Abstract We report new ichthyosaur material excavated in lower Toarcian levels of the LafargeHolcim Val d'Azergues quarry in Beaujolais, SE France. A partially articulated skull and a smaller, unprepared but likely subcomplete skeleton preserved in a carbonate concretion are identified as stenopterygiids, a family of wide European distribution during the Early Jurassic. These specimens are among the finest preserved Toarcian exemplars known from Europe and, in one of them, soft tissue preservation is suspected. Their state of preservation is attributed to the combination of prolonged anoxic conditions near the water–sediment interface and early carbonate cementation resulting from the activity of sulfate-reducing bacteria. We also present carbon and strontium isotope values obtained from the study site that allow detailed temporal comparisons with other Toarcian vertebrate-yielding sites and environmental perturbations associated with the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event (T-OAE). These comparisons suggest that the relatively high abundance and good preservation state of Toarcian vertebrates was favoured by a prolonged period of low bottom water oxygenation and accumulation rates. The environmental conditions that prevailed during the T-OAE were probably responsible for the extensive nature of Lagerstätte-type deposits with exceptional preservation of marine organisms. Testing whether the T-OAE had a biological impact on marine vertebrates requires a precise chemostratigraphic context of the fossil record spanning the Pliensbachian–Toarcian interval.

Abstract: Pterosaur fossils are rare in the Morrison Formation, and most are poorly preserved. The Breakfast Bench Facies (BBF) at Como Bluff produces incomplete but uncrushed limbs. One proximal and two distal femora match a complete femur (BYU 17214) referred to Mesadactylus . Unexpectedly, both of the BBF distal femora possess a large intercondylar pneumatopore. BYU 17214 also possesses an intercondylar pneumatopore, but it is smaller than in the BBF femora. Distal femoral pnuematicity is previously recognized only in Cretaceous azhdarchoids and pteranodontids. A peculiar BBF jaw fragment shows strongly labiolingually compressed, incurved crowns with their upper half bent backwards; associated are anterior fangs. We suspect this specimen is a previously undiagnosed pterosaur. Additional BBF material documents a diverse pterosaur fauna including a humerus with a greatly expanded ectepicondyle possibly from a non-pterodactyloid monofenestratan.

Abstract: After being inaccessible for a number of years, the holotype and other specimens of the dsungaripterid pterodactyloid pterosaur Noripterus complicidens are again available for study. Numerous taxa assigned to the Dsungaripteridae have been described since the erection of Noripterus , but with limited comparisons to this genus. Based on the information from Young’s original material here we revise the taxonomic identity of N. complicidens and that of other Asian dsungaripterids. We conclude that N. complicidens is likely to be distinct from the material recovered from Mongolia and this latter material should be placed in a separate genus.

Abstract: A specimen of a pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Upper Tunbridge Wells Sand Formation (Early Cretaceous, Valanginian) of Bexhill, East Sussex, southern England is described. It comprises a small fragment of jaw with teeth, a partial vertebral column and associated incomplete wing bones. The juxtaposition of the bones suggests that the specimen was originally more complete and articulated. Its precise phylogenetic relationships are uncertain but it represents an indeterminate lonchodectid with affinities to Lonchodectes sagittirostris ( Owen 1874 ) which is reviewed here, and may belong in Lonchodraco Rodrigues & Kellner 2013 . This specimen is only the third record of pterosaurs from this formation.

Abstract The description of a partial but well-preserved head of the sclerorhynchid batoid Sclerorhynchus atavus Woodward, 1889 gave the first clear indication of the presence of a puzzling group of extinct rostrum-bearing rays that resembled both the Pristidae (rays) and the Pristophoridae (sharks). Despite recognizing similarities to and differences from these extant groups, Smith Woodward suggested that Sclerorhynchus be assigned to the Pristidae, although acknowledging that the rostra are very different. Smith Woodward did note similarities of Sclerorhynchus rostrum saw-teeth to those of the Pristiophoridae, including the location of these along the margin of the rostrum, rather than in deep sockets as seen along the pristid rostrum. In addition, the type specimen of Sclerorhynchus has not only very distinct saw-tooth denticles along the rostrum, but also modified denticles along the sides of the head, as in the Pristiophoridae. The enlarged rostral denticles of Sclerorhynchus also appear to rotate into position, another feature seen in the pristiophorids but not in the pristids nor in other sclerorhynchids such as Libanopristis . Although individual fossil rostral tooth-like denticles had been described earlier, Smith Woodward’s description of a rostrum and associated rostral tooth-like denticles meant that for the first time a fossil rostrum could be compared with living forms.

Abstract Fossil chondrichthyan teeth played an important part in the establishment of a scientific understanding of ‘formed stones’. Following a slowly emerging taxonomy, Louis Agassiz presented the first comprehensive guide to Palaeozoic chondrichthyans in the 1830s. The next contribution of any substance was Arthur Smith Woodward’s Catalogue of Fossil Fishes in the British Museum (Natural History) with a historical, descriptive and systematic review of the chondrichthyans, a group on which he already had an impressively large publication record. Initially stimulated by his observations on an articulated petalodont dentition ( Climaxodus ), Smith Woodward erected the Bradyodonti in 1921. Defined on the possession of dentitions with very slow growth rates, only seven or eight successional teeth produced throughout the lifetime of the fish, and retention rather than shedding of earlier teeth, primarily by fusion to later ones, the bradyodonts embraced petalodonts, psammodonts, copodonts and cochliodonts. The establishment and subsequent demise of the bradyodonts is briefly reviewed here.

Abstract Although primarily a pre-eminent palaeoichthyologist, Arthur Smith Woodward’s research and publications ranged across all major tetrapod groups: nevertheless, his contributions in this area have generally been overshadowed by involvement in the ‘Piltdown Man’ affair. Smith Woodward published on fossil amphibians, every major group of reptiles and on mammals. Most of the new taxa he named remain valid, a testament to his wide knowledge and understanding of fossil vertebrates beyond his principal speciality, although some of these have now been extensively revised. He travelled widely in Europe and the Americas, resulting in some of the earliest work on Gondwanan Cretaceous reptiles. Several of his taxa revealed the existence of previously unknown groups (e.g. notosuchian crocodiles) or provided important character data that have fuelled various phylogenetic debates (e.g. snake and tyrannosauroid origins). His influence extended beyond his own scientific efforts to incorporate his role as a senior administrator, supporting the acquisition of significant reptile specimens for the collection, and as an educator, producing articles for museum visitors and the general public.

Abstract The latest early Campanian archipelago deposits of the Kristianstad Basin, southern Sweden, yield one of the most diverse Cretaceous chondrichthyan faunas collected from a narrow stratigraphical interval. Building on previous descriptions of various selachians, squatiniform and synechodontiform sharks are added to the faunal list. Squatinidae is represented by Squatina ( Squatina ) lundegreni sp. nov. and Squatina ( Squatina ) fortemordeo sp. nov. The poorly preserved type specimens of the nominal Squatina hassei from the Maastrichtian of The Netherlands were recently regarded conspecific with better preserved Santonian–Maastrichtian teeth of Squatina ( Cretascyllium ) from the Anglo-Paris Basin. This appears to have been based largely on the assumption that the nominal S . hassei was the only Squatina present in NW Europe during the Santonian–Maastrichtian. The Swedish material indicates a greater diversity of squatinoids, and the nominal S . hassei is here regarded as a nomen dubium of uncertain subgeneric affinity. Two types of synechodontid teeth with a tall central cusp co-occur in the Campanian of the Kristianstad Basin. Based on articulated jaws of the markedly dignathic S . dubrisiensis from the Cenomanian of England, the two morphs are regarded as upper and lower anterior teeth of the single species S . filipi sp. nov.

Abstract Although a diverse range of aquatic vertebrates are documented from the Upper Cretaceous (mid-Campanian) marine strata of the Kristianstad Basin in southern Sweden, only chondrichthyans and marine amniotes have been described in detail to date. In contrast, coeval actinopterygians are virtually unreported, yet their remains are extremely abundant at most sampled localities. A comprehensive assessment of these fossils has identified the first Late Cretaceous actinopterygian fauna from the Fennoscandian Shield, incorporating indeterminate lepisosteids, the durophagous pycnodontid Anomoeodus subclavatus , the predatory pachycormid Protosphyraena sp., a large ichthyodectid, pachyrhizodontids resembling Pachyrhizodus , the enchodontid Enchodus cf. gladiolus and indeterminate small teleosts. These taxa are diagnosed mainly from isolated teeth and scales, implying substantial taphonomic loss prior to burial. Moreover, the prolific recovery of actinopterygian skeletal remnants in recent excavations suggests that historical collecting biases, rather than ecological paucity, have contributed to their under-representation in the Swedish Cretaceous record. Palaeobiogeographically, the Kristianstad Basin actinopterygians show compositional resemblance to assemblages from the Northern European Platform and the Western Interior Seaway of North America, advocating distributional communication across the Boreal proto-Atlantic Ocean.