Nine species of cephalopods from the Ayim Formation of the Jebel Qamar South area, United Arab Emirates are described. They include orthoceratids : Michelinoceras sp.1, Michelinoceras? sp.2, Temperoceras ayimense sp. nov., Mooreoceras? sp.1, Mooreoceras? sp.2, Mitorthoceras? sp., Spyroceratinae, genus and species indeterminate ; oncocerid : Poterioceratidae, genus and species indeterminate ; and bactritid : Bactrites cf. quadrilineatus Girty. Based on the fauna, the Early Carboniferous age of the formation is first established herein.

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In the Churia (Siwalik) Group of west-central Nepal fossil freshwater molluscs occur in relative abundance. No systematic study of these fossils has been done. Therefore, in this paper freshwater gastropods belonging to nine genera, including two new species, are described : Bellamya celsispiralis, sp. nov., Bellamya sp. A, Bellamya sp. B, Angulyagra sp., Pila sp., Bithynia sp., Melanoides sp., Brotia palaeocostula, sp. nov., Brotia sp. A, Brotia sp. B, Brotia sp. C, Lymnaea sp., Indoplanorbis sp., and Gyraulus sp. The genus Angulyagra is recorded for the first time from the Siwaliks.

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Two new Nilssoniocladus species are erected based on the well preserved specimens collected from the Tochikubo Formation (Oxfordian), Soma-Nakamura Group, Northeast Honshu, Japan. Both Nilssoniocladus tairae sp. nov. and N. japonicus sp. nov. are represented by long and short shoots terminally with a rosette of leaves. Detached leaves of Nilssoniocladus were piled up on the bedding planes, forming so-called 'Nilssonia' mats which suggest that the leaves of both species are deciduous like those of the type species. The slender habit of long shoots suggests that Nilssoniocladus plants are climbers.

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On the basis of additional material, a revised diagnosis of Parajaubertella kawakitana Matsumoto, 1943 is given and P. zizoh sp. nov. is established. While the former is fairly large, the latter is small. The globose shell, consisting of much depressed whorls with a deep and narrow umbilicus and a subangular umbilical edge, occurs for a while in the ontogenetic development of Parajaubertella. In P. kawakitana this character occurs in an early substage (shell diameter from 5mm to 35mm), and is followed by a long-continued middle stage, whereas in P. zizoh it appears somewhat later and extends to an early part of the adult body chamber. The adult body chamber is characterized by the bandlike or low, foldlike, broad ribs separated by narrow grooves (=adult sacya-type ornament) in both species. Their common ancestor, if any, has not been found. On the basis of the characters of the two species, Parajaubertella is referred to the Gaudryceratidae instead of the Tetragonitidae. The two species occur commonly in the Lower Cenomanian, but the level of their first appearance has yet to be investigated.

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Thirty bryozoan species in nineteen genera are described from the exotic formations in Oman. The bryozoans include one new species, Rugofenestella omanica, eighteen previously described species and eleven indeterminable species. These bryozoan faunas indicate an early Murgabian to early Midian age (Permian). They show relationships to bryozoan faunas of the northern, central, and southern Tethyan realm.

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A small, brightly coloured brachiopod, Shimodaia pterygiota n. gen. and n. sp., presently restricted to waters of less than 100m depth off Shimoda, Izu Penninsula, and parts of Sagami Bay, Honshu, Japan, is described and illustrated. Previously mistaken for Frenulina sanguinolenta (Gmelin), S. pterygiota is shown to differ from all other known laqueid brachiopods in its unique combination of adult cardinalial and brachidial features. Investigation of the loop ontogeny of S. pterygiota reveals that, whereas juvenile axial, cucullate and annular loop phases are comparable to those in other laqueids, the adult phase is unusual in consisting of an incomplete annular phase resulting from resorption of the transverse band. Only one adult specimen from over 200 recovered to date shows resuturing of previously discrete (resorbed) ascending loop branches to form a conventional annular phase.

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