IGCP Project Annual Report* Project No. 406

* The information in this report will also be used for publication in "Geological Correlation" (please feel free to attach additional information relevant to this publication).

IGCP Project short title: Circum-Arctic Palaeozoic Vertebrates

Duration and status: 1996-2000, active

Project leader(s):

1. name: Mark V. H. Wilson 2. name: Tiiu Märss
address: Dept. of Biological Sciences address: Institute of Geology
University of Alberta Estonia Ave. 7
Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9 Tallinn EE0001
Canada Estonia

phone: 1-403-492-5408 phone: 372-2-454-652
fax: 1-403-493-9234 fax: 372-6-312-074
e-mail: mark.wilson@ualberta.ca e-mail: marss@gi.ee

3. name: Peep Männik
address: Institute of Geology
Estonia Ave. 7
Tallinn EE0001
Estonia

fax: 372-6-312-074
e-mail: mannik@gi.ee


Project secretary:

1. name: Mark V. H. Wilson
   address: Dept. of Biological Sciences
   University of Alberta
   Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9
   Canada
   
   

phone: 1-403-492-5408
fax: 1-403-493-9234
e-mail: mark.wilson@ualberta.ca

Date of Submission of Report: November 15, 1997

Signature of leader(s):

Annual Report for 1997

IGCP 406

"Circum-Arctic Lower-Middle Palaeozoic Vertebrate Palaeontology and Biostratigraphy"

1. Summary of Major Past Achievements of the Project

During the past year, IGCP 406 held two meetings, in Buckow, Germany during July, and in St. Petersburg, Russia during September. Both meetings resulted in substantial volumes of abstracts published as special publications of Ichthyolith Issues . The St. Petersburg meeting also included a workshop for authors of a volume on Severnaya Zemlya stratigraphy, part of it to be published in Russia and another part by Geodiversitas , Museum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris. In addition, smaller workshops, discussions, and field meetings, funded by other agencies, were held in London, Vilnius, and Edinburgh, and project-related field work took place in northern Canada, Alaska, and Scotland. The project now includes more than 100 participants from 20 countries.

2. Achievements This Year

2.1 General scientific achievements (including societal benefits)

News of the project continues to be spread through articles in newsletters (e.g. Ichthyolith Issues ), through electronic mail to all participants, and through the Palaeozoic Microvertebrates World-Wide-Web page.

IGCP 406 meetings were held in two cities: Buckow Germany, and St. Petersburg, Russia. These meetings brought together scientists and graduate students from 12 countries to share research results, to plan further collaborative studies of fossil collections, and collaborative applications for field-work funding.

Several smaller workshops, field meetings, and field trips (funded by other agencies) were also held by project participants. Achievements of these smaller workshops are mentioned.

Research in addition to that reported at the meetings has been carried forward by national participants. Their progress is also summarized below.

Buckow Meeting : The first of the two main meetings of 1997, "Circum-Arctic Palaeozoic Vertebrates: Biological and Geological Significance," was held in Buckow, Germany, immediately prior to the Second Mesozoic Fishes Symposium in the same venue. Some 20 scientists from 10 countries shared research results, examined specimens, and discussed collaborative projects. Some of the most significant results are as follows:

• In the Canadian Archipelago at Baillie-Hamilton and Cornwallis islands, new assemblages of vertebrates have been established as reported by T. Märss ; coordinated study of vertebrates, conodonts, ostracodes and carbon isotopes in the Silurian -Lower Devonian sections gave good results in subdivision of the sections and correlation with British Standard and other European sequences. Ostracodes and carbon isotopes were studied there for the first time. P.-Y. Gagnier reported that new acanthodians were found on Prince of Wales Island and the beds correlated with those on the other islands of the archipelago.
  
  
• G. Hanke reported on the Lower Devonian MOTH section, Mackenzie Mountains, Canada, where six differrent types of shark-like scales can be recognized, and M. Wilson presented a preliminary vertebrate biostratigraphy for the Silurian of the Avalanche Lake sections in the same area.
  
  

H. Blom reported on work in northern Greenland, where vertebrate microremains of several samples were studied and the age of corresponding beds determined by conodonts and graptolites.

• In the Timan-Pechora and the Polar Urals different Devonian vertebrates (thelodonts, heterostracans, acanthodians, placoderms, chondrichthyans) were dealt with by several authors. A new species of thelodont in the genus Amaltheolepis characterizes a narrow stratigraphic interval in the Pragian, Lower Devonian, and was proposed by V. Karatajute-Talimaa as useful for correlations of lagoonal facies. Vertebrates that predominate in the shallow water, and those in the deep water environments were characterized, and correlated with the ichthyozones of the Main Devonian Field and East European Platform margins. A. Ivanov reported that a new vertebrate fauna collected in the Frasnian sequence at Volonga River, North Timan, allows correlations with the East Baltic. Vertebrates, acritarchs and plant spores characterize Lower Devonian terrigenous deposits in the Polar Urals as reported by Tsyganko.
  
  
• Severnaya Zemlya sections yield rich vertebrate faunas of Silurian and Devonian age. Descriptions of osteostracans were given by O. Afanassieva, of unusually squamated acanthodians by J. Valiukevicius, and of different vertebrates of Eifelian age and their embedding conditions by V. Karatajute-Talimaa.
  
  
• New results on sarcopterygian relationships and stratigraphy were also reported. M. Chang discussed a species related to Powichthys , M. Zhu discussed the relationships of Kenichthys , and M. Otto discussed the geographic and stratigraphic distribution of Holonema .
  
  
• Invertebrates have been studied more thoroughly than vertebrates for many decades; recent investigations reported at the meeting specify the taxonomic content of fauna, correlations and palaeobiogeography. The Silurian/Devonian deposits of Novaya Zemlya Island, being rather complete and containing abundant ostracode fauna, can be correlated with Podolian succession as reported by A. Abushik. T. Modzalevskaya reported that brachiopod communities enable us to solve paleobiogeographical problems in the Russian Arctic (Novaya Zemlya and Severnaya Zemlya Archipelagos and the Timan-Urals region) basins. A. Zhuravlev reported that uppermost Devonian conodont associations were studied in different facies of the carbonate platform and shelf slope of the Northern Urals - Novaya Zemlya region.
  
  

St. Petersburg Meeting : The second of the two main meetings of 1997, "Palaeozoic Strata and Fossils of the Eurasian Arctic," was held in St. Petersburg, Russia, in September. The meeting was devoted mainly to the fossils and strata of the European and Asian Arctic, but the Canadian Arctic also was treated, and presentations dealt with strata from the whole Palaeozoic. Some 25 oral talks were given, 10 poster reports presented, and 36 abstracts published in the volume: A. Ivanov, M.H.V. Wilson and A. Zhuravlev (eds). Palaeozoic Strata and Fossils of the Eurasian Arctic . St.Petersburg, Russia,1997. Ichthyolith Issues, Special Publications 3, 60 pp. The regions of study were: West Spitsbergen, Timan-Pechora, Northern Urals, Novaya Zemlya, Severnaya Zemlya, Taimyr, Novosibirsk (=New Siberian) islands, northern Siberian Platform, and Cornwallis, Melville, and Baillie-Hamilton islands in the Canadian Arctic. Biostratigraphy of rugose corals, ostracodes, brachiopods, trilobites, cephalopods, bivalves, conodonts and vertebrates, based both on micro- and macro-remains of different groups (thelodonts, chondrichthyans, acanthodians, placoderms etc.) was dealt with and correlations were given. New palaeogeographic studies on the Novaya and Severnaya Zemlya basins were reported.
A highlight of the meeting was the workshop on the Silurian and Devonian stratigraphy of the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago:

• Participants (more than 23, including several students) discussed the state of planned monographs. First, a monograph on biostratigraphy entitled Silurian and Devonian of Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago will be published in Russian in Novosibirsk (editors V. Menner and R. Matukhin; deadline for manuscripts is the end of 1997). Secondly, the palaeontological aspects will be published in English in Geodiversitas (Museum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris) with the preliminary title Silurian and Devonian Fauna of the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago (editor D.Goujet; submission deadline - May 1998).
  
  

In connection with these volumes, V. Menner will provide lithological columns of the sections, the volume of the formations, correlations with the standard series, and boundaries for the local units. The biostratigraphy for the first book, and paleontology for the second book will be dealt with by following authors:

Rugose corals - the manuscript of the late M. Shurygina will be included
Bryozoa (Pz) - L. Nekhorosheva
Brachiopods (S,D) - T. Modzalevskaya
Cephalopods - G. Kisselev
Bivalves(S,D) - I. Sinitsyna, V.Kulikova
Ostracodes (S,D) - A. Abushik, I. Evdokimova
Arthropods - J. Dunlop
Crinoids - G. Stukalina
Conodonts (S,D) - P. Männik, N. Sobolev
Vertebrates: thelodonts - V. Karatajute-Talimaa & T. Märss
heterostracans - A. Blieck & V. Karatajute-Talimaa
osteostracans - O. Afanassieva & V. Karatajute-Talimaa
anaspids - T. Märss
placoderms - D. Goujet, E. Kurik, E. Luksevics
acanthodians - J. Valiukevicius

Other Workshops, Field Meetings, and Field Trips : A number of smaller workshops, meetings, discussions, and field trips, all funded by other agencies, were held by IGCP 406 participants during 1997.

• In July, six researchers from four countries met in London to discuss geology and paleontology of Greenland, including correlations of Upper Devonian sequences between the Baltic, Scotland and Greenland, and future co-operation in extending a climatic based Devonian stratigraphy.
  
  
• In July, French and Lithuanian researchers met in Vilnius to discuss Lower and Middle Devonian heterostracans of Russian Arctic (Severnaya Zemlya.
  
  
• In July, A. Antoshkina of Russia studied sections containing bioherms at Glacier Bay, southeastern Alaska.
  
  
• Also in July, fourteen researchers from Estonia, Canada, England, Scotland, and Sweden participated in a field meeting in Edinburgh and vicinity, hosted by Dr. R. Paton and colleagues. Funded by the Royal Society, the National Museums of Scotland, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the researchers visited numerous Silurian localities near Lesmahagow, in the Hagshaw Hills, and in the Pentland Hills, as well as Devonian localities at Turin Hill.
  
  
• In late July, T. Märss met with G. Miller in London concerning biostratigraphy of conodonts and thelodonts.
  
  
• In July and August, six researchers from Canada, Germany, and U.S.A., led by Drs. H.-P. Schultze and S. Cumbaa, collected fossil vertebrates in Lower Devonian exposures on the Anderson River, Arctic Canada.
  
  
• Later, in September, UK and Lithuanian researchers met in Vilnius to discuss Lower Devonian arthropods of Severnaya Zemlya.
  
  

Other Meeting Participation by IGCP 406 Participants : Project participants were very active as presenting research results at a variety of other conferences during 1997. The following is a partial list:

• CAVEPS 1997, Perth
  
• EUG-9, Strassbourg, France
  
• Fifth International Congress of Vertebrate Morphology, Bristol
  
• International meeting on cyclicity and bioevents in the Devonian System, Rochester, NY
  
• James Hall Symposium: Second Internat. Sympos. on Silurian System, Rochester, NY
  
• Konferenzii molodykh botanikov, St.Petersburg
  
• Lundadagarna i Historisk Geologioch Palaeontologi V, Sweden
  
• Palaeontological Society, XLIII Session, St. Petersburg
  
• Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Annual Meeting, Chicago
  
• University of Latvia, Section of Geography and Earth Science, 56th Scientific Conference
  
• Vestnik St.-Peterburgskogo Universiteta
  
  

Progress by National Groups :
Australia

C. Burrow attended the St. Petersburg meeting and presented a poster (with J. Vergoossen and S. Turner) on Late Silurian microvertebrates from Cornwallis Island, Arctic Canada.
Z. Johanson, Ph.D. student, is studying material obtained during the 1995 Canadian Arctic field work of IGCP 328.
S. Turner, Australian national correspondent and leader of the former IGCP 328, continues extensive involvement in Arctic microvertebrates and biostratigraphy. She gave presentations on Late Silurian microvertebrates from Somerset Island (with J. Savelle, Canada), Arctic Canada, early Fammenian phoebodonts from Melville Island (with M. Ginter, Poland), and Lower and Middle Devonian microvertebrates from Prince of Wales, Cornwallis, Young, and Dundas islands (with C. Burrow).

Canada

M. Wilson and G. Hanke attended the Buckow meeting, presenting papers on Silurian biostratigraphy (Wilson, K. Soehn, T. Märss, and Hanke) and Devonian shark-like fishes (Hanke and Wilson), respectively. Both received funding from IGCP Canada, and Hanke also from the University of Alberta. Both also participated in the IGCP 406 field workshop in Scotland; Hanke's Scotland trip was funded by National Museums of Scotland.
Wilson is co-leader of IGCP 406, organized the Buckow scientific program, edited the Buckow abstract volume, and co-edited the St. Petersburg abstract volume (Ichthyolith Issues Special Publications 2 and 3 ). A major paper on fork-tailed thelodonts (with M. Caldwell) is in press, and studies continue on other acanthodians (with P.-Y. Gagnier and G. Hanke), shark-like vertebrates (with G. Hanke), and heterostracans (with K. Soehn). Joint work with T. Märss and others on Arctic biostratigraphy is in press, and joint work with Soehn and others on Mackenzie Mountains Silurian biostratigraphy has been submitted.
S. Cumbaa and R. Day of the Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, participated in joint Canadian/German/American field work in the Lower Devonian at Anderson River, Arctic Canada. That field work resulted in discovery of very fossiliferous layers containing primitive actinopterygian fishes, acanthodians, and other taxa.

P.R. China

M. Chang attended the Buckow meeting and authored an abstract. Graduate student Zhu Min, attending university in Germany, also presented a paper.

Estonia

T. Märss is co-leader of IGCP 406, attended and gave presentations at the Buckow and St. Petersburg meeting, and chaired the business meeting in St. Petersburg. She reports that the biostratigraphic study of microvertebrate material collected during the IGCP 328 Canadian Arctic expedition in 1994 is in press; a descriptive paper will follow next year.
P. Männik presented a paper on conodonts from Severnaya Zemlya at St. Petersburg, and was elected as a new co-leader of IGCP 406 with special responsibility for invertebrate biostratigraphy.
E. Mark-Kurik contributed to papers on Severnaya Zemlya biostratigraphy presented at the St. Petersburg meeting, visited UK for NATO-sponsored collaboration with P. Ahlberg and others, and continues actively to work on psammosteids.

France

A. Blieck attended the Buckow meeting. He also collaborated with V. Karatajute-Talimaa on heterostracans from October Revolution Island during a study visit to Vilnius, Lithuania. Blieck is active in three main projects: the heterostracan part of the Handbook of Palaeoichthyology, the Silurian and Devonian heterostracan parts of the Russian and French volumes on Severnaya Zemlya, and the editing of the IGCP 328 Final Volume which includes numerous articles related to IGCP 406.
In Australia D. Goujet gave a talk on Romundina from the Canadian Arctic, Read Bay Formation, obtained during IGCP 328-sponsored field work, and presented a paper on placoderms from the Lower Devonian of Timan-Pechora at the St. Petersburg meeting of IGCP 406. Goujet and Blieck are preparing fish material from Spitsbergen. Goujet also has a student from Holland working on Arctaspis material.
P.-Y. Gagnier and D.Goujet have a paper in press on acanthodians. Gagnier made a presentation at the Buckow meeting on acanthodians collected by the 1995 field party of IGCP 328 on Prince of Wales Island, Arctic Canada. He also collaborated on a study of microvertebrates from the 1994 field trip of IGCP 328 to Arctic Canada, and continues to collaborate with M. Wilson, Canada, on acanthodians from the Lower Devonian MOTH fauna in the Mackenzie Mountains, N.W.T., Canada.

Germany

H.-P. Schultze made the local arrangements for the IGCP 406 meeting in Buckow, Germany. Also participating in the meeting were M. Otto and Zhu Min. Schultze organized and he and O. Hampe participated in the German/Canadian/American field work on the Anderson River in Arctic Canada.

Ireland

M. Duncan, microvertebrate specialist, attended the St. Petersburg meeting and is interested in increasing her involvement with IGCP 406.

Japan

M. Goto publicized IGCP 406 activities through a series of articles published in Japan.

Latvia

E. Luksevics was author of an abstract for the Buckow meeting, and gave an oral presentation in St. Petersburg. He also took part in a short workshop in London, and visited E. Mark-Kurik in Tallinn to study Upper Devonian vertebrates from Severnaya Zemlya. Luksevics has received from V. Karatajute-Talimaa and E. Kurik several specimens of Devonian fishes from Severnaya Zemlya. Research on placoderms from the Timan-Pechora region and Severnaya Zemlya is under way.

V. Kurss, University of Latvia, is very interested in Russian Arctic paleogeography. He and his student Maris Pupils prepared a poster report on that theme for St.Petersburg meeting. Maris attended the meeting.

Lithuania

V. Karatajute-Talimaa and J. Valiukevicius worked mainly on Severnaya Zemlya material, attending and making presentations at both the Buckow and the St. Petersburg meetings. They also hosted two workshops in Vilnius, one with A. Blieck of France concerning Lower and Middle Devonian heterostracans, and one with J. Dunlop of UK concerning Lower Devonian arthropods. Cooperative work is also underway on placoderms with D. Goujet and E. Luksevics.

Netherlands

J. Vergoossen is studying poracanthodids from Cornwallis Island and their taxonomy; he also has acanthodians from Spitsbergen, borrowed from the museum in Stockholm, and consulted with H. Blom in Uppsala on acanthodians from northern Greenland. Vergoossen attended the Buckow meeting of IGCP 406 where he was able to re-examine acanthodian samples of J. Vieth from the Lower Devonian of Arctic Canada. He also attended the St. Petersburg meeting where he gave a presentation; a paper revising the poracanthodids is nearly finished, as is another on Late Silurian microvertebrates from Cornwallis Island, Arctic Canada. In addition he held discussions with C. Burrow of Australia and D. Goujet of France.

A student from the Netherlands is working with D. Goujet, France, on Arctaspis material.

Poland

M. Ginter (with S. Turner) presented a paper on Famennian phoebodont sharks of Melville Island, Arctic Canada, at the St. Petersburg meeting.

Portugal

C. Bexiga successfully defended her "licenciatura" thesis on pteraspidids of the genus Protopteraspis from the Lower Devonian of Spitsbergen.

Russia

A. Ivanov, R. Matukhin, T. Modzalevskaya, V. Tsyganko, and O. Afanassieva prepared reports for the Buckow meeting; Matukhin, Modzalevskaya and Afanassieva attended it and made presentations. Ivanov also made an extended study visit to UK where he collaborated with numerous researchers, examined collections, and visited field sites.
IGCP 406 participants from St. Petersburg hosted the September meeting of the project in that city; at the meeting a workshop on Severnaya Zemlya geology was held. Numerous Russian project participants from St. Petersburg, Arkhangel'sk, Moscow, Novosibirsk, and Syktyvkar contributed presentations (see Ichthyolith Issues Special Publication 3 for a complete list).
A. Antoshkina, Syktyvkar, attended the St. Petersburg meeting and did field work in Alaska; her institution has invited IGCP 406 to meet in Syktyvkar in 1999.
O. Afanassieva completed several publications, one co-authored with T. Märss, Estonia, and another with V. Karatajute-Talimaa, Lithuania.

Sweden

J. Peel continued his research on Palaeozoic stratigraphy of North Greenland.

H. Blom reported that the Swedish IGCP National Committee asked him report on progress made by IGCP 406. He also made presentations at meetings in Lund, Buckow, and St. Petersburg on microvertebrates from North Greenland, and participated in the IGCP 406 field trip and workshop in Scotland, funded by the National Museums of Scotland. Completion of a manuscript on vertebrate microremains from the Franklinian Basin, North Greenland, and complementary studies on material from the Silurian of North Greenland, are planned for 1998 together with J. Peel.

U. Borgen has submitted for publication his major manuscript on osteolepiforms, including material from the Devonian of Greenland, and attended the IGCP 406 meeting in St. Petersburg.

UK

There are now 22 participants in UK, a significant increase thanks to the organizing efforts of V. T. Young.
P. Ahlberg is working under the terms of a NATO grant to compare Middle and Late Devonian sarcopterygians of Britain with those of the Main Devonian Field in Eastern Europe. Ahlberg hosted Estonian, Lithuanian, and Russian researchers in Britain, visited localities in Scotland, and studied collections in Latvia and Estonia. Significant progress has been made in re-evaluating psammosteid, arthrodire, and porolepiform taxa in the two areas and in formulating revised stratigraphic correlations.
J. Clack has been in contact with Danish officials and is attempting to arrange field work to collect tetrapods in the Devonian of East Greenland. Progress has been made by other researchers in finding microfossils that will aid in dating the tetrapod-bearing strata.
D. Dineley continues to study Devonian agnathans.
P. Donaghue, postdoctoral fellow at University of Birmingham with P. Smith and I. Sansom, is interested in working on pore-canal systems in fossil agnathans and early gnathostomes, including material from the Canadian Arctic.
C. Duffin continues research on Palaeozoic sharks, met with A. Ivanov of Russia to discuss research problems and visit field sites, and presented a paper on Carboniferous vertebrates at the British Vertebrate Palaeontology meetings.
R. Hitchin and E. Cook are studying Fammenian fishes in the UK. Hitchin is interested in Devonian biogeography and Palaeozoic actinopterygians, and consulted with IGCP 406 participants when she attended the Mesozoic Fishes meeting in Buckow, immediately following the IGCP 406 meeting.
M. House is doing research on Middle Palaeozoic biostratigraphy, and has finished or nearly finished two Devonian GSSPs, those for the Givetian and the Emsian. He is also actively working on Devonian sea levels, with results to be published soon, and has worked on geology of the Timan area, northern Russia, with Russian and French collaborators.
E. Loeffler continues work on the vertebrates of the Cape Storm Fm. of Somerset Island, Arctic Canada
Palynologist J. Marshall and sedimentologist T. Astin completed three field seasons in the Devonian of East Greenland in association with the Cambridge Arctic Shelf Programme, and have important results on combined litho- and palyno-stratigraphy of vertebrate-bearing formations. They also participated in an informal workshop in London with Estonian, Latvian, and Russian IGCP 406 participants.
G. Miller attended the St. Petersburg meeting and presented a paper, coauthored with J. Adrain, on Silurian conodonts in samples from the Cape Phillips Fm., Baillie-Hamilton Island, Arctic Canada; these samples represent middle Sheinwoodian, late Sheinwoodian, and early Homerian time and are from the same beds as trilobite samples studied by Adrain. Miller also held discussions with T. Märss in London during 1997.
M. Purnell is interested in conodont biostratigraphy and conodont feeding mechanics and presented a paper at the Bristol Morphology meetings on feeding of early vertebrates. He is currently studying feeding habits of some Canadian Arctic heterostracans.
J. Richardson is interested in Devonian biostratigraphy using spores, and has processed samples from Arctic Canada obtained by the IGCP 328 field party of 1994. Lack of spores, but presence of other microfossils in these samples suggests a deep-water environment, far from shore. Samples from the Silurian/Devonian boundary are at present being processe
S. Sutherland contributed to papers on global chitinozoan and palynological zonation for the Silurian and Devonian, and to a poster and a platform paper at the James Hall Symposium, Rochester. He also visited the University of Alberta in September, 1997
N. Trewin and R. Davidson continue working on sequence stratigraphy, sedimentology, and paleoecology of Devonian fish-bearing formations. With M. Newman they are studying climatiid acanthodians, and all three met with the IGCP 406 field workshop group at the Tillywhandland quarry in July, and also hosted P. Ahlberg in the field.
R. Williams is actively collecting Lower Devonian vertebrates in the Welsh Borderlands and making them available to specialists for study.
S. Young, UK national correspondent, is studying Devonian acanthodians, their morphology and vertical and horizontal distribution; she attended the Buckow meeting and presented a paper on acanthodians in St. Petersburg. A Geological Society Special Report, a guide to Palaeozoic fish microfossils of the UK, is in preparation (eds S.Turner and Young). It was begun under IGCP 328 and also has high relevance to IGCP 406.

U.S.A.

J. Chorn, Lawrence, Kansas, and J. Harrison, Tucson, Arizona, particpated in the Canadian/German/American field work at Anderson River, Arctic Canada.
D. Elliott has submitted a paper on heterostracans for the IGCP 328 final volume.
J. Repetski continues to study the Lower Palaeozoic of the Circum-Arctic region, primarily Cambrian-Ordovician conodonts from Alaska, and to participate with P. Smith and I. Sansom in research on the Cambrian vertebrate Anatolepis .

Societal benefits include greater international cooperation, especially for this year the first large-scale contacts between Russian and Western researchers of Circum-Arctic Palaeozoic biostratigraphy at two meetings; assistance for scientists including graduate students from countries with limited financial resources; dissemination of knowledge about geological sections where multidisciplinary studies can be undertaken; and discovery of additional exceptional fossiliferous deposits that might in the future qualify for protection under national or international laws.

2.2 List of meetings with approximate attendance and number of countries

Circum-Arctic Palaeozoic Vertebrates: Biological and Geological Significance
Buckow, Germany, July 5-6, 1997
20 researchers from 10 countries attended

Palaeozoic Strata and Fossils of the Eurasian Arctic
St. Petersburg, Russia, September 23-26, 1997
With workshop on Severnaya Zemlya geology
40 researchers from 10 countries attended

Smaller Meetings and Field Trips (funded by other agencies):
Workshop on Russian Devonian Heterostracans
Vilnius, Lithuania, July 10-21, 1997
4 researchers from 2 countries

Workshop on Russian Devonian Arthropods
Vilnius, Lithuania, September 1-12, 1997
4 researchers from 2 countries

Discussions on Greenland
London, UK, July 17, 1997
6 researchers from 4 countries

Field Meeting in the Scottish Silurian and Lower Devonian
Edinburgh, Scotland and vicinity, July 15-24, 1997
14 researchers from 5 countries participated

Field Work in Lower Devonian of Arctic Canada
Anderson River, N.W.T., Canada, July 13 - August 9, 1997
6 researchers from 3 countries, led by Dr. H.-P. Schultze, Germany,
and Dr. S. Cumbaa, Canada.

2.3 List of most important publications (including maps)
Please see the separate list for a more complete account.

Afanassieva, O. B., and V. N. Karatajute-Talimaa. 1997. New osteostracans (Agnatha) from the Silurian and Lower Devonian of Severnaya Zemlya (Russia). Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal.

Gagnier, P.-Y., and D. Goujet. 1997. Nouveaux poissons acanthodiens du Dévonien du Spitsberg. Geodiversitas 19:505-513.

House, M. R., and W. E. Ziegler. 1997. On Devonian sea-level fluctuations. Courier Forschunsinstitut Senckenberg 199:1-146.

Ineson, J. R., and J. S. Peel. 1997. Cambrian shelf stratigraphy of North Greenland. Geology of Greenland Survey Bulletin 173:1-120.

Ivanov, A., M. H. V. Wilson, and A. Zhuravlev, (eds.) 1997. Palaeozoic Strata and Fossils of the Eurasian Arctic. Special Publication 3 of Ichthyolith Issues. Geological Faculty of St. Petersburg State University, Russia, St. Petersburg, Russia, 1-53 pp.

Jin, J., and B. D. E. Chatterton. 1997. Latest Ordovician - Silurian articulate brachiopods and biostratigraphy of the Avalanche Lake area, southwestern District of Mackenzie, Canada. Palaeontographica Canadiana 13: 1-167.

Karatajute-Talimaa, V. 1997. Taxonomy of loganiid thelodonts. Modern Geology 21:1-15.

Märss, T., and A. Ritchie. 1997. Articulated thelodonts (Agnatha) of Scotland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences.

Soja, C. M., and A. I. Antoshkina. 1997. Coeval development of Silurian stromatolite reefs in Alaska and the Ural Mountains: Implications for paleogeography of the Alexander terrane. Geology 25:539-542.

Turner, S., and A. Blieck, (ed.) 1997. Gross Symposium, Volume 2. Modern Geology, Special Issue 21(1-2).

Wilson, M. V. H., (ed.) 1997. Circum-Arctic Palaeozoic Vertebrates: Biological and Geological Significance. Buckow, Germany, 1997. Ichthyolith Issues Special Publication 2:1-39.

Wilson, M. V. H., and M. W. Caldwell. In press. The Furcacaudiformes, a new order of jawless vertebrates with "thelodont" scales, based on articulated Silurian and Devonian fossils from northern Canada. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
2.4 List of countries involved in the project (*countries active this year)

2.5 Activities involving other IGCP projects or IUGS

IGCP 406 is a successor project to IGCP 328 (Palaeozoic Microvertebrates), which ended in 1996, and is attempting to help bring some IGCP 328 initiatives to a productive conclusion. For example, IGCP 406 participants are collaborating in study of specimens collected under IGCP 328-sponsored field work in Arctic Canada, and IGCP 406 participants are playing a major role in bringing IGCP 328's final volume to completion and publication. Research on Severnaya Zemlya vertebrates and biostratigraphy and publication of the Russian and French volumes on this subject will also further the aims of IGCP 328. IGCP 406 continues to make good use of the newsletter Ichthyolith Issues and the Palaeozoic Microvertebrates WWW page, both begun under IGCP 328, to keep participants informed and to disseminate project news and announcements.

Many participants are also associated with one or more of the relevant subcommissions of the International Commission on Stratigraphy, especially the Subcommission on Devonian Stratigraphy (SDS) and the Subcommission on Silurian Stratigraphy (SSS).

2.6 Participation of scientists from developing countries

IGCP 406 has excellent participation from several countries of the former Soviet Union: Russia (including remote regions), Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as well as from Poland. We also have several active participants from P.R. China, who are of great importance for solving problems of global correlation and paleobiogeography.

3. Proposed activities of the project for the year ahead

3.1 General goals

Working group members will carry forward planning for joint research on existing fossil collections as well as applying for funding for field work as appropriate.

Planned field activities include joint Canadian-German-Estonian work in 1998 in the Upper Silurian and Lower Devonian of the Mackenzie Mountains, Northwest Territories, Canada.

Members of the Canadian Arctic Working Group will continue collaborative studies on Devonian acanthodian faunas and Silurian-Devonian heterostracan and thelodont faunas from the Mackenzie Mountains, on Lower Devonian vertebrates from the Anderson River, and on heterostracan, thelodont, anaspid, and placoderm faunas from Cornwallis, Baillie-Hamilton, Prince of Wales, and Somerset Islands (some of which were collected by participants in IGCP 328). H.-P. Schultze of Germany, together with M. Otto, will study vertebrates collected on Ellesmere Island in 1975 and deposited in Göttingen. Zhu Min and H.-P.Schultze will work on Powichthys material from Axel Heiberg Island.

Members of the Greenland Working Group will continue studies of biostratigraphically and paleobiologically important fossils from Greenland. H. Blom and J. Peel will complete manuscripts on microvertebrates from North Greenland. Plans for research in East Greenland include collaborations of sedimentologists, palynologists, and vertebrate paleontologists on the continental deposits that contain early tetrapods. Consultations with Danish authorities are continuing into the possibility of additional field work at these internationally significant sites.

For the working groups dealing with the Russian Arctic, collaboration on the study of samples collected in earlier years continues to be the main goal. We will focus on making existing acid residues available to researchers in as many disciplines as possible, and on raising funds to allow the acid dissolution of the many samples that have previously been collected but never processed. There is a strong possibility of field work in conjunction with our proposed meeting in 1999 in Syktyvkar.

Collaborative studies proposed for Russian Arctic material are many. For example, P. Ahlberg will visit St. Petersburg and Moscow to continue work on sarcopterygians. Dr. V. Karatajute-Talimaa reports that in Vilnius there is a large collection of different fossils from the Timan-Pechora Region, Severnaya Zemlya, and Novaya Zemlya. Cooperative work is under way on arthropods (with Dr. Dunlop), on placoderms (with D. Goujet and E. Luksevics) and on heterostracans (with Dr. A. Blieck). During 1998, studies on the Silurian and Devonian thelodonts (V. Karatajute-Talimaa, T. Märss), Devonian heterostracans (A.Blieck, V. Karatajute-Talimaa), osteostracans (Afanassieva & Karatajute-Talimaa) and Silurian and Devonian acanthodians (Valiukevicius) must be completed for the Severnaya Zemlya monograph (see the section on the Severnaya Zemlya workshop at the St. Petersburg meeting).

Researchers including V. V. Menner of Russia are interested in comparing Canadian Arctic and Russian Arctic palaeogeographic reconstructions; for such work coordinated study of all faunal elements is needed.
The project's annual meeting will be held in Warsaw, Poland, in late August of 1998; a Canadian Arctic working group workshop will be held in Ottawa in late spring, 1998. Planning for 1999 includes a meeting in Syktyvkar, Russia, that will include a field trip in the northern Urals.

3.2 Specific meetings and field trips

Workshop of the Canadian Arctic Working Group, Ottawa, May 1998
Dr. S. Cumbaa of the Museum of Nature, Ottawa, has invited the Canadian Arctic Working Group to meet in Ottawa in late spring/early summer of 1998.

The Museum of Nature contains most of the important type specimens of Canadian Arctic vertebrates collected before 1980 by the Geological Survey of Canada and others. These collections will be made available for study and discussion by workshop participants. Comparison of these specimens with material collected in recent years by IGCP 328 and 406 participants (Cornwallis Island, Baillie-Hamilton Island, Prince of Wales Island, Anderson River area, Mackenzie Mountains) is essential to ensure that identifications are accurate and that biostratigraphic and palaeobiogeographic conclusions are sound.

The Canadian Arctic Working Group includes researchers from Australia, Canada, USA, UK, France, Germany, and Estonia. However, the opportunity to examine important type collections and to discuss them with colleagues will undoubtedly attract other IGCP 406 participants as well as outside researchers.

IGCP 406 Annual Meeting and Workshop on Early Sharks, Warsaw, August 1998
Dr. M. Ginter of Warsaw has invited IGCP 406 to meet in late August/early September of 1999. Warsaw is a central location that should allow relatively economical travel by many European researchers, both eastern and western.

The meeting will include a workshop with the theme "The Fossil Record of Early Chondrichthyans," emphasizing the many species that have been identified as relatives of sharks based on the structure of their scales. Researchers from Australia, Canada, UK, France, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Sweden, and Russia, among others, are actively working in this area and many important new findings have been announced and/or published within the past two years. This workshop will be an outstanding opportunity for these controversial issues to be discussed, for researchers to jointly examine specimens, and for building a consensus about the significance of these fossils.

The meeeting will also include sessions on biostratigraphy and paleobiology of other vertebrates and other fauna and flora of importance for palaeobiogeographical and paleoecological reconstructions and for biostratigraphic correlation. We expect many researchers will wish to attend this meeting, including graduate students from several countries.

Participation by IGCP 406 Scientists at Other Meetings
We will continue to advance awareness of IGCP in general and IGCP 406 in particular through participation in discipline-specific and regional meetings. Three meetings have been identified of particular significance for 1998:

1. Meeting of the Subcommission on Silurian Stratigraphy (SSS) in Portugal and Spain, June 15-18, 1998
   
2. European Conodont Symposion (ECOS) in Bologna-Modena, Italy, in June 24-26, 1998
   
3. International Conference on Arctic Margins, Hannover, Germany, October 1998

Mackenzie Mountains Ordovician-Devonian Field Trip
B.D.E. Chatterton and M.V.H. Wilson, accompanied by T. Märss of Estonia and H.-P. Schultze of Germany, will return to Ordovician, Silurian, and Devonian sections of the Mackenzie Mountains in 1998 to collect samples of trilobites and early vertebrates for studies of anatomy, ontogeny, phylogeny, and biostratigraphy. Funding is from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

4. Project funding request

Funds are requested to allow as broad a participation as possible, especially by graduate students, researchers from poorer nations, and working group leaders, in the Annual Meeting in Warsaw, the Ottawa workshop, and to send representatives to the three related meetings indicated above. The project has entered a crucial phase, with increasing participation by researchers in many countries, and the chance to make substantial progress through intensive international study of several questions during the next year.