IGCP 328 ANNUAL REPORT 1995IGCP PROJECT SHORT TITLE
PALAEOZOIC MICROVERTEBRATES
DURATION AND STATUS
5 years 1991-1995, on-going (final year)
high-level funding
PROJECT LEADER (S)
Dr Susan Turner
Queensland Museum
PO Box 3300
South Brisbane, Qld 4101
AUSTRALIA
61 7 3840 7677
617 3846 1918 (Fx)Dr Alain Blieck
Laboratoire Pal.[3], Sciences de la Terre
Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille
URA 1365 du CNRS
F-59655 Villeneuve d'Ascq Cé dex, FRANCE
33 2043 4140
33 2043 6900 (Fx)
PROJECT SECRETARY: Dr Susan Turner (address as above)
Date of submission of Report: October 1995
Signature of Leaders:
1. Summary of Major Past Achievements of the Project
This is the fifth year of the project. At the first formal meeting (Miguasha, Canada, 1991) 60 people from 11 countries agreed on system working groups and leaders and a work plan with field work in eastern Canada; the second AGM was held at IVPP in Beijing, China, following a Symposium and workshops at ISDEOMR Guilin and at Beijing; the third AGM held in July/August 1993 at Gö ttingen during the major mid-term meeting, the joint IGCP 328/S.D.S. meeting, the Gross Symposium, with field work in Thuringia, updated the workplan for 1994 and discussed preparations for the final meeting. Last year the AGM was held in Moscow in July during a joint IGCP 328: SDS meeting (Devonian Eustatic Changes of the World Ocean Level - DECWOL) with 26 people present. At the meeting over 100 people from 16 countries presented much new information in talks and posters on Devonian and Early Carboniferous biocorrelation and sea level curves and related events. Field sessions in the Moscow surrounds and south Timan region resulted in the recognition and discovery of new macro- and microremains in Devonian and Carboniferous rocks. A major field expedition to Baillie Hamilton and Cornwallis islands, Arctic Canada, comprising 6 participants from 3 countries, has successfully measured sections and collected numerous samples for joint microvertebrate/ conodont/ spore co-operative work. Field meetings also took place in eastern Canada. Ten issues of the newsletter Ichthyolith Issues have been produced since 1991 (nos 6-15); no. 16 is in preparation and will go to around 500 recipients (about 200 active participants plus interested geologists, libraries and other institutions). In 1993 an updated address list and experts guide summarising age, taxonomic group, and morphological parts studied for over 300 specialists interested in the project was produced; the newsletter has carried new address information. Abstracts volumes have been produced: Miguasha Symposium in 1991; the Gross Symposium Abstracts in 1993 and the Moscow Abstracts in 1994, with IGCP 328 abstracts in several other symposia. Symposium volumes from the Miguasha, Moscow and final Paris meetings are now published (see below) with the Gross Symposium proceedings in press. Over 350 publications from project participants have been listed thus far, covering aspects of Cambro-Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous and Permian micro- and macro-vertebrate taxonomy, biostratigraphy, and biogeography.
2. Achievements of the Project This Year
The VIIIth International Meeting: Early Vertebrates and Lower Vertebrates was held from 4 to 15 September 1995. Symposium 6 of the meeting was devoted to the final meeting of IGCP 328 and associated workshops began on the 4th September in the Salle Gaudry of the Musé um national d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris. The first part of the main meeting was attended by more than 100 participants from 22 countries [Australia, Belarus', Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, UK, USA] . Scientific sessions took place from 5 to 8 September in the auditorium of the Grande Galerie de l'É volution, Natural History Museum, Paris, France. All continents were represented, except Africa and Antarctica. The 77 oral communications were grouped into 6 symposia: 1- the use of histological characters in vertebrate systematics; 2- placoderms; 3- chondrichthyans and acanthodians; 4- actinopterygians; 5- sarcopterygians; 6- IGCP 328. A seventh session was held during symposia 4 and 5 on Friday 8 September, viz., the symposium of the Subcommission on Devonian Stratigraphy (SDS) on "Devonian taxa ranges and extinction events". The SDS held its annual general meeting (business meeting) on Friday afternoon. IGCP 328 held its business meeting as an open session on the afternoon of Thursday 7 September. Several informal workshops were also held during these days, on variability in actinopterygian scales, Devonian pteraspids of the USA, thelodont morphology, the Ordovician vertebrates of Australia and Bolivia, the histology of Anatolepis, the biostratigraphical correlations of the Early Devonian, chondrichthyan and acanthodian microremains, ARK database of Moscow State Geological Museum, etc.
This part of the meeting was organised by our colleagues of the Laboratory of Palaeontology, Natural History Museum, Paris (H. Leliè vre, S. Wenz, P. Janvier, C. Poplin, M. Vé ran, D. Goujet) with the help of a scientific committee. The abstracts of the communications have been distributed as a mimeographed booklet (copies from H. Leliè vre, MNHN: Palé ontologie, 8 rue Buffon, F-75005 Paris; fax 33-1-40793580; e-mail leliè vre@cimrs1.mnhn.fr). The communications have been published as Mé moire Spé cial 19 of Gé obios (available from P.R. Racheboe uf, Univ. Cl. Bernard, CST, 27-43 Bd du 11 Novembre, F-69622 Villeurbanne Cedex; fax 33-1-72448436, price 600FRF). The manuscripts which have been deposited during the meeting will be proposed for publication to the Bulletin de la Socié té Gé ologique de France.
During the meeting, participants were able to study the lower vertebrate collections of the Natural History Museum.
2.1. General Scientific Achievements
The final meeting of IGCP 328 (symposium 6) grouped 16 oral communications but 21 other communications, distributed among the other symposia of the meeting, fulfilled the aims of IGCP 328. The corresponding papers have been published in Geobios Mé moire Spé cial 19.
Scientific Sessions: Symposia on all groups of Palaeozoic fishes, including palaeobiology, phylogenetics, taxonomy and histology: IGCP 328 papers - V. Karatajute-Talimaa (Lithuania) The Mongolepidida; O. Afanassieva (Russia) Osteostracan exoskeletal microstructure; M. Caldwell & M. Wilson (Canada) Fork-tailed thelodonts of NW Territories; C. Derycke (France) Famennian acanthodians from Belgium; A. De Ricqles (France)/I. Sansom/ M.P. Smith/ M.M. Smith/ P. Turner (UK) - new aspects of Ordovician microvertebrates from the Harding Sandstone, USA; G. Young (Australia) early vertebrates & palaeogeographic models; R. Soler-Gijon (Spain) Stephanian xenacanths of Spain; R. Mertiniene (Lithuania) U. Carboniferous Symmorium reniforme from Moscow; O. Hampe (Germany) L. Permian Lissodus from SW Germany; P-Y. Gagnier (France) Devonian acanthodian jaws from Canada; J. Valiukevicius (Lithuania) Devonian acanthodian histology/ marine & non-marine Early & Mid Devonian acanthodian zones; J. Zajic (Czechia) Acanthodidae; S. Young (UK) Stratigraphic distribution of Carboniferous acanthodians of UK; Upeniece (Latvia) New U. Devonian Strunius from Lode Q., Latvia; N. Krupina (Russia) new Rhinodipterus from U. Devonian of NW Russia; Chang M.M. (China) New Emsian dipnorhynchid from SE Yunnan, China; Zhu M. & Fan J. Early Devonian Youngolepis from China.
2. Special symposium on Silurian-Devonian microvertebrate biochronology and global marine/non-marine correlation: Keynote address by S. Turner (Australia); A. Blieck (France) on biostratigraphical correlations of Old Red continent; A. De Pomeroy/ C. Burrow (Australia) new Devonian taxa and biostratigraphic studies of eastern Australia; G.C. Young et al. (Australia) Devonian microvertebrate zonation for Australia; D. Elliott et al. (USA) Marine-non-marine of Lower Devonian of western USA; M. Ginter (Poland) & A. Ivanov (Russia) Middle/Late Devonian phoebodont ichthyolith zonation; E. Luksevics (Latvia) Late Devonian vertebrates of Timan; O. Lebedev (Russia) Mid Famennian chondrichthyans and sarcopterygians from central Russia; T. Mä rss et al. (Estonia et al.) Silurian vertebrate biozonal scheme; S. Kruchek et al. (Belarus' et al.) Miospore & microvertebrate zones of M.-lower U. Devonian of Belarus'; Wang S.T. (China) L. Devonian microvertebrates of Longmenshan, China; P-Y Gagnier (France) IGCP 328 field trips (1994-1995) to collect Silurian-Devonian of Arctic Canada: J. Schneider on a Carboniferous-Permian synthesis for central Europe and the proposed successor project.
3. SDS symposium on Devonian taxa ranges and extinction events, including reports by IGCP 328 participants: J.E.A. Marshall & T.R. Astin (UK) Ecological control on distribution of Devonian Asterolepis; J. Richardson (UK) Late Silurian-Early Devonian palynomorphs and marine-non-marine correlation; G.C. Young (Australia) Devonian zonation chart for Australia; V. Talimaa (Lithuania) E. Devonian thelodont correlation of N. Eurasia; S. Turner (Australia) progress towards a Devonian thelodont zonation for East Gondwana; E. Mark-Kurik Devonian fish biostratigraphy in Baltic.
4. Posters: C. Burrow & S. Turner Early Devonian placoderm scales from Australia; S. Turner Brief History of IGCP 328; J. Vergoossen Late Pridoli gnathostomes from Man Brook, Gt Britain; D. Esin Stratigraphical distribution U. Palaeozoic actinopterygians; A. Ivanov Late Devonian vertebrates & Carboniferous-Permian symmoriids of Urals; Ivanov & M. Ginter Early Carboniferous xenacanthids of east Europe; T. Mä rss & R. Thorsteinsson New thelodont from Boothia Peninsula; N. Panteleyev & E. Vorobyeva L. Carboniferous crossopterygian scales & teeth from Siberia; R. Parkes Light microscopy of vertebrate microremains; Turner, Williams & Vergoossen Early Devonian microvertebrates from South Wales; Zhu M., Wang S.T., Liu S-F & Wang N-Z. Silurian vertebrates from Tarim basin, Xinjiang, China.
The second part of the meeting was held in the field, from 9 to 15 September, in northern France and Belgium. 22 participants attended this field trip. It was led by colleagues from the Science and Technology University of Lille (F. Meilliez), the Natural History Museum of Lille (S. Beckary and T. Malvesy), the Polytechnic University of Lille (D. Brice), the Royal Institute of Natural Sciences of Belgium (P. Bultynck and D. Nolf), the Geological Survey of Belgium (L. Hance, E. Groessens and F. Boulvain), the Catholic University of Louvain (M.-C. Groessens-Van Dyck) and the University of Liè ge (E. Goemaere), and by C. Loones and P. Stainier. A guidebook was published (A. Blieck (ed.) USTL, URA 1365 du CNRS, Villeneuve d'Ascq). Two introductory conferences on the Palaeozoic terranes between the Channel and the Rhine river, and on the Palaeozoic vertebrates of northern France and Belgium, were given in the Natural History Museum of Lille. Participants visited the Devonian of the Ferques inlier, Boulonnais, and the Devonian-Carboniferous of the Orneau, Meuse, la Moligné e and Bocq valleys, in the Ardenne. During the field trip, the Palaeozoic vertebrate collections of three institutions were studied, i.e., the Natural History Museum of Lille, the Royal Institute of Natural Sciences of Belgium, Brussels, and the Centre Gré goire Fournier, Maredsous Abbey. Workshops on Cambro-Ordovician vertebrates, placoderms, chondrichthyans, sarcopterygians and a meeting of the IGCP 328 working group on a database project (leader R. Cloutier) were held at the Brogne Abbey, St-Gé rard, Belgium. Heterostracan, placoderm and sarcopterygian remains were collected at several localities in the Boulonnais (railway cut Caffiers-Ferques, Le Griset quarry, Beaulieu brick-yard) and in the Ardenne (Fooz type section and Langlier quarry, Durnal).
IGCP 328 has completed its fifth and last year. A one year without funding (On Extended Term status 1995-96) is requested to enable us to complete scientific final report which is planned as a Courier Forschungs-Institut Senckenberg (Frankfurt am Main) special volume. It will comprise:
1- synthetic chapters on the Silurian (T. Mä rss coord.), the Early Devonian of the Old Red Continent (ORC; A. Blieck coord.), the Middle and Late Devonian of western ORC (D.K. Elliott coord.), the Middle and Late Devonian of eastern ORC (M. Ginter & O. Lebedev coord.), the Devonian of Eastern Gondwana (G.C. Young & S. Turner coord.), the Devonian of Western Gondwana (A. Blieck & H. Leliè vre coord.), the Devonian of China (Zhu Min & Wang Shitao coord.), the Early Carboniferous (C. Derycke & O. Lebedev coord.), the Late Carboniferous and Permian (J. Zajic, J. Schneider, O. Hampe, D. Esin et al.);
2- individual contributions.
We thus also will have time to organise a successor project to IGCP 328 (see below): the provisional theme "Palaeozoic and Mesozoic vertebrates as a tool for marine-non marine correlation: an approach towards integration of palaeontological data" for a draft proposal by A. Blieck, O. Lebedev and S. Turner was published in Turner & Blieck, 1995, Ichth. Iss. Spec. Publ. 1, p. 7-8) and see Schneider, RÖ ß LER & GAITZSCH (1995 ) in Permophiles no. 25. The successor project would focus on a) Upper Palaeozoic (Carboniferous-Permian) and Mesozoic (at least Triassic) vertebrates and related boundary problems: Prof. J. Schneider (Freiberg, FRG) has been contacted to act as co-project leader; and b) Cambro-Ordovician to early Silurian vertebrates: M.P. Smith and I. Sansom (Birmingham, UK) and G.C. Young (Canberra, Australia) have been asked to co-ordinate
Active research is continuing in all Palaeozoic systems, with new discoveries reported in many regions including South Wales, Germany, Lithuania, Moravia, Gornai-Altai, Urals, Timan-Pechora, Poland, Canada, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Bolivia, Brazil, Vietnam, China, Irian Jaya, Australia and Antarctica. Emphasis in the final year has been on producing Silurian to Devonian microvertebrate zonation schemes and categorising useful microvertebrate remains in other parts of the Palaeozoic. IGCP 328 has increased its catalysing effect on Mesozoic fish microvertebrate studies.
Australian-Lithuanian-UK co-operation is underway on a suite of Cambrian-Silurian microvertebrates from Australia, Canada, China, Mongolia, Russia and the USA. French-Belgian co-operation prospecting new sites in the Lower Devonian of the Ardenne, Belgium; French-British co-operation on pterapids of the Welsh Borderland, UK; French-Arabian co-operation of the Early Devonian vertebrates of Saudi Arabia; French-Vietnamese co-operation on Devonian vertebrates of Vietnam; Australian-Polish-UK-Italian co-operation has begun on new Devonian and Triassic microremains. British-Estonian co-operative work took place in Britain on Welsh Borderlands Silurian and Canadian-UK-Netherlands-Swedish-Estonian work on Baltic material. Successful sampling for fish and conodonts was achieved.
Arctic Canadian field work concentrated on collecting Early Devonian rock samples for their contained microvertebrate remains. At the same time, macrovertebrate and invertebrate specimens were collected so that the microvertebrates could be compared with more complete, often articulated specimens. The 1995 expedition to Prince of Wales Island sampled five classic and newly reported localities known to yield acanthodian, placoderm and sarcopterygian fishes of Lower Devonian age. Institutions in Australia, Canada, and France collaborated to collect and process the rocks. At first camp on the east coast of Drake Bay three overlapping sections were sampled; some 200 kg were taken, 60 m of section measured, and collections made of mainly heterostracans, placoderms and sarcopterygians. On the west peninsula of Prince of Wales articulated heterostracans, and placoderms from the quarry of Dr. Ray Thorsteinsson, Geological Survey of Canada, were collected; 18 m of section measured and another 200 kg of samples collected. Rock samples have been shipped to Paris for processing with the macrovertebrate and invertebrate samples. A reference collection is at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. It is hoped that preliminary results of the expedition will be available in mid 1996. Samples from the 1994 Arctic Candian field trip are being processed for the study of vertebrate microremains and preliminary collections being studied.
A field trip in Bolivia (June 1995: Janvier) discoered the first arthrodires in that country redating the supposed Carboniferous Culpatucho Formation as Famennian.
The field meeting in N. France and Belgium has also led to microvertebrate sampling. Work on the Early Frasnian ichthyofauna of Miguasha continues to provide new results (see Cloutier in Blieck 1995). Collecting from measured sections in the Falkland Islands is still planned, in agreement with Dr J. Marshall (U.K.) working on spores who has also been investigating fish materials from the Orcadian Basin and Greenland.
Work continued on major publications with contributions to IGCP 328: the Agnathan volume for the Handbook of Paleoichthyology; the Escuminac Formation book (eds H-P. Schultze & R. Cloutier); and the Gross Symposium volume (over 30 papers now refereed for Modern Geology, eds W. Wimbledon, A. Blieck & S. Turner).
Noteworthy are: 1) clarification of Devonian microvertebrate assemblages, taxa and zonation in Australia (S. Turner, C. Burrow, A. De Pomeroy, G.C. Young); Late Devonian biostratigraphy in Europe (Derycke et al.) and Urals (Ginter thesis, Ginter & Ivanov papers) and; Carboniferous to Triassic xenacanthoid and symmoriid taxa in central Europe (A. Ivanov, J. Zajic, J. Schneider, O. Hampe); new works on Carboniferous/Permian fishes (Poplin & Heyler eds, Ivanov/ Lebedev EDE-94 in press). Other major scientific results include:
* Cambrian: joint Australian/Lithuania work on new central Australian vertebrate remains (Young & Talimaa).
* Ordovician: Work on joint Canadian, French-S. American field expedition material from Bolivia (Gagnier et al. in press Jl S. Amer. Earth Sci.). Sacabambaspis, the oldest (Caradoc) vertebrate of South America from the Anzaldo Formation of central Bolivia, was described by Gagnier (1993). Joint Australian/Lithuanian/UK work on central Australian remains; new remains from the Harding Sandstone, Colorado, USA (Sansom, Smith & Smith, UK).
* Silurian: Publication of the Silurian microvertebrate zonation; joint Australian/Lithuanian work on Early Silurian thelodonts; joint Lithuanian/UK/Chinese work on Mongolepida of Mongolia and South China. New investigations in eastern and Arctic Canada (Canadian-Estonian-French co-operation), Iran, Australia, and UK (Australian-Estonian-Canadian and French-Dutch co-operation on Scottish thelodonts and Welsh Borderland collecting from Silurian stratotype sections with the aim of improving data on conodont and microvertebrate co-occurrences; 100 samples from Silurian borehole material top be studied). Nine fish assemblages have been defined on thelodonts correlated to Estonian assemblages (Karatajute-Talimaa & Brazauskas, 1995). New microvertebrate work in the oil-bearing region of Tarim Basin, Xinjiang, China (Zhu et al. 1995).
* Devonian: New discoveries in the Late Devonian of Iran; Devonian of Queensland; improved vertebrate correlations in the E-L. Devonian of the western U.S.A. (Elliott & Ilyè s, 1995; Ilyè s & Elliott, 1995); continuing Polish-Russian co-operative fieldwork on mid to Late Devonian shark material especially the use of phoebodont teeth in zonation; Mid-Devonian to Upper Carboniferous (Namurian) microvertebrates of N. France/S. Belgium; Devonian vertebrates in the Spanish Pyré né es; Early Devonian Jauf Formation fauna (Leliè vre et al. 1995). ). Late Devonian sections on the Velikaya River, Pskov, Piskovichi, Snetnaya Hill and Syas River, Russia, investigated.
* Carboniferous: Intensified work on Carboniferous in Australia, Moscow Basin, Msta River, Borovichi, Tula, Timan-Pechora, Urals, northern Caucasus, U.K., Belgium, Germany and U.S.A. is clarifying the evolution and usefulness of several taxa of chondrichthyan teeth in Carboniferous biostratigraphy.
* Permian: Synthetic work underway in the Donetz Basin of Russia, Saar-Nahe Basin, Germany, Parana Basin of Brazil, and the Krkonose Piedmont Basin.
* Beyond: Continued interest in P/T and younger Mesozoic studies and new microvertebrate biochronological studies especially in Europe, India, Australia, South America; papers by M. Johns on Triassic microvertebrates from conodont-dated samples in western Canada with an analysis of shark scales in press.
* Taxonomy: Increase in workshops and papers attempting to clarify taxonomy especially of thelodont scales, chondrichthyan teeth and scales, acanthodian scales, placoderm scales, actinopterygian scales, lungfish and other sarcopterygian remains. New lines of enquiry into the hypothesis of conodont/ vertebrate relationships and the origins of hard tissues in Cambro-Ordovician vertebrates/chordates include histochemical methods and micro-ornament significance.
2.2. List of Meetings with Approximate Attendance and Number of Countries
* The final IGCP 328 international meeting in Paris 4-8 Sept. 1995 (attendance 120+; 22 countries).
* IGCP 328: S.D.S joint field meeting to N. France/Belgium, 9-15 September1995: (attendance: 22 from 13 countries);
* IGCP 328 Field Meeting in Arctic Canada, July 13-31 1995: (5 participants from 3 countries).
* IGCP 328 Workshops and technical sessions at: SVP N. America Oct 1994. Seattle USA; Australian Identification Workshops at CAVEPS, April 1995 in A.G.S.O. Canberra; at AUSCOS/BOUCOT, July 1995 Macquarie University, Sydney (attendance 100; 15 countries: workshops 15 from 5 and13 from 4 respectively); MNHN, Paris, Sept. 1995; MHN, Lille, RMBrussels, Centre Gregoire Fournier Museum, Abbaye de Brogne, Belgium, Sept. 1995 (19 from 13 countries); VPCA, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Sept 1995 (8 from 5 countries); Institute of Geology, Tallinn/Saaremaa field trip, Sept 1995 (5 people from 5 countries).
* IGCP 328 Business Meeting at: Amphitheatre, Musé um national d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, 7th Sept. 1995 (attendance 36);
* IGCP 328 representation also at: C.A.V.E.P.S, Canberra, April 1995; AUSCOS 1/BOUCOT Symposium, Sydney, July 1995; XIII Int. Congress On Carboniferous-Permian, Aug. 28-Sept. 2 1995, Krakow, Poland; Int. meeting Evolution of Ecosystems, 26-30 Sept. 1995, Moscow.
2.3. Number of Publications (Including Maps): List of Major or Most Important Publications.
Since January 1995 more than 200 items resulting from project activities, comprising several articles, abstracts, as well as papers in refereed books and journals, and doctoral theses.
Significant contributions to microvertebrate biochronology are reviews of Devonian microvertebrate zonation in the Taraya Key section (central Taimyr), Taimyr Peninsula, Russia (Tcherkesova & Karatajute-Talimaa 1994; English summary in Spec. Publ. no. 1); in: "Key sections of the Middle/Upper Devonian and Frasnian/Famennian boundaries in the marginal part of Kuznetsk Basin", Guidebook of field trip, Novosibirsk (Ivanov A., Vyushkova L. & Esin D.); and Belarus' (Talimaa et al. 1995, in Spec. Publ. no. 1); a major revision of the Australian Geological Survey Organisation Devonian Timescale with combined microvertebrate range/zonation column by G.C. Young (with contributions from other Australian participants) in mid 1995; and M. Ginter's Ph. D. thesis on Devonian ichthyoliths of Poland and the Urals and their stratigraphic significance which sampled localities from upper Givetian to Namurian levels of the Holy Cross Mountains and the Urals region of Russia.
In addition:
ANON. 1995. Premiers Verté bré s et Verté bré s infé rieurs, (VIIIdeg. Congrè s International) Paris, 4-9 septembre 1995. Abstracts & programme, Lab. de Palé ontologie du Musé um National d'Histoire naturelle, URA 12 et URA 1365 du C.N.R.S., France: 46 pp.
ARSENAULT, M, LELIÈ VRE, H. & JANVIER, P. (eds) 1995. É tudes sur les Verté bré s infé rieurs. VII Symposium international, Parc de Miguasha, Qué bec, 1991. Bulletin du Musé um national d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, Sectn C, 4 ser., t. 17, 1995, (1-4), 529pp. Over 11 papers published relevant to IGCP 328 aims.
BLIECK, A. (ed.) 1995. Guidebook for IGCP 328/SDS Joint Field Trip Boulonnais (France) - Ardenne (Belgium), September 9-15, 1995. VIIIth International Meeting on Early Vertebrates/Lower Vertebrates (Paris-Lille, September 4-15, 1995). 120pp. Includes major review of Palaeozoic (Uppermost Silurian-Devonian-Carboniferous) vertebrates from North France/Belgium by Blieck, Candilier, Cloutier, Derycke, Leliè vre.
HÜ NICKEN, M.A. (ed.) 1995. IGCP Project No. 271: South American Palaeozoic Conodontology - Proceedings of LACON I [1990, Cochabamba (Bolivia) & Cordoba y San juan (Argentina)], LACON II [1992, Cordoba (Argentina)] and III Int. Meet. [1991, Porto Alegre, Brazil]. Boletin Academia Nacional de Ciencias 60, 3-4: 560pp. Includes Bibliography of Latin American Palaeozoic fish by Turner, Blieck, Gagnier, Janvier & Richter.
LELIÈ VRE, H., WENZ, S., BLIECK, A. & CLOUTIER, R. (eds) Premiers Verté bré s et Verté bré s infé rieurs, (VIII Congr. Intern, Paris, 4-9 septembre 1995). Geobios Mé moire Spé cial No. 19, 409pp., 26 papers published relevant to IGCP 328 aims.
MÄ RSS T., FREDHOLM D., KARATAJUTE-TALIMAA V., TURNER S., JEPPSSON L. & NOWLAN G. 1995. Silurian Vertebrate Biozonal scheme. In Leliè vre, H., Wenz, S., Blieck, A. & Cloutier, R. (eds) Premiers verté bré s et verté bré s infé rieurs, (VIII Congr. Intern, Paris, 4-9 septembre 1995). Geobios Mé moire Spé cial No. 19, 369-372.
SCHNEIDER, J., RÖ ß LER & GAITZSCH 1995 . Proposal of a combined reference sequence of the Central European continental Carboniferous and Permian for correlations with marine standard. in J. Utting, Permophiles no. 25.
TURNER, S. (ed.)1995. Palaeozoic Microvertebrates 1995 Report: Moscow-94 Workshop. Ichthyolith Issues Special Publication no. 1, 71pp. IGCP 328: J.J. Zidek Serv., Socorro. Includes 11 papers.
2.4. List of Countries Involved in Project (*indicates countries active this year)
ALGERIA; *ARGENTINA; *AUSTRALIA; AUSTRIA; *BELARUS, *BELGIUM; BOLIVIA; *BRAZIL; *BURMA; *CANADA; CHILE; *CHINA; *CZECH REPUBLIC; DENMARK; *EIRE; *ESTONIA; *FRANCE; *GERMANY; GREENLAND; *HONG KONG; HUNGARY; *INDIA; *IRAN; *IRIAN JAYA; *ITALY; *JAPAN; *LATVIA; LIBYA; *LITHUANIA; MALAYSIA; MOROCCO; MONGOLIA; *NETHERLANDS; NEW ZEALAND; NORWAY; PAKISTAN; *POLAND; PORTUGAL; ROMANIA; *RUSSIA; SAUDI ARABIA; *SOUTH AFRICA; *SPAIN; *SWEDEN; THAILAND; TIMOR; TURKEY; *UKRAINE, *UNITED KINGDOM; URUGUAY; *USA; *VENEZUELA; *VIETNAM (about 50 countries involved), ZIMBABWE (new interest).
2.5. Activities Involving Other IGCP Projects, IUGS or Major Participation of Scientists from Developing Countries.
Participants actively co-operating with IGCP 306 (Stratigraphic correlation in southeast Asia); IGCP 321 (Gondwana dispersion and Asian accretion); IGCP 335 (Recovery from extinction events); IUGS Subcommissions on Silurian and Devonian Stratigraphy (contact also with Carboniferous and Permian Subcommissions); International Palaeontological Association; Pander Society; Mongolian Academy of Sciences/Geological Survey of Mongolia.
3. Proposed Activities of the Project for the Year Ahead.
3.1. General Goals
To achieve publication of the many projects initiated and carried out under the IGCP 328 banner. An important activity will be to communicate and foster the agreed unified database system using the SVP Guidelines, to continue to hold workshops to aid identification and to prepare reference materials. Regional correlation charts for the Middle Palaeozoic (Silurian-Devonian) to be presented in the Final Report. Work to complete publications resulting from previous IGCP 328 meetings (see publications list) and towards the Special Report on UK Palaeozoic microvertebrates and possible textbook/ atlas of microvertebrates is underway. Systematic and biostratigraphic analysis of new material will continue and results will be incorporated into new Palaeozoic microvertebrate schemes. The first part of the Walter Gross Symposium volume (thematic issue of Modern Geology) comprising 15 manuscripts should be published during 1995. The Final Report will be in the form of a Courier Forschungs-Institut Senckenberg.
Participants to the France/Belgium meeting and field trip plan to meet in 1997 in Berlin, FRG (given the acceptance of a successor project to IGCP 328; during the 2nd international meeting on Mesozoic fishes), and in 1999 in Flagstaff, Arizona, USA (for the 9th international meeting on lower vertebrates). Others will attend the Ordovician and Silurian meetings in 1996 and planning has begun in earnest for a Field Meeting to western Mongolia in 1998 (with interest from the S.S.S. and S.D.S.).
3.2. Specific Meetings and Field Trips (*Indicates Participation by Developing Countries)
Participation in IGCP 321 meeting, Vietnam, Nov 1995*.
Possible Workshop at SVPCA Meeting, Pittsburgh, USA, November 1995.3.3. Proposed Major Publications
Proceedings of previous International Symposia, the Gross Symposium (Gö ttingen), the DECWOL Symposium (Modern Geology) including contributions by project members are expected to come out in late 1995 or 1996. The Escuminac Formation volume (Schultze & Cloutier eds: Paleontology and Geology of the Upper Devonian Escuminac Formation from Qué bec, Canada, Verlag Dr. Pfeil, Mü nchen) is in press. J.A. Long - a new edition of Moy-Thomas & Miles Palaeozoic Fishes is in press. P. Janvier is writing a book on Early Vertebrate Anatomy, H.-P. Schultze one on The Devonian, the Age of Fishes. Collections of papers (Karatajute-Talimaa, V.N. et al.) have been prepared for publication on vertebrate assemblages from Lower Devonian deposits of north-eastern Timan-Pechora Region; one on Siberian microvertebrates (V. Talimaa) is to be published in Novosibirsk, 1995; and one on the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago (Talimaa, Ivanov et al. in Menner and Matukhin eds.). Publication of the thesis of Dr C. Derycke on Devonian-Carboniferous microvertebrates of Western Europe (as Mé moire MNHN, Paris). A Geological Society of London Stratigraphic Committee 'Guide to Palaeozoic microvertebrates in UK' now in preparation stage, planned publication date 1996/7 (eds Turner & V.T. Young). Handbook of Agnatha nearing completion (Blieck, Elliott, Janvier, Forey, Turner); Ordovician and Devonian agnathans and chondrichthyans of Bolivia (Blieck, Gagnier, Janvier).
1. papers submitted to Bull. Soc. Geol. Fr.: D.K. Elliott, C.M. Dehler & J. Evans - Marine-nonmarine microvertebrate correlation in the Lower Devonian of the western United States; S.K. Haslett - Biostratigraphy and its relation to palaeo seal-level in the Lower Old Red Sandstone (Siluro-Devonian) of southern Gwent, UK; M. Richter & M.M. Smith - Ganoine & fish systematics; K. Trinajstic - The role of heterochrony in the evolution of eubrachythoracid arthrodires etc. from the late Devonian Gogo Fm., W. Australia; S. Turner - An Early Silurian zone fossil, Loganellia avonia nov. sp., from the Welsh Borderland; Ivanov & Ginter - Early Carboniferous xenacanthids from eastern Europe.
2. Final report planned for Courier Forschungs-Institut Senckenberg to include synthetic chapters on:
the Silurian (T. Mä rss coord.), the Early Devonian of the Old Red Continent (ORC; A. Blieck coord.), the Middle and Late Devonian of western ORC (D.K. Elliott coord.), the Middle and Late Devonian of eastern ORC (M. Ginter & O. Lebedev coord.), the Devonian of Eastern Gondwana (G.C. Young & S. Turner coord.), the Devonian of Western Gondwana (A. Blieck & H. Leliè vre coord.), the Devonian of China (Zhu Min & Wang Shitao coord.), the Early Carboniferous (C. Derycke & O. Lebedev coord.), the Late Carboniferous and Permian (J. Zajic, J. Schneider, O. Hampe, D. Esin et al.); and individual contributions.
3.4. Annual Publications List
See appended list.
4. Projected Funding Request
Not applicable.
5. Request for Extension, On-Extended Status, or Intention to Propose Successor Project
An extension of one year with On-Extended Status is requested so that we might complete production of the Final Volume intended for Courier Forschungs-Institut Senckenberg.
We are planning to submit a successor project proposal this year with emphasis on a) on Upper Palaeozoic (Carboniferous-Permian) and Mesozoic (at least Triassic) vertebrates. J. Schneider, Freiberg, FRG, and Georges Gand (France) have been contacted to act as co-ordinators, and
b) Cambro-Ordovician to Early Silurian vertebrates with a subtheme of "Circum-Arctic Lower Palaeozoic vertebrate paleontology and biostratigraphy". Possible co-ordinators M.P. Smith and I. Sansom (University of Birmingham, UK) / G.C. Young (A.G.S.O., Australia).
6. Summary
Our publication list and news recorded in our newsletter Ichthyolith Issues are indicative of the high level of activity and significant new field discoveries in many countries. Particularly important and hopefully spurred on by the project are the significant numbers of new students, both young and old, who are now tackling microvertebrate studies (about 15 new people at present). Our address list includes around 500 researchers/institutions about 200 with an active involvement in the project. The strong publication effort by project participants has continued during 1995. Work is underway on a UK microvertebrate handbook directed at non-specialists, as well as a more general text to help clarify the types of material studied and their potential for biocorrelation.
Our annual project funds were directed towards the meetings in France and Belgium (funding especially participants from the former Soviet countries and China), with smaller amounts for participation by workers from Australia, Netherlands, Wales, and the USA. Project funds were supplemented by grants from other bodies (IGCP national committees in Australia, France, and UK and help from other national or institutional grants to individuals). Other major financial support for the VIIIth International Early Vertebrates meeting and Final IGCP meetings came from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France, CNRSlabs, Musé um national d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille. The Arctic Field Meeting received funding from the Polar Continental Shelf Project (Canada), Northern Science Training Program (Canada) through McGill University, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (through University of Alberta), and National Museum of Natural History (France).
7. Other Information Considered Relevant
7.1. Communication
Two Ichthyolith Issues were produced this year (No. 14, 64 pp.; No. 15, 56 pp.). No. 16 will be out before the end of the year.
An updated address list will be put on the Internet via the SDS Home Page which has carried information on IGCP 328 business in 1995.
An International Microvertebrate Working Group Home Page on the WWW and a discussion group on the Internet are being investigated.
Two video films of the Devonian and Carboniferous stratotype sections in France and Belgium were made By Drs Ivanov and Lebedev.
7.2 Publicity in 1995
Articles on Australian Workshops and IGCP work in 1995 submitted to The Australian Geologist.Articles in Gé ochronique , Journal APF, Europal Newsletter, Geoscientist, SVP News Bulletin.
Lethaia Forum on the Moscow and Final ParisSymposia.
1994-5 work will be submitted to Episodes.
Articles in Chinese Fossils and Japanese journals and magazines and in other palaeontological society news bulletins.