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N e w s l e t t e r o fM i c r o p a l a e o n t o l o g y

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014

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Number 59Number 59Edited by Phil DonoghueEdited by Phil Donoghue

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Editorial

It has been some time since the last issue of thenewsletter and I am sure that some of you havebeen wondering why issue 59 did not hit yourdoormat sometime during September or October. Atthe May meeting of the BMS Committee it was decidedthat the date of publication of the newsletter should beset back until after the AGM such that it could conveynews of that meeting. So here it is, better late thannever (although I would argue that it is bang-on time,but then I would, wouldn’t I?).

Although the newsletter has been distributed inelectronic format through the BMS website for sometime, this is the first issue to also be available elec-tronically in PDF (Portable Document Format), alsoavailable from the BMS website. The benefit of this fileformat is that it shrinks large documents into verysmall electronic files, while preserving (perfectly) theintended formatting of text and images. Many of youwill already be aware of this format through its adop-tion by electronic journals. It is hoped that in futurethe newsletter could be distributed almost exclusivelyin electronic format, freeing much-needed funds forpublication of the journal and providing a betterservice to the membership.

The previous issue of the newsletter bore aforam on the cover, an image kindly supplied by PaulPearson (Bristol). Through my usual lack of rigour, Iforgot to ask Paul for an explanatory caption in time;Paul has since supplied the following details for thosewho have not been able to sleep for the past sixmonths, or else wanted to assess their foram-spottingprowess: Globigerinoides trilobus, a planktonicforaminifer from the middle Miocene of Limalok Guyot,west Pacific (approximately 15 Ma). This is a wellpreserved specimen, showing minute spine holes on theridges between pores. As you will have noticed (orshould have - chasten yourself if you did not), thecurrent issue sports coccolithophoroids, an imagekindly supplied by Jeremy Young (NHM). I askedJeremy to come up with something intelligent for theexplanatory caption and he supplied the following: twococcospheres of Umbilicosphaera sibogae var. foliosa,each about 15 µm in diameter. Sample from planktonfilter from the N. Atlantic (26N, 30W, 35 m water depth)collected by Ric Jordan (Yamagata University), SEM fromJeremy Young (NHM). U. sibogae is one of sixcoccolithophore species selected for multidisciplinarystudy within the CODENET research project(www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted_sites/ina/CODENET). Just think, a whole nail-biting six monthsbefore the next exciting installment!

The ritual list of publications requiring reviewersfollows; any prospective reviewers should get in touchwith me by telephone or email, but please bear in mindmy forthcoming change of address. Best wishes to all.

Arthur, W. 1997: The origin of animal body plans: astudy in evolutionary developmental biology.Cambridge University Press, 339pp.

Bartels, C., Briggs, D. E. G. & Brassel, G. 1998: Thefossils of the Hunsrück Slate: marine life in theDevonian. Cambridge Paleobiology Series 3, Cam-bridge University Press, 309pp.

Johns, M. J., Barnes, C. R. & Orchard, M. J. 1997:Taxonomy and biostratigraphy of Middle and LateTriassic elasmobranch ichthyoliths from northeast-ern British Columbia. Geological Survey of Canada,Bulletin 502, 235pp.

Norris, A. W. & Uyeno, T. T. 1998: Middle Devonianbrachiopods, conodonts, stratigraphy, and trans-gressive-regressive cycles, Pine Point Area, south ofGreat Slave Lake, District of Mackenzie, NorthwestTerritories. Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin522, 191pp.

Pinard, S. & Mamet, B. 1998: Taxonomie des petitsforaminiferes du Carbonifere superieur-Permieninferieur du bassin de Svedrup, Arctique canadien.Palaeontographica Canadiana 15, 253pp.

Phil Donoghue (Editor) School of Earth Sciences,University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B152TT, UK. From January 1st 1999: Department of Geol-ogy, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK.pcjd2@le.ac.uk

Secretary’s Report

Introduction: 1997/1998 has been my first year asSecretary of the BMS (I was actingSecretary 1996/1997). Although there have been no society-widemeetings during the year, there has been a lot ofactivity behind the scenes.

Kluwer Academic PublishersThe take over of Chapman and Hall by Kluwer AcademicPublishers during thesummer of 1998 has been sourceof concern to the Main Committee as there are obviousimplications for the Society’s Special PublicationsSeries. On 9th July 1998, the Society Chairman,Secretary, Treasurer, and Newsletter Editor attended ameeting with Petra van Steenbergen (Publishing Editor,Kluwer) in the Department of Palaeontology, of The

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Natural History Museum, London to discuss the situa-tion and plan a strategy in the best interests of theSociety. Kluwer are keen to make a relationship withthe BMS work, and generally speaking the we aresatisfied with the positive response to the questionsraised (prints runs, royalties, discounts for members,etc). However, due to the unavoidable absence of theSeries Editor (ProfessorMalcolm Hart) a final decisionabout how to proceed was deferred until after theNovember 1998 Main Committee meeting. A secondmeeting with Kluwer has been arranged for 24thNovember 1998.

Distribution of BMS Special Publications origi-nally published by Chapman and Hall is now undertakenby Kluwer (25% discount to BMS members). There isalso a 20% discount to BMS members on selected bookspublished by Kluwer (see separate advertisements inthis issue).Kluwer accept payment in NLG, GBP or US$.If members experience any difficulty in ordering books,please let me know directly.

Newsletter of MicropalaeontologyThe Main Committee decided at their March 1998meeting that the newsletter should be published inApril (to announce the AGM) and in December (toreport on the AGM and announce new officers). Accord-ingly, Number 58 was issued in April 1998. Thanks aredue to Dr Phil Donoghue for his continuing efforts tomaintain the high standard he has set.

Website http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted_sites/bmsThe website has two regular updates each year toaccommodate the newsletter, with smaller irregularupdates (to include specialist group news, new links,etc). Specialist Groups are urged to take advantage ofthis facility. A domain name (bmsoc.org) has beenreserved for future use. The Society is fortunate to havethe energy of Webmaster Dr Giles Miller at its disposal.

Special Publication SeriesCalcareous Nannofossil Biostratigraphy, edited by DrPaul Bown, was published in 1998. Thanks are due toPaul and his contributors for all their hard work inproducing a magnificent volume which, I am sure, willbecome an international standard and best seller.Although the book has a Chapman and Hall cover, it ismarketed and distribute by Kluwer Academic Publishers(fullprice: £79; 25% discount price for BMS members:£59.25). Other special publications are in the pipeline.

Lyell 2000The BMS is organizing the Lyell Meeting in the year2000 on behalf of the Joint Committee for Palaeon-tology. The topic approved by the Main Committee is’Plankton Evolution and Climate Change’. Speakers willbe by invitation only, and members are encourage tomake suggestions to the BMS Secretary who will beconvening the meeting. Lyell 2000 provides theSociety with an excellent opportunity to demonstrateto the wider geological fraternity exciting research inthis important sphere. The meeting will take place atthe Geological Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly,London, probably during February.

Annual General MeetingFollowing discussions with Professor Alan Lord (UCL),the Main Committee decided to change the format ofthe Annual General Meeting. The new venue, theGustave Tuck Lecture Theatre at UCL, is smaller andmore appropriate to ouruse than the Anatomy LectureTheatre. About 80 members attend the 1998 AGM.

Following Society business (see below), twotalks were delivered by Dr MatthewJ. Collins (Post-graduate Institute in Fossil Fuels and EnvironmentalGeochemistry, University of Newcastle) entitled ’SmallBeginnings: Ancient Biomolecules andMicropalaeontology’ and by Dr Norman Macleod(Department of Palaeontology, Natural HistoryMuseum, London) entitled ’The Renaissance ofGraphic Correlation’. The Society is grateful to bothMatthew and Norm for taking the trouble to prepareand deliver such enlightening presentations whichstimulated much discussion.

Afterwards, the wine reception, generouslysponsored by Robertson Research International Ltd,was held in the South Cloisters which provided lesscramped conditions that the Rock Room. As anexperiment, commercial and academic posters wereon display, and 15 contributions were forthcoming. Ifthese arrangements are considered to have beensuccessful, then they will be repeated at the 1999AGM. Special thanks are due to Jim Davy, LocalSecretary, for his devoting his time and energy to theAGM logistics.

Changes to the CommitteeProfessor Dick Aldridge stood down as BMS Chairmanat the 1998 AGM. The Society is indebted to Dick forhis energetic commitment to the Society and for hisrepresentations to the Joint Committee for Palaeon-tology over the past three years. The Main Committeeis pleased to announce that Dr John Whittaker

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(Department of Palaeontology, Natural History Museum)has accepted our invitation to stand for election asChairman (proposed by Dr Jim Riding and seconded byDr Ian Wilkinson). Dr Whittaker was elected unopposedat the 1998 AGM.

Dr Jim Riding has completed his first three yearsas BMS Treasurer, and wished to be considered for re-election for a second term (proposed by Professor DickAldridge and seconded by Dr David Siveter). Dr Ridingwas elected unopposed at the 1998 AGM.

Changes to the Constitution and Rules of the SocietyAt the March 1998 Main Committee meeting, it wasagreed that the Chairman, Secretary and Treasurershould review the Constitution and Rules of the Soci-ety. The following changes were agreed by the MainCommittee prior to the 1998 AGM where they wereapproved unanimously. The amended Constitution andRules of the Society will appear in the next Directory ofMembers scheduled for 1999.

Article 4. Membership. The phrase ’in the British Islesor in the British geological sequence’ has been re-moved.

The first sentence of Article 4 now reads: ’Membershipof the Society shall be open to all persons and organi-sations engaged or actively interested in the science ofMicropalaoentology’. This change was made to reflectmore accurately the composition of the membershipwhich is becoming increasingly international.

Article 5. Main Committee. Remove MembershipTreasurer from the Main Committee and insert a SpecialPublications Editor, a Publicity Officer, and aWebmaster, and remove reference to the number ofSpecialist Groups.

The first sentence of Article 5 now reads: ’The businessof the Society shall be conducted by a Main Committeeconsisting of a Chair, a Secretary, aTreasurer, a JournalEditor, a Newsletter Editor, a Special PublicationsEditor, a Publicity Officer, a Webmaster and electedrepresentatives from each of the Specialist Groups’.These changes accommodate new officers to the MainCommittee. The role of Membership Treasurer will bedivided between the Treasurer (invoicing) and theSecretary (database).

Rule 3. Terms of Office, Part iii). Insert the JournalEditor, the Newsletter Editor, the Special PublicationsEditor, the Publicity Officer and the Webmaster, so that

they, as well as the Secretary and the Treasurer, ’shallbe elected initially for a three year term of office butmay be re-elected for a second term of office in thatposition’. Previously these officers only served for aninitial term of two years. The change should providegreater continuity to the Main Committee.

Rule 4. Nominations and Elections, Part i). Insert thephrase ‘All nominations for election to the MainCommittee should be proposed and seconded bymembers of the Society.’ This addition insures that onlymembers of Society may make nominations.

Specialist Group ActivityConodont Group: Annual Group meeting in South Wales(14-15 December 1997) to visit type area of the latestTriassic Penarth Group (coastal section betweenPenarth and St Mary’s Well Bay led by Andrew Swift)followed by a day of talks prior to the Pal Ass annualmeeting in Cardiff. Alistair Bowden will replace GailRadcliffe as Group Secretary at the 1999 AGM.Foraminifera Group: Spring Group meeting (24 April)comprising a day of talks at The Natural HistoryMuseum, London, followed by a field meeting toSouthampton to collect living benthic foraminifera ledby John Murray. Details of the meeting, includingabstracts, are available on the Website. NannofossilGroup: A week-end fieldtrip to northern Belgium (12-14June 1998) to examine Tertiary sections (led byEttienne Steurbaut). A talks meeting was not arrangeddue to the INA meeting taking place during 1998.Ostracod Group: A weekend field meeting based atWeymouth, Dorset (17-19 April 1998) to collectHolocene sediments at Chickerell, Abbottsbury,Radipole Lake and Lodmore Marsh (led by AlasdairBruce), and also to examine the type Purbeckian-Wealden section at Durleston Bay (led by RoyClements). Palynology Group: Little activity. SandySmith replaced Duncan McLean as Group Secretary atthe 1998 AGM. Silicofossil Group: At the 1998 AGM, themembership approved the formation of a new SpecialistGroup to accommodate siliceous microfossils (diatoms,radiolaria, silicoflagellates, etc). The new group is to becalled the ’SilicofossilGroup’ and will be chaired initiallyby Dr Jenny Pike, with Dr John Gregory as the firstSecretary.

James Powell (Secretary)

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Journal of Micropalaeontology

As members of the Society will see from theinside of the front cover, there have been anumber of significant changes in the way inwhich papers are processed for the Journal. Coupledwith the change in Editor it was decided that anumber of additional ‘sub-editors’ be taken on toincrease the size of the editorial board and provide agreater breadth of subject coverage. Chris Hunt[palynology] , Chris Denison [dinoflagellates], KjellBjorklund [siliceous microfossils], Kerry Swanson[ostracods] and Giles Miller [phosphatic microfossils]have, therefore, replaced Roger Davey [palynology]and Patrick De Deckker (ostracods). Sincere thanks toRoger, Patrick and - of course - John Murray for theirhelp in getting the Journal to its present position.

Volume 17 parts (1) and (2) have - just about -appeared on time, although part (2) was a littletraumatic with very few papers coming back fromauthors with corrections completed. Without magnifi-cent work by both Mary Ker (Geological SocietyPublishing House) and the printers 17(2) would nothave appeared when it did!

Submission rates are holding up with 25 paperseither at review or with authors for revisions. Alreadyhalf the pages for 18(1) are allocated. The publicationdelay rate is probably 12 months at present, which ison a par with many other Journals. Now that theJournal is included within the citation index listings ithas a (perceived) higher impact rating and, as such,should be attracting ‘good’ papers.

One matter under active consideration iswhether the Journal should move to a quarterlypublication schedule. This might increase still furtherthe status of the Journal, but would only be contem-plated if submission rates increased slightly. TheCommittee of the BMS will be reviewing the financialimplications of such a move in concert with thecurrent publishers, the Geological Society PublishingHouse. Clearly, with library subscriptions a target forcuts in many institutions, this is not the time toexpect major increases in institutional subscriptions!A move to increase the volume of published materialwould only take place if the quality of the contentscould be maintained (or enhanced).

Malcolm Hart (Editor)

Treasurer’s Report

At the time of writing (September), there isnothing major to report on the BMS financialfront. We continue to have enjoy relatively goodfinancial health and we should go into 1999 with asurplus of funds. I hope to instigate a covenantscheme in time for next years subscriptions. If youknow of colleagues who are not BMS members andshould be, please persuade them to join us.

Jim Riding (Treasurer)

BRITISH MICROPALAEONTOLOGICALSOCIETY

STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS FOR FINANCIALYEAR 1997/1998

IncomeBalance from 1996/97: £3,650.74

Membership Subscriptions:Individual/Student for 1997 £60.00Individual/Student for 1998 £10,300.50Individual/Student for 1999 £130.00Individual/Student for 2000 £75.00Individual/Student for 2001 £50.00

Subtotal: £10,615.50

Library Subscriptions for 1998 £11,172.00

Total subscription income: £21,787.50

Miscellaneous Income:Sale of Journal Vols. 1-16 £409.20Advertising revenue £150.00BMS Foundation £385.00Book royalties (Chapman/Hall) £1,079.82Interest from two bank accounts £504.30

Subtotal for miscellaneous income: £2,528.32

TOTAL INCOME £27,966.56

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ExpenditureJournal of Micropalaeontology:Volume 17, Part 1 (inc. postage) £9,888.00Volume 17, Part 2 (inc. postage) £9,888.00Total: £19,776.00

Newsletter of Micropalaeontology:Number 58 £318.13Postage/packing for number 58 £378.14Total: £696.27

Annual General Meeting 1997:Hire of lecture theatre £261.00Speaker’s expenses £81.42Committee meeting expenses £5.25Total: £347.67

Miscellaneous Outgoings:Secretary’s expenses £135.03Direct Debit commission/fees £123.76Credit card services/commision £276.33Postage for Journal backparts £92.36Calc. Nannofossil Group field trip £90.00Stationary £9.00Internet domain name fee £43.03Total: £769.51

TOTAL EXPENDITURE £21,589.45

BALANCE FOR FINANCIAL YEAR 1997/1998:£6,377.11

This financial year ran from 13 November 1997 to 11November 1998

James B. Riding (Honorary Treasurer)Bernard Owens and Ian P. Wilkinson (Honorary Audi-

tors)11 November 1998

New Members

We warmly welcome the following new memberswho have recently joined the Society: EmmaAtkinson, William E. N. Austin, Mark Callaghan,Thomas Demchuk, Louise Ennis, Samantha Gibbs,Jennifer Greenhalgh, Siân Griffiths, Ruth Hale, CraigHarvey, Ian J. Hawkes, Sameena Khan, Stella Kortekaas,

Kate Lavender, Anne Miller, David North, Jennifer Pike,Mark Riordan, Silke Shlirs, Michael H. Stephenson,Donata Violanti, Aubrey Whymark, Jason M. Woodwardand Tim N. Wright.

Deeds of Covenant

As I mentioned at the recent AGM, the committeehas decided to instigate a system of covenantingfor the BMS starting in 1999, and we would likeevery UK-based Society member who is a taxpayer tosign up for this scheme. The signing of a Deed ofCovenant helps the Society as it makes your member-ship subscription go significantly further. A Deed ofCovenant is a simple written agreement which allowsthe Society to reclaim from the Inland Revenue theincome tax that you have already paid on your annualmembership subscription. This is only applicable,however, to UK taxpayers. A Covenant lasts for theduration of your membership, with a minimum of fouryears. However, the Society can release the covenanterfrom a Deed if it receives a written request to thiseffect, or if for any reason the member wishes to resignfrom BMS within these first four years. The wording ofthe Covenant effects automatic adjustment if subscrip-tion rates change in the future. Please note that theDeed of Covenant is not a method of payment and youshould continue paying your annual BMS subscriptionby direct debit, credit/debit card or cheque/cash asnormal. The current basic rate of income tax is 23%,hence a Covenant considerably increases the value tothe Society of your annual subscription. To summarise,if you pay the BMS an individual subscription of £25under a Covenant, the Society is able to collect £7.47from the Inland Revenue. The underlying principle isthat on the £32.47 of yours, you paid 23% BasicIncome Tax (£7.47) and paid BMS the remaining £25.With a covenanted subscription, the Inland Revenuereturns that £7.47 Basic Income Tax to the Society.

I will be mailing the Deeds of Covenent togetherwith the 1999 invoice to all UK-based members duringJanuary next year. To instigate your covenant to BMS,simply fill in your name and address and sign thecovenant in the presence of a witness after crossingout the categories of membership which do not applyto you. (The witness can be anyone over 18). You canmail back the completed form with your subscriptioncheque for 1999. At a later date, when all annualsubscriptions have been paid, I will ask you to sign a

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simple form (R.185), which certifies that you are a UKtaxpayer and that you have paid the appropriatesubscription. The completed R.185 form enables theSociety to reclaim the income tax paid from the InlandRevenue in the first and each succeeding year that yourmembership continues. I hope that I have explainedDeeds of Covenant clearly. If you pay UK Income Tax,please complete the Deed of Covenant form in Januaryand return it to me. The funds received from theInland Revenue will greatly aid the publishing andmeetings programme of the Society. The extra incomewill also help us keep the annual subscriptions toindividuals and students at their present rates. Thankyou very much in anticipation.

Jim Riding (Treasurer)

Future of the BMS Website

This year the society purchased a domain name forour website. This gives usthe right to use the URLhttp://www.bmsoc.org. Unfortunately, theNaturalHistory Museum, who currently host the site,cannot support this domain name. Since the currentwebmaster, Giles Miller, has indicated that he does notwant to stand for re-election at the end of the year,this would seem a suitable time to consider the futureof the website. We are therefore looking for someone totake over the running of the website from next Novem-ber, or sooner. Preferably this should be someone whocan host a website on a reliable server that can main-tain domain names. If you are interested in becomingthe next webmaster then please contact Giles Miller atthe address below.

Giles Miller Department of Palaeontology, The NaturalHistory Museum,Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK.

Formation of the Silicofossil Group

Siliceous microfossils form an important part of allaspects of micropalaeontology. Fossils that couldbe included under such an umbrella are thediatoms, radiolarians, silicoflagellates and spongespicules. These organisms have traditionally beentaken under the umbrella of the other specialisedgroups, with the intention of running occasional jointmeetings on siliceous microfossils. This has not

happened, and the promotion of siliceous microfossilshas fallen by the wayside ....... UNTIL NOW! TheCommittee has unanimously approved the formation ofa specialised Silicofossil Group within the BMS and thiswas ratified at the 1998 AGM, with Jenny Pike as Chairand John Gregory as Secretary.

The Silicofossil Group will actively foster linksbetween industry and its kindergarten - academia. Theindustrial requirement for siliceous microfossil expertisewill never be as great as for the calcareous microfossils,for example, however it is evident that a large numberof the siliceous workers currently members of the BMSare industry-based. It is important for the future ofsiliceous microfossils in the academic and appliedworlds that the supply of people interested in siliceousmicropalaeontology does not dry up. It is crucial toprovide a forum in which students, academics and theirindustrial colleagues can meet, and keep up generalawareness of siliceous microfossils and all their possi-ble applications. As someone who has recently ‘beenthrough the system’ I (Jenny) can say that I woulddefinitely have benefited from being exposed to such agroup of people ( . . . and to the social niceties too!).

The Silicofossil Group will hold regular annualmeetings, to provide the forum outlined above. Sili-ceous microfossil meetings organised in the past werealways well attended, and future successful meetingswill promote siliceous microfossils and also, we hope,membership of the BMS. Previous meetings held underthe banner of miscellaneous and/or siliceousmicrofossils were held provincially, as well as inLondon, which proved popular with the large number ofmicrofossil workers not based in London, and we willcontinue with this tradition. Meetings held by theSilicofossil Group would also promote interactionbetween workers on the various different siliceousmicrofossil groups, disseminating ideas and informa-tion, for example, on state of the art processing andanalytical techniques.

Discussions with BMS members prior to theinauguration of the Silicofossil Group demonstratedthat there is a dedicated core of members with long-term support for a Silicofossil Group. We believe thatwith well-organised and advertised meetings over thefirst few years, a core of dedicated people will bemaintained, and submissions of siliceous papers to theJournal of Micropalaeontology will be encouraged(hint, hint!).

The Silicofossil Group hopes to provide a supportand information network for budding siliceousmicropalaeontologists, as well as old hands who havebeen at it for years! Other specialised groups providethis kind of informal network and we hope that the

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Silicofossil Group can fulfil this role for siliceousworkers now and in the future. We will endeavour tokeep the Silicofossil Group well balanced, selecting theChair and Secretary from different floral/faunal back-grounds (!), and from different vocational backgrounds,i.e., one from industry and one from academia.

We would like to thank those members who havehelped with the formation of the Group, and would liketo hear from any members who are interested in thebusiness of the Silicofossil Group and would like to bekept on the mailing list to receive information aboutfuture events and meetings.

We wish you all a very successful 1998 - theSilicofossil Group intends to have one!!

Jenny Pike & F. John Gregory

ECOS VII Field Guides Available

A limited number of copies of these stupendousfield guides/monographs (reviewed in this issueof the Newsletter) are still available: the cost is:Sardinia Field Trip Guidebook (Italian Lire) 35,000;Southern Alps Field Trip Guidebook (Italian Lire)35,000. Orders to: Dr Maria Cristina Perri, Dipartimentodi Scienze della Terra e Geologico-Ambientali, ViaZamboni 67, I - 40126 Bologna, Italy[perri@geomin.unibo.it ]. Payment may bemade by bank transfer on the account: Comitato ECOSVII, Bank Account No. 796441, SWIFT BPMOIT22, Bancapopolare dell’Emilia e Romagna, Via Massarenti 228, I-40138 Bologna, Italy. However, if preferred, it ispossible to send a personal cheque or cash directlytoDr. Maria Cristina Perri, Dipartimento di Scienze dellaTerra e Geologico Ambientali, Universiti di Bologna, ViaZamboni 67, I-40126 BOLOGNA, ITALY.

New Publication fromPalaeontographica Canadiana

Palaeontographica Canadiana is a monographseries of major contributions to Canadianpaleontology that is dominantly, but not exclu-sively, systematic in content. The series is sponsoredjointly by the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists(CSPG) and the Geological Association of Canada (GAC).

Taxonomie des petits foraminifères du Carbonifèresupérieur-Permien infèrieur du bassin de Sverdrup,Arctique canadien. Sylvie Pinard et Bernard Mamet.1998. Palaeontographica Canadiana No. 15, 251 pp., 42pls. ISBN 0-919216-63-3. CSPG price $64 CAN$ + $3.75CAN$ shipping + GST in Canada, $64 CAN$ +$7.50 CAN$shipping in USA. Elsewhere, contact CSPG. GAC price$72.50 CAN$ in Canada, $72.50 US$ elsewhere (appro-priate taxes and shipping charges included).

Other monographs (see GAC’s home page for tables ofcontents and abstracts) in the series that wouldinterest BMS Newsletter readers are:

Palaeontographica Canadiana No. 4. Fensome, R.A.1987. Taxonomy and biostratigraphy of schizaealeanspores from the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary bedsof the Aklavik Range, District of Mackenzie. 49 pp.,5 pls. (no ISBN number). CSPG price $15 CAN$ + $3.75CAN$ ship + GST in Canada, $15 CAN$ +$7.50 CAN$ship in USA. Elsewhere, contact CSPG. GAC price $18.50CAN$ in Canada, $18.50 US$ elsewhere (appropriatetaxes and shipping charges included).

Palaeontographica Canadiana No. 8. Braman, D.R. andHills, L.V. 1992. Upper Devonian and Lower Carbonif-erous miospores, western District of Mackenzie andYukon Territory, Canada. 97 pp., 24 pls. ISBN 0-920230-80-6. CSPG price $38 CAN$ + $3.75 CAN$ ship+ GST in Canada, $38 CAN$ +$7.50 CAN$ ship in USA.Elsewhere, contact CSPG. GAC price $43.50 CAN$ inCanada, $43.50 US$ elsewhere (appropriate taxes andshipping charges included).

Palaeontographica Canadiana No. 11. Zailiang Ji andBarnes, C.R. 1994. Lower Ordovician conodonts of theSt. George Group, Port au Port Peninsula, westernNewfoundland, Canada. 149 pp., 25 pls. ISBN 0-920230-86-5. CSPG price $38 CAN$ + $3.75 CAN$ ship+ GST in Canada, $38 CAN$ +$7.50 CAN$ ship in USA.Elsewhere, contact CSPG. GAC price $47 CAN$ inCanada, $47 US$ elsewhere (appropriate taxes andshipping charges included).

Publication Distribution Offices:Geological Association of Canada, Publications, Depart-ment G222, Department of Earth Sciences, MemorialUniversity of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NewfoundlandA1B 3X5gac@sparky2.esd.mun.cahttp://www.esd.mun.ca/~gac

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Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologistshttp://www.cspg.org

Readers from outside of Canada who wish to order copiesshould check latest prices through the home pages ofboth GAC and CSPG. In general, the CSPG price may beless expensive than the GAC price for orders from theUnited States, and perhaps from elsewhere (cf. above).

A.D. MCCRACKEN, Editor of Palaeontographica Canadiana,c/o Geological Survey of Canada, 3303-33rd st. NW,Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2L 2A7

Forthcoming Meetings

Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology,Denver, U.S.A. 6-10 January 1999. Details: http://www.sicb.org/

GAC/MAC Meeting Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. Details:P. Copper, Department of Earth Sciences, LaurentianUniversity, Sudbury, Ontario, P3E 2C6, Canada. Tel: (705)6675 1151, Ext: 2267; Fax: (705) 675 4898; Email:gacmac99@nickel.laurentian.ca

Life And Environments In Purbeck Times 19th -22nd March 1999. The Purbeck strata of Dorset(Upper Jurassic - Lower Cretaceous) have long beenknown for their diverse vertebrate fauna. The inverte-brates, though less intensively studied, have and con-tinue to provide important environmental information.The sedimentology and environments of deposition havereceived close attention but remain a field of consider-able interest. The organising committee believe that thetime is ripe for a multi-disciplinary meeting to considerthe many lines of research being followed and theevidence which is being generated.

The symposium, Life and Environments in PurbeckTimes, sponsored by the Palaeontological Association,will provide researchers with overlapping or relatedinterests from across the world with the opportunity tohear at first hand the work which has and is beingcarried out on these mid-Mesozoic sediments.

The meeting is to be based in Dorset CountyMuseum in the historic county town of Dorchester(Dorset, UK) from 19th - 22nd March 1999. Accommoda-tion is available in the hotels and bed and breakfastestablishments in Dorchester and Weymouth. Goodtransport links exist and consideration is being given tobussing delegates from Weymouth if numbers demand.

Accommodation lists will be sent with the secondcircular.

The symposium will have three days of contribu-tions from invited speakers and a one day field excur-sion. The provisional programme is as follows: Day 1.Stratigraphy: stratigraphic framework (bio-, litho-,magneto-stratigraphy etc.). Sedimentology: tectonicframework, clastics, clay minerals, carbonates andevaporites. Palaeobotany: Cyanobacteria, Charophyta,conifers, Bennettitales and palynology. Day 2. Inverte-brates: isopods, ostracods, insects, molluscs, otherinvertebrates and ichnofossils. Vertebrates: bony fish,amphibians, small reptiles (lizards, sphenodontians),turtles, crocodiles, ornithischian and theropod dinosaurs,pterosaurs, reptile eggshell, mammals and trace fossils.Day 3. Field trip: Provisionally, visits by coach and carare planned to some or all of: Worbarrow Tout, LulworthFossil Forest and Portland. Day 4. Overviews: ThePurbeck strata in a regional, European and world contextwith contributions on palaeogeography andpalaeoclimate. Posters on themes relevant to themeeting are welcome.

There is a possibility that some funding may beavailable to support attendance at this meeting (cover-ing conference fee, accommodation and field excursion).If you are unable to fund yourself and would like toattend, please write to Andrew Milner (Dept. of Biology,Birkbeck College, Malet Street, LONDON WC1E 7HX) orPaul Ensom (Dept of Palaeontology, Natural HistoryMuseum; P.Ensom@nhm.ac.uk ) preferably giving thename of a referee who would support your application.

Major Events in Early Vertebrate Evolution -Phylogeny, Palaeontology and DevelopmentNatural History Museum, London, England, 8-9 APRIL1999. Convenor: Dr P.E. Ahlberg. Our understanding ofthe origin and early evolution of vertebrates is advancingrapidly, not only due to new fossil discoveries andphylogenetic analyses, but also to discoveries in develop-mental genetics. This conference, sponsored by theSystematics Association and the Natural History Museum,will bring together leading workers from palaeontology,developmental biology and comparative anatomy toaddress the major questions in this field.

The story of vertebrate origins is the story of howthe various vertebrate body plans, and the developmentalcascades which generate them, were assembled byevolution. General problems include recognising homolo-gous structures and gene expression patterns betweengroups and understanding the steps by which majormorphological transformations were accomplished.Specific topics to be addressed by the meeting include

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the origin, patterning and early evolution of jaws,appendages and mineralised tissues, as well as the earlydiversification of vertebrates.

The meeting will be held at London’s NaturalHistory Museum, one of the foremost centres in the worldfor systematic and evolutionary research. All speakers areinvited, but there will be an OPEN POSTER SESSIONallowing non-speaking delegates to present their work.

PROVISIONAL SPEAKER LIST: P.E. Ahlberg, W.E.Bemis, J.A. Clack, M.I. Coates, P. Donoghue, P.L.Forey,H.E. Gee, J. Hanken, J.R. Hinchliffe, R. Hitchin, N.Holder, L.Z. Holland, P.W.H. Holland, P. Janvier, R.P.S.Jefferies, J. Joss, J. Mallatt, J.G.Maisey, B.D. Metscher,R.G. Northcutt, M.A. Purnell, I.J. Sansom, H.-P.Schultze,M.M. Smith, M.P. Smith.

For further information contact Dr Per Ahlberg,Department of Palaeontology, The Natural HistoryMuseum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK. e-mail:pea@nhm.ac.uk fax: (UK) 171 938 9277.

North-central section, GSA 33rd Annual MeetingChampaign, Illinois - April 22-23, 1999 The IllinoisState Geological Survey and the Department of Geologyat the University of Illinois Champaign/Urbana will hostthe 33rd Annual Meeting of the North-Central Section ofthe Geological Society of America. The meeting will beheld in The Clarion Hotel & Convention Center inChampaign. Societies and organizations meeting with theNorth-Central Section include the Association of WomenGeoscientists, the Central Section of the National Asso-ciation of Geoscience Teachers, Great Lakes Section ofSEPM, and the North-Central Section of thePaleontological Society.

Papers on all topics listed on the GSA abstractform are invited from students and professionals forpresentation in oral or poster sessions. Presentationsthat may fit into one of the symposia (invited andvolunteered papers) are also solicited. Those interestedin presenting a paper or poster in a symposium shouldcontact the symposium convener and indicate on theabstract form that the abstract be included in a particu-lar symposium. Special sessions focused on specificthemes or subjects will be arranged by the local programcommittee after review of the abstracts. Oral presenta-tions will be allotted 15 minutes followed by 5 minutesfor discussion. Two four- hour poster sessions areplanned for each day.

Symposia that might be of interest to BMSmembers include; Functional Morphology andPaleobiology of Extinct Vertebrates; Symposium on theSilurian System of the Central United States; PaleozoicEnvironments of the Midcontinent U.S.

Detailed information concerning registration,hotel and motelaccommodations, alternative opportuni-ties in Champaign and centralIllinois, technical sessions,symposia, field trips, and workshops willappear in theJanuary 1999 issue of GSA Today. Inquiries, requests,orsuggestions should be directed to Dennis R. Kolata,General Chair, GSANorth-Central Section, Illinois StateGeological Survey, 615 East PeabodyDrive, Champaign, IL61820, (217) 244-2189, fax (217) 333-2830,kolata@isgs.uiuc.edu

Geological Association-Mineralogical Association ofCanada, GAC-MAC Annual meeting, Sudbury 1999,Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, Wednesday-Friday May 26-28,1999. Symposium — impact events and extinctions: aSpecial Session in honour of Glen Caldwell. Organizers: P.Copper (Laurentian U.), O.A. Dixon (U.of Ottawa), JinJisuo (U. Western Ontario). Sponsored by thePaleontology Division of the Geological Association ofCanada

Sudbury, the site of a double extra-terrestrialimpact, the 1.8 billion-year-old Sudbury Basin, and the37 million-year-old Wanapitei crater, indenting thenortheast margins of the older structure, is an appropri-ate host to a special symposium on the controversialrelationship between meteorite impacts, massextinctions, and the evolution of life. Did impacts alterthe course of the history of life on Planet Earth. Areimpacts a regular and periodic feature and component ofplanetary surface processes, like others? Or, are impactsextra-ordinary processes which dramatically change theglobal biota, and re-set the evolutionary clock? Contribu-tors to this symposium, whether they be for or againstimpact origins of some or all mass extinctions, shouldreflect not only on the timing and chemical-stratigraphicsignature of impacts, but also on any atmospheric andoceanic events which may, or may not, have changedlife, particularly as recorded in the five best known massextinctions, the Late Ordovician, Late Devonian, end-Permian, end-Triassic and end-Cretaceous.

Those wishing to contribute a paper to a specialFestschrift commemorating this symposium must submittheir papers by May 28, 1999 for publication (contribu-tors need not present an oral paper or poster at thesessions).

Contact: Dr. Paul Copper, Department of EarthSciences, Laurentian University Sudbury, Ontario, CANADAP3E 2C6 tel (705) 675-1151 fax (705) 673-6508 email:pcopper@nickel.laurentian.ca or Dr. Jisuo JinDepartment of Earth Sciences University of WesternOntario London, Ontario, CANADA N6A 5B7 tel (519)661-4061 fax (519) 661-3198 email:

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jjin@julian.uwo.ca . Deadline for abstractsubmission - January 15, 1999. Check the Sudbury ’99website for details and electronic submissioninstructions:www.laurentian.ca/www/geology/gacmac99.htm

International symposium on the origin of animalbody plans and their fossil records, Kunming, China,June 20-25, 1999. The symposium will be held at theHot Spring Hotel on the east shore of Fxian Lake, nearKunming, PRC, under the auspices of the Chinese Acad-emy of Sciences. The proceedinsg will be in English andcontributed papers will be published in a special volumein the year 2000.

The origin of basic patterns of anatomical organisa-tion, or body-plans, is a central question in evolutionarybiology. The relativrely sudden appearence of all majoranimal phyla in the fossil record, the Cambrian explosion,focuses attention on how, and how rapidly body plansevolved. The aim of this symposium is to bring togetherinterested scientists to evaluate the broader significanceof recent research in a variety of fields. For example, thenearby Chengjiang fauna is superbly preserved, andprovides an unusually complete record of early Cambrianfossils. Its proximity in time to the Cambrian explosionmakes it equally relevant to understanding the origin andevolution of animal body plans.

The finding of 580 million year old fossil animals inphosphate deposits in Weng-an, Guizhou, may also helpto shed light on these issues. The Weng-an faunaincludes eggs and embryos, preserved in sufficient detailto make inferences about the developmental patternsleading to the emergence of early body plans. Thissymposium takes an integrated, interdisciplinary ap-proach to the study of the origin and evolution of animalbody plans. The organisers encourage not only palaeon-tologists and evolutionary biologists, but also morpholo-gists and developmental and molecular biologists, toattend and contribute. For example, this internationalgathering would be an excellent opportunity to report oninsights into the role of Hox genes in body pland forma-tion. The presentation of a variety of theoretical per-spectives is especially encouraged.

The program will include opportunities to vists thefossil sites of the Lower Cambrian Chengjiang fauna; tostudy sections of the Cambrian/Precambrian interface atMeishucun, Jining; and to visit the Field Station of EarlyLife Research Centre, which will hold an exhibition of theEarly Cambrian fossils from Chengjiang and Hai-kuo aswell as the Weng-an biota from Precambrian phosphates,Guizhou.

Participants may also choose to make an optional pre-symposium excursion June 17-19 to the Precambrian

fossil site at Weng-an, and to the Lower Cambrian fossilsite at Zhijing, Guizhou, and/or a post-symposiumexcursion June 26-30 to Dali and Lijiang (in northwest-ern Yunnan, a region of attractive scenary which is hometo the rich culture of the Bai, Naxi and other minoritypeoples).

If you are interested in participating, (observers arealso welcome) and would like to receive further informa-tion, please respond, as soon as possible, either to PaulK. Chien or our Chinese host Prof. Junyuan Chen, byemail, fax or mail. Prof. Paul K. Chien, Department ofBiology, University of San Francisco, 2130 Fulton Street,San Francisco, CA 94117, USA: [fax]+415-422-6363;[tel]+415-422-6755;[email]chienp@usfca.eduProf. Junyuan Chen, Field Station of Early Life ResearchCentre, Sanjiacun, Jinning, Kunming 650612. P. R. China:[fax]0871-788-1037; [tel]0871-788-9575;[email]chenjy@jlonline.com

International Workshop on Ichnotaxonomy,Bornholm, 03.-09.08.98.The first InternationalWorkshop on Ichnotaxonomy (WIT) was set up todiscussseveral problems in the taxonomy and nomenclature oftracefossils, which is currently in an unsatisfactory state.A small group ofactive ichnologists working on burrows,borings and tracks of variousenvironments gathered onthe island of Bornholm (Denmark) for a week tofind apreliminary consensus which is presented below. We nowinvite allother scientists concerned with the subject tocritically assess ourconclusions and submit their ownideas. For further details contact Markus Bertling,Geologisch-Palaeontologisches Institut und Museum,Pferdegasse 3, D- 48143 Muenster, Germany. E-mail:bertlin@uni-muenster.de ; f a x : 4 9 - 2 5 1 -8 3 2 4 8 9 1 ; t e l : 4 9 - 2 5 1 - 8 3 2 3 9 4 2 .

47th Symposium of Vertebrate Palaeontology andComparative Anatomy (SVPCA), Edinburgh, Scotland8-11 September 1999. The symposium will be preceededby the 8th Symposium of Palaeontological Preparatorsand Conservators, 7th September 1999. Both meetingswill be hosted by the National Museums of Scotland incentral Edinburgh, and organised by the staff of theDepartment of Geology and Zoology. There will be areception in the new Museum of Scotland. The independ-ent Dynamic Earth interpretive centre will be open bythen; it is the provisional venue for the conferencedinner. There will be the usual day field trip on the11th. For further details please contact Mike Taylor,Department of Geology and Zoology, National Museums ofScotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh EH1 1JF: [fax]0131-220-4819; [email] mat@nms.ac.uk

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VII International Symposium on Mesozoic Terrestrial Ecosystems, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 26thSeptember to 2nd October 1999. For further detailsplease contact The Secretary to the Symposium, MuseoArgentino de Clencias Naturales “B. Rivadavia”, Avda.Angle Gallardo 470, 1405 Buenos Aires, Argentina; Tel/Fax: 54-1 983 4151.

IGCP 406: Circum-Arctic Palaeozoic VertebratesMeeting “Lower-Middle Palaeozoic Events Across theCircum-Arctic ”Riga/Jurmala, Latvia, September-October,1999. All interested Palaeozoic workers are invited toattend the two-day 1999 annual meeting of the IGCP 406project which will be held in conjunction with (immedi-ately before or after) the 4th Baltic Stratigraphic Confer-ence in Riga and/or Jurmala, Latvia. The 4th BSC isplanned to be held on September 27-30,1999. After thescientific sessions of BSC a two-day field trip (October 1-2) is proposed to the most exciting outcrops of Devonianrocks in Vidzeme (north-eastern Latvia).

Presentations to the IGCP 406 meeting arewelcome on any topic related to the palaeontology,paleoecology, stratigraphy, palaeogeography, etc. ofOrdovician through Devonian vertebrate fossils, as wellas their associated fauna and flora and related geologicalsubjects. For this meeting, contributions on the theme“Geological and Biological Events Across the Circum-Arctic” in connection with palaegeography andstratigraphy are especially encouraged. Contributions ongeochemistry are also welcome. We invite suggestionsfor topics of conference workshops.

Abstracts of conference papers should be submit-ted before March 30, 1999. Thetext (in English, no morethan 2 pages, including illustrations andreferences)should be sent by e-mail as ASCII files or as plain texton a DOS-formatted diskette. If you use special ornational letters, or you want to add illustrations, pleasesend a hard copy separately. Estimated costs: registrationfee: 10 LVL (Latvian lats; approximately 18 USD). The feewill be collected during the meeting at the registrationdesk. Accommodation: see the First Circular of the 4thBSC. The medium cost of meals in Riga is ca. 5-10 LVL/day. Limited financial support from IGCP is possible. Ifyou are interested, please inform us as soon as you can.

A two-day (October 1-2) excursion after the BSCconference to the mostexciting outcrops of Devonianrocks in Vidzeme (north-eastern Latvia) is planned (seethe First circular of the 4th BSC). Estimated cost: 40 LVL(early registration, before April 30, 1999) or 50 LVL (lateregistration, after April 30, 1999, if free places will beavailable). The cost of the trip is approximate; it will begiven more exactly in the second circular. DeadlinesPreliminary registration - December 10, 1998 Abstracts -

March 30, 1999 Please let us know if you need an officialinvitation. For further details contact: Ervins Luksevics,Latvian Museum of Natural History, K.Barona 4, Riga LV-1050, LATVIA. E-mail: ldm@com.latnet.lv; fax:(371) 7220092.

Third International Symposium On LithographicLimestones to be held in Bergamo (Italy) on August28-september 9, including Pre-Symposium excursion toCentral-Southern Italy. For further details contact Dr.Silvio Renesto, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra,Universiti degli Studi di Milano, via Mangiagalli 34, I20133 Milano, Italy. Fax +39-02-70638261; e-mail:renesto@imiucca.csi.unimi.it

ICVM-6: 6th International Congress on VertebrateMorphology, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena,Germany. Co-covened by J. Matthais Starck and Martin S.Fischer, July 2001. Details: http://www.zoo.uni-jena.de/icvm-6.html

Conodont Group

Congratulations to our Secretary Gail Radcliffe whohas now completed her Ph.D. and is awaiting herviva. Gail has left Durham and feels that she can nolonger carry on as Secretary for this reason. We wish Gailall the best for the future and extend our thanks to herfor all her efforts as Secretary particularly for her help inorganising last year’s Conodont Group Meeting and fieldtrip at Cardiff. Congratulations also to Alistair Bowdenwho has just been offered a job at the British GeologicalSurvey as a field mapper. He will be able to carry on hispart time studies on Carboniferous conodonts to com-plete his M.Sc. and then convert to a Ph.D. Alistair hasoffered to take over from Gail as Secretary but not untilwell into next year. At the time of writing of this reportthe position of Secretary is therefore temporarily vacant.

In March, Karen Cochrane (University of Birming-ham) and Dick Aldridge (University of Leicester) bothpresented at the Pander Society meeting in Columbus,Ohio. Several members of the British Conodont Groupattended ECOS VII in Italy, where the excellent sciencewas accompanied by enormous amounts of good food andwine. Talks were presented by Steph Barrett, Kim Freed-man, Mark Purnell, Dick Aldridge (all University ofLeicester), Karen Cochrane and Phil Donoghue (bothUniversity of Birmingham). In September, Ivan Sansom(University of Birmingham), presented the latest results

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of his work with Paul Smith (University of Birmingham)on the Cambrian and Ordovician of North America at SVPin Snowbird (Utah).

Paul Smith conducted fieldwork in East Greenlandthis summer, which included the first return visit to hisPhD sections, while Richard Twitchett (University ofLeeds) carried out some fieldwork in Italy. Giles Miller(Natural History Museum) visited Estonia this summer(funded by the Royal Society) and studied conodontcollections held at Tallinn, and also had time to collectsome Lower Ordovician samples from the Pakri Peninsula,NW Estonia.

Members of the Conodont Group continue to beheavily involved in work on other phosphaticmicrofossils. Ivan Sansom, Dick Aldridge and Moya Smith(Guy’s Hospital) have completed a collaborative projecton ichthyoliths from the Llandovery of southern China.Giles Miller has completed a paper with Tiiu Märss(Tallinn Technical University) on conodonts, thelodontsand acanthodians from the Prídolí Series of the MuchWenlock area of the Welsh Borderland. Giles has justtaken up a position on the editorial board of the Journalof Micropalaeontology as the person responsible forpapers on phosphatic microfossils.

Howard Armstrong (University of Durham) reportsthat work is progressing on Ordovician conodonts fromlimestone clasts in Silurian (LORS) conglomerates in theMidland Valley (talk to be presented at The GeologicalSociety on 7th December). He has a number of papers inpress on chert REE geochemistry and has some excitingdevelopments on growth patterns in deep waterconodonts from work with Ph.D. student Caroline Smith.New developments on geochemical analysis of singleconodont elements have shown preliminary results thatdo not appear to be diagenetic overprint. Howard hasalso spent the last few months trying to buy an SEM,which should be in place by the time that this report ispublished.

Visitors to the University of Leicester this yearhave included Joanna Appelt (University of Warsaw,Poland) who came to work on Carboniferous conodonts.Carboniferous conodonts are also being studied by AnaKarina Scomazzon, a research student from the Universityof Porto Alegre (Brazil), who is at the University ofManchester until April 1999 and would welcome contactwith other conodont workers. Prof. Nian-zhong Wangfrom IVPP (Beijing) visited Birmingham and Leicester tostudy collections of ichthyoliths from the Tarim Basin,Xingjiang.

An international e-mail conodont discussion group(con-nexus) has now been established by Mark Purnell atthe University of Leicester. The aim of con-nexus is toprovide a forum for the rapid exchange of ideas and

information concerning conodonts and conodont re-search. This is achieved primarily through the e-maildiscussion group (based on listserver software) to whichanyone with an interest in conodonts can subscribe byfollowing the instructions below. Once you are a memberof the con-nexus list you will be able to post messagesto all other members of the group, and will receive allthe messages posted to the list by other members.Individuals whose interest in conodonts isnon-professional are welcome to subscribe to the list,but the level of discussion is aimed primarily at thosewho already know something about conodonts. Tosubscribe to the list, send the following message tolistserv@le.ac.uk :subscribe con-nexus xxxx@xxxx.xx.xx (wherexxxx@xxxx.xx.xx is your e-mail address)

The next meeting of the Conodont Group will beon the 15th-16th of December, including a field trip toBarton-on-Sea to look at sharks teeth (well, almostconodonts!) and a morning of talks in Portsmouth. Theinformation given here will be out of date by the timethis newsletter is published so please see the ConodontGroup page on the BMS website for further details. Thiscan be found at http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted_sites/bms/conod.htm .

Gail Radcliffe and Giles Miller

Stop Press!! In the absence of any volunteers, PaulSmith has offered to take over as caretaker secretary ofthe group for the next year, although he is quite willingto stand aside if and when a more permanent offeremerges.

The forthcoming conodont group meeting willfollow the usual format of a half day in the field on the15th December followed by half a day of talks on themorning of the 16th. The afternoon of the 16th will befree for sampling the cultural delights of Portsmouth(there is a SeaLife centre and a small geology museum,but a visit to the Mary Rose and its associated museum ishighly recommend ). Giles is currently liaising with theTertiary Research Group with regard to the Tertiarycoastal section of Bracklesham where the macrofaunaincludes shark teeth. More news by email. On theevening of the 15th we will stay in Chichester, at theGlobe Inn [01243 782035].

The lectures will be held in the Department ofGeology at Portsmouth. Four talks plus an open forumhave been offered to date: Giles Miller:Fishy tales of teethand scales - an unusually well preserved conodont,thelodont and acanthodian fauna from the Pridoli of theWelsh Borderland; Phil Donoghue: Conodont histochemis-

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try; Open discussion led by Mark Purnell, Phil Donoghueand Dick Aldridge: A new orientation and notationalscheme for conodont elements; Mark Purnell[No title asyet]; Howard Armstrong & Caroline Smith[No title asyet]. If anyone else has the burning urge to give a talkwe could fit one more in.

Finally, for some really advance notice, the Pal AssAnnual Meeting for next year is going to be at Manches-ter organised by Paul Selden. This gets us back intoconodont territory. Paul’s suggestion would be for a fieldtrip to the Craven Basin and SW Askrigg Block, staying inthe Ribble Valley. Numerous good Dinantian and earlyNamurian sections (and some quite superlative pubs)would be within easy reach and sampling of some of IanMetcalfe’s localities would be possible. The area is(literally) home ground for both Howard and Paul so oneor both of them could lead it. Does anyone have anyalternative suggestions? See you on the 15th or 16th!

Paul Smith School of Earth Sciences, University of Bir-mingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.

Foram Group

Nineteen ninety-eight was another eventful year forthe BMS Foraminiferal Group. Prominent amongthis year’s highlights was the group’s annualSpring meeting (held in April at The Natural HistoryMuseum) which boasted a number of firsts. The 1998Spring meeting was the first organized primary by e-mailsolicitations—announcements were posted to thePaleoNet and Micropal listservers in Dec. 1997 and allprimary communication with the speakers was carried outvia e-mail—and the first in which the meeting programand all abstracts were posted on the World Wide Web (viathe BMS web site). As a result, the 1998 meeting was byfar the best advertised in recent memory (drawinginquiries from several continents), featured one of themost diverse programmes (including contributions fromnon-BMS members), and was the best attended in recentyears. This is strong testimony to the power of electroniccommunications in general, and the World Wide Web inparticular, to contribute to the Society’s efforts. Presen-tations at the meeting itself were of a uniformly high-quality and (as always) featured lively discussions duringthe question session following each talk and during thewine and cheese social hour that followed the technicalproceedings.

The day after the meeting a small, but hardy

contingent of BMS-Foram. Group members convened atThe Natural History Museum for a Group field trip toSouthampton where Prof. John Murray led an explorationof the modern foraminiferal faunas of the HambleEstuary; the site of several of Prof. Murray’s researchprojects. Each member of the group was supplied with aspecial, limited edition, illustrated “Field Guide to theHamble Estuary” prepared by Prof. Murray for the tripthat detailed the habitats and faunas of the marsh andintertidal mudflat environments, along with collecting,washing, and preservational tips for dealing with thespecimens encountered. The day was sunny (perfect forstalking “wild” nearshore benthic foraminifera), thecompany was excellent, and the excursion was capped bycollecting a 1-meter core through the marsh (currentlyunder study at the University of Greenwich). Needless tosay, a grand time was had by all. Our thanks go out onceagain to Prof. Murray for organizing the trip and to all ofthe participants. Pictures from the field trip can beviewed in the Foram. Group part of the BMS Web Site.

In addition to the Group Meeting, several BMSForam Group members attended the Forams ’98 meetingin Monterrey, Mexico. Dr. Andrew Henderson reports:On the 4th to the 12th of July the city of Monterrey innorth east Mexico was the base for ‘Forams ‘98’ theInternational Symposium on Foraminifera. Hosted by theSociedad Mexicana de Paleontologia and co-organised byJose Longoria and Martha Gamper, this symposiumcarried on from the successful meeting in Berkeley in1994 and provided an excellent forum for foram discus-sion. [Note: try saying that after four tequilas!] A threeday technical session split between three halls, withconcurrent poster sessions, provided an intense (ifhectic) environment for discussion and debate on allaspects of foraminifera. Differing from previous meetingsthe general feeling of the lectures was a move away frompure biostratigraphical studies with more attentiondevoted to the application of foraminifera to environ-mental, palaeo-oceanographic, palaeoproductivity andecological problems (reflecting the current interest in thepalaeontological community). This trend was also evidentin the three short courses offered, on the ecology offorams, and on their applications in seismic and se-quence stratigraphy. The sessions concentrating on thebiological evidence of foram evolution provided somevery lengthy and interesting discussions. As many morebiologists turn their research to the study of foraminiferaand contribute to major palaeontological and palaeo-oceanographic symposia like this one, there has been asignificant increase in our knowledge of the biology offoraminifera. Of interest were a number of talks applying

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molecular methods to resolving phylogenetic problems,which adds enormously to our understanding offoraminifera. However, I believe also that this opens up awhole new can of worms, but hopefully when integratedwith existing phylogenetic study methods can unlocksome of the systematic problems facingmicropalaeontologists today. It will be interesting tonote the developments and see what the next “Forams”conference has to offer.

The field trips offered an insight into some of thebreathtaking structure of the Mexican Mesozoic Cordilleraand one realised that we were only scratching the surfaceof the complexities of the geology. Plenty of opportunitywas given for sampling which will, in some cases, providerelatively unknown assemblages to study (more attentionhaving been paid to planktonic foraminifera). The postconference field trip visited K/T boundary outcrops in theBurgos basin.

There was around 250 participants with a strongshowing from both South an North America. Europeanattendance was much less and only a handful of partici-pants came from Britain.

The Mexican hospitality was superb and thevenues first-rate - all in all an excellent conference. Asalways with these largish symposia, like the Mexicangeology, there was a feeling that in such a short timeperiod you were never going to see everything thatinterested you, unfortunately you can’t be in three placesat once. Still, there are four years to recuperate, save-upand plan, for “Forams 2002” in Perth, Western Australia,and as the next host David Haig said, “pack your sun-glasses and suncream, its going to be hot!“- with thecurrent developments in many aspects of foraminiferalresearch - it probably will be.” (see also a second Forams’98 review in this issue of the BMS Newsletter)

Finally, 1998 saw publication of the first volume of thefully electronic journal Palaeontologia Electronica (homesite: http://www-odp.tamu.edu/paleo/index.htm ). This journal is sponsored by a consortiumof palaeontological societies, including the BMS. Itshould come as little surprise to BMS members that 50%of the technical articles appearing in PalaeontologiaElectronica’s inaugural (1998) volume weremicropalaeontological articles, including three articles onforaminifera and arcellaceans. The BMS is currentlynegotiating sponsorship of a UK mirror site for thejournal. This mirror will reduce page loading times forBMS members located in the UK and Europe. Reaction tothe new journal has been overwhelmingly positive withover 50,000 hits per month from over 60 differentcountries and favourable reviews being published in boththe scientific (e.g., Science, Nature) and popular (e.g.,

Newsweek) press. If the past year is any indicationPalaeontologia Electronica should prove to be a veryactive and high-profile forum for the communication anddiscussion of micropalaeontological research.

Norm McLeod Department of Palaeontology, The NaturalHistory Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK.

Nannofossil Group

We all seem to be industriously occupied withresearch and workcommitments, it’s good to seenannofossil sciences in such high demand.As for BMS Nannofossil Group activities, this years

annual fieldtrip toBelgium in June was as successful anevent as last years. In attendancewere Jeremy Young,Matt Hampton, Jackie Burnett, Paul Bown, PatrickQuinn,Emma Sheldon, Markus Geisen, Nicky Hine,Christianne Street, BenWalsworth-Bell and non-geologistsSarah Ford and Debbie Nicholls. Many thanksto EtienneSteurbaut for taking the time to show us some of theEocenesections that he has been working on aroundGhent. However, things didn’tquite go as planned. Onecar got lost in the streets of Ghent minutes afterleavingthe hotel, so while Etienne and one group were collect-ing superbsharks teeth, the other group tried to make uptheir own itinery with the aidof field guides and refer-ences (taking the opportunity to look at thecemetary atPaaschendale and a section of ‘restored’ World War 1trench nearYpres). Field work on the final day waslimited and we took a wander throughthe pretty streetsof Bruges in the rain before heading back home soakedtothe skin.

As for forthcoming events, we plan anotherresearch meeting, provisionallyplanned for February.Sheffied University is the most likely venue. We aim todoanother field in the summer, I think Denmark is currentlybeing touted asthe favourite destination.

Other than that, I guess you all know that thesecond edition of thestratigraphic atlas is now out,(hooray! - its called CalcareousNannofossilBiostratigraphy, edited by Paul Bown) - hopefullyeveryone has acopy on their desk.

I think thats about all the news, we’ll let youknow more about dates for theforthcoming events

Matt Hampton Network Stratigraphic Consulting Ltd, Unit57, The Enterprise Centre, Cranborne Road, Potters Bar,Herts EN6 3DQ, UK.

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Ostracod Group

The ostracod group visited the south coast ofEngland in late spring. A review of the trip is givenat the end of this report. Many thanks to IanSlipper for undertaking the onerous task of organisinganother successful trip, my only regrets are that workcommitments prevented my attendance. Many thanks toRoy Clements for leading the party over the Purbeckoutcrops.

This years AGM marks the end of my two yeartenure as group chair. If any of the other group mem-bers are interested in taking up the post please contactme (matthew.wakefield@bgtech.co.uk ).However, if needs be I am prepared to stand for anotherterm.

Congratulations to Robin Smith (Leicester Univer-sity) for gaining his doctorate. Robins’ thesis abstract isgiven below.

The biology and ontogeny of Cretaceous and RecentCyprididae Ostracoda (Crustacea) by Robin JamesSmith

Abstract: Study of the biology and ontogeny of Creta-ceous and Recent ostracods shows that the familyCyprididae exhibits conservative evolution over the last100 million years. The Cretaceous cypridid ostracodPattersoncypris micropapillosa Bate, 1972, with preservedappendages, is described and details of the limbs of itsadults and juveniles are compared with RecentCyprididae.

A detailed study of the ontogeny of the RecentCyprididae ostracod Eucypris virens (Jurine, 1820) revealsthat, with the exception of the last podomere on theantennules, the chaetotaxy (distribution pattern ofsetae) shows continual development on all podomeres ofthe limbs. Cyprididae ostracods have a pediform limb inthe posterior part of the body, presumably to help themto attach to substrates; this is reflected by the pediformnature of one limb in all ontogenetic stages. This studyhas also shown that the fifth limb is most probably ofthoracic origin and, hence, ostracods have only one pairof maxillae.

The upper lip and hypostomes of 23 species ofCypridoidea (Podocopina) ostracods were studied andsignificant variation noted in morphology betweenspecies, genera and subfamilies. Several features of theupper lip and hypostome are described for the first time.The morphology of the upper lip can be used to identifyspecies, but it cannot be used to diagnose genera orsubfamilies.

Spherical objects recovered from acetic acidpreparation residues of vertebrate fossils from the LowerCretaceous Santana Formation of north-east Brazil arepostulated to be the eggs of the ostracod Pattersoncyprismicropapillosa Bate, 1972. These spheres arephosphatized, range in diameter from 85 to 110 mi-crons, and are comparable in many respects to the eggsof several Recent ostracod species.

Matt Wakefield BG Technology, Ashby Road, Loughbor-ough LE11 3GR, UK.

Ostracod WeekendThis year’s Ostracod Group field meeting was held inDorset, over the weekend of 17th-19th April. On Fridayevening sixteen Easter-weary ostracod workers assembledat the splendidly named Hotel Mon Ami (situated on thefront at Weymouth) to catch up on the gossip andgenerally chew the fat over a beer or two (at least untilthe strains of Abba, continually cycling over the hotelmusic system, drove us out into the wilds of the town insearch of food, more alcohol and no more Abba).

Things kicked off to a fine start on a gloriousSaturday morning. Alasdair Bruce, who is working on theostracod fauna from the Fleet for his PhD at GreenwichUniversity, was our guide for the day. At the first stop(Chickerell Hive Point), he gave a impressively in-depthintroduction to the area, seemingly unconcerned that inhis waders and hat he was providing us with an uncan-nily accurate impression of a certain well-known brand oflozenge(!). By special arrangements with the localfishermen, three traditional trow type boats had beenprovided, allowing most of the party to set out (withsome slight trepidation) and take samples from severallocations across the chilly waters of the Fleet. Thespectacle was not so much a mighty Armada, more aragged rendition of Hawaii Five-O (particularly therapidly rotating vessel of Ians Boomer and Slipper, bothof whom surely cannot have any nautical blood in theirfamilies – except perhaps a distant connection to thecaptain of the Titanic!). Despite the navigationalchallenges for some, however, several samples weresuccessfully collected and eventually returned to dryland, much to the relief of the less intrepid members ofthe party, who had spent the time collecting materialfrom the nearby exposure of Oxford Clay at Tidmore Cove(including some beautifully preserved pyritised ammo-nites and an alarming number of bullet casings from thenearby military rifle-range that were masquerading asbelemnites).

The Swannery nature reserve at Abbotsbury wasthe next port of call, where by special arrangement with

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the wardens, we were allowed to sample from severallocations normally inaccessible to the public. Materialcollected included Loxoconcha rhomboidea, Eucyprisvirens and Xestoleberis nitida. After a pleasing and well-deserved lunch at a nearby pub (followed by ice creamsfrom a fabulous panoramic viewpoint of the entire Fleet),we ploughed on to Radipole Lake, a nature reserve in thecentre of Weymouth. Despite a concerted effort byAlasdair (who, in by-now leaking waders, kept poppingup from the reeds brandishing a frightening array ofplankton nets and other sinister sampling devices thatcontinually startled various bird-watchers), the promisedCyprideis torosa, known previously to be present at thissite in great abundance, interestingly proved to besomewhat elusive. Our final site of the day, that ofLodmore Marsh, turned out to be much more satisfactory,with some fine examples of Herpetocypris contributing toa rich fauna. Sampling activities were also carried outthat evening, although generally it was more often theaqueous microhabitats occurring within certain localhostelries that were of interest to most members of theparty.

Sunday dawned somewhat less than sunny,although the selection of dodgy mid-Seventies balladsaccompanying breakfast more than hardened our resolveto depart for the field without delay. The entire morningwas given over to visiting the Purbeck type-section atDurlston Bay, just outside Swanage. Roy Clements(Leicester) proved to be an excellent guide, first compre-hensively introducing us to the stratigraphy and well-studied faunal assemblages from the sections, beforeeventually letting us loose to collect some of the beauti-fully exposed material. The combination of a rapidlyrising tide, persistent (though traditional) fieldworkdrizzle, and the algae-slicked rocks meant that more thanone member of the party (including, once again, theaptly-named Ian Slipper) were able to take an occasion-ally more laid-back view of things, although this didn’tspoil a fine morning’s work. The final location of the dayconsisted of avoiding the increasingly driving rain byanalysing a splendid outcrop of polished Jurassic lime-stone, fortuitously (and somewhat cunningly) locatedinside the village pub where we had (coincidentally)booked our Sunday lunch.

As the party eventually fragmented and we madeour goodbyes, we were able to reflect on another excel-lent and thoroughly enjoyable field meeting. Thanksmust go to Ian Slipper for organising the whole thingand the effort that our guides, Alasdair and Roy, put intoensuring that we got the most out of our brief time inthe field. Only one (rather pressing) matter remainsunresolved from the weekend, that of Koen Martens’

confusion over the exact definition of a 35 tolpuddle.Answers (and diagrams) on a postcard, please...!

Mick Frogley Godwin Institute for Quaternary Research,Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, DowningStreet, Cambridge CB2 3EJ

Palynology Group

Elections for the position of Palynology Groupsecretary took place earlier in the year. Approximately one third of ballot papers were returned andthese provided an obvious majority vote for Sandy Smithof Shell UK Ltd. Sandy takes over as Group secretary atthe Society’s Annual General Meeting. He comes to thepost with enthusiasm and many new and interestingideas for the development of the Group. I take thisopportunity to wish him every success in his new role.On behalf of the Group I would also like to thank theother candidates for their interest in the Group’s devel-opment.David Jolley, the Group chair, ends his first two-yearterm of office at the AGM. In the absence of an obvioussuccessor he is to continue in the position.

There are concerns over the direction of the Groupand levels of membership participation. These areperceived as largely related to the current economic andindustrial climate. In order to address these issues Daveand Sandy have organised a Group discussion meeting towhich all interested members of the BMS are invited. Thiswill take place on Wednesday 20th January, 1999 in theCentre for Palynology, University of Sheffield.

A large contingent of the Palynology Groupattended the Symposium of the CommissionInternationale de Microflore du Paléozoique held in Pisain September. Ken Dorning, Stewart Molyneux andBernard Owens chaired sessions on Acritarch taxonomy;Precambrian to Cambrian acritarchs; Cambrian toOrdovician acritarchs; and Saudi Arabian palynology.Group members also contributed a large number of oralpresentations and presented or were represented in 21papers given in 9 of the 11 sessions (perhaps there is noBritish interest in Ordovician and Silurian chitinozoans?).BMS members also presented 7 posters which, all in all,indicates a very active area of research.

Duncan McLean Industrial Palynology Unit, University ofSheffield, Dainton Building, Brookhill, Sheffield S3 7HF,UK.

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Forams ‘98, Monterrey, Mexico

In early July a small number of British workers joinedover a hundred other foram specialists at Forams ‘98,the latest in a series of international symposia thathas grown from the first Benthos meeting, held inHalifax, Canada, in 1975. The symposia are organised byindividuals, rather than coming under the aegis of anyparticular learned society, with all the attendant prob-lems that this can cause, particularly in terms of thecosts of communication and publicity. Thanks to the web,much of this can now be done by e-mail and a dedicatedset of web pages, and this was the approach of JoseLongoria and Martha Gamper of Florida InternationalUniversity, who had volunteered to run the meeting. Onelesson learnt was that messages can go astray, so thefinal set of speakers did not exactly match the programset out in the volume of abstracts, published as a specialpublication of the Sociedad Mexicana de Paleontologia,A.C.

The symposium was preceded by a fieldtrip toexamine the Mesozoic of the Mexican Cordillera, andfollowed (starting very early on the morning after thefairwell dinner) by a trip to see the K/T boundary sectionin the Burgos Basin. Both trips were well attended, andcomments from the participants suggest that they were aworthwhile experience.

Each of the three days of the symposium itselfbegan with a plenary session, followed by three parallelsessions of talks. Poster presentations went on at thesame time as many of the talks, and, in the afternoons,short courses on Ecology of Foraminifera, SeismicStratigraphy, and Sequence Biostratigraphy were alsoheld. With up to five different things going on at once,there was always plenty to do, though the inevitabletimetable clashes occurred. Unfortunately this was nothelped by some of the people chairing talks, who allowedtimings to drift, so that going from room to room oftenmeant arriving in the middle of a talk. Add to this thatthe programme sometimes had to be changed at veryshort notice (for example when Paul Pearson foundhimself down to give both his talks at the same time),and some confusion was inevitable.

As far as I could tell, the contingent from Britainwas: Kate Darling (Edinburgh), with posters on Thedistribution of planktic foraminiferal genotypes in themodern ocean, and Planktic foraminiferal RDNA molecularphylogeny indicates ancient divergences in some crypticspinose species; Andy Henderson (Natural History Mu-seum) who spoke on How reproducible are foraminiferaldata?: spatial, temporal, environmental and taxonomicdomains; Paul Pearson (Bristol) who spoke on Morpho-

logical evolution and stable isotopic evidence for habitatchange in the Eocene Hantkeninidae, and also Speciationand extinction asymmetries in planktonic foraminiferphylogenies; Rachel Preece (UCL) who spoke on A revisionof Miocene benthic foraminifera from Northern Venezueladescribed by Cushman and Renz 1941 and Renz 1948: theclassic fauna revisited; Melinda Prince (Aberdeen) (whosehusband, Iain, a dinoflagellate worker, came along forthe ride) with posters Benthic foraminiferal dynamicsfrom a modern submarine canyon system, and The role ofagglutinated assemblages in foraminiferal ecologicalstudies: acid treated assemblages from a submarinecanyon system; Eelco Rohling (Southampton) who spokeon Foraminiferal evidence of glacial sea level lowstands inthe last 500,000 years, and Abrupt cold spells in the NWMediterranean; Antony Wyatt (ex-Aberystwyth) whospoke on Foraminiferal diversity driven by changes inshallow water areas through time. Eelco Rohling also wasjoint chairman of the session on Foraminifera as proxiesfor paleoproductivity, and at literally the last moment,when it turned out that the chairman was ill, AntonyWyatt took over as chairman of the session onForaminiferal evolution: macroevolution and speciation.

With such a diversity of talks and posters it isinvidious to pick out highlights, particularly as anyindividual could only attend a small proportion of whatwas on offer. But some things do stick out in my mind.The talk by Takashi Toyofuku (Shizuoka University) onthe effects of temperature and salinity on Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca ratios of the tests of benthic foraminifera, comparingcultured forams with those collected on the sea shore,was thought provoking. Culture studies showed how theratios could be related to physical conditions, butexamination of the individuals collected from theirnatural habitat suggested caution in use of results fromthe whole test, which showed variation in these ratios indifferent chambers (which could be correlated to thetime of year that the chambers were formed).

I found most of the results of DNA studies thatwere presented to be confusing in the extreme. To betold (if I remember correctly, though I could be mixing acouple of talks!) that morphologically almost identicalspecimens were as different in their DNA as humans andfrogs, made me shudder for the future of taxonomy (if, ofcourse, these results mean what is presently claimed).But De Vargas’ talk on large and geographically localiseddifferences in the genetics of Orbulina universa, whichcould be related to different water masses in the Atlan-tic, suggested that some genetic results make sense tothe non-geneticist.

There were some talks that I felt suffered badly, interms of attendance, from the parallel sessions. Andy

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Henderson’s talk, presenting some results from theNatural History Museum project on the Kimmeridgian,was a case in point. For anyone interested in the use ofany kind of statistical data on fossils (and that surelymust include just about the whole of the palaeontologi-cal community) this talk suggested uncomfortableconclusions. It was a great pity that so few peopleattended his presentation.

People came to the symposium from all over theworld. It seemed that several people had brought theirresearch students with them, particularly groups from theNetherlands and Japan. There was also a good represen-tation from Central and South American workers, particu-larly employees of National Oil companies, presentingdetails of their work. But it was noticeable that anumber of major oil company representatives attendedthe symposium, and they appeared very interested in theyounger workers. Not all of them were foram specialists,but they were biostratigraphers. This was an idealopportunity for potential employees to meet and chatwith possible employers. There were also a few peoplelooking out for potential postdocs. It was a pity that sofew British research students were present to takeadvantage of the situation.

There was some discussion about the location forthe next symposium. Last time it had been a choicebetween Monterrey and London, but as none of theadvocates of London were present in Monterrey, theoffers were Barcelona, Egypt, Israel, and Perth (Aus-tralia). Following a number of shows of hands, wheremany more votes seemed to be cast than people present,a paper ballot was held between Barcelona (which wasedging ahead on hands) and Perth. Perth won by quite amargin. So start saving for a trip to Oz in 2002.

The talks were held in the Instituto Tecnologico yde Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, with housing in theRadisson Plaza Gran Hotel Ancira. It was not too far towalk between the two sites, but, given the temperatureand humidity, most people took the bus service provided.The hotel is a historical landmark, still with the bulletholes in the bar where Pancho Villa was showing off oneday. Sponsorship of the meeting was provided by thehotel, Aqua Dest, Coca Cola, Cerveceria CuauhtemocMoctezuma (the local brewery), Aerolitoral, Aeromexico,Chevron, and Exxon.

The organisers had provided a number of socialevents, from the icebreaker on the first night, a MexicanFiesta on the second, and Farewell dinner on the last. I

A Mexican fiesta at Forams ‘98. Clockwise from empty seat: Steve Pekar (Rutgers), Tom Dignes (Chevron), Antony Wyatt,Alexa Cameron (Christchurch), Iain Prince, Melinda Prince (Aberdeen), Masashi Tsuchiya (Shizuoka), Hans Hagman (Shell).

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cannot say much about the icebreaker, as Moctezuma wastaking his revenge, but the other two evenings werecertainly colourful. Not least because, for the MexicanFiesta, hats and scarves were provided for the males, andembroidered white Mexican dresses for the women. Thesewere left in bedrooms before the participants returnedfrom the symposium, with the inevitable odd mistake insex. Though it was possible to change, a couple of themales obviously decided that the dresses suited them. Idon’t think that anyone present at the farewell dinnerwill forget the sight of several senior and not so seniorfemale foram specialists, waving pompons, and singing‘Bye bye bye Forams 98, go go go Australia 2002’.

Add this to the memories of the pyramids of thesun and moon at Teotihuacan, the Aztec ruins in MexicoCity, and the silver mines of Zacatecas and Guanajuato,and this is a trip that I will remember for a long time.There is never enough time to do everything, though thereports from people who visited Yucatan, and saw foramsfloating in the water as they swam out from beachesmade of Discoaster, suggested that there is still a lot ofMexico that I would like to visit.

Antony Wyatt

English / Spanish collaborative Project

Ian Slipper, Dave Horne and Andy Gale, (University ofGreenwich) spent two weeks during Septemberworking in northern Spain with Julio Rodriguez-Lazaro and his team from the Univerisity of the BasqueCountry in Bilbao, Javier Elorza and Anna Pascual. Thisproject is being funded by the British Council AccionesIntegradas program, and is to study the Turonianostracods from the Anglo-Paris, and Basco CantabrianBasins.

In addition to some very interesting and exitingTuronian sections which yielded very good ammonitefaunas, we were shown some Purbeck-Wealden equivalentsections near the Rio Ebro at Aroco by Victor Pujalte.Also we were able to experience the upper navigablereaches of the Ria de Gernika, the Holocene channels ofwhich are being studied by Anna Pasqual for theirforaminiferal and ostracodal content.

No excursion to northern Spain would be completewithout examining in detail the Tertiary sequences nearSan Vicente de la Sonsierra where Javier Elorza’s cousin’sfamily has been growing Rioja for the last 1000 years.....Our thanks go to Julio and his team for their hospitality.

Ian Slipper School of Earth and EnvironmentalSciencesUniversity of Greenwich, Medway Campus,Chatham, Kent, ME4 4TB, UK.

5th International Symposium on theJurassic SystemVancouver 12-25 August 1998

Over 160 stratigraphers, palaeontologists,sedimentologists and micropalaeontologistsgathered in Vancouver this summer to discuss,debate and learn about all things Jurassic. The meetingwas ably orgnaised by Paul Smith, Jozsef Palfy andcolleagues from the University of British Columbia andthe Geological Survey of Canada. Field trips to Nevada,the terranes of the Rocky and Coastal Mountains and theQueen Charlotte Islands were enjoyed by those thatcould afford the quite considerable costs.

There were parallel sessions throughout themeeting divided up into topics such as SequenceStratigraphy, the Hispanic Corridor, Extinction andRecovery, etc., as well as more traditional sessions onthe Lower, Middle and Upper Jurassic.Micropalaeontological contributions were relatively few,scattered throughout the various sessions. Most werevery interesting and will appear in the Proceedings of theSymposium later next year. The micropalaeontologistsgathered for a discussion session one evening anddebated the role of the subject in the work of theJurassic Sub-Commission on Stratigraphy. The newsletterfor Jurassic Micropalaeontologists is to continue and maybe available electronically. Anyone wishing to gainaccess should contact Susanne Feist-Burkhardt at herelectronic address [feist@bio.tu-darmstadt.de ].

The workshops on the Stage boundary definitionscaused the greatest interest. Some Stage boundarieshave active working groups while others have barelydecided who should be involved. Kevin Page and co-workers appeared to be ahead of the pack in their workon the Sinemurian GSSP, which may - eventually - belocated at East Quantoxhead in Somerset. The workinggroup on the base of the Pleinsbachian are also workinghard [organised by Christian Meister] and are consideringa succession in Robin Hood’s Bay [Yorkshire] as apossible GSSP. Geoff Warrington [BGS Nottingham] is co-ordinating the deliberations over the base of theJurassic, with a number of contender successions inNevada, the Queen Charlotte Island and Somerset.

The next meeting in the series [the 6th] will beheld in three years time in Sicilly, probably in September.

Malcolm Hart Department of Geological Sciences, Univer-sity of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA

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European Palaeontological Association

The EPA held its annual meeting in Portsmouth inJuly 1998. This was a joint meeting with thePalaeontological Association and was organised byDr David Martill and colleagues of the University ofPortsmouth. The theme was Cretaceous biodiversity,although most of the talks concentrated on Cretaceousvertebrates - including one talk on a part of one bone ofan unknown reptile!

At the Council meeting the evening before themain lecture sessions I found myself elected Vice-President of the EPA, remaining - at the same time - theUK Council Mem