previous studies, and should be merged into the Shimajiri Formation as their lithofacies are indistinguishable. An analysis of planktonic foraminiferal assemblages suggests seawater cooling after the mid-Pliocene warm period or intensification of upwelling due to the enhanced Asian monsoon during PL5.

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