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study on "Arctaspis", from the Lower Devonian Wood Bay Formation of Spitsbergen has been completed under Goujet's supervision by F. Steeman (University of Amsterdam). Editorial work on the papers for the Severnaya Zemlya volume of Geodiversitashas started, with publication scheduled for 1999.

Germany:
M. Otto, G. Arratia, and H.-P. Schultze attended the Warsaw meeting. M. Otto presented a paper (Otto 1998 abstract) on a new antiarch from Ellesmere Island, Canadian Arctic, based on material collected in 1975.Thomas Becker and others worked on Timan/Pechora Devonian cephalopods. They, and Klapper and M. House, have published work on that area.

1975 was also the last time that H.-P. Schultze was in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. An English version of his report on that field work, previously available only in German, has now been published. The Middle and Upper Devonian material collected in 1975 includes phoebodonts and sarcopterygians now described. At the Warsaw meeting H.-P. Schultze presented an oral paper on exciting new data about the primitive actinopterygian fish Dialipina, resulting from IGCP 406-related field work in 1997 with S. Cumbaa of Canada at the Anderson River, Northwest Territories, Canada. In 1998 Schultze joined in IGCP 406-related field work with Canadian colleagues (Chatterton, Wilson, and others) at the Avalanche Lake and MOTH sections in the Mackenzie Mountains.

Ireland:
M. Duncan has concentrated on writing her thesis on Lower Carboniferous (Tournaisian and Tournaisian/Visean) ichthyoliths from Ireland, including more than 90 plates illustrating the microvertebrate fauna. She gave a talk at Palaeontological Association in Cardiff in December 1997 on palaeoenvironmental aspectsof this study. She also participated in the Warsaw meeting of IGCP 406.

Italy:
A. Tintori attended the Warsaw meeting of IGCP 406 to learn more about chondrichthyan fossils, and presented a poster on Permian chondrichthyans that he has found in Oman (Tintori 1998).

Japan:
M. Goto continued to be active in IGCP 406-related activities, publishing a number of papers and reports emaphasizing the evolution of bony tissues in vertebrates and the fossil record of chondrichthyans in Japan (see publications list).

Latvia:
Ervins Luk[!]eviãs continued his studies of bothriolepidid antiarchs from the Severnaya Zemlya and Timan- Pechora region. Papers on the subject are prepared for publication (Luk[!]eviãs In press). At the IGCP 406 meeting in Warszaw he gave a general review of taxonomy and distribution of this group in the Circum-Arctic and adjacent regions. Luk[!]eviãs also attended the 46th Symposium on Vertebrate Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy, Bournemouth University, UK, where he (together with P.E. Ahlberg, P. Forey and I. Zupins) presented a paper on "New Devonian sarcopterygians from Lode clay quarry, Latvia". In the next year he will concentrate on the organization of the 4th Baltic Stratigraphic Conference and the IGCP 406 annual meeting in Riga.

I. Upeniece participated in the Warszaw meeting and reported about the first finds of fossil parasitic flatworms (Platyhelminthes) found in fish carcasses (acanthodians and antiarchs) from Lower Frasnian strata (Upeniece 1998). Upeniece has also been studying the acanthodians and antiarchs, and has published with V. Kurshs et al. (In press) on the fishes from Lode.

Lithuania:
Both V. Talimaa and J. Valiukevicius attended the Warsaw meeting. They have finished detailed studies of the compositon and evolution of fish faunas from the Lower and Middle Palaeozoic strata on the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago. Several papers dealing with taxonomy and biostratigraphy of acanthodians, thelodonts, heterostracans and osteostracans are prepared for publication (in co-authorship with O. Afanassieva, A. Blieck, and T. Märss). The main results of these studies were presented by V. Karatajute-Talimaa at the IGCP 406 meeting in Warszawa.

V. Talimaa, I. Evdokimova and J. Valiukevicius have been working together on micro-remains. V. Talimaa is writing an article on the methodology of the determination of micro-remains, to be published in a new German journal. J. Valiukevicius is writing a large paper on species from the Lower Devonian of Novaya Zemlya.