This study is the first comparison of the morphology of pollen grains in ten cultivars of three species of the Taxus,

Torreya nucifera and Cephalotaxus harringtonia var. drupacea genera. The material came from the Botanical

Garden of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland. Each measurement sample consisted of 50 pollen

grains. In total, 750 pollen grains were analyzed. Light and electron scanning microscopy was used for the morphometric

observation and analysis of pollen grains. The pollen grains were inaperturate and classified as small

and medium-sized. They were prolate-spheroidal, subprolate to prolate in shape. The surface of the exine was

microverrucate-orbiculate, perforate in Cephalotaxus harringtonia var. drupacea, granulate-orbiculate, perforate

in all Taxus taxa and granulate-microverrucate-orbiculate, perforate in Torreya. The orbicules were rounded to

oval in surface view, and the size was considerably diversified. The pollen features were insufficient to distinguish

between individual Taxus members – only groups were identified. The values of the coefficient of variability of

three features (LA, SA and LA/SA) were significantly lower than the orbicule diameter. The pollen surface of all

Taxus specimens was similar, so it was not a good identification criterion. The pollen grains of the Taxus taxa

were smaller and had more orbicules than Cephalotaxus and Torreya. Palynological studies provided taxonomic

support for recognition of two different genera of the Cephalotaxaceae and Taxaceae families, which are closely

related.

New information about presence and features of some Lecanora species as well as their ecology and distribution in Antarctica are provided. Lecanora dispersa (Pers.) Sommerf. is confirmed to occur in the Antarctic region; L. sverdrupiana Řvst. is recorded for the first time from maritime Antarctica; L. torrida Vain. is reported as new for that Antarctic area and for the southern hemisphere. An attempt to summarize the present state of knowledge for the genus Lecanora in the Antarctic region is made. Several species, which require more in depth studies, are briefly discussed and an up-to-date list of species occurring in Antarctica is included.

This paper reports on 29 species of lichenicolous fungi collected in the Hornsund region and Sørkapp Land area, Spitsbergen. New to science are Hystrix gen. nov., Slellifraga gen. nov., Dactylospora cladoniicola sp. nov., Hystrix peltigericola sp. nov., Stellifraga cladoniicola sp. nov. and Zwackhiomyces macrosporus sp. nov. A further 15 species are new to Svalbard.

This paper reports on eleven species of hepatics collected on King George Island, South Shetland Islands (6Г50'—62°15'S latitude and 57°30'—59 00'W longitude). A short account of the vegetation of this Antarctic island is provided and the role of liverworts in particular plant communities is discussed. Two species, Hygrolembidium ventrosum (Mitt.) Grolle and Scapania abcordata (Berggr.) S. Arnell are reported for the first time from the Antarctic botanical zone; the latter is recorded for the first time in the Southern Hemisphere and, additionally, this is the first record of the genus Scapania from Antarctica. A detailed description of the habitat of each taxon is given and distribution maps for the eleven species are provided. A key to the eleven species from King George Island is given, and a detailed taxonomic discussion is included for Cephaloziella varians (Gott.) Steph and Lophozia excisa (Dicks.) Dumort. The former is considered to be synonymous with the widespread Arctic species C. arctica Bryhn & Douin ex K. Müll.

On the basis of comparable habit, leaf morphology and leaf cell pattern, leaf and stem sectional anatomy, Dichelyma antarcticum C. Muell. is reduced to synonymy with Blindia magellanica C. Muell.

The shallow-marine carbonate deposits of the Reuchenette Formation (Kimmeridgian, Upper Jurassic) in

northwestern Switzerland and adjacent France yield highly diverse bivalve associations, but only rarely contain

remains of pinnid bivalves. The three occurring taxa Pinna (Cyrtopinna) socialis d’Orbigny, 1850, Stegoconcha

granulata (J. Sowerby, 1822) and Stegoconcha obliquata (Deshayes, 1839) have been revised. A lectotype for

Pinna (C.) socialis was designated and the taxon is assigned herein to P. (Cyrtopinna) Mörch, 1853, the first record

of the subgenus from the Jurassic. A brief review of Stegoconcha Böhm, 1907 revealed two species groups

within the genus. Species close to the type species S. granulata are characterized by a nearly smooth anterior

shell, followed posteriorly by deep radial furrows and rows of pustules covering the dorsal flank. Another group

comprises radially ribbed species related to S. neptuni (Goldfuss, 1837). It includes among others the Paleogene

species S. faxensis (Ravn, 1902), extending the known range of Stegoconcha from the Middle Jurassic into the

Paleogene. The paper suggests a relationship between Stegoconcha and the Cretaceous Plesiopinna Amano,

1956, with S. obliquata as a possible intermediate species leading to Plesiopinna during the Early Cretaceous.

Furthermore, a possible relationship between Stegoconcha and Atrina Gray, 1842 is discussed.

Sparse fish microremains have been found in marine limestones from the Middle Devonian (Givetian) Skały

Formation (Sitka Coral-Crinoid Limestone Member and Sierżawy Member), Świętomarz–Śniadka section,

Bodzentyn Syncline, Łysogóry Region, northern Holy Cross Mountains, associated with conodonts of the

hemiansatus to ansatus zones. Thelodont scales referred here to Australolepis sp. cf. A. seddoni come from near

Śniadka village, from samples dated as hemiansatus to rhenanus/varcus zones. This increases the known range

for the genus from its original find in Western Australia. The presence of a thelodont in the late Middle Devonian

in Poland extends the known distribution of turiniids around the peri-Gondwana shorelines of Palaeotethys.

The decapod fauna from the Badenian (middle Miocene) deposits of western Ukraine comprises in total 31 taxa: 20 species, 9 taxa left in open nomenclature, and 2 determined at family level. Thirteen of these taxa are reported for the first time from the territory of Ukraine. Among them are the first records of Trapezia glaessneri Müller, 1976 in the Fore-Carpathian Basin and Pachycheles sp. in Paratethys. One taxon (Petrolisthes sp. A) probably represents a new species. The occurrence of this significant decapod fauna is restricted almost exclusively to the Upper Badenian (i.e., early Serravallian) coralgal reefs of the Ternopil Beds. The taxonomic composition of the decapods indicates that the Late Badenian depositional environment was a shallow marine basin dominated by reefs that developed in warm-to-tropical waters of oceanic salinity. The decapod assemblage from the Ternopil Beds is similar in its taxonomic composition to numerous decapod faunules from fossil reefs of Eocene to Miocene age from the Mediterranean realm and of Miocene age from Paratethys. In contrast, decapod remains are very scarce in Badenian siliciclastic deposits (Mikolaiv Beds) and are represented by the most resistant skeletal elements, i.e., dactyli and fixed fingers. This scarcity was caused by the high-energy environment, with frequent episodes of redeposition, which disintegrated and abraded the decapod remains.

Until recently, Festuca arietina was practically an unknown species in the flora of Eastern Europe. Such a situation can be treated as a consequence of insufficient studying of Festuca valesiaca group species in Eastern Europe and misinterpretation of the volume of some taxa. As a result of a complex study of F arietina populations from the territory of Ukraine (including the material from locus classicus), Belarus and Lithuania, original anatomy, morphology and molecular data were obtained. These data confirmed the taxonomical status of F arietina as a separate species. Eleven morphological and 12 anatomical characters, ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 cluster of nuclear ribosomal genes, as well as the models of secondary structure of ITS1 and ITS2 transcripts were studied in this approach. It was found for the first time that F arietina is hexaploid (6x = 42), which is distinguished from all the other narrow-leaved fescues by specific leaf anatomy as well as in ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 sequences. Molecular data indicating possible hybridogenous origin of F arietina, fall in line with the anatomical-morphological data and explain the tendency toward sclerenchyma strands fusion with formation of a continuous ring in F arietina, as well as E arietina ecological confinement to psammophyte biotopes.

The Family Kumpanophyllidae Fomichev, 1953, synonymised by Hill (1981) with the Family Aulophyllidae Dybowski, 1873, is emended and accepted as valid. The new concept of this family, based on both new collections and discussion on literature data, confirms the solitary growth form of its type genus Kumpanophyllum Fomichev, 1953. However, several fasciculate colonial taxa, so far assigned to various families, may belong to this family as well. The emended genus Kumpanophyllum forms a widely distributed taxon, present in Eastern and Western Europe and in Asia. Its Serpukhovian and Bashkirian occurrences in China vs Bashkirian occurrences in the Donets Basin and in Spain, may suggest its far-Asiatic origin, but none of the existing taxa can be suggested as ancestral for that genus. Thus, the suborder position of the Kumpanophyllidae remains unknown. Four new species: K. columellatum, K. decessum, K. levis, and K. praecox, three Kumpanophyllum species left in open nomenclature and one offsetting specimen, questionably assigned to the genus, are described.

The common and ecologically important cyanobacterial form-genus Leptolyngbya is widely distributed in numerous ecosystems over the Earth's biosphere. Several morphospecies dominate microbial communities in polar habitats, but their diversity and local ecological significance are little known. Several articles characterising strains isolated from Antarctic coastal habitats by molecular methods were published, but knowledge of their phenotype and ecological characters are indispensable for future detailed environmental studies. Distinct morpho- and ecotypes (ecologically important morphospecies) from maritime Antarctica are characterised in this article. Eight dominant Leptolyngbya types from subaerophytic and freshwater habitats were recognised, and four of them (L. borchgrevinkii, L. fritschiana, L. nigrescens and L. vincentii) are described as new distinct species.

Grimmia andreaeopsis C. Muell., a species described from sterile material from the Chukotka Peninsula, is redescribed and illustrated The species is actually a member of the genus Schistidium. It can be distinguished from its closest relatives, viz. species of S. strictum complex, by the possession of a unique combination of characters: (1) inky black coloration of gametophytes; (2) strongly and asymmetrically keeled, rapidly wide-spreading to squarrose when moist, leaves; (3) cells entirely smooth, very incrassate and strongly nodulose nearly to the base of the lamina: (4) a costa totally smooth or only occasionally slightly roughened on the back below the apex, but never scabrous with conical papillae; (5) leaf margins always entire; (6) peristome teeth bluntly acuminate. Unlike most rupestral species of Schistidium it grows in wet arctic fens. S. holmenianum Steere & Brassard, a species known to be widely distributed in the Nearctic, and Racomitrium depressum Lesq. var. nigricans Kindb., a variety described from Labrador and Hudson Bay. are synonymous with S. andreaeopsis (C. Muell.) Laz. A comparison of S andreaeopsis with the Andean-Subantarctic S. anqustifolium (Mitt.) Herz is made and these species are considered to be closely related, but not conspecific, bipolar counterparts. Also, a comparison with the South Georgian S. urnulaceum (C. Muell.) Bell and the Holarctic species of S. strictum complex, which are characterized by having similar leaf cell patterns, is made. S. andreaeopsis has a circumpolar distribution, mainly within the High Arctic. In addition to the Nearctic, the species is known to occur in Svalbard, North Land, Taymyr Peninsula, Yakutia, Wrangel Island, and on the Chukotka Peninsula.