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Conference and Course AnnouncementsObituaryMeeting ReportsThe Micropalaeontological Society NewsSpecialist Group NewsNanno News - updates from the TMS Nannofossil Group and the INAGrzybowski Foundation NewsAdvertisers

CorrespondencePlease send items of news, comments, letters or articles for publication such as conference reportsor meeting announcements to the editor. These should be supplied as plain text files or as Worddocuments. Photographs or illustrations to accompany articles are also welcome. Please sendphotos as high resolution JPEG images. Please send all correspondance to the editor: Claudia Cetean, Robertson Ltd. (UK), Tyn y Coed, Llandudno, North Wales LL30 1SA, UK, or by email to newsletter@tmsoc.org.

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The views expressed by the authors of any article in Newsletter of Micropalaeontology are their own and do not necessarily represent those of The Micropalaeontological Society.

Taxonomic disclaimer

Newsletter of Micropalaeontology is notdeemed to be valid for taxonomical or nomenclatural purposes - see International Codes of Botanical and Zoological Nomenclature.

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Conference and CourseAnnouncements

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Meeting of Asian OstracodologistsSeoul 23-27 June 2014

We would like to invite you to the first Meeting of Asian Ostracodologists. It will be held at Hanyang University, Seoul Campus, from 23-27 June 2014.Our plan is to have a two-day workshop (23 & 24) and three days for talks and poster session.This is a wonderful opportunity for all who work on the Asian ostracod fauna, living or fossil, to meet this summer in Seoul, exchange ideas, start new collaborations, and have a nice time.The workshop will mostly be organized for new researchers who would like to learn basics of ostracodlogy, but we also think that this is an ideal time to exchange material and help each other with difficult ostracods.More details will be announced towards the end of February, but we would like to encourage you to send us an e-mail, expressing your interest in the workshop and/or meeting. We are open to suggestions and would appreciate if you circulate this info.

Prof. Ivana Karanovic (Hanyang University) Prof. Cheon Young Chang (Daegu University)E-mail: ivana.karanovic@utas.edu.au

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ObituaryJean-Paul Colin

1948-2013

With the death of Jean-Paul Colin the ostracod world has lost one of its most enthusiastic and dynamic members. A student of the University of Paris VI (PhD 1973), Jean-Paul spent his entire working life in the oil industry, alternating between appointments with ESSO REP in Bègles and EXXON Production Research in Houston between 1974 and retirement in 2000. In so-called retirement he continued to be active in industry as both a consultant biostratigrapher and a provider of training courses for ESSO, EXXON-MOBIL, TOTAL, Vermilion, Perenco, and especially for PETROBRAS and PETROCI in Brazil, reflecting his experience and expertise with Mesozoic sequence stratigraphy and microfaunas especially ostracods of Brazil and West Africa. During the period from 1973 until his death there was a parallel academic career, reflected in some 300 p u b l i c a t i o n s a n d c o n f e r e n c e presentations (full list in Carnets de Géologie - http://paleopolis.rediris.es/cg/Jean-Paul_Colin.html   (HTML); http://p a l e o p o l i s . r e d i r i s . e s / c g / J e a n -Paul_Colin.pdf (PDF), 2013). After 2000 Jean-Paul was the moving spirit behind the continuing success of t h e R O L F ( R é u n i o n d e s

Ostracodologistes de Langue Française) meetings and resulting publications, e s p e c i a l l y i n R e v u e d e Micropaléontologie for which journal he acted as an Editor. Latterly he taught short courses and gave workshops in universities in Bordeaux, Lisbon and Brazil (UNISINOS in São Leopoldo and Brasilia).A l i fe long member of The Micropalaeontological Society, Jean-Paul Colin was a friendly, constructive and invariably helpful colleague. Following the announcement of his death on OSTRACON, the ostracod discussion net, it was astonishing to see the number of messages from colleagues around the world expressing not only their sadness but commenting that they were collaborating with him on a manuscript. Jean-Paul will be sorely missed.A l a n L o r d ( S e n c k e n b e r g Forschungsinstitut, Frankfurt-am-Main) Maria Cristina Cabral (University of Lisbon)

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Meeting ReportsAASP-TPS 46th Annual Meeting in San Francisco - in conjunction with DINO10, CAP, NAMS & CIMP

Fabienne Marret-Davies, University of Liverpool & Ian Harding

This joint meeting took place in the vibrant city of San Francisco, USA,

from the 20th to 24th of October 2013. A pre-conference workshop took place

on the 19th and 20th of October, on Palynological Databases, co-ordinated by Eric Grimm. For those not attending the workshop, on the Sunday, a pre-conference excursion took many delegates to the Napa Valley. The jaunt began with the now-almost-traditional AASP transport breakdown (three years in a row!), requiring a swift trip in the second minibus to purchase jump leads!

The excursion saw stops at a variety of geological localities, including discussions of terroirs, and arrived for a lunchtime wine tasting under some cooling shade at the splendid V. Sattui Winery. Later the party ascended by cable car for a second wine tasting event at the Mediterranean-style hilltop buildings of the Sterling Vineyards, founded by British paper magnate in 1964. The tour of the winery included sampling at least one of the wine served at last year’s Oscars ceremony, and

listening to the slightly incongruous ringing of English parish church bells from one of the towers! The fieldtrip ended with a visit to the Calistoga Petrified Forest, where remains of immense giant redwood trees lay preserved where they were felled by volcanic ash were admired by all. Due to the seasonal foggy conditions, we only caught glimpses of the pylons of the Golden Bridge in the dark on our way back into the city.

The Icebreaker on the Sunday evening was a sort of a big family reunion, the tag-line of the meeting “Peace, Love and Palynology” seeing trinkets such as hippy love-beads being handed out, accompanied by a large buffet and drinks. Throughout the following three days an impressive total of 91 talks and 54 posters were presented in parallel sessions and symposia, on a number of themes. The meeting was held in conjunction with DINO10 to pay tribute to the late Professor Bill Evitt, one of (if not the) towering figures of dinoflagellate research, and after welcome addresses, the meeting began

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with a detailed and moving personal tribute to Bill’s career by the inimitable Barrie Dale. This first session was honoured by Bill’s widow and his children being present in the audience.

Other symposia in this joint meeting included: Quantitative Frontiers in Palaeoeclology, Biostratigraphy and Evo lu t ion o f Dinoflage l l a tes , Palynology of Sudden Events, Harmful Dinoflagellates, Dinoflagellates and Dinocysts in Mid-Latitude Regions, S t r a t i g r a p h i c P a l y n o l o g y , Dinoflagellates as Paleoecological-Paleoceanographic Proxies, Gondwanan P a l e o z o i c P a l y n o s t r a t i g r a p h y , Quanti tat ive Paleoceanographic Reconstructions based on Dinocysts, Primary Productivity, Upwelling and Eutrophication, Dinoflagellates and Dinocysts in Polar Regions, Progress in Morphological and Molecular Research, Morphology, Taxonomy and Ecology, Freshwater dinoflagellates and their cysts, General Palynology. There was a special Leopold Cenozoic Palynology Symposium, in honour of Professor Estella Leopold, who at 86 still runs the palynology/paleoecology lab at University of Washington, in a palynological career that has spanned more than 60 years! Many of Estella’s former students and colleagues presented papers, and later in the meeting she was presented with the

AASP Medal for Scientific Excellence.

A focus group session on Future research and Priorities in Dinoflagellate Ecology, Evolution and Systematics closed the meeting on Thursday. The Business Luncheon saw Lanny Fisk inherit the Presidency of AASP from Ian Harding, and the presentation of three honorary awards in addition to that for Estella Leopold. The first of these has regrettably proven timely, namely an Honorary Membership for the AASP’s first President, Paul Nygreen, who, at 88, attended in person to receive his award, accompanied by his wife and children. We were all impressed by Paul’s grace and gentleness, and were very saddened to discover that he passed away shortly after the meeting, our condolences are extended to his family. There was also an Honorary Life Membership for John Williams, acknowledging his role in creating and maintaining the eponymously titled Index of Palaeopalynology (JWIP), available at the Natural History Museum in London. The final award, the AASP Excellence in Teaching Medal was presented to Vaughan Bryant in recognition of a truly unique legacy, not only for his publications, but specifically for training palynologists in the different three fields which he pioneered in the US: the use of palynology in archaeology, the analysis of pollen in

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honey (which continues to provide palynology with high-profile media coverage), and the use of palynology in forensics. Vaughan accepted the award in typical self-effacing fashion having survived the embarrassment of “archive” photos shown by his nominator, Sophie Warny! The newly named Vaughan Bryant Award for the Best Poster went to Manuel Bringué (University of Victoria),Vera Pospelova (University of Victoria), and David B. Field (Hawaii Pacific University), “High resolution dinoflagellate cyst record of decadal

variability and 20th Century warming in the Santa Barbara Basin, California”; Student Poster Award Honorable Mention: Pauline Terrice (Université du Québec à Rimouski), “Chemical characterization of dinoflagellate, cysts u s i n g R a m a n a n d i n f r a r e d microspectroscopy”; Bryant Student Poster winner: Aurélie Aubry (Université du Québec à Montréal) “Paleoceanography of marine isotope stage 31 (ca. 1.07 Ma) in the Labrador Sea based on palynological, microfaunal and isotopic data”; Student Oral Presentation Honorable Mention: Audrey Limoges (Université du Québec à Montréal), “Importance of the Gulf of Mexico as potential refuge for late Cenozoic dinocyst species”; L.R. Wilson Award: Jan Hennissen,(Univ. of Toron to ) , “Pa lyno log ica l and

geochemical analysis for North Atlantic Circulation at the onset of late Cenozoic Northern Hemisphere Glaciation (ca. 2.78-2.52 Ma, MIS G9-100)”.

Parallel to these sessions, three workshops took place: Dinoflagellate Assemblages as Proxies of Sea-Surface Conditions: towards Quantitative a p p r o a c h i n L a t e C e n o z o i c Paleoceanography, conducted by Anne de Vernal; Timescale Creator Workshop, conducted by James Ogg; Morphology and Taxonomy of Organic- and Calcareous-Walled Dinoflagellate cysts, organised by Vera Pospelova.

Despite a packed program, the organisers still found time to take us on an evening cruise in the Bay, past Alcatraz, and passing under both the illuminated Bay Bridge and the again-fog-shrouded but nonetheless imposing Golden Gate Bridge - fog horns booming into the darkness.

Some of the 183 delegates rounded the meeting off with the post-conference fieldtrip to Gold Country in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The first stop was at the North Star Power House Mining Exhibit in Grass Valley, where the largest Pelton Wheel system ever constructed was used to generate power for the gold mining operations. After a picnic next to Wolf Creek we toured the Empire Mine gold mine and Historic State Park - the site of the oldest,

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richest, hard rock gold mine in California. We then visited the Eocene/Oligocene Chalk Bluffs Flora site, and had the opportunity to collect plant fossils and palynology samples. Back in Grass Valley the trip was concluded firstly with an excellent wine tasting at the Sierra Star Vineyard Tasting Room, the delegates capped the meeting off toasting each other and the organisers for a job well done over dinner and musical entertainment at the excellent Kane’s Restaurant!

Participants at the AASP-TPS 46th Annual Meeting in San Francisco - in conjunction with DINO10, CAP, NAMS & CIMP

4th Polar Marine Diatom Taxonomy and Ecology Workshop, 4th-9th August 2013Jennifer Pike, Cardiff University, UK

On the 4th August 2013, thirty six researchers from Australia, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Spain, UK and USA gathered in Cardiff University to become immersed in polar marine diatoms for a week. The aim of the workshop, the fourth in the current biennial series, was to provide a forum for practical, microscope-based taxonomic training and to share latest research results. The group comprised 21 established and early career researchers and 15 postgraduate and Masters students. We first gathered on the Sunday evening for an icebreaker in the Cardiff University Council

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Chamber. As a host of past Vice-Chancellors looked upon the group from their portraits, and during a torrential downpour, everyone was welcomed by the host, Jenny Pike, and the Cardiff School of Earth and Ocean Sciences Director of Research, Dr Carrie Lear. We then tucked in to a Welsh-themed finger buffet and lots of wine followed by the culinary highlight of the week – the Welsh cheeseboard (sponsored by Kate Hendry).

The workshop sessions began on Monday morning, and consisted of 15 microscope-based taxonomy sessions, 9 talks and 12 poster presentations over the week – 22 case studies from the southern polar regions and 7 from the northern polar regions, with a number of taxonomic and geochemical studies that were not geographically constrained. Generous TMS sponsorship of the workshop was combined with sponsorship from the Linnean Society of London and spare monies from registration to award prizes for 2 student-led microscope taxonomy sessions (awarded in the name of the Linnean Society), 3 student talks (awarded in the name of TMS) and 5 student posters. Rebecca Totten Minzoni (Rice University, USA) is well-established in her postgraduate research programme and led a taxonomy session

on important diatoms that are used as indicators of palaeonvironmental change in the Antarctic Peninsula region. Conversely, Bartłomiej Jerzak (University of Gdansk, Poland) is in the early stages of his research and led a session that asked a lot of taxonomic questions of the audience regarding the assemblages that he was working with from Admiralty Bay, Antarctica. These sessions not only help early career scientists like Becky and Bartłomiej but re-affirmed for us ‘experts’ that our taxonomic ideas and concepts are all still aligned! Bartłomiej’s session exemplified the strength and value of the Polar Marine Diatom Workshops – presenters can be from any stage in their career and do not have to have all the answers – we learn from each other at the microscope! The three talk prizes were awarded to Jihun Kim (Pusan National University, Republic of Korea) for her talk ‘A long-term of paleoproductivity change during the Holocene in the Adélie Basin, East Antarctica’; Luz María Mejía (University of Oviedo, Spain) for her

talk ‘δ13C of opal-bound organic matter & opal boron content in fossil diatoms of different sizes & geometries’; and Francesca Vermuelen (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand) for her talk ‘Spatial & temporal comparisons of sea ice algal communities in the Ross Sea,

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Antarctica’. Other microscope-based taxonomy sessions centred on studies of the genera Corethron (Amy Leventer and Dick Crawford), Coscinodiscus (Kate Hendry), Eucampia (Maria Angeles Bárcena), Fragilariopsis (Beth Caissie; Zuzia Stroynowski) and Thalassiosira (Sunil Shukla and Jenny Pike; Reed Scherer); early Mesozoic diatoms (David Harwood), giant diatoms (Claire Allen), benthic diatoms (Roksana Majewska), diatom assemblages from the Southern Ocean (Leanne Armand), Antarctic (Raffaella Tolotti) and Arctic (Ric Jordan).

Participants had the Wednesday afternoon free to explore Cardiff – go shopping, visit Cardiff Castle or the Dr Who experience! The workshop dinner was held at the Bosphorus Restaurant, which is situated on a pier that extends into Cardiff Bay and has great views of the home of the Welsh Assembly Government, the Bay and the historic Norwegian Church and Pier Head buildings. The challenge was to find a cuisine not represented by any of the participants’ nationalities – Turkish won the day! All in all, a fantastic week of diatoms was experienced by all – it was great to see old friends, make new ones, and see postgraduate students move on from the last workshop (Sydney, 2011), from presenting posters to talks, and talks to microscope sessions, and some from being postgraduate students to blossoming early career researchers! It’s

challenging to organise this kind of practical taxonomy workshop but where there is a will: (i) to be cheap and cheerful; (ii) for everyone to chip in and bring their own high power microscope objectives and some extras to share; (iii) for presenters to make a set of slides for everyone, so that each person leaves with a handout, copies of presentations and a training set of slides - there will be a way to make it happen. I would like to thank the others in the workshop organising committee (Amy Leventer, David Harwood, Leanne Armand and Ric Jordan) for their support, Cardiff School of Earth and Ocean Sciences for the use of the facilities and, in addition to TMS and the Linnean Society of London, IGBP PAGES and Annals of Botany Company for substantial travel awards, and Beta Analytic and GX Optical for consumables support. The

5th Polar Marine Diatom Workshop will be held in Salamanca, Spain, in 2015, hosted by Maria Angeles Bárcena – watch the website for further details. It’s currently under construction but is public and should be finished soon (I promise!).

h t t p s : / / s i t e s . g o o g l e . c o m / s i t e /polarmarinediatomworkshop/

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Ric Jordan presenting an Eocene Arctic diatom taxonomy session

Kenta Abe (Yamagata University, Japan) presenting his poster on Corethron taxonomy

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4th Polar Marine Diatom Taxonomy and Ecology Workshop participants outside Main Building, Cardiff University

TMSoc Conference 2013, The Natural History Museum, London

Monday 18th and Tuesday 19th November 2013

Tom Hill, Steve Stukins & Giles Miller, NHM, London

The 2013 TMSoc annual conference was this year held at the Natural History Museum, London. The conference was led by the NHM’s Micropalaeontology Unit (Tom Hill, Steve Stukins, Giles Miller), with support from TMSoc committee members Jeremy Young (UCL) and Bill Austin (St Andrews). This year, the conference theme was ‘Micropalaeontology and the IODP; Past, Present and Future Applications’. Conference registration had to be closed almost a month before the event due to reaching the venue capacity of 150. This included delegates from across the world, with registrants from America,

Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Switzerland and Tunisia, to name a few. Such a turnout was a clear indication of the popularity of the new 2day format, combined with the choice of conference theme. This unprecedented demand was also reflected through the large number of high quality oral and poster abstracts submitted for consideration by delegates. The second day of the conference was extended in an attempt to accommodate as many presentations as possible. In addition, through the generous sponsorship provided by the UK-IODP, combined with further funds

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provided by the Society, 14 postgraduate and early career researchers were given financial

assistance to enable them to attend the conference, on the condition they provide an oral or poster presentation.

Micropalaeontology and the IODP: Past Present and Future Applications, at NHM, London

Day 1: Micropalaeontology & the IODP

On the Monday, the conference began in the Flett Lecture Theatre with a brief introduction by Tom Hill, Richard Herrington (Head of the Department of Earth Sciences, NHM) and Andy Fleet (Assistant Director of Science, NHM) and was then followed by a series of five invited keynote lectures on the topic of ‘Micropalaeontology and the IODP’. The keynote session was co-chaired by Jeremy Young and Bill Austin.

Tom Dunkley Jones s tar ted proceedings with an integrated study of

coccoliths, radiolarians, diatoms and planktonic foraminifera across the Eocene/Oligocene transition, a time when major ice sheets were being formed over Antarctica. He asked the question ‘is growth of the Antarctic ice sheet purely CO2 forcing of the

cryosphere?’ Using material from the eastern equatorial Pacific, Tom and his co-workers were able to show a series of biotic events that correlate to periods prior to major phases of Antarctic glaciation supporting suggestions of a late Eocene cooling and associated enhanced upwelling in the Equatorial

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Pacific region. Bridget Wade reviewed the past and present applications of planktonic foraminifera in IODP cores and made some suggestions for future studies. The deep marine record of planktonic foraminifera has provided a high resolution record for studying evolution and extinction events, the details of which have been updated extensively over the last 18 years. She called for more high resolution studies in areas with high sedimentation rates, better calibrations with cyclo- and magneto-stratigraphic schemes and to test species ranges to examine the biotic responses to climate change. Anne de Vernal used the palynomorph record of the Late Cenozoic of the Labrador Sea to investigate the climate, ice and ocean conditions during warm intervals. She suggested that the record is a good proxy for reconstructing seasonal sea-surface temperatures, salinity as well as sea ice cover. Anne pointed to major extinctions in the dinocyst record at 4, 2.4 and 1.2 Ma, with the 2.4 Ma transition is marked by a s ign ificant ly reduced pol len concentration that may be related to ice formation on the S Greenland ice sheet.

After a coffee break Xavier Crosta r e v i e w e d t h e H o l o c e n e

micropalaeontological and biomarker data from several cores from the Antarctic coastal shelf. He pointed to instances where the diatom record appeared to be out of phase with known climatic variations and identified 120 and 400 year cyclicities suggesting that solar variability and internal climate variability are the main drivers. Subdecadal cyclicities in the diatom record were also present and he related these to inter annual sea ice waxing and waning. The final keynote Heiko Palike started his talk entitled ‘IODP - Quo vadis micropalaeontology?’ by outlining how micropalaeontology has helped I O D P i n p r o v i d i n g palaeooceanographic, palaeoclimatic and dating information as well as providing data for studies on the interaction between fossil groups, nutrients and climate. After showing us p l a n s f o r u p d a t e s o f t h e micropalaeontological facilities on the JOIDES Resolution he finished with some suggestions for the future. These included developing databases, producing lists of taxonomic names, improving our data analysis methods and encouraging us to seek meeting and exchange visit funds via EarthTime-EU.

Heiko’s informative talk was followed by the AGM and Society Business, which consisted of short reports from TMS Committee members Sev Kender,

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Jeremy Young, Alan Lord, Tom Dunkley Jones and Haydon Bailey. During the AGM, a new Society President was formally elected, with John Gregory replacing Paul Smith. Paul was warmly thanked for all his hard work on behalf of the Society during his Presidency. In addition, Haydon Bailey stood down as Industrial Liaison Officer, and was replaced by Matt Wakefield. Haydon’s Herculean efforts in setting up and managing the TMS Education Trust were also warmly acknowledged. Magali Schweizer stood down as Newsletter Editor, whilst Jeremy Young and George Swann agreed to stay on as Treasurer

and Membership Secretary respectively. Janine Pendleton formally took on the role of Webmaster after being co-opted for the last year. After the election of new Society Officers, John Gregory presented the TMS Awards for 2013. The Charles Downie Award was presented to Phillip Jardine, the Alan Higgins Award was presented to Erik Anthonissen, and the Brady Medal for 2012 was presented to Graham Lee Williams. Unfortunately Graham was unable to attend the conference and so on his behalf, Fabienne Marret-Davies received the award and read Graham’s acceptance speech.

Fabienne Marret-Davies accepting the Brady Medal on behalf of the 2013 winner, Graham Lee Williams

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Following the AGM, a drinks reception for all delegates was held in the Flett Lobby, during which the first of two poster sessions took place. Over 20 posters were on display for delegates to review whilst enjoying some light liquid refreshments. At 7pm, over 90 conference delegates then walked the short distance to Med Kitchen in Gloucester Road for the conference dinner, which was probably followed by an additional drink (or three) before delegates retired to their hotels for the evening.

Day 2: Open Micropalaeontology Sessions

The second day was designed to provide delegates with the opportunity to present brief (15min) talks regarding their research. The morning session was chaired by Tom Hill and was broadly focussed on IODP-related research activities. The session started with Denise Kulnahek (Texas A&M University) who provided an insightful review of the recent micropalaeontology laboratory improvements made on board the scientific drilling vessel JOIDES Resolution (JR). Maria Sandoval (University of Lausanne) then provided a review of here recent work on radiolarian biostratigraphy obtained from IODP 344 near Costa Rica. Claire Huck (Imperial College London) then

described her investigations into material from Site U1356 and the use of Neodymium isotopes preserved in fossil fish teeth as an indicator of past seawater conditions. Janett Voigt (GEOMAR, Germany) provided a thought-provoking assessment of the reliability of geochemical proxy data obtained through laser ablation i n v e s t i g a t i o n s o f p l a n k t o n i c foraminifera (Site U1336). This was followed by Jeremy Young (UCL) who described the online nannofossil database Nannotax and highlighted the key database features that have resulted in its installation on both the JOIDES Resolution and Chikyu research vessels. The morning session was then completed by Jamie Boyd (University of Leeds) who reviewed the Tertiary Oceanic Parameters Information System database (TOPIS) and highlighted the application of dinoflagellate cysts to reconstruct global climatic conditions during the Neogene.

The second poster session then took place during an extended tea and coffee break. Over 20 posters were once again on display, covering all aspects of micropalaeontology research. The second oral session, chaired by Steve Stukins, then began with Isabel Fenton (NHM and Imperial College London) providing a review of her investigations into the application of the Latitude

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Diversity Gradient (LTD) phenomenon to planktonic foraminifera, and revealed a strong (though spatially variable) correlation between water column structure and foraminiferal diversity. Tom Ezard (University of Southampton) continued this line of enquiry through describing the use of Cenozoic planktonic foraminifera to test whether differences in the rate of molecular evolution can be explained through ecological factors and the number of speciation events. Susanne Leroy (Brune l Univers i ty ) rev iewed Pleistocene and Holocene sequences

from the southern and middle basins of the Caspian Sea, and described how the results of palynological investigations were used to reconstruct changes in past vegetation and sea level. Stephanie Strother (Northumbria University) concluded the second session by reviewing a 7,000yr sequence from Fan Lake, South Georgia and used the preserved pollen record to reveal a detailed record of climate change including the Holocene “climatic optimum” and the Medieval Warm period.

One of the two poster sessions held during this year’s conference

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After a brief break for lunch, the conference resumed with the poster awards. The Geological Society kindly sponsored the awards and four winners were selected by delegates from the TMSoc committee (Bill Austin, Fabienne Marret-Davies and Matt Hampton). From Monday’s poster session, prizes were awarded to Sofie Jehle (‘Planktic foraminiferal response to the Latest Danian Event at ODP Site 1210 Shatsky Rise’) and Chris Poole (‘Evolutionary trends of Globigerinoides fistulosus: elaborate elongations of a P l i o - P l e i s t o c e n e p l a n k t o n i c foraminifer’). From Tuesday’s poster session, prizes were awarded to Renee van de Locht (‘Understanding nano-crystal assembly in Rhabdophaera clavigera coccoliths using advanced electron microscopy techniques’) and Rosie Sheward (‘Morphometric responses of coccolithophores to Paleogene environmental change’).

The final oral session then commenced, chaired by Giles Miller. Meena Forderer (University of Bonn, Germany) summarised research undertaken in the Raja Ampat archipelago (New Guinea), where a rich diversity of shallow water benthic foraminifera assemblages have been documented for the first time. Els Ufkes (VU University Amsterdam) reviewed the foraminiferal evidence used to understand variations in plume

dynamics of the Congo (Zaire) river during the last 100ka.

Wyn Hughes (Saudi Aramco and NHM) provided a fascinating review of ‘microproblematica’ microfossils encountered in Saudi Arabian deposits and how their environmental preferences can be assessed to infer palaeoenvironmental interpretations of carbonate fabrics. Guy Harrington (University of Birmingham) described dinoflagellate cyst data from Eocene deposits from the Rockall Trough (Ireland), and concluded high dinocyst biodiversity is underpinned by stable communities in which successful immigration is rare and random. Chris Duffield (University of Oslo) discussed experiments using the propagules of deep water benthic foraminifera from the Osolfjord in Norway, which shed light on the ecology of modern benthic foraminifera. Last but by no means least, William Gray (UCL) described his research into trace element/Ca ratio records in the benthic foraminifera Ulvigerina peregrina from the Gulf of California and the North Pacific Ocean, and highlighted how caution is needed when interpreting such records where

ΔCaCO32- records are found to

fluctuate.

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Wyn Hughes presenting during the final session of this year’s TMSoc conference

At the end of the final open talk session, John Gregory officially closed the 2day conference. John thanked the organisers and sponsors, and it was then reminded that the 2014 conference will be held at the Oxford Museum of Natural History. The conference would not have been such a great success had it not been for the generosity of our sponsors. We would therefore like to thank the UK-IODP, The Geological Society, AASP – The Palynological Society, Neftex, Olympus, Petrostrat and Beta Analytic

for their kind support during this event. We would also like to thank all the conference delegates for taking part in this excellent event and look forward to seeing you again next year!

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The Micropalaeontological Society NewsReport from the SecretarySev KenderThe last year has been an interesting one for the TMS, which has undergone significant improvements as a Society in terms of successful conferences, increased membership and increased funding available for students and early career researchers. Many of these activates were spearheaded by the outgoing President Paul Smith, who has had a very successful three years at the helm. I wish to thank Paul for his hard work and dedication to the Society, and warmly welcome John Gregory as the current President, recently voted in at the November meeting last year. I would also like to thank outgoing Committee Members Haydon Bailey and Taniel Danelian for their work on the Committee over the past years, and welcome new Committee Members Matt Wakefield, Claudia Cetean, Peter Baumgartner and Vincent Perrier.

Membership is steadily rising with 533 members going into 2014. The Journal of Micropalaeontology is receiving quality submissions and is holding its Impact Factor just above previous levels, which we hope may rise further with the new open access options the Geological Society Publishing House is making available. Publicity has received a boost thanks to the energies of Tom Hill, with a new Facebook page that already has

165 members, and a steady stream of Tweets with regular messages from across the world highlighting mic ropa laeon to logy ac t iv i t i e s , conferences and projects to our 97 followers to-date. The new longer two-day format TMS Annual Meeting has continued with great success, and I thank the organisers, conveners and participants of the recent Natural History Museum conference last November. The meeting was a sell-out, and attracted world-class talks and posters along the theme of IODP and others (see full conference report above). I very much look forward to the TMS Annual Meeting 2014, which will take place in November at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

I would also like to highlight our important activities over the past year to boost student funding. The TMS Educational Trust has raised just under seventy thousand pounds, and our thanks for this go to our sponsors. These funds, specifically for student training, have provided grants so far to students at the University of Birmingham, the University of Lille and, in the future, the University of Urbino. I would like to thank Haydon Bailey for his very successful efforts in getting the Trust off the ground, and wish the new Industrial

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Liaison Officer Matt Wakefield all the best in his new role. Another boost to student funding will be the increase in money available to student Grants-in-Aid, which will be paid for through savings to Newsletter printing costs.

Brady Medal

The 2013 Brady Medal was awarded to Graham Lee Williams at the TMS Annual Meeting, for his outstanding contribution to the study of Mesozoic and Cenozoic dinoflagellate cysts over the past 50 years. This includes contributions to biostratigraphy, evolution, diversity, palaeoecology, provincialism, sequence stratigraphy, systematics, and the famous “Lentin and Wi l l i ams” indexes o f fos s i l dinoflagellate cysts. The Brady Medal is the Society’s highest award for scientists who have had a major influence on micropalaeontology by means of a substantial body of excellent research. The Medal is named in honour of George Stewardson Brady (1832- 1921) and Henry Bowman Brady (1835-1891) in recognition of their outstanding p i o n e e r i n g s t u d i e s i n Micropalaeontology and Natural History. Nominations for the Brady Medal are accepted by the President or Secretary at any time (please see the TMS website for further information).

Alan Higgins Award

The Alan Higgins Award for Applied Micropalaeontology is given to a young scientist, less than 10 years from graduation, in recognition of a significant record of achievement in the field of applied and industrial micropalaeontology, as documented by publications, software, patents, leadership or educational activities. The award was established with the help of Alan’s family and friends, to commemorate his contribution to micropalaeontology and encourage young researchers in the field. We were delighted to make the 2013 award to Erik Anthonissen in recognition of his e x t e n s i v e p u b l i s h e d w o r k i n b i o s t r a t i g r a p h y a n d i n d u s t r i a l micropalaeontology. Nominations for the 2014 award should be sent to the Secretary by 28th February 2014.

Charles Downie Award

The Charles Downie Award is an annual award made to a member of the Society who, in the opinion of the Committee, has published the most significant paper in any journal based on their postgraduate research. The committee has awarded the 2013 Charles Downie Award (best paper published in 2012) to Phillip Jardine at the 2013 TMS Annual Meeting, for his paper entitled: Jardine, P.E., Harrington, G.J. and Stidham, T.A. 2012 . Reg iona l - s ca l e spa t i a l heterogeneity in the late Paleocene paratropical forests of the U.S. Gulf

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Coast. Paleobiology, 38(1), 15–39.Nominations for 2014 (best paper published in 2013) should be sent to the Secretary by 28th February 2014.

TMS Student Awards

TMS Student Awards were given to those nominated for their outstanding performance on one of our TMS-approved micropalaeontological courses, and consisted of free membership for 2013. The Society has made 11 awards to outstanding undergraduate and Masters students who are David Cox (Keele University), Rachel Dunn (University of Bristol), May Fitzgibbon (University of Glasgow), Gauthier Hainaut (University of Lille), Simon Jost (IFM-GEOMAR, Kiel), Tamsin Leaver (University of Southampton), Daniela Röhnert (Universität Bremen), Victor Ruiz-Gonzales (Universidad del País Vasco), Rik Van Bae (University of Ghent - K.U. Leuven), Christopher Stocker (University of Leicester) and Georgina Wright (University of Birmingham). Congratulations to them all. The TMS Student Award scheme now has 17 approved micropalaeontological courses, and I encourage any TMS Members to consider nominating their taught micropalaeontological courses for the scheme to encourage their best s t u d e n t s t o c o n t i n u e w i t h a micropalaeontological career.

TMS Grants-in-Aid

In 2013, TMS awarded four Grants-in-Aid for costs towards attendance at specific micropalaeontological conferences/training. These were: Kirsten Meulenbroek (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) to attend the Foraminifera and Nannofossil group Spring Meeting, Prague, 19-22 June 2013; Haytham El Atfy (Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum Frankfurt) to attend the 46th Annual Meeting of AASP (The Palynological Society), San Francisco, USA, 20-24 October 2013; Cherry Newsam (UCL) to attend the Foraminifera and Nannofossil group Spring Meeting, Prague, 19-22 June 2013; and Alistair Cutler (University of Birmingham) to attend the MEDGATE Network Training Event in Rabat in 2013.I would encourage all of our student members to consider applying for a Grant-in-Aid. Grants-in-Aid are awarded annually to help student members of the Society in their fieldwork, conference attendance, or any other specific activity related to their research which has not been budgeted for. Grants-in-Aid cannot be awarded for miscel laneous expenditure; neither can they be awarded retrospectively. A maximum of £500 can be awarded to each successful applicant. Awardees are expected to write a short report for the Newsletter once their grant has been used. Application forms can be downloaded f rom the websi te (www.tmsoc.org), or obtained from the Secretary. The next deadline is 28th

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Alan Higgins Award for Applied Micropalaeontology

Alan Charles Higgins (1936–2004), a British micropalaeontologist and expert on conodonts,made major contributions to Paleozoic biostratigraphy and helped firmly establish the value ofmicropalaeontology in hydrocarbon exploration. He was a founding member of TMS, its past

Chairman and Honorary Member. The award of £300 is given to a young scientist, less than 10years from graduation, in recognition of a significant record of achievement in the field of appliedand industrial micropalaeontology, as documented by publications, software, patents, leadership

or educational activities. The award was established with the help of Alan’s family and friends, tocommemorate his contribution to micropalaeontology and encourage young researchers in thefield. It is presented in person at the Society’s AGM in November. The first award was made in

2010.Nominations can be made by any TMS member using the nomination form available on thewebsite or from the Secretary, and sent by the end of February of each year to the Secretary

of TMS. The nominees need not be members of TMS. The award is normally given each year,resubmission of unsuccessful nominees is possible.

TMS Grants-in-Aid

TMS Grants-in-Aid are awarded annually to help student members of the Society in their fieldwork, conference attendance, or any other specific activity related to their research which has

not been budgeted for. Grants-in-Aid cannot be awarded for miscellaneous expenditure (e.g. slides, sample bags, sample preparation, laboratory costs, SEM photography or producing,

photocopying, printing and binding of these), nor can they be awarded retrospectively.A maximum of £300 can be awarded to each successful applicant. Awardees are expected to write

a short report for the Newsletter of Micropalaeontology once their grant has been used. Application forms may be downloaded from TMS website or obtained from the Secretary.

Deadline for application is 28th February 2014

Charles Downie Award

The late Charles Downie was one of the pioneers of palynology in the UK and a mentor whoguided the thinking and development of a large number of postgraduate students who passedthrough the University of Sheffield. Through the efforts of former colleagues at Sheffield, a

permanentmemorial has been established to recognise Charles’ contribution to micropalaeontology.

An annual award will be made to The Micropalaeontological Society member who, in the opinionof The Micropalaeontological Society Committee, has published the most significant paper, in any

journal, based upon his or her postgraduate research.An award of £200 will be made for the best paper published during 2013 and will be presentedat The Micropalaeontological Society AGM in November 2014. Nominations for the best paper

published in 2013 should be submitted to the TMS Secretary by 28th February 2014.

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The Brady MedalThe Brady Medal is the highest award of The Micropalaeontological Society. It is named in

honour of George Stewardson Brady (1832-1921) and Henry Bowman Brady (1835-1891) inrecognition of their outstanding pioneering studies in micropalaeontology and natural history.The Medal is awarded to scientists who have had a major influence on micropalaeontology by

means of a substantial body of excellent research. Service to the scientific community may alsobe a factor for consideration by the Award Committee. The medal was commissioned and was

awarded for the first time in 2007.The Medal is cast in bronze from original sculptures commissioned by The MicropalaeontologicalSociety in 2007. The sculptor is Anthony Stones, Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptorsand President (1999-2004) of The Society of Portrait Sculptors. The Medal is hand crafted by the

leading sculpture foundry Pangolin Editions of Chalford, England.Mechanism for making a nomination:

All nominations must be made on the TMS “Brady Medal” pro-forma which can be downloadedfrom TMS website. Nominations must have a Proposer and Seconder, both of whom should beMembers of the Society and not be affiliated to the same institute as the person they nominate.Nominations should be made in strictest confidence and in no circumstance should the person

nominated be informed. The completed nomination form should be returned to the Secretary ofthe Society. Nominations may be made at any time of the year.

Committee Vacant Offices

At the 2014 AGM, the following TMS Committeepositions will become available for election:

Secretary

Archivist

Newsletter Editor

Nominations for these positions should be submitted to the Secretary by 30th September 2014. Nominees, proposers and seconders should all be members of the Society. Those who consider standing for any of the offices are welcome to contact the Secretary or President for information on what duties these posts entail.

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Treasurer’s reportJeremy Young

The accounts for the year are as outlined in the table. Based on last year’s income we set a budget for this year of £20,398 and we spent £20,654. So we stayed within the planned budget. However, our income over the year declined from £21989 to £18994. Most of this decline was due to the fact that we claimed for gift aid last year but not this year, i.e we made a windfall surplus last year and had a compensating deficit last year.. A l s o , h o w e v e r , m e m b e r s h i p subscriptions have declined from £14,996 to £13,967. As a combined result of these factors we made an operating loss of £1660 on the year. This is disappointing but is not alarming. There is no particular reason to expect income to reduce greatly next year, so we only need set a slightly reduced budget for next year. Conversely, our expenditure will certainly be reduced in two significant directions. First, the 2013 AGM was less expensive to the society than the 2012 AGM - this was due to the substantial sponsorship raised and to controlling expenses more carefully as we get used to the new format. Second, the newsletter is changing to being distributed electronically, which will result in substantial savings.So, we do not need to raise membership fees and we will have more money available for discretionary expenditure, i.e. for expenditure on items such as support of workshop and conferences and support of student projects via

Grants in Aid. This is one of the prime ways in which he society can work for the benefit of its members and we have been steadily increasing expenditure in this area. It is the intention of the committee to prioritise expenditure on student awards, workshops involving TMS. As Treasurer this has ben a relatively routine year but in addition to running the routine finances I have worked closely with meeting organisers of the Silico Group meeting and of the AGM for both of which registration income and much of the expenditure was handled through the TMS accounts and website. The fact that we can do this is worth noting if you are thinking of running a small meeting as it is surprisingly time consuming now to set up online payment, bank accounts etc. from scratch.

NOTES on the accounts1. Newsletter contributions from Gryzbowski Foundation and International Nannoplankton Association - these wee contributions from the affiliated societies for Newsletter postage to their members.2. Gift Aid - claims can be made retrospectively so I only claim Gift Aid every two or three years. The £39.54 figure here is the difference between my estimate of the claim made last year and the final value.3. Donation to Education Trust - This is made up of £1000 from TMS and £100 of specific donations.4. Grants in Aid - Four grants in aid were awarded but one was deferred till next year.5. Insurance - we now have 3rd party insurance to cover us when running conferences and field trips. Please contact me if you need details on this.6. Credit card fees - we are looking to replace the shockingly expensive Barclays card payment system with an alternative system.

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TMS Educational Trust Treasurer's report

The accounts for the Education Trust are presented in the table. Income over the year was slightly down on last year but was still substantial with generous donations from Shell Global Solutions and the Mediterranean, Middle East and Africa Scout Group, the TMS, and individual TMS members. This income has been almost exactly balanced by expenditure.The prime recipient of the funds continues to be the University of Birmingham MSc i n A p p l i e d a n d P e t r o l e u m Micropalaeontology. Six students on the 2012-13 course were supported through payment of 75% of their fees. One of these awards was made in the last financial year the other 5 were made in this year - 4 awards of £3600 and one of £1200 to top up a separate award from Petrostrat. For the 2013-14 intake awards of £5760 have been made to 4 students - these will cover

100% of fees. Payments are being made in two phases, half having been made in this financial year and half committed for next year. In addition we supported one student from University of Lille to cover some of his costs in undertaking a work experience placement at a UK Micropalaeontological consultancy company. We also offered support to a student planning to do an MRes on a Micropalaeonotlogical topic at University of Portsmouth although this was not taken up (the student did a PhD elsewhere). Finally we have agreed to support the Urbino International Summer School on Foraminifera in 2014. A new round of grants will be announced in early 2014. It should be stressed that grant applications are welcome in support o f p o s t - g r a d u a t e t r a i n i n g i n micropalaeontology at any institution.

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Journal of Micropalaeontology Report July 2013Alan Lord, Editor-in-Chief

Submission/Rejection rates2013 (to date) – 32 manuscripts submitted, 8 accepted, 13 rejected, 3 withdrawn, 8 pending.

Online FirstThe ahead-of-print Online First site has been included in the 2013-14 GSPH budget plans, which if approved should lead to functionality in Spring 2014.

Impact factorThe IF improved during the 2011-2012 cycle as follows: 2007 – 0.258, 2008 – 0.406, 2009 – 0.375, 2010 – 0.719, 2011 – 0.759, 2012 – 0.778. While IF is important for attracting high-quality submissions,

citations/views/downloads of individual papers are more important to authors and evaluators (see Nature 502, 17 October 2013).

Open-AccessA statement has been posted on the TMS website under Publications-Journal; see also the Geological Society of London website under headings for Publications and Journal of Micropalaeontology. It is too early at present to judge the possible impact of Open-Access on academic non-commercial publishers.

Thanks to the Editorial Board and to Sarah Gibbs, Production Editor, Geological Society Publishing House.

Publicity Officer’s ReportTom Hill

Micropalaeontology activities have continued to be publicised since the last Newsletter update, with TMS publicity flyers being sent to numerous micropalaeo conferences over the last year. All society members are encouraged to contact me to obtain flyers for display and/or welcome packs if convening a conference in the near future.

Two TMS banners arrived in April and have been on display at a number of TMS sponsored events, including Prague

Foram/Nanno meeting, the Cardiff Diatom Workshop, the Cambridge Silicofossil Group meeting and the recent TMS Annual Conference held at the NHM. An image of one of these banners can be seen in the TMS Annual Conference report. Once again please get in touch if you are hosting an event sponsored by the TMS and we will try and get a banner to you for display.

Social media and the TMS is also progressing well. Although only 6 months

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JOURNAL OF MICROPALAEONTOLOGY

Editor-in-Chief: Alan Lord (Frankfurt-am-Main).Editors: Laia Alegret (Zaragoza), Elisabeth Brouwers (Denver), F. John Gregory (Conwy), John Marshall (Southampton), Giles Miller (London), Martin Pearce (Hordaland), Catherine Stickley (Tromsø), Bridget Wade

(London), Jeremy Young (London).Production Editor: Sarah Gibbs (Geological Society Publishing House).

Volume 32Vol. 32, part 1 was published online 25/1/2013 and hard copy 4/2/2013, Vol. 32, part 2 was published online 12/8/2013 and hard copy 12/8/2013. The volume contained 10 original papers and 3 Micropalaeontology Notebook items.

Volume 33 (1), January 2014D. Lazarus (Guest Editor) - Editorial: The legacy of early radiolarian taxonomists.D. Lazarus - The legacy of early radiolarian taxonomists, with a focus on the species published by early German workers.

J. K. Dolven, K. R. Bjørklund & T. Itaki - Jørgensen’s polycystine radiolarian slide collection and new species.K. R. Bjørklund, T. Itaki & J. K. Dolven - Per Theodor Cleve: A short résumé and his radiolarian results from the Swedish Expedition to Spitsbergen in 1898.G.. Cortese - Radiolarian researchers based in Italy during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.C.J. Duffield & E. Alve (Notebook) – A tray designed to improve the wet picking method.

Volume 33 (2), July 2014Thematic set on biosiliceous microfossils. Guest Editors: Taniel Danelian and Claire Allen.

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old, the TMS Facebook account already has 235 members. The page is actively used by micropalaeontologists to ask questions, share information and promote events. All page followers can upload information and it is an excellent tool to advertise conferences and group meetings. Similarly, the TMS Twitter account (@MicropalaeoSoc) has 120 followers. It is worth mentioning that this year’s TMS conference at the NHM was the first time social media was used to actively promote

and publicise the conference whilst also engaging with the micropalaeontology community. The Facebook page was regularly updated throughout the lead up to the event, whilst the Society’s Twitter account was active leading up to and throughout the duration of the conference. Over 40 conference-related tweets were posted using #TMSoc2013. This has been something of a pilot study, but its success should hopefully ensure that this format will be used in the years to come.

Screen grab of TMS Twitter feed, showing a variety of tweets from this year’s annual conference

Special PublicationsTom Dunkley Jones

TMS at the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival 2014

The TMS has provided some support for a small group of TMS members to

attend the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival this year (2-4 May). We plan to run a hands-on demonstration of microfossil preparation and observation for all ages. This would run over the three days of

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the festival and would require willing volunteers to take shifts in the demonstrations. All levels of expertise welcome, student to retired profs! The TMS have provided some funding to support accommodation costs but

participants will need to pay for transport to Lyme Regis, subsistence and some contribution to accommodation costs. Please contact Tom Dunkley Jones ( t . d u n k l e y j o n e s @ b h a m . a c . u k ) i f interested.

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TMS Student AwardsIn order to support the teaching of micropalaeontology at all BSc, MSc and equivalent levels, as well as to encourage and reward student engagement and achievement in this field, The Micropalaeontological Society has established TMS Student Awards. Each award consists of one year’s free membership of the Society, including two issues of Journal of Micropalaeontology and Newsletter of Micropalaeontology, discount on TMS and GSPH publications, discounted registration fees at TMS specialist group meetings, and eligibility for awards and grants-in-aid.The awards are given annually by tutors of registered micropalaeontology courses. Only one award per year per institution may be given. Nominating tutors must be members of TMS and in order to register a course they must submit a completed form to TMS Secretary who will confirm in writing that the given course is approved for the award. The Secretary will keep a list of registered micropalaeontology courses, conferring with the Committee when necessary. Course tutors of registered courses may then give the award at any time of the year on the basis of any criteria to students deemed to have achieved meritorious grades. The tutor reports the name and address of the awardee, as well as a brief statement on the criteria used to select the awardee, tothe Secretary, who will collate a list of citations to be tabled each year at the AGM and printed in the Newsletter.

Each year, one TMS Student Award will be awarded in memory of Brian O’Neill.

Eleven courses are currently registered:

EA2009 MicrofossilsSchool of Earth and Ocean Sciences, CardiffUniversity

500016 Foraminiferen im Schleswigholsteinischen WattenmeerIFM-GEOMAR, Kiel

Advanced MicropalaeontologyDepartment of Geology, University of Leicester

Microfossils, environments and timeSchool of Ocean & Earth Science, University of Southampton

MikropaläontologieInstitut für Geowissenschaften, Eberhard-KarlsUniversität Tübingen

MicropalaeontologyUniversity of Bristol

Micropalaeontology: Principles andApplicationsKeele University

16199 MicropalaeontologyUniversidad del País Vasco

GLY 5102 Marine Micropalaeontology /GLY 5104 Applied Micropalaeontology/GLY 5207 Case Histories in MarineMicropalaeontology / research projectinvolving micropalaeontologyEnvironmental and Marine Masters Scheme inthe Faculty of Science, University of Plymouth

ESCM 320/440 MicropalaeontologySchool of Geography, Earth and EnvironmentalSciences, University of Birmingham

Introduction to MicropalaeontologyMasters in Geology, University of Ghent – K.U.Leuven

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Information for Tutors: In order to register a micropalaeontology course at your institute, please fill in the form below and send it to TMS Secretary. You only need to do this once, unless the course has changed or you wish to report a different course for the award scheme. Tutors are welcome to submit the form electronically.

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Specialist Group NewsForaminifera Group ReportBill Austin, Kirsty Edgar

Please note that the date of the next TMS joint Foraminifera and Nannofossil Spring meeting is now the 22-25th June 2014. The meeting is to be held on the island of Texel at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) and the theme is "Foraminifera and nannofossils through time; qualification and quantification".

On Sunday the 22nd June 2014, immediately before the TMS spring meeting, Kirsty Edgar and William Austin will be convening a one-day workshop at NIOZ on “Morphometrics 10: Identifying the top 10 questions in morphometrics and micropaleontology today”. The meeting format will follow the highly successful model of the “Palaeo50: 50 priority research questions in palaeoecology” meeting held in the UK in 2012 (Seddon et al., in press. Journal of Ecology). We will crowd-source the community’s views on the big questions and challenges facing u s i n m o r p h o m e t r i c s a n d micropalaeontology today prior to the meeting. These questions will then be used to form themed breakout groups at the workshop to identify the top ten questions; we hope to publish these after the workshop and all workshop participants will be invited to become contributing co-authors. We particularly

welcome contributions in the following areas: molecular systematics, numerical methods, phylogenetics, ecology and applied biostratigraphy. Further details will be available on the TMS website shortly. In the meantime we welcome early expressions of interest to attend or if you can’t attend but have a question that you think should be considered then please contact us by e-mail Kirsty (EdgarK1@cardiff.ac.uk) or Bill (bill.austin@st-andrews.ac.uk).

Upcoming meeting dates that might be of interest:1. Forams 2014: The International Symposium on Foraminifera will be held at the University of Conception, Chile from 19-24 January 2014. For further details see www.udec.cl/forams2014.2. European Geosciences Union General Assembly is being held in Vienna, Austria from the 27th April-2nd May 2014. Further d e t a i l s a v a i l a b l e a t h t t p : / /mee t ingorgan ize r . copern icus .o rg /EGU2014/.3. Climatic and Biotic Events of the Paleogene in Ferrara, Italy scheduled for the 1-6th July 2014. Abstract submission and registration opening soon. http://web.fe.infn.it/cbep2014/

If you would like to advertise other meetings of potential interest to the Foraminifera Group, please contact us.

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Nanno News - updates from the TMS Nannofossil Group and the INAMatt Hampton, Simon Cole, Jeremy Young

INA14, RESTON, VIRGINIA

Since the last newsletter the nannoplankton community has held its

14th bi-annual conference (INA14) in Reston, Virginia, hosted by Jean Self-Trail of the USGS. The meeting was held in a conference hotel near the main USGS base with workshops in the USGS. Reston is just outside Washington DC so we were able to go downtown to admire the White House and visit the amazing set of Smithsonian Museums. Reston is also located close to some beautiful and historic parts of the USA, which we got to explore a bit. We had a one day pre-conference field trip to the Culpeper Basin visiting Devonian sediments in Civil War battlefields with a bit of wine tasting thrown in. Halfway through the conference we were taken out into the country for the conference dinner which was held on a vineyard with views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Finally the post-conference field trip was a two day excursion to Chesapeake Bay lead by David Powars , a sp lend id ly knowledgeable and talkative field geologist from the USGS, who showed some us fabulous Paleocene-Eocene successions along the beautiful if slightly inaccessible banks of the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay. These have yielded wonderful faunas of molluscs, fish, nannofossils (see Jean’s

paper in the JNR - online from INA website) - and shark’s teeth which really did excite the fossil collecting instincts of the participants.In between the sightseeing and fieldwork we had a hugely successful scientific conference as illustrated by the stats below:1.   135 attendees from 28 different countries. 2.  40 students - half of whom received student aid in one form or another. 3.   Approximately 35% of attendees were either from oil companies or consulting companies; 4% were government representatives; the rest were from academia.4.  There were 117 presentations; 65% were oral presentations and 35% were poster presentations.5.  The program included 4 full days of talks and posters, 2 field trips, one day of workshops and the conference dinner in a nearby vineyard!6. Four enthusiastic proposals were presented for hosting the next INA conference - resulting in an Olympic style set of presentations and votes before we agreed we really had to go to the Philippines.7. We also elected one new president (Jeremy Young).Jean led a fine team and they were both extremely hospitable hosts and excellent organisers. Lots of good science was presented - including some challenging

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new looks at nannofossil taxonomy. Equally importantly there was a really good atmosphere throughout with old hands cheerily meeting up again and a vibrant crop of students enthusiastically

A posse of nanno workers in front of a barn in Virginia - before having an excellent dinner inside

Sociable paddling in Chesapeake Bay during the post-conference fieldtrip

sharing experiences and plotting new collaborations. If you want to see more there are plenty of photographs on our new Facebook page (see below).

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FACEBOOK PAGEJarrett Cruz of Florida State University has taken on the role of INA Social Media Officer and has set up a Facebook page for the INA with a lot of images from the conference up there already (www.facebook.com/INA.education) and links to new articles, pictures of interesting nannos etc.. Please take a look at the page and add any comments and contributions.

JOURNAL OF NANNOPLANKTON RESEARCH ONLINEWe are in the process of putting PDF copies of JNR articles online on the INA website (http://ina.tmsoc.org/JNR/JNRcontents.htm). Most articles from the past 10 years are now online, including the Special Issue Guide to Extant Coccolithophore Taxonomy. Articles more than two years old are freely available, articles published in the last two years are password protected - and only available to INA members. An important point for authors is that we will place your work online as soon as it has been refereed, accepted and typeset – no waiting for the printed version.The journal editor (Liam Gallagher) is keen to receive submissions in order to complete the current issue.

N A N N O T A X 3 - O N L I N E NANNOFOSSIL TAXONOMYAs announced at the INA conference and recent TMS AGM/Conference - a new version of the Nannotax website is now available online. This was

developed by Jeremy Young, Jackie Lees and Paul Bown with NERC funding and is a direct successor to the previous version, which was developed within the European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy (EDIT) scratchpad system. The new version has a completely new software base and is hosted within the INA website (http://ina.tmsoc.org/Nannotax3). This is still a work in progress, but it has greatly expanded content, including coverage of about 2,500 taxa, illustrated by well over 10,000 images. This includes the vast majority of living and fossil species. All higher taxa (genera and above) are summarised by illustrated tables of daughter taxa. Users can set a geological age range of interest (e.g. Aptian to Cenomanian) and results will then be colour-coded and sorted to indicate if they fall in that time period. In addition the site contains a complete copy of the Farinacci catalog providing access to the original descriptions and holotype images. The Farinacci catalog can be browsed separately or individual pages can be accessed via links from the main catalog. The site is already being extensively used by nannofossil workers and it also should form a useful reference source for any micropalaeontologists needing information on nannofossil taxonomy. The coding for the site was developed by Jeremy and he is open to enquiries about applying it to other microfossil groups.

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Nannotax - screen shot from the website

RETICULOFENESTRID WORKSHOP - BIRMINGHAM 27TH JANUARY 2014

Reticulofenestra is the single most abundant and widespread genus of coccoliths in the Cenozoic and both tantalisingly variable and notoriously hard to use - not least because >100 species have been described. So the news that Eric de Kaenel had undertaken a wide-ranging review of the genus was very welcome and his workshop on reticulofenestrid taxonomy at INA14 was very well attended. However, there was plainly much more to discuss so Matt Hampton and Simon Cole organised a follow-up workshop in Birmingham, hosted by Tom Dunkley-Jones - with financial support from

TMS, INA, Network Stratigraphic and PetroStrat. This was again well-attended; Eric came over specially for the workshop and a large contingent of UK-based a c a d e m i c a n d i n d u s t r i a l micropalaeontologists were joined by several colleagues from Europe; in total about 30 of us were there. We spent a full day going through reticulofenestrid taxonomy with some lively debates. Perhaps needless to say we didn’t solve all the problems or work out an agreed taxonomy. We did, however, all learn a lot more about the state of knowledge of the group and went away with a lot of ideas about how we could go further with it. There was general agreement about some general points. (1) The group can be divided into several lineages/species groups - distinguished by features such as

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shape and central area structure. (2) There is a lack of consensus about how many groups can be distinguished and how they can be grouped - and in consequence there is limited agreement over use of generic names such as Dictyococcites , Cribrocentrum and Cyclicargolithus. (3) Within these groups, species distinction is essentially arbitrary and predominantly based on size - and there is too little consistency in the divisions used by different workers or in the names applied

to them. (4) Eric’s synthesis is an invaluable contribution both to lineage identification and to cataloguing the available names and whilst workers may choose to adopt different parts of it, we wanted to see it published. (5) It is very useful to have this sort of gathering - especially given the large number of nannofossil specialists now working in the biostratigraphic consultancy scene.

Nanno workers and an Irish Elk in the Sedgwick Museum, Birmingham - still cheerful after spending several hours discussing reticulofenestrid taxonomy

FUTURE MEETINGS / ISLAND HOPPING

TMS Foram/Nanno Group Meeting - 25-28 June 2014, Texel, The NetherlandsTexel is the first of the Frisian Islands off the NW Coast of The Netherlands, and home to the national ocean research centre, NIOZ. The next TMS Foram/Nanno group meeting will be located there in June hosted by El Ufkes and

colleagues. The meeting will be focussed on the theme of Foraminifera and Nannofossils through time: qualification and quantification, and will be preceded by a one day workshop on Morphometrics in Micropalaeontology. These meetings are a very good o p p o r t u n i t y f o r E u r o p e a n nannoplankton workers to meet up and more are always welcome. Full details are on the TMS website (and there is a

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link form the INA website).

INA 15 - Bohol, The PhilippinesThere were four candidate bids to host the next INA conference - Birmingham, UK (Tom Dunkley Jones); Bohol, The Philippines (Alyssa Peleo-Alampay); Kiel, Germany (Sebastian Meier) and; Uppsala, Sweden (Jorijntje Henderiks). They gave four very tempting presentations and we would have been very happy to have the next conference at any of the proposed venues but, after two rounds of voting, the clear choice was for the Philippines. It will be organised by Alyssa Peleo-Alampay and her enthusiastic colleagues and students from the University of the Philippines, and held on the beautiful island of Bohol - famous for its beaches, coral reefs, and karst topography. Despite an earthquake and typhoon Haiyan preparations for the conference are progressing well - and it has been scheduled for March to make sure that it is not affected by typhoons. Links to the Conference website will be

put on the INA and TMS websites as soon as it is online.

INA Extant Coccolithophores Workshop - October 2014, CreteFollowing discussions among the specialists on extant coccolithophores, we thought it would be very worthwhile to reprise the successful workshop we held in 2003. With minimal persuasion, Maria Triantaphylou (U. Athens) agreed to host this again, in Crete. Again, we are at an early stage of planning but will keep you informed. Send an email to Maria (mtriant@geol.uoa.gr) if you want to express your interest in this.

TMS Nanno Group Field TripWe weren’t able to arrange the Gault Clay field trip for this past autumn (as discussed previously), as potential dates coincided with two blocks of audits and staff holidays at the Munday’s Hill quarry. We will re-schedule for late Spring/Summer 2014 (hopefully when the clay has dried out a bit).

Ostracod Group ReportIlaria Mazzini, Vincent Perrier

ISO 17th report.The International Symposium on Ostracoda (ISO) takes place every four years in a different location. The 17th Symposium (22nd-26th July, 2013) was hosted by the University of Roma Tre (Italy) and was the opportunity to celebrate the 50 years of the first ISO meeting, which took place at the

Zoological Station in Naples (Italy) in 1963. For this reason, the motto of ISO17th was “Back to the future” further developed in “Evolution of concepts and methods in ostracodology during the last 50 years”.

The conference started with a short welcome of the Head of the Department of Sciences, the Head of the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Natural

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Sciences, and of the president of the International Research Group on Ostracoda (IRGO). The dynamic and engaging Dan Danielopol presented brief review of how the IRGO developed as a social communication system over the Last 50 years. The Symposium itself was organised in five scientific sessions: “Evolut ion and extinct ion of Ostracoda” (20 presentations), “New and advanced approaches in the study of Ostracoda” (14 presentations), “Ostracoda in palaeoceanographic reconstructions during the Cenozoic” (10 presentations), “Ostracoda in the past and present worlds” (52 presentations), “Ostracoda as proxies for environmental monitoring and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction” (24 presentations). During the 3 workshops, more specific topics were addressed such as “ C y p r i d e i s - a m u l t i - t o o l o f ostracodology” (6 presentations), “ O s t r a c o d s i n e n v i r o n m e n t a l archaeology” (9 presentations), “Neogene brackish and freshwater ostracods in the Paratethys” (7 presentations). The last day of the Symposium ended with the IRGO meeting where the future of IRGO was discussed (ISO18 will be held in the USA) and new officers were elected. The Young Researchers Sylvester Bradley Award for the best oral presentation (sponsored by TMS) was awarded to Yuanyuan Hong (University of Hong Kong) and that of the best poster (sponsored by IRGO) to Josep Antoni Aguilar-Alberola (University of

Valencia); the SF*IRGO Award for the best poster was shared by Ilaria Mazzini (University of Roma 3) and Jessica Fischer (LMU-Munich). Gianguido Salvi and Nevio Pugliese led the post-symposium field trip to the Trieste area, in the northeast part of Italy. The participants took shed from the heat in the Grotta Gigante sampling ostracods in karstik pools, visited the Reserve of the Cona Island in the Isonzo River delta, the ancient Latin colony of Aquileia and the Marine Reserve of Miramare where they could snorkel in one of the most pristine areas of the Adriatic Sea.

The 132 participants from 29 different countries did not spend all their time listening to the 72 oral presentations, reading carefully the 72 posters or discussing scientific topics! There were plenty of opportunities to chat with colleagues and friends, especially during the icebreaker and the farewell party. And notwithstanding the July heat, the mid-symposium field trip led by Elsa Gliozzi and Ilaria Mazzini was still very enjoyable. Imagine what the usual visitors of the Appia Antica Regional Park were thinking of this heterogeneous group of people sampling ponds, streams, channels and springs searching for ostracods. A meeting in Italy could not be complete without a gorgeous social dinner in a unique setting. The conveners enjoyed the delicious roman cuisine dining “al fresco” looking at the Mausoleum of

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Cecilia Metella along the Ancient Appian Way. The abstract volume was published by the “Naturalista Siciliano” a n d c o u l d b e r e q u e s t e d a t secretaryiso17@gmail .com. The proceedings of the Symposium are scheduled for 2014 within three international journals. A special issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science on “Ostracods and environmental archaeology” is scheduled as well for 2014.ISO17 was a big success! This meeting

represents an irreplaceable forum for the communication between specialists who focus on fossils and living ostracods. The importance of this communication is constantly increasing in the midst of pending climate change and acceleration of biodiversity loss. To find more details about this meeting and the future ISO18 in the USA visit the websites:http://www.iso17.unipr.it/index.htmhttp://www.irgo.uni-koeln.de/

The participants of the ISO 17th

Collecting recent ostracods in the Appia Antica Regional Park4 5 / 7 9

Future Ostracod Group Meeting.The next field meeting of the TMS ostracod group will take place next spring (weekend of 17-18 May 2014) in Quaternary/Recent localities of north-east Essex (Marks Tey, Tollesbury managed retreat, Cudmore Grove and perhaps Stutton Ness if time) and will be organized by Prof. Dave J. Horne (Queen Mary University of London).

Collecting recent ostracods in the Appia Antica Regional Park

Silicofossil Group ReportJennifer PikeSiliceous Organisms and Microfossils: Developments, Techniques and Applications in GeoscienceBritish Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK, 28th – 30th August 2013

The biennial Silicofossil Group meeting began with a punt tour (= field-trip!!) and walk around Cambridge – the weather was sunny and the 9 delegates who attended had great views of Cambridge from the river. The field trip ended in The Punter Pub for recovery and relaxation! In order that people would recognise her, Claire Allen, our excellent host, was supposed to meet everyone for the punt tour wearing a British Antarctic Survey (BAS) T-shirt

or hat – in fact, she wore neither, having to resort to a badge from the Polar Marine Diatom Workshop that was held three weeks previously – at least it had a picture of a diatom on it!! The real business began on Thursday morning when the 24 delegates from 9 different countries (Armenia, Australia, Germany, France, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Russia, UK) convened at BAS. Alan Rodger, BAS Interim Director, opened the meeting by welcoming everyone. He outlined BAS’ main strap-lines – unlocking the past, understanding the present, predicting the future, exploring the unknown – a description that perfectly fitted our community and, I hope that I’ll demonstrate, fitted the breadth of

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science presented at the meeting perfectly! Watch out for the space science!!

The science sessions (chaired by Claire Allen) were opened by David Lazarus (keynote speaker) who presented new Cenozoic diversity histories for diatoms and radiolarians, compiled from the NSB database, an update of the Neptune database. David highlighted the importance of considering sampling biases when using databases, pointing out two different studies of diatom diversity which produced very different diversity curves using the same database. There was a clear need to re-do these analyses removing sampling biases, which he and his colleagues have done. A strong correlation was demonstrated between diatom diversity, pCO2 and δ13C over the past 15 Ma.

David’s talk was followed by Yuxi Jin who presented radiolarian-derived palaeoclimate records from the Permian Delaware Basin, Texas, USA. She showed beautiful finely laminated s e q u e n c e s w h e r e r a d i o l a r i a n assemblages varied with the colour of the laminations on millennial to multi-millennial timescales, probably related to changes in the prevailing monsoonal climate. Yuxi was followed by Taniel Danelian, who presented a talk on behalf of Lauren Pouille who completed her PhD last year. Lauren had worked on some late Cambrian-early Ordovician radiolarians from Newfoundland,

including from the GSSP for the Cambrian-Ordovician boundary at Green Point. It was during this talk that the first non-siliceous microfossils made their way into our meeting as Taniel showed some conodont biostratigraphy data! In essence, Lauren had shown that two steps of biotic change in radiolarians occurred before the Cambrian-Ordovician Boundary, and could be correlated with the SPICE, HERB and TOCE negative δ13C excursions – I would have preferred the final one to have been named TOAST!!After coffee, Kozo Takahashi (keynote speaker) presented the different ways in which silicoflagellates can be used as p a l a e o t e m p e r a t u r e a n d palaeoproductivity proxies, and also gave us a Latin lesson! In particular, he showed how a new species, Distephanus medianoctisol (‘midnight sun’!), that he had described from the Arctic and Bering Sea, was an excellent marker for sea ice – this species is very unusual to look at because it has 7 sides, and has spines that are found to reduce in length depending on whether it is found in the water adjacent to ice, or in the ice itself. Kozo’s talk was followed by Jenny Pike, who presented a morphological study of the Southern Ocean endemic diatom, Thalassiosira lentiginosa. She showed Quaternary examples where this circular centric diatoms was not circular, where diameters were consistently 60% of the published smallest size, and where areolae patterns on the valve face varied

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considerably from being very well arranged to almost random. She explored sea surface temperature, oceanographic frontal zones and abundant sexual reproduction as possible drivers of the abundant phenotypic variability. Jenny was followed by Virginian Panizzo who presented an on-going investigation into the history, diatoms and geochemistry of Lake Baikal. The research team are investigating the river systems draining into the lake, combined with the lake, to understand silica cycling and also the impact of the Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill which is increasing pollution into the lake.

Following lunch, Joseph Botting (keynote speaker) made a statement that the present is not always the key to the past and sometimes it can be downright misleading! His context was the evolution of sponges and he walked us back to the Cambrian history of sponges in order to understand a little more about the position of sponges in the tree of life. Joseph showed some amazing examples of biminerallic sponge spicules from sponges that secrete spicules that have both silica and calcite layers – in the same spicule! With such different secretion mechanisms, this should not be possible, however, does not seem to have been uncommon in early sponges. Following after Joseph came a talk by Martin Tetard discussing the p a l a e o b i o g e o g r a p h i c a n d

palaeoceanographic implications of Lower Silurian radiolarians from NW France. So far, Martin has extracted 14 species of radiolarians from the distal, outer-shelf cherts. He also showed our next batch of microfossil interlopers – including photos of conodonts and chitinozoans! The final talk before the poster session was presented by V a l e n t i n a V i s h n e v s k a y a o n morphological variations in Cretaceous radiolarians. Valentina showed us three different sorts of variability – submerged cepha lo thorax , p seodocepha l i c thickenings in Nasselaria and eccentric positioning of the inner microsphaera in Spumellaria – that can be related to Cretaceous Oceanic Anoxic Events.

Following afternoon coffee, Nikita Bargin presented Triassic radiolarian records from Kotel’nyi Island in the Russian Arctic where, he maintained, the landscape is monotonous but the geology is very diverse! His description of Hsuidae and Parvicingulidae probably represents the earliest descriptions of these morphotypes. Nikita was followed by Jeremy Young, who showed abundant images of coccolithophores! However, he also shared some images of small diatoms that he has been identifying from a recent research cruise to the Southern Ocean, and demonstrated a database-approach to archiving photographs and meta-data for use in searchable webpages. Poster introductions followed Jeremy’s talk and

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posters were presented by Claire Allen, Gayane Asatryan, Luibov Bragina, Kenji Kashiwagi, Szymon Okonski, Ligia Perez-Cruz, Sarah Roberts and Valentina Vishnevskaya. These covered radiolarians, sponge spicules and diatoms, but also I noticed images of planktonic and benthic foraminifera and bivalves, geochemistry data and diatom pigment data … from through-out geological time

and from Japan to Armenia and Poland, from the Southern Ocean and Gulf of California, and from the Ukraine and Lake Baikal. The conference dinner in the evening was held at St Johns Chops House in Cambridge, which specialised in British cuisine and served very large slabs of sticky toffee pudding for dessert … although my favourite was the gooseberry and elderflower ice cream!

TMS Silicofossil Group Meeting participants at the British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge

The second day of the meeting (chaired by Jenny Pike) was started off by Eileen Cox (keynote speaker) who talked about phenotypic plasticity in diatoms and demonstrated that diatoms do not always faithfully replicate themselves and that they can be morphologically flexible along a gradient. Eileen showed us how intrinsic (a function of diatom life

history) and extrinsic (function of external factors such as environment) processes can impact on morphology and asked us to think about how much genetic diversity exhibited within diatoms may actually be solely intraspecific. Eileen was followed by Claire Allen who presented a study of morphological variability within the

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marine diatom Eucampia antarctica, various aspects of which she related to iceberg dispersal maps and concluded that the morphological variation seen in E. antarctica is likely related to varying glacial ice (i.e. not sea ice) conditions. Claire was followed by Johan Renaudie who demonstrated that there is much useful information to be gained from Cenozoic records of diatom abundance change, as well as diversity, one of the most important applications being towards the understanding of the biological pump. He used published DSDP and ODP data to produce maps of temporal and spatial variability, having searched through >30000 well-dated samples!

After coffee, Naoko Kishimoto presented some Micro-CT images and 3-D models of radiolarians and diatoms. Naoko is an engineer of space structures and was engaged in a project called ‘Space Plankton’ that was investigating natural shapes to design space structures! She showed us how 3D plaster models of radiolarians and diatoms were produced – and then passed some around the room! Naoko used a finite element method to investigate stress distribution across a structure and showed how the radiolarian she was interested in showed no particular accumulation of stress, hence, may have useful geometric and mechanical properties for space structures. Naoko was followed by Liubov Bragina who presented new

Santonian radiolarian stratigraphic data from the Crimea (Mt Ak-kaya and Alan-kyr sections), Serbia (Struganik Quarry) and Cyprus (Mangaleni section of Perpedhi Formation). Using the assemblages, Liubov showed how all of these sections were coeval … and also showed some planktonic foraminifera along the way! The final talk of the day was presented by Taniel Danelian on behalf of Tom Fer who was a past Masters student. Tom had analysed some Eocene London Clay samples provided by Haydon Bailey from a Thames Water Utilities Ltd. Borehole. The Eocene sediments contained Cretaceous radiolarians and Tom had worked out that the radiolarians most likely associated with an early Santonian transgression. Taniel also presented an analysis of Lower Hod Formation (Turonian) radiolarians that helped to refine the biostratigraphic potential of the radiolarian assemblages.

Following the end of the science talks, over lunch, the British Antarctic Survey media centre provided tours of the aquarium and the ice core laboratory. The -25ºC temperatures were a challenge in the ice core laboratory, and the aquarium was well-stocked with weird and wonderful creatures from the coast of Antarctica. I was particularly taken by the Yoldia – bivalves that can live for 120 years, the lemon snails and a limpet that was refusing to behave for the people who were trying to film it

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eating! Taniel Danelian closed the meeting, highlighting that the unique feature of the TMS Silicofossil Group is that it provides a forum for researchers interested in a particular mineral – silica – in terms of its biomineralisation, geochemistry, and role in global biogeochemical cycles. It also facilitates the interaction of biologists, geologists and

chemists. The Silicofossil Group is already planning to hold its next meeting in 2015, so hopefully we will see more of your there and maybe some of our colleagues who work with phytoliths, too!! The final thing to do was thank Claire Allen for hosting such a well-organised, diverse and fun meeting!

Participants gathering for the meeting field trip

CongratulationsClaudia Cetean, Newsletter Editor

Congratulations for two members of the TMS! In 2013 Bridget Wade (UCL) received the Schuchert Award from the Paleontological Society and Janine Pendleton (PetroStrat Ltd.) received the Irene Manton Prize from the Linnean Society for her PhD thesis.

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The Applied and Petroleum Micropalaeontology MSc

at the University of Birmingham, 2012-2013Wyn Hughes, KFUPM

The sad demise of the MSc degree courses in micropalaeontology at Aberystwyth and London left a serious absence of such specialist training at a t ime when the demand fo r micropalaeontologists was not only consistent but increasing. In addition to conventional biostratigraphy and palaeoenvironment determination, an increase in the micropalaeontological application for routine biosteering to assist optimal exploitation of new and old reservoirs required specialist micropalaeontological techniques. From the distant viewpoint of Saudi Arabia, where the need for overseas micropalaeontological training of young geologists is ever expanding, I read with increasing interest the moves by members of TMS to search for a replacement source of such training. The establishment of the MSc course in A p p l i e d a n d P e t r o l e u m Micropalaeontology at the University of Birmingham’s School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences was, therefore, greeted with much enthusiasm as the source of British training in pure and applied micropalaeontology.

It was my pleasure to be invited by the

course on 9th September by the course director, Dr. Ian Boomer, to the afternoon of presentations by the first participants in the course. I arrived at the university by the dedicated university railway station and soon found the Department of Geology (nopw part fot he School of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences). As I was early, I met with the students who had collected for mutual support in their common room, and was able to immediately detect a group of energetic, highly interested, dedicated and possibly slightly nervous future micropalaeontologists. Some of the students had already secured employment.

The class of 2012-2013 consisted of 9 students who had completed two terms of taught classes in the principles of biostratigraphy and the specialist disciplines of foraminiferal, ostracod, calcareous nannofossil and palynological micropalaeontology. In addition, a series of presentations were provided by experienced micropalaeontologists so that the students could see the practical a p p l i c a t i o n o f v a r i o u s micropalaeontological disciplines within the hydrocarbon industry. The final

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written examinations had been completed prior to commencement of their research phase. The selection of their research project was not made until the beginning of the third term, with the advantage that they had already developed a natural affinity for certain micropalaeontological disciplines, enabling them to enlarge their knowledge and application of their chosen discipline. After this relatively short period of research, they had to prepare PowerPoint presentations for an invited audience as well as a panel of University staff whose task was to mark the presentations and use their evaluation as a contribution to the final grade.

Each of the nine presentations was limited to 15 minutes, with an additional five minutes for questions. Foraminiferal studies included the Late Cretaceous of the Isle of Wight, Messinian of Morocco, Late Cretaceous of West Africa and the Cretaceous of Mexico Calcareous studies included the Eocene-Oligocene of the Antarctic margin, the Eocene-Oligocene of the Labrador Sea and the Turonian-Coniacian of the UK. Palynological studies included the Late Jurassic-early Cretaceous offshore Mozambique and Triassic of Alaska.

The abstracts were variably informative, and perhaps could be improved upon next year by following the conventional template of abstract contents. The

presentations were all good, with some very good, especially when one remembers the minimal time spent by the students on the use of their new disciplines. Some of the presentations displayed spelling errors, and would have benefit ted from maps and stratigraphic sections, but these are aspects that can easily be improved upon, and do not detract from the overall well organized contributions.

The course provides the students with an o v e r v i e w o f t h e m o s t u s e d micropalaeontological disciplines, and prepares them for individual research. In addit ion, they benefit from the occasional lectures by experienced micropalaeontologists with industry examples. It provides a much needed source of specialist training that will feed the hydrocarbon industry with young micropalaeontologists who are already grounded in the main disciplines as well as advanced knowledge of their chosen discipline. The existence and content of the course is the result of much perseverance and dedication of a few TMS micropalaeontologists, all of whom can take credit for this well balanced and successful contribution to micropalaeontological teaching. The following website provides an informative overview of the course:

http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/students/courses/postgraduate/taught/gees/micropalaeontology.aspx

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Laura Hubbard, Robertson (UK) Ltd. & Charlotte Miles, PetroStrat Ltd.

T h e l o n g a w a i t e d n e w micropalaeonto logy course a t Birmingham University began in September 2012. The course had ten students in its first intake that came from a variety of backgrounds all broadly based in Earth Sciences. The course consisted of taught modules structured on industry perspective – these included the four micropalaeontology groups; ostracods, foraminifera, nannofossils, and palynology. These modules were taught by a variety of tutors and industry specialists, and were heavily based on practical microscope sessions. This gave us time spent on the characteristics of the groups and also their practical applications in biostratigraphy. The teaching also incorporated two modules joined with third and fourth year students which were Sequence Stratigraphy and Petroleum Geoscience. These modules gave and added to the general understanding of the physical properties of petroleum systems. We were assessed on a mix of exams and a lso pract ica l /computer based coursework, which provided a wider understanding and application to new situations.

We started the course with an introductory field trip to Dorset which encouraged the group to get to know one

another, and the weather was kind to us owing to a great weekend (see photograph). We also had a one day fieldtrip to the Cotswolds, which gave us a chance to explore some sedimentary structures in the field.

There was quite an even split between the disciplines chosen for final projects with four micropalaeontology (one including thin sections), three nannopa l aeon to logy and two palynology projects. These projects focused on ranges of Eocene to Jurassic age and looked at both biostratigraphy and palaeoenvironments. Laura worked in collaboration with the Natural History Museum, London, for her d i s se ra t ion . Th is was us ing palynological slides taken from a well which was dr i l led off -shore Mozambique. The project aimed to provide a better understanding of the stratigraphy and palaeoenvironments of the well in order for the museum to better curate the samples. Charlotte's dissertation was based upon West African Late Cretaceous foraminifera. The project was proposed by PetroStrat Ltd and results indicated how using morphogroup analysis on both calcareous and agglutinating benthic foraminifera was useful in revealing local sea-level trends. Other projects

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within the group range from carbonate thin section collaborations with industrial companies, to nannofossil projects looking at new material, to foraminiferal projects involving fieldwork in Morocco. As part of the final marking each member of the group gave a 15 minute presentation on the results of their projects, to which both industry and academia guests involved with the course were invited to attend. The course has been enriched by a variety of guest speakers throughout the year from industry and academia. These included practical lessons in the use of biostratigraphy for horizontal drilling and a short course on how to use StrataBugs v2.0. We have also attended conferences such as The Micropalaeontology Society (TMS) 2012 annual meeting at the BGS Keyworth, and the PETEX 2012 conference in London. It has been valuable

for industry experts to share their experiences with us about working in Biostratigraphy/sequence stratigraphy areas, and sharing current trends and advances in these fields. We have also gained a lot from the academic talks given, as they highlighted the diverse and important role of micropalaeontology in research.Help with funding for the course was very good. Laura was awarded the PESGB MSc Scholarship award, which paid for her tuition fees. Charlotte received funding from both PetroStrat Ltd and from the Micropalaeontology Society. The TMS Educational Trust Awards was the biggest contributor in helping the students on the course with their tuition fees with the majority receiving funding. We have all enjoyed the course and would strongly recommend it to those considering a career in biostratigraphy.

Dorset fieldtrip 2012 – Stair Hole, Lulworth Cove. Laura second from left (front row) and Charlotte far right (front row)

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The Grzybowski Foundation[gf.tmsoc.org]

A note from the Chairman’s deskMike Kaminski, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals

The current year has been a very busy one for the Grzybowski Foundation, with participation of our membership at two palaeontological meetings and the publication of two Grzybowski Foundation Special Publications.

I would like to begin by thanking our members for dedicating so much of their time to task of organizing the GF activities – with special thanks going to Marta Bąk and Anna Waśkowska in Kraków, Fabrizio Frontalini in Urbino, and Daniel Tabara in Iasi. Many others assisted with GF activities this year, and we are really grateful for your continuing support. Firstly, our flagship meeting is the MIKRO- series of meetings. Our MIKRO-2013 meeting was held at the AGH University of Science & Technology in Kraków November 13-15, 2013. This is the second time we held the conference at AGH – in 2011 we held our meeting jointly with the TMS Foraminiferal-Nannofossil Group. For the first time, the MIKRO meeting was held in conjuction with the 14th Czech-Slovak-Polish Palaeontological Conference. This venue was chosen to satisfy comments received at the previous

MIKRO meeting, that we should host a n a t i o n a l ( o r r e g i o n a l ) micropalaeontology workshop where people can give presentations in the Polish language. The whole philosophy o f t h e C z e c h - S l o v a k - P o l i s h Palaeontological Conference from the very beginning was to allow people to present their research in their own national languages – which to some extent are mutually intelligible. In this regard the Slovak colleagues apear to have the upper hand – they readily understand spoken Polish and Czech. However, the Poles and Czechs generally find it easier to communicate with each other using English. I wish to thank our loyal Romanian GF members who bravely came along to the meeting even though they understood very little from the oral presentations. Fortunately, most speakers had prepared their powerpoint presentations and posters in English and it was possible to read from the powerpoint slides. Participation by Micropalaeontologists in this joint conference was significant, with talks and posters by Polish, Czech, and Slovak Micropalaeontologists. To improve student participation, the GF provided ten conference grants that

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enabled graduate students to attend the meeting for free, but nonetheless participation could have been better – we need to encourage more young scientists to take part in such events. The conference abstract volume was published as Grzybowski Foundation Special Publication 19, and was edited by the team at AGH: Marta Bąk, Anna Waśkowska, and myself; and Justyna Kowal-Kasprzyk from the Jagiellonian. Of the 67 abstracts published in the volume, 28 were on the subject of Micropalaeontology. Presentations covered Calcareous nannofossils, Chitinozoans, Diatoms, Dinoflagellates, Foraminifera, Ostracodes, and testate Amoebae. The volume was dedicated to our colleague Jan Golonka, who celebrates his 45th year as a Geologist. Jan has been very supportive of micropalaeontological studies, and has participated as a co-author in numerous micropalaeontological publications. If you wish to receive a print version of the special volume, please contact Marta Bąk at AGH. At the MIKRO meeting, we held a meeting of the Editorial Board of the GF Special Publications. We would like to welcome Marta Bąk and Claudia Cetean (the new TMS Newsletter Editor) to the ranks of our editorial board members. The GF has published two special publications this year – in addition to the abstract volume mentioned above, we have published the

abstract volume of the International Symposium on Foraminifera FORAMS 2014 meeting held in Concepcion, Chile.

The FORAMS 2014 abstract volume marks a new milestone for the foundation – it is the twentieth GFSP published in as many years, and at the same time it highlights our input to the international micropalaeontological community. By publishing the FORAMS 2014 abstract volume as a GFSP, the international community will have access to the abstracts presented at the conference, and because print copies of the GFSPs are given to all the major micropalaeontological and copyright libraries, a permanent record of the conference will be preserved for posterity. At the editorial board meeting the decision was made to move the editorial desk of the GFSPs from the Jagiellonian University, where it nominally resided for the last 20 year, to the AGH University of Science & Technology. In fact, the last three GFSP volumes have been edited and printed at AGH, and the change in address on the inside title page of the FORAMS 2014 abstract volume reflects this move as well as the increasing importance of AGH in the Micropalaeontological world. The next GF special publication (Theodor

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Participants at the 14th Czech-Slovak-Polish– MIKRO-2013 Joint Paleontological Conference, AGH, November 2013

Cover of the FORAMS 2014 abstract volume, published as GFSP-20

Neagu’s Albian Foraminifera of the Romanian Plain) is now in proof stage and has been sent back to the author for final corrections.

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The next MIKRO meeting will be organized by Miroslav Bubík in the Czech Republic, and will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the tragic loss of Dr. Richard Schubert during the First World War. The „Schubert Symposium” will honour the life and work of Grzybowski’s good friend, and we will invite Paleozoic specialists to take part in this conference, for obvious reasons. For the purpose of this conference we will abandon the idea of holding oral talks in national languages – and return to using English as a means of communication, at least for the Micropalaeontological sessions.

In October, the 9th Romanian Symposium on Paleontology was held at the Department of Geology in Iasi, Romania, October 25-26, 2013. The GF sponsored the micropalaeontological session at this conference, and a handsome volume of abstracts was published. Quite a few presentations w e r e o n t h e s u b j e c t o f Micropalaeontology [see conference report below]. On November 14th, Raluca Bindiu successfully defended her PhD thesis at the Department of Geology of the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, under the supervision of prof. Sorin Filipescu. The thesis focused on the relationship between the fossil foraminifera (mainly agglutinated) and the depositional environments from the Eastern Carpathians in Romania. The

beautifully preserved material helped Raluca to bring new and interesting contributions on biostratigraphy ( C r e t a c e o u s t o P a l e o g e n e ) , paleoenvironmental settings (based on morphogroups and diversity analyses), and evolution of the area. Raluca was the recipient of the Brian J. O’Neill Student Grant-in-Aid in 2011. We wish Raluca every possible success in her career as a Micropalaeontologist!

The next GF activity will take place in the Middle East – we plan to have a regional get-together of local Micropalaeontologists (some of whom are GF members) to coincide with the GEOS meeting in Bahrain in 2014. The meeting will take place at lunchtime on March 10, 2014, at the GEOS conference. The agenda is to set up a regional „Gulf Micropaleo Group” of the TMS or GF and make plans for occasional meetings, as an increasing number of GF members now work in the Middle East. Travelling to Bahrain is quite easy – no advance visa is required.

The next major GF activity in June 2014 will be the Seventh International School on Foraminifera, which will be held at the University of Urbino [see report of the Sixth course below]. At the next course, we are adding a new four-day module for complete beginners. I will

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teach the primer on the morphology and classification of the Foraminifera, and three additional GF members will contribute lectures in their respective fields: Jan Pawlowski will present the Molecular Biology; Felix Gradstein will talk about biostratigraphy and the Geological Timescale, and Jenö Nagy will give a primer on using Foraminifera for Sequence Stratigraphy. This new module is in addition to the new 4-day module on Larger Foraminifera taught by Johann Hohenegger, Antonino Briguglio, Geraint Wyn Hughes, and Cesare Papazzoni that was initiated at last year’s course.

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Places are still available for the Seventh ISF course, but as always they are allocated on a first-come, first-serve basis [see the announcement below for additional details]. This year The Micropalaeontological Society will be co-sponsoring the course by offering a full tuition scholarship to a TMS student member.

Finally, it is with a heavy heart that we note the sudden passing of Dr. Stanislaw Czarniecki of the Polish Academy of Sciences, at the age of 92. Dr. Czarniecki had taken part in the Polish-Mongolian Palaeontological Expeditions in the role of a Palaeontologist, and although not a Micropalaeontologist himself, he was a great friend of the Grzybowski Foundation. Dr. Czarniecki referred to his small office at the Geological Museum of the Polish Academy of Sciences as the „Department of the History of Polish Geology”. In recent years, Dr. Czarniecki had been wri t ing biographical notes about Polish Geologists, and working with youth outreach programs to popularise interest in science. He wrote the biography of Józef Grzybowski that was published in the GFSP-1 (Czarniecki, 1993), and participants of the Fourth International Workshop on Agglutinated Foraminifera will remember the lecture and exhibit entitled „The Life and Times of Józef Grzybowski” that he presented at the

workshop (I did the live translation of his talk). His official obituary described Dr. Czarniecki as a „Bibliophile”, which is an understatement -- indeed the books in his office were stacked from floor to ceiling. He was the greatest „book lover” that I ever had the pleasure of knowing. Thanks to him, the Grzybowski Foundation Library was a b l e t o „ r e s c u e ” n u m e r o u s micropalaeontological books and papers from destruction and thereby significantly increase its holdings over the years. I recall one event that took place during the Jurassic Congress that was held at AGH a few years ago. One morning during the conference I received an urgent phone call from Dr. Czarniecki. Apparently a large quantity of micropalaeontological books had arrived at the paper recycling plant in Krakow, to be ground up for toilet paper. Dr. Czarniecki had a friend who worked at the plant, and this person knew the value of scientific books. I was reminded „to bring my wallet”. It turned out that a large number of books and reprints that had once belonged to Ewa Luczkowska were chucked into a recycling bin, and Dr. Czarniecki’s friend at the plant had set them aside. Among the rarities that we rescued at that time were reprints dedicated to E. Luczkowska signed by Helen Tappan, a g o o d q u a n t i t y o f R u s s i a n

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micropalaeontological books, and to my surprise and utter delight, a copy of Felix Gradstein’s PhD thesis. When I reappeared at the conference with the copy of the thesis, showed it to Felix, and told the story of how it was rescued

Dr. Stanislaw Czarniecki, holding one of Grzybowski’s original drawings of Foraminifera that was republished in GFSP-1 in 1993

Ninth Romanian Symposium on Paleontology, Iași, Romania, 25 – 26 October 2013, Meeting report

Daniel Țabără, Al. I. Cuza University, Iași

This year, the Ninth Romanian Symposium on Paleontology (http://w w w . g e o - p a l e o n t o l o g i c a . o r g /page11.html) was held at the "Al. I. Cuza" University of Iași by the Department of Geology and the Romanian Society of Paleontologists. The main theme of the symposium was centred on palaeontology and biostratigraphy of Mesozoic and Cainozoic deposits. A total of 65

participants from six countries submitted a number of 59 papers (39 oral presentations and 20 posters). Five thematic sessions were organised, covering a wide range of topics: Micropalaeontology, Mesozoic vertebrate palaeontology, Palaeobotany and Palynology, Cenozoic vertebrate pa l aeon to logy and Mesozo ic b i o s t r a t i g r a p h y a n d palaeoenvironments.

from the toilet paper factory, we all had a good laugh. We will miss our friend Stan, and his fond memory will forever reside with us as a role model that will be difficult to follow.

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P a p e r s p r e s e n t e d a t t h e Micropalaeontology session approached biostratigraphy and paleoecology studies based on Jurassic, Cretaceous, Miocene and Holocene foraminifera associations. The same session also included some studies on Miocene calcareous nannoplankton from Transylvania. Session on Mesozoic vertebrate paleontology included presentations on the avian and dinosaur fauna from the Cretaceous of Oarda de Jos (Transylvania) and the Haţeg Basin.

The history of fossil vegetation (biostratigraphy, palaeoecology, palaeoclimate) included studies of Paleogene calcareous algae and palynology of Miocene and Holocene deposits from Romania and Bulgaria. Cenozoic vertebrate palaeontology studies have shown debates on Miocene and Quaternary mammals from Romania and the Moldavian Republic. Presentations on Triassic ammonites, C r e t a c e o u s e c h i n o i d s , a n d sedimentological studies were included in the session on Mesozoic biostratigraphy and palaeoenvironments.

Symposium papers were published in a volume of the "Proceedings" and later "in extenso" in the Acta Palaeontologica R o m a n i a e ( h t t p : / / w w w . g e o -paleontologica.org/actapalrom/) which is indexed in BDI - GeoRef. The symposium provided a good opportunity for young researchers (students and PhD students) to present their results

obtained from research internships, but especially for the development of scientific cooperation projects between researchers with convergent interests. Another important event was marked in this symposium is a celebration of "150 years of geological education" to Al. I. Cuza University of Iași.

One of moments most "tasted" by the participants at the symposium was Conference Dinner. Here, after a cup of wine or țuica, the symposium guests had the opportunity to speak more fully in English, Romanian, Bulgarian, or Russian languages. Everyone was understood very well. Prof. Leonard Olaru (Executive President of the Symposium) gave a speech about the importance of social and scientific that these types of symposia have in the R o m a n i a n c o m m u n i t y o f paleontologists, being one of the few moments when many specialists in this domain of geology have the chance to come together.

The symposium ended with a fieldtrip to the northern part of the Moldavian Platform (northern Romania) where we visited various paleontological sites. Were presented by the organizers outcrops with Sarmatian deposits from Santa Mare, Ripiceni quarry, Miorcani quarry and quartzitic sands from Hudești. The symposium had some unfortunate moments for some participants: due to longer duration of

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field trip, a colleague palaeontologist from Cluj missed the train back, and was quite unhappy in this regard.

Next Romanian Symposium on Paleontology (10th edition) will be organized by Babeș Bolyai University from Cluj, Department of Geology, in 2015.

Opening session of the Ninth Romanian Symposium on Paleontology

A scene during the field trip. The search for Sarmatian fossils near the Prut river (Santa Mare outcrop)

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The Disaster of the Reuss CollectionFred Rögl, NHM, Wien

August Emanuel von Reuss was born on July 8, 1811 at Bilin, Bohemia (Bilina, Czech Republic), formerly part of the Austrian Empire. His father was a physician and „kaiserlicher Bergrat“ (a title for his merits for the development of mining) at the services of Duke Lobkowitz. A.E. Reuss came to Prague for school and studied at the Philosphical Faculty and for mineralogy at the Polytechnical Institute. Then followed his studies in medicine, which he finished in 1833. Because of health problems he returned to Bilin to became medical doctor at Lobkowitz‘ crown lands. Additionally to his duties he intensified his interests in geology, mineralogy and palaeontology. He came in contact with the most important German and Austrian geologists of his time. His first important publication was „ Die Versteinerungen der Böhmischen Kreideformation“ (1845-1846). In 1848 he was elected as a member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna. In 1849 he became Professor for Mineralogy at Prague University, and in 1863 he took over the same position at the Vienna University. During his younger years he made extended excursions into Europe, which were the basis for his excellent scientific work. Later he had to reduce his

travelling because of poor health. During all these years his research concerned, beside of general geology the fossil groups of foraminifera, ostracoda, bryozoa, and corals. Many of the larger fossils came to the Museum of Natual History in Vienna during his life. Reuss died on November 21, 1873, during his work on Austrian-Hungarian Tertiary bryozoans (Geinitz, 1874; Laube, 1874; Schrötter, 1874).

Shortly after the death of Reuss, the huge sum of 4000 florins were offered t o h i s h e i r s f o r h i s micropalaeontological collections by the Museum of Brussels. The members of the Vienna museum tried to keep this collection in Austria and made a proposal in 1882 to the emperial „Hofmeisteramt“, the governmental treasury. The price of 3000 florins was too high and the purchase denied. In 1891 a second attempt was started by the Vienna museum, and finally the collection was bought at the price of 2000 florins from Marie von Reuss. In this proposal the indices of the collection are mentioned to be added.

The collection contained 6765 numbers of foraminifera, ostracoda and bryozoa, including 3212 types described by A.E.

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Reuss (Anonymous, 1891). Only for the bryozoa, kept in small boxes, labels are present. All other microfossils were kept in small hand-made glass bottles with a cork plug. On the cork a continuous series of numbers are written. But the corresponding catalogues are missing, at least since the thirties of last century. There is only a general accquisition number from May 20, 1891, no. 37/1891. The last mentioned indication of a catalogue for determinations comes from Lienenklaus (1894, p. 162), who received some ostracod species and named a few in this publication. All searches for the catalogues, also in the States archives have been without success.

The only well documented collection concerns the foraminifera from Wieliczka, the salt mine near Krakow ( R e u s s , 1 8 6 7 ) 1 w h i c h w e r e accquisitioned under the inventory numbers 1867-XXIV-1 to 50. Some comparative specimens of the Bohemian Cretaceous were donated by Reuss (Inv. nos 1845-XXXVII-1 to 50) but nearly all were lost during the revolution in Prague 1968. Cretaceous foraminifera from northern Germany have been studied and documented by lectotypes (Meyn & Vespermann, 1994, and Frenzel, 2000).

References:Anonymous, 1891: Notizen – Reuss’sche

Foraminiferensammlung. – Annalen des k.k. naturhistorischen Hofmuseums, 6: 89-90.

Frenzel, P., 2000: Die benthischen Foraminiferen der Rügener Schreibkreide (Unter-Maastricht, NE-Deutschland). – Neue Paläontologische Abhandlungen, 3: 1-361.

Geinitz, H.B., 1874: Dr. August Emanuel von Reuss. – Leopoldina, 1873-1874: 67-72. – Dresden.

Laube, G.C., 1874: Zur Erinnerung an Dr. August Em. Ritter v. Reuss. – Mitteilungen des Vereins der Geschichte der Deutschen in Böhmen, XII. Jg, H. 5: 1-13. – Prag.

Lienenklaus, E., 1894: Monographie der Ostrakoden des nordwestdeutschen Tertiärs. – Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geologischen Gesellschaft, 1894/1: 158-268.

Meyn, H. & Vespermann, J., 1994: T a x o n o m i s c h e R e v i s i o n v o n Foraminiferen der Untekreide SE-Niedersachsens nach Roemer (1839, 1841, 1842), Koch (1851) und Reuss (1863). – Senckenberghiana lethaea, 74 (1/2): 49-272.

Reuss, A.E., 1845-1846: Die Versteinerungen der Böhmischen Kreideformation. – 1845, I. Abth., 58 p., pls 1-13; 1846, II. Abth., 148 p., pls 14-51. – E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Druckerei, Stuttgart.

Reuss, A.E., 1867: Die fossile Fauna der Steinsalzablagerungen von Wieliczka in Galizien. – Sitzungsberichte der k a i s e r l i c h e n A k a d e m i e d e r Wissenschaften, I. Abtheilung, 1867: 17-182. – Wien.

Schrötter, A., 1874: A.E. Reuss. – Almanach der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 24: 129-151. – Wien.

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[1Note: We have recently scanned a clean copy of Reuss (1867) „Miocene Fossils from Wieliczka”, and the pdf is available by writing to Mike Kaminski].

A page from Reuss’s catalogue of fossils from Wieliczka. The Wieliczka collection is the only part of the Reuss Collection that is properly documented

The box holding Reuss’s collection of Foraminifera from Wieliczka

A close-up of one of the vials containing foraminiferal specimens

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Finding John Murray’s „Warm shallow pool” in BahrainAbduljamiu Amao, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals

The Arabian Gulf despite its popularity in the media for several obviously reasons, is still largely un-documented in a micropaleontological sense. The area is known to be the most extensive stretch of hypersaline shelf on earth with extreme values of salinity and temperature. One would expect the spark in interest in this unique environment based on its complex interaction between nature and anthropogenic activities. But reports from the region are scanty and old. Although low diversity is expected from the gulf based on studies in other parts of the region, little is known of the endemic species and morphogroup distribution.The paper by Basson and Murray (1995) published in Micropaleontology is to this date the only ecological study of the inner Arabian Gulf Foraminifera, collected during a 25-month sampling program off the eastern coast of Bahrain, near the fishing town of Askar. Their attempt was to document the temporal variations of the common benthic foraminiferal species at the locality.

We set out in search of this locality, as part of a wider effort to document the ecology and taxonomy of the Arabian Gulf benthic foraminifera, of which surprisingly little is known until now. After several hours of driving and wandering around Bahrain aided by the

original location map (see below), we finally arrived at the site that we now fondly call ‘Murray’s Pool’. Murray’s Pool is currently under several threats including dredging and infilling (reclamation activities along its northern boarder), siltation and eutrophication from road, storm drains and waste lines extending into the sea from the adjacent marine aquaculture center. Our current effort might be the last documentation of this locality due to the noticeably quick pace of the sea-front development in the area.

The origional location map provided by Basson and Murray (1995)

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The pool is a sheltered microtidal environment, with two inlet channels along its southwestern margin for fresh seawater replenishment. The area has a gentle sloping topography covered with s u c c u l e n t p l a n t s a n d s l i m y cyanobacteria.

The location of „Murray’s Pool”, showing nearby hazards, view from Google Earth.

The sediments appear to be largely biogenic based upon preliminary grain size analysis, with little clastic input other than some windblown sand grains. The foraminifera appear to be diverse and abundant. We hope our current efforts will contribute to the understanding of the complex environment of the Arabian Gulf and also document changes introduced to the environment after the study of Basson and Murray (1995).

The 6th International School on Foraminifera!

Katherine Holland (Australian National University, Australia), Danielle Dionne (Carleton University, Canada) and Ilka Johanna Illers (Bangor University, UK)

What a treat to learn about foraminifera in the gorgeous medieval city of Urbino during the beautiful Italian summer! Foram enthusiasts from around the world were able to take part in this experience during the 6th International School on Foraminifera (ISF)! The 6th ISF ran for two weeks in June and by the end of the course all participants had gained a good appreciation and understanding of the larger benthics, smaller benthics, and planktonic foraminifera. Fabrizio Frontalini, of the Urbino University, and Mike Kaminski, of the

King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, have organised a fabulous course which covers the taxonomy, ecology, biodiversity, and geological history of three groups of forams: the larger benthics, smaller benthics, and planktonics. The school was split into three distinct courses covering each of these three groups in turn however the majority of participants stayed to experience the whole range of forams (who could resist!). Our days typically began with lectures and finished with practical microscope sessions which provided a great

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opportunity to see and experience the foraminifers discussed in the lectures as well as provided a better opportunity to talk with lecturers and peers about the material. Topics covered in lecture and in the practical sessions spanned a huge range of areas including biostratigraphy, ecology, (palaeo)environmental reconstructions, and modern applications of foram assemblages. A new addition to the ISF this year was the well-received “foram party”; an evening where participants were invited to share a little about their current or past research projects. It promoted some very good discussions and allowed everyone to get a sense of all the different applications of foraminiferal research.

The course was suitable for people with a strong background in foraminifers as well as those new to the field, with the option of bringing your own material along to get advice, or learn and gain experience by working with the amazing collections provided by the course. A number of classic papers, textbooks, and all the course materials were provided electronically and are extremely valuable resources for beginners in the foraminiferal world and experts alike.

This year’s very exciting field trip allowed us to experience first-hand the geology of the Marche-Umbria region - featuring the K/Pg boundary, the

Cenomanian-Turonian anoxic event, and many other exciting moments in geologic history! At the end of the field trip, we all shared a social dinner followed by dancing and karaoke in which Mike Kaminski performed a stirring rendition of the crowd pleaser: That’s Amore! The accommodations at the Collegio Internazionale Urbino were perfect for the course. Located right in the city centre and only moments from the Piazza della Repubblica (the main meeting point in Urbino), most participants decided to take advantage of the many fantastic restaurants around the town (and one particular gelateria!) for lunches and dinners instead of dining at the college. The college did provide a very tasty breakfast, including amazing coffee, as part of the accommodation. Staying at the Collegio Internazionale was a great way to network with the other ISF participants, keep the foraminiferal conversations going long after lectures and practicals were finished, as well as being a great place to meet up to go explore the town, the night life, and practice the art of foozeball! This was an amazing course! We all learned so much and made some incredible friendships. We highly recommend the course to other foram enthusiasts!

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Participants of the Sixth ISF Course in Urbino

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