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Mantis shrimp (Stomatopoda) are extant, marine, predatory arthropods, but these malacostracan pancrustaceans are also occasionally preserved in fossil assemblages, particularly in Carboniferous and Cretaceous deposits. Carboniferous species fall into two suborders—Palaeostomatopodea and Archaeostomatopodea—and represent the ancestral forms that gave rise to modern lineages. Herein, we describe hitherto unknown specimens belonging to the archaeostomatopod genus Tyrannophontes from the Pennsylvanian-aged Wea Shale Member, eastern Nebraska. We explore the preservation of these fossils using scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. These approaches reveal additional morphological characteristics, including unique appendicular data, such as the earliest occurrence of biramous gilled appendages in Stomatopoda. We suggest that further examination of black shales will likely uncover novel records of these rare pancrustaceans. 

Two different morphotypes of fossil spheroidal and subcircular objects from the Pennsylvanian-Permian Remigiusberg Formation of the Saar-Nahe Basin are figured and described. These are interpreted as most likely representing branchiopod crustacean resting eggs and tetrapod egg strings, respectively. The putative presence of an arthropod egg bank indicates a stressed depositional palaeoenvironment near the excavated section and survival strategies of the producers comparable to those of extant branchiopod crustaceans. This highlights the exceptional preservation potential of the Remigiusberg Lagerstätte, hitherto mainly renowned for the occurrence of a diverse vertebrate fauna including many terrestrial taxa.