1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

18

collected on Ellesmere Island in 1975.
3. Members of the Greenland Working Group continue studies of biostratigraphically and paleobiologically important fossils from Greenland. H. Blom and J. Peel (Sweden) are correlating microvertebrates from North Greenland with faunas in other regions. Plans for research in East Greenland (Denmark, UK) include completion of collaborative studies by 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. 4. For the working groups dealing with the Russian Arctic, completion and publication 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 and rock samples with researchers in as many disciplines as possible.
5. A major opportunity for collaborations involves field excursions, core examination, and workshops surrounding the 2000 Annual IGCP 406's annual meeting to be held in Syktyvkar, Russia, with workshops in Ukhta. Some major problems of apparent conflict in the correlation of Russian sections with sections elsewhere in the world will receive significant attention in the coming year.
6. As has been the case in each year of the project, numerous smaller workshops will be held in regional centres as well.
7. IGCP 406 participants will also meet with other researchers at the Early/Lower Vertebrates meeting in Flagstaff, U.S.A., in 2000, hosted by D. Elliott. This meeting will also give the opportunity for many researchers to visit important Ordovician and Devonian field sites in Colorado, Utah, and Nevada.

3.2 Specific meetings and field trips
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 completed to date 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, which was mailed in 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. 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. 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.
A detailed meeting plan is attached to this report as an Appendix.
2. D. Elliott of USA is organizing the 2000 Early/Lower Vertebrates meeting to be held in Flagstaff, Arizona during the month of May. Associated field excursions will visit Ordovician and Devonian field sites in Colorado, Utah, and Nevada.
To complement the Syktyvkar meeting of IGCP 406, and to avoid diverting too many resources to Flagstaff at the expense of our Syktyvkar meeting, our project will give limited support to researchers presenting paleobiological research specifically on vertebrates in Flagstaff, while giving strong support to palaeontological and biostratigraphic studies of all fossil groups, and of related geological studies, at the Syktyvkar meeting. 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 plans: 2001 and beyond
1. The year 2000 will be the last year for IGCP 406; however, numerous collaborative projects and joint publication efforts have been initiated and will continue for several years after the close of the project. These international collaborations represent one of the most important and lasting benefits of IGCP 406.
2. Several possibilities exist for potential IGCP project proposals in the next few years. The current members of IGCP 406 are enthusiastic about supporting additional proposals, particularly ones that bring together vertebrate paleontologists with geologists and biostratigraphers to study difficult problems of intercontinental biogeography and correlation. Ideas for future projects will be discussed further at the Flagstaff and Syktyvkar meetings; one or