support these conclusions. Marek Lewandowski presented a series of palaeogeographic maps for Gondwana, Baltica, and Laurentia for the early Ordovician - early Permian time span. Tatiana Modzalevskaya reported on similar isotopic signatures in Ludlow brachiopods from the Timan-Pechora region and Gotland; Tiiu Märss added that the carbon isotope curve found by her student, T. Martma, in sections from Baillie-Hamilton and Cornwallis islands is very similar. Peep Männik contributed conodont age data for the Canadian island sections, and recognized two Telychian conodont faunal provinces - one connected with northern and northeastern parts of Baltica and Laurentia, and the other with the southeastern parts of the same palaeocontinents.

Timan-Pechora Workshop

Topics discussed:
*the state of studies of Lower-Middle
Palaeozoic strata in the region; *publication;
*IGCP 406 future meeting in Syktyvkar
and excursions to the Timan-Pechora
region, July 2000.

During recent decades extensive geological studies (palaeontology, sedimentology, mineralogy, geochemistry etc.) have been carried out in the Timan-Pechora region. Many outcrops and core sections were studied in detail. Conferences and field-meetings (e.g. 1983, 1987), many papers and monographic studies have been published (T. Beznosova) or prepared (A. Abushik and L. Shamsutdinova; S. Melnikov in press) - unfortunately, almost all in Russian. All participants agreed that the main task now is to publish in English. To begin with, 4-5 papers dealing with general problems of Silurian and Devonian palaeontology, stratigraphy, sedimentology and palaeogeography will be published at the end of 1999 in Estonia (in the Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, Geology Series). Also, some authors are thinking about the possibility of re-publishing their monographs in English. As the Timan-Pechora region is one of the easiest, and least expensive of the Arctic regions to reach, and as the Palaeozoic strata are well exposed and studied there, it was chosen as best region for the last IGCP 406 field meeting. The specialists working in the region accepted this suggestion enthusiastically and preparations began - see Circulars of the meeting "Palaeozoic pan-Arctic Tectonics, and Evolution of Basins and Fauna" Syktyvkar, Russia, July 12-15, 2000 (CAPV- 2000)(see web site).

Workshop on Early Fossil Record of Chondrichthyans
This attracted many scientists and graduate students with interests in early fossil

chondrichthyans, including several who had not previously participated in IGCP 406 meetings. Participants had the opportunity to examine brought specimens as well as the microvertebrate collections of the Geology Institute, Warsaw. Technical papers were presented; examples being Hanke and Wilson on a diverse assemblage of acanthodian-like chondrichthyans and chondrichthyan-like acanthodians from the Lochkovian MOTH locality in northern Canada; Karatajute- Talimaa and Mertiniene on morphogenetic types of Devonian and Carboniferous chondrichthyan scales. Undoubted Devonian chondrichthyans were presentedby M. Williams, K. Trinajstic, and C. Derycke; and Late Palaeozoic chondrichthyans by A. Ivanov, R. Soler-Gijon, O. Hampe, and G. Johnson.

New Working Group:
Early and Middle Palaeozoic Basins in the Circum-Arctic Region: Palaeotectonics and Palaeogeography

V.V. Menner and P. Männik proposed this working group at the business meeting. The new group's objective would give special attention to comparative analysis of data from different parts of the Circum-Arctic region, with the aim of reconstructing the palaeogeographical situation, and to evaluating and improving palaeotectonic reconstructions.
Studies would focus in the following directions:
1. Improvement of global correlations of Silurian and Devonian sequences (based on detailed studies of some selected intervals, particularly of the series boundaries). 2. Comparative analysis of the evolution of the Silurian and Devonian sedimentary basins in Canada, Greenland, NE Europe (Timan- Pechora region) and the northern part of central Siberia.
3. Comparison of associations of Silurian and Devonian faunas (brachiopods, ostracodes, conodonts, vertebrates, etc.) from different palaeobasins in the Circum-Arctic region. 4. Improvement of biogeographical subdivision of the studied regions.
5. Evaluation and improvement of palaeotectonic reconstructions.
A more detailed program is found on the web site; as of September 1999, however, little interest had been shown. Please contact organisers of you wish to participate. *************************************

IGCP 406 1999 Meeting, Jurmala, Latvia
The 1999 Annual Meeting of IGCP 406 was held in September, in connection with the 4^th Baltic Stratigraphical Association in Jurmala, near Riga, Latvia. The meeting was ably co- organised by members of the Latvian University, Dr Ervins Lukseviks and team.