This is the second issue completing the special volume of the Revue de Micropaléontologie dedicated to Professor Marco Tongiorgi to commemorate his retirement, in December 2003, as full Professor of Stratigraphy and Palaeontology in the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Pisa, Italy.

The first issue grouped a collection of articles mainly focusing on Palaeozoic organic-walled microphytoplankton (acritarchs), which has represented Tongiorgiʼs main field of study in the second part of his career. This issue contains papers dealing with a variety of fossil groups and their application to biostratigraphy and palaeoecology of Palaeozoic rocks from southern to northern Italy (Sardinia and the Alps, respectively).

In his article, Carlo Corradini presents a revision of conodont biostratigraphy in Upper Devonian through Lower Carboniferous strata of Sardinia. Paola Pittau and colleagues’ paper is a substantial contribution to the knowledge of Upper Carboniferous miospore assemblages from northern Italy, and their biostratigraphical and palaeoecological significance. Gianluigi Pillola and co-authors report on the discovery of upper Tremadoc to probable basal Arenig graptolites in southwestern Sardinia, and their application to biostratigraphy and palaeoecology. In their paper, Annallisa Ferretti and Enrico Serpagli document the presence of the problematic fossils “Eurytholia” in Upper Silurian strata of Austria and evaluate their palaeogeographic significance.