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		2 Annual Report for 1998 IGCP 406 "Circum-Arctic Lower-Middle Palaeozoic Vertebrate Palaeontology and Biostratigraphy" 1. Summary of Major Past Achievements of the Project During 1996, IGCP 406 meetings and workshops were held in Edmonton, Canada, in Uppsala, Sweden, in Tallinn, Estonia, and in Vilnius, Lithuania. International collaborative field work was carried out in northern Canda. Working groups began research initiativesinvolving the Canadian, Greenland, Spitsbergen, and northern Russian parts of the Circum-Arctic region. During 1997, 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 has grown to more than 100 participants from 18 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 MicrovertebratesWorld-Wide-Web page. The main IGCP 406 meeting was held in Warsaw, Poland. This meeting brought together more than 50 scientists and graduate students from 16 countries to share research results, to plan further collaborative studies of fossil collections, and to plan collaborative applications for field-work and research funding. Workshops on Lower and Middle Palaeozoic geology of the Timan-Pechora region and on the early fossil record of chondrichthyans were part of the meeting. IGCP 406 participants also represented the project at other important meetings during 1998. Important examples (supported by modest funding from the Project) are the Silurian Subcommission meeting in Spain, the ECOS VII (conodont) meeting in Italy, and the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology annual meeting in U.S.A. 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 where known. Research in addition to that reported at the meetings has been carried forward by national participants. Their progress is also summarized below. IGCP 406 Annual Meeting: Circum-Arctic Palaeozoic Faunas and Facies Geological Institute, Warsaw University, Warsaw, Poland, September 3-8, 1998 Please see the program and abstracts volume, Ichthyolith Issues Special Publication 4 . More than 50 participants from 16 countries (Australia, Canada, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Ukraine, U.K., U.S.A.) attended. The main emphasis was on palaeobiological and biostratigraphic studies of both vertebrates and invertebrates in the Canadian, Russian, Danish, and Norwegian Arctic. Two workshops were held, one on geology of the Timan-Pechora region, and another on the early fossil record of Chondrichthyes (sharks and relatives). A two-day field excursion included visits to most of the important Devonian localities of the Holy Cross Mountains. The meeting provided a forum for reporting of significant advances in biostratigraphical and paleobiological research. More than 30 oral presentations and several posters were given. Some 41 extended abstracts were published in the conference volume: M. Ginter and M.V.H. Wilson (eds). 1998. Circum-Arctic Palaeozoic Faunas and Facies. Warszawa, Poland, 1998. Ichthyolith Issues Special Publication4, 62 pp. Several participants brought with them manuscripts for the Severnaya Zemlya volume, which will be published in Paris, as a special issue of Geodiversitas. These papers include studies of Ordovician through Devonian thelodonts, anaspids, and conodonts, and involve confirmation of biostratigraphic zonation as well as significant revisions to accepted stratigraphy. Many other participants brought manuscripts for publication in a special conference issue of Acta Geologica Polonica, or indicated that their manuscripts would be submitted within a few weeks of the end of the meeting. Other participants presented papers that will be published in other international journals.