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paleobiologically important fossils from Greenland. H. Blom and J. Peel have completed manuscripts on microvertebrates from North Greenland, and attention will now turn to correlative beds in other regions. Plans for research in East Greenland include collaborations of sedimentologists, palynologists, and vertebrate paleontologists on the continental deposits that contain early tetrapods, resulting from field work completed in 1998 and led by J. Clack.

5. For the working groups dealing with the Russian Arctic, assembly of manuscripts and edited volumes on the geology and palaeontology of Severnaya Zemlya, Timan-Pechora, Kotel'nyi Island, etc. is a main goal. Collaboration on the study of samples collected in earlier years continues to be encouraged by sharing acid residues with researchers in as many disciplines as possible. There are also plans to facilitate field work in preparation for our proposed meeting in 2000 in Syktyvkar.

6. Researchers including V. V. Menner of Russia and P. Männik of Estonia have won approval from IGCP 406 to establish a new working group, EARLY AND MIDDLE PALAEOZOIC BASINS IN THE CIRCUM- ARCTIC REGION: PALAEOTECTONICS AND PALAEOGEOGRAPHY. A more detailed announcement of this group and its research plans are attached to this report as Appendix 1.

7. IGCP 406's annual meeting will be held in Riga, Latvia, in late September of 1999. Several IGCP 406 participants will also participate in an interdisciplinary (developmental biology and palaeontology) meeting in London in April 1999. As has been the case in each year of the project, numerous smaller workshops will be held in regional centres as well.

8. Planning for 2000 includes a meeting in Syktyvkar, Russia, that will include a field trip in the northern Urals. A workshop of IGCP 406 is also planned in conjunction with the Early Vertebrates meeting in Flagstaff, U.S.A., in 2000, and there is the strong possibility of a Canadian Arctic working group workshop in Ottawa in 1999 or 2000 as well.

3.2 Specific meetings and field trips

1. Organization of the 4th Baltic Stratigraphic Conference, and the IGCP406 annual meeting and workshop, with field excursion to the Devonian of northeastern Latvia, will be held in Riga, Latvia (organizer E. Luk[!]eviãs). The theme of the meeting is "Lower-Middle Palaeozoic Events Across the Circum-Arctic." A draft of the first circular is attached to this report as Appendix 2.

2. In April 1999 there will be a meeting in London, U.K., organised by Per Ahlberg: Major Events in Early Vertebrate Evolution - Phylogeny, Palaeontology and Development. Several IGCP 406 members will participate, and the project's recent research and field activities will be able to make a large contribution. Palaeontology of Ordovician through Devonian vertebrates has much to offer to a modern synthesis of vertebrate developmental biology and vertebrate anatomy and evolution, and this meeting will allow Palaeozoic vertebrate workers to share their insights and to learn from some of the world's leading molecular developmental biologists.

3. We will continue to advance awareness of IGCP in general and IGCP 406 in particular through participation in discipline-specific and regional meetings.

3.3. Future meetings: 2000 and beyond

1. The IGCP 406 final meeting (CAPV-2000) will be held during July and August of 2000 in Syktyvkar, Russia, and hosted by Anna Antoshkina and colleagues. Preparations now underway include restudy of information about sections in order to prepare a field-guide for excursion (A. Antoshkina, T. Beznosova, V. Lukin, V. Tsyganko), field work in the Sub-Polar Urals in order to prepare sections for the excursion (T. Beznosova, V. Lukin, S. Melnikov, P. Männik), and preparation and distribution of the first circular, to be mailed in the late 1998. To complement the Flagstaff meeting (see below), the Syktyvkar meeting will focus more on palaeo-bio-stratigraphy, and will include all fossil groups, not only vertebrates.

The field excursion would involve ten days in the Sub-Polar Ural mountains, and would be limited to perhaps 20 participants. It will be possible to see facies of Landoverian and Devonian stratified deep water deposits, and the boundary between Ludlowian/Devonian. Travelling would be by car, and then by boat, which is necessary to see the outcrops. Participants must be healthy! It is a very interesting Palaeozoic section. After the field trip there would be a meeting in Syktyvkar. The meeting would be open to all interested participants, not restricted to the 20 people who go on the excursion. There may be a possibility to make an abstract volume of the meeting. Cost would be at least 550 dollars for the sub-polar Urals field trip.

2. An Early Vertebrates meeting will be held in Flagstaff, Arizona, in early summer of 2000, and organized by David Elliott, to include field excursions to Ordovician sections in Colorado and Devonian sections in Nevada and Utah. IGCP 406 participants will attend in large numbers, and IGCP 406 will also hold a workshop at this