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Natural assemblages of a new conodont taxon, Notiodella keblon, from the Upper Ordovician Soom Shale Lagerstätte of South Africa contain 17 elements. This is the first time that a 17-element apparatus plan has been unequivocally demonstrated in conodonts. The apparatus comprises paired P 1 , P 2 , P 3 , M, S 1 , S 2 , S 3 and S 4 elements and an unpaired, axial S 0 element and provides a new template for use in the reconstruction of apparatuses from the collections of dispersed elements, particularly for those with icrion-bearing P 1 elements and perhaps for other balognathids.

Abstract. A newly-discovered Konservat-Lagerstätte in the Upper Ordovician of South Africa has yielded giant conodont apparatuses, some of which are associated with preserved soft tissues of the conodont animals. Lobate structures located to the anterior of the conodont apparatus in several specimens are interpreted as sclerotic cartilages surrounding the eyes, comparing closely with those of the Silurian agnathan Jamoytius. One specimen also displays a possible trunk trace.

Abstract. Isolated chitinozoans from the Soom Shale Member of the Cedarberg Formation, SW South Africa are described and provide a date of the latest Hirnantian–earliest Rhuddanian. The recovered chitinozoans are typical of the latest Ordovician Spinachitina oulebsiri Biozone, although an earliest Silurian age is possible. They indicate a very short time span (less than 1 Ma) across the Ordovician–Silurian boundary. This is currently the highest biostratigraphical resolution attainable for the Soom Shale Lagerstätte. Correlation of the Soom Shale chitinozoans with identical assemblages in post-glacial, transgressive deposits of Northern Africa is possible; both faunas occur in shales that overlie glacial diamictites of the Hirnantian glaciation. A new species, Spinachitina verniersi n. sp. is described.