IGCP 328 FINAL REPORT 1996
IGCP PROJECT SHORT TITLE
PALAEOZOIC MICROVERTEBRATES
DURATION AND STATUS
5 years 1991-1995, On Extended Term Status 1996
PROJECT LEADERS
Dr Susan Turner Dr Alain Blieck
Queensland Museum Laboratoire Pal.3, Sciences de la Terre
PO Box 3300 Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille
South Brisbane, Qld 4101 URA 1365 du CNRS
AUSTRALIA F-59655 Villeneuve d'Ascq cedex, FRANCE
61 7 3840 7677 (Ph) 33 320 434140 (Ph)
617 3846 1918 (Fx) 33 320 436900 (Fx)
s.turner@mailbox.uq.oz.au Alain.Blieck@univ-lille1.fr
PROJECT SECRETARY : Dr Susan Turner (address as above)
Date of submission of Report : 15 October 1996
Signature of Leaders:
General Scientific Achievements
The major aim of this last year of IGCP 328 activities has been to prepare
a Final Scientific Report (FSR) in the form of global correlation charts
for each Palaeozoic System. This was clearly announced in our original
plans. This FSR will be published as a Courier Forschungs-Institut
Senckenberg volume (general editor P. Königshof, Frankfurt-a/Main). The
volume is well advanced and will include the following chapters:
Editors - Alain Blieck & Susan Turner
PALAEOZOIC MICROVERTEBRATE BIOCHRONOLOGY
AND GLOBAL MARINE/NON-MARINE CORRELATION
Introduction: S. Turner & A. Blieck
Synthetic chapters
1 - Cambro-Ordovician (S. Turner coord.)
2 - Silurian (T. Märss coord.)
3 - Early Devonian of the Old Red Continent (ORC; A. Blieck coord.)
4 - Middle and Late Devonian of western ORC (D.K. Elliott coord.)
5 - Middle Devonian of eastern ORC (E. Mark-Kurik coord.)
6 - Late Devonian and D/C boundary of eastern ORC (M. Ginter coord.)
7 - Devonian of eastern Gondwana (S. Turner coord.)
8 - Devonian of western Gondwana (A. Blieck & H. Lelièvre coord.)
9 - Devonian of China (Zhu Min & Wang Shitao coord.)
10 - Early Carboniferous (C. Derycke & O. Lebedev coord.)
11 - Late Carboniferous and Permian (O. Hampe et al.)
12 - Devonian of Kazakhstan, Siberia, SE Asia, etc. (still under discussion)
Individual contributions
Burrow C., Turner S. & Wang Shitao: Lower to Middle Devonian
microvertebrates from Longmenshan, Sichuan, China: Taxonomic assessment.
Talimaa V.N.: Significance of thelodonts (Agnatha) in correlation
of the uppermost Ordovician to Lower Devonian of the northern part of
Eurasia.
Valiukevicius J.J.: Acanthodian biostratigraphy and interregional
correlations of the Devonian of the Baltic States, Belarus, Ukraine, and
Russia.
Vergoossen J.M.J.: Acanthodian and chondrichthyan microvertebrate
succession in the Siluro-Devonian of the Welsh Borderland, Great Britain.
Zajic J.: Vertebrate zonation of the non-marine Permo-Carboniferous
basins of the Czech Republic.
It is quite evident that most results come from the Devonian System also
known as "The Age of Fishes". This is why 8 synthetic chapters are devoted
to it. However, all other systems are concerned with vertebrate
microremains from the Cambrian/Ordovician boundary up to the Late Permian
(and beyond - the next phase of the research plan of the International
Working Group). Both marine and non-marine facies are treated, with only
marine assemblages in Early Palaeozoic times, and more and more terrestrial
assemblages in Late Palaeozoic times. The Devonian is at a major turn
because of strong discussions on the nature of the Old Red Sandstone facies
(ORS) all over the world. Better established correlations between marine
and non-marine facies are exemplified in the East Gondwanan Realm
(Australia-Antarctica) and in the more classical East Laureuropean (Laurussian, Euramerican) Realm.
Individual contributions on topics of special interest, deduced from new
data, are also included in the FSR.
All these results are the conclusion of dynamic five-year collaborative
activities between so-called developed and third world countries. The
appended (preliminary) Final Publication List of IGCP 328 includes nearly
800 references of refereed papers, abstracts including those given at IGCP
328 sponsored meetings or at relevant ones, collective and authors' books,
symposia volumes, articles, newsletters (Ichthyolith Issues), book reviews
and others. A revised and completed version of this list will be finalised
for the scientific committee meeting of Unesco IGCP and will be available
at the beginning of 1997.
Meetings
Several meetings have been organised and/or attended this last year by IGCP
328 participants. They include the IGCP 406 (Circum-Arctic Lower-Middle
Palaeozoic Vertebrates) workshops as well as other symposia.
- Uppsala, Sweden, 30 May - 1 June 1996: Greenland workshop;
- Edmonton, Canada, July 11-12, 1996: Canadian Arctic workshop;
- Rochester, USA, August 4-9, 1996: Silurian workshop at the IInd Silurian
International Symposium;
- Tallinn, Estonia, October 7-12, 1996: Laurentia-Barentsia-Siberia and
East Laureuropa workshops, in connection to the IIIrd Baltic
Stratigraphical Conference;
- London, UK, September 29, October 2, 10, 1996: UK workshops;
- Monash University, Australia, October 23, 1996: East Gondwana workshop.
Important New Results
In this final year new collaboration has begun on the Devonian and Permian
of South Africa including Australians and two South African students. A
probably Middle Devonian Malvinokaffric assemblage of sharks, acanthodians,
placoderms and sarcopterygians similar to that in Antarctica has been
recovered from the Bokkeveld Group. American-Australian co-operation has
also begun on Early Silurian thelodonts from Wisconsin-Madison. New
Carboniferous faunas have been discovered in Argentina.
Important publications
JANVIER, P. 1996. Early Vertebrates. Oxford Monographs on Geology and
Geophysics. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 393 pp.
MAISEY J.G. 1996. Discovering Fossil Fishes. Henry Holt Inc. New York, 223 pp.
SCHULTZE, H-P. & R. CLOUTIER (eds) 1996. Devonian Fishes and Plants of
Miguasha, Quebec, Canada. Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil, München, 374 pp.
STROGEN, P., SOMERVILLE, I.D. & G.LL. JONES (eds) 1996. Recent Advances in
Lower Carboniferous Geology (Proceedings EDE II, 1994). Special Publication
of the Geological Society of London No. 107, 463pp.
TURNER, S. (ed.) 1996. Ichthyolith Issues No. 17. Villeneuve d'Ascq, 57 pp.
YOUNG, G.C. & LAURIE J. (eds) 1996. Australian Phanerozoic Timescales.
Oxford University Press.
The GROSS SYMPOSIUM (first part) Modern Geology 20 (3) due to be published
end October 1996.
Last words
It has been a great experience to coordinate activities of so many
enthusiastic scientists under the banner of UNESCO/IUGS/IGCP. Dr Gavin C.
Young (Australian Geological Survey Organisation) was instrumental in the
formulation of the initial proposal He co-ran the project from 1991 to mid
1993 and has been supportive of the current co-leaders throughout. We thank
especially the IGCP and IUGS secretariats and national IGCP committees for
all their support - financial and otherwise. Numerous other organisations
and individuals have assisted the project, especially the hosts to our 5
major meetings, M. Marius Arsenault, Directeur du Parc de Miguasha and the
Québec Government (1991); Professor Michael House, Chairman of the SDS (our main co-operative partner) and the committee of ISMDEOR, Guilin, China
(1992); Professor Otto H. Walliser and the staff of Göttingen University
IMGP (1993); Dr A.Yu. Rozanov, Dr and Mrs Oleg Lebedev and the staffs of
the Paleontological Institute, Moscow and Ukhta Geological Exploration
Institute (1994); and the Directeur and staffs of the Muséum National
d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, and the University of Lille, Laboratoire Pal.3
(1995).
Our meetings have been times of stimulating and often heated discussion,
mainly when regarding hotly debated problems such as conodont-vertebrate
relationships, original environments of the ORS, stratigraphical
correlations to the standard conodont scales within Devonian
siliciclastics, nature of palaeotissues in teeth and scales (and their
homology through the whole vertebrate taxa), etc.
Through workshops, poster sessions at other conferences, and field work we
believe that the aims we set and chief directive of the scientific
committee to educate have been fulfilled and that the process to utilise
microvertebrate remains in geology will continue. To this end students,
from undergraduate to doctorate level have been trained and microvertebrate
studies are extending.
"IGCP 328 has lived, welcome to IGCP 406." The latter is considered as
partly successor of the former. However, IGCP 406 will focus on both micro-
and macro-vertebrates from mainly Ordovician to Devonian series. It is
devoted to the Circum-Arctic areas where numerous problems have to be
solved and where IGCP 328 carried out two successful field seasons in 1994
and 1995. For instance, what have been the palaeogeographical relationships
of the Timan-Pechora region (TPR) in Early Palaeozoic times? Recent
re-investigations of geological and palaeontological data indicate
affinities with either northern Baltica or with Siberia, although it seems
clear that the TPR was linked to the Old Red Continent in Devonian times.
Vertebrates have a major role to play in this debate which has been
initiated during the 1996 Silurian and the Tallinn workshops.
Throughout 1995 and 1996 we have been planning to formulate a proposal for
a successor project to carry the microvertebrate work into the Mesozoic,
examining especially the economically rich Late Permian to Triassic areas
of the world. We hope to submit this proposal in 1997.
Dr. Alain BLIECK
Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille
Sciences de la Terre
U.R.A. 1365 du C.N.R.S.
46-59655 Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex (France)
Tél. 20 43 41 40. International: 33 - 20434140
Fax. 20 43 69 00. International: 33 - 20436900
BEWARE: from October 18, 1996, new telephone/fax numbering
National: Tel. 0320 434140 Fax. 0320 436900
International: Tel. 33 - 320 434140 Fax. 33 - 320 436900