MsoDockBottom

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Australia; Alain Blieck (Univ. Lille) et al.the Devonian to Early Carboniferous of the Carnic Alps; and Claire Derycke (Univ. Lille) the Devonian of Mauritania. These microvertebrate studies have resulted mostly from earlier IGCP 328 work and from sequential sampling associated with refined biochronological conodont investigations, the exception being the Mauritanian study where fish were found as a result of a review of Devonian chonetid brachiopods.
Tamara Nemyrovska (Ukrainian Acad. Sciences, Kiev) presented phylogenetic data on Gnathodus bilineatus from the Rheinisches Schiefergebirge. Then came the Carboniferous: Glenn Merrill (Univ. Houston) presented biostratigraphic analysis of Neognathodusand Peter von Bitter (Roy. Ontario Museum, Toronto) reconstructed Gondolellafrom Illinois. The moveable feast then shifted location to the University of Modena.
Cooler conditions prevailed and the last day began with a large batch of papers concerning Ordovician conodont faunas. Tatania Tolmacheva (VSEGEI, St Petersberg) reported on basinal Upper Cambrian to Middle Ordovician conodont clusters. Jerzy Dzik (Pol. Acad. Sciences, Warszawa) reported on Ordovician climate modelling on conodont data from the Holy Cross Mountains. Chris Barnes (Univ. Victoria) drew together a vast array of circum Laurentian Late Ordovician conodont data into a regional biofacies synthesis. Oliver Lehnert (Univ. Erlangen- Nürnberg) reported on middle Ordovician faunas from Argentina. Stig Bergström (Ohio State Uni.) reported on some Late Middle Ordovician conodonts from Norway with Laurentian affinities; this palaeogeographic anomaly indicated the potential of geochemical studies (particularly neodymium) in unravelling puzzles of provinciality. Sven Stouge (Geol. Surv. Denmark and Greenland) considered the suprageneric taxonomy of some Ordovician lineages.
John Talent and Ruth Mawson (Macquarie Uni., Sydney) presented Carboniferous conodont data from northeastern Australia permitting some stratigraphic realignments. Anna Somersville (Univ. College, Dublin) showed three upper Viséan sections from Ireland; Tamara Nemyrovska (Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, Kiev) on faunas from the Donets Basin, Ukraine, and Alexander Alekseev (Moscow State Uni.) on faunas from the Moscow Basin. The final offering was from Bruce Wardlaw (U.S.G.S.) on Permian faunas from the Salt Range, Pakistan. Heinz Kozur (Budapest) reported the Permo-Triassic biotic crisis. Selan Meco (Univ. Politeknik, Tirana) covered the Triassic of Albania and Mike Orchard (Geol. Surv., Canada) reviewed on Triassic multielement gondolellids.
The final session returned to the palaeobiological theme. Richard Krejsa (California Polytech.) expressed his biological concerns about basal bodies. Kim Freedman

(Univ. Leicester) discussed the taphonomy and function of the Promissumapparatus. Phil Donoghue (Univ. Birmingham) resolved the paradox of growth and function in conodont elements with a study of internal discontinuities. Mark Purnell (Univ. Leicester) built on knowledge of form and function of conodont apparatuses to undertake a broad trophic analysis. Karsten Weddige (Forsch. Senckenberg) produced a "scissor and basket" model for Lower Devonian spathognathodid apparatuses.
In many ways this ECOS was one of consolidation of the primary biochronologic utility of conodonts. There were a large number of high quality poster presentations mostly covering biostratigraphic issues, but also including biofacies analysis, thermal analysis, palaeobiology and palaeogeography. Unlike some previous ECOS conferences that have sparked a revolution in scientific thinking about conodonts and generated passionate debate both during and outside of scientific sessions (such as multielement taxonomy - ECOS 1, zoological affinities - ECOS 4), or held out promise of new insights through geochemistry (ECOS 5), this conference was dominated by the traditional applications of conodontology. This is not to say that ECOS 7 was any less significant than previous events. Quite the opposite, in fact, as the vast array of new data demonstrates the intrinsic international strength of modern conodont research. Conference organisers are to be congratulated for developing a scientific program that showed how conodont research continues to gather momentum across a broad range of geological and biological applications. The organisers were also responsible for producing a social program that can only be described as breath taking in scope and style. This program acted as an excellent catalyst for collaborative international communication and will be a hard act to follow for future ECOS organisers.
The IGCP421 project meeting benefited enormously through its concurrence with ECOS 7. Nine of the 108 conference abstracts, principally those dealing with other fossil groups, were specifically marked as exclusive contributions to IGCP421. The vast majority of the papers presented, however, were directly relevant to IGCP421 project outcomes as they dealt with high-resolution Palaeozoic biochronology and inter-regional correlations of direct relevance to the north Gondwana margin. This project continues to generate an enormous volume of data and foster the international collaboration essential for the ambitious synthesis to follow.

See also the British Micropalaeontological Society Newsletter ( http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted_sites/bms/, reports in Geochronique(by Catherine Girard and Marie-France Perret) and in Nachrichten Deutsche Geologische Gesellschaft(by Dieter Stoppel).

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Australia; Alain Blieck (Univ. Lille) et al.the Devonian to Early Carboniferous of the Carnic Alps; and Claire Derycke (Univ. Lille) the Devonian of Mauritania. These microvertebrate studies have resulted mostly from earlier IGCP 328 work and from sequential sampling associated with refined biochronological conodont investigations, the exception being the Mauritanian study where fish were found as a result of a review of Devonian chonetid brachiopods. Tamara Nemyrovska (Ukrainian Acad. Sciences, Kiev) presented phylogenetic data on Gnathodus bilineatus from the Rheinisches Schiefergebirge. Then came the Carboniferous: Glenn Merrill (Univ. Houston) presented biostratigraphic analysis of Neognathodusand Peter von Bitter (Roy. Ontario Museum, Toronto) reconstructed Gondolellafrom Illinois. The moveable feast then shifted location to the University of Modena. Cooler conditions prevailed and the last day began with a large batch of papers concerning Ordovician conodont faunas. Tatania Tolmacheva (VSEGEI, St Petersberg) reported on basinal Upper Cambrian to Middle Ordovician conodont clusters. Jerzy Dzik (Pol. Acad. Sciences, Warszawa) reported on Ordovician climate modelling on conodont data from the Holy Cross Mountains. Chris Barnes (Univ. Victoria) drew together a vast array of circum Laurentian Late Ordovician conodont data into a regional biofacies synthesis. Oliver Lehnert (Univ. Erlangen- Nürnberg) reported on middle Ordovician faunas from Argentina. Stig Bergström (Ohio State Uni.) reported on some Late Middle Ordovician conodonts from Norway with Laurentian affinities; this palaeogeographic anomaly indicated the potential of geochemical studies (particularly neodymium) in unravelling puzzles of provinciality. Sven Stouge (Geol. Surv. Denmark and Greenland) considered the suprageneric taxonomy of some Ordovician lineages. John Talent and Ruth Mawson (Macquarie Uni., Sydney) presented Carboniferous conodont data from northeastern Australia permitting some stratigraphic realignments. Anna Somersville (Univ. College, Dublin) showed three upper Viséan sections from Ireland; Tamara Nemyrovska (Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, Kiev) on faunas from the Donets Basin, Ukraine, and Alexander Alekseev (Moscow State Uni.) on faunas from the Moscow Basin. The final offering was from Bruce Wardlaw (U.S.G.S.) on Permian faunas from the Salt Range, Pakistan. Heinz Kozur (Budapest) reported the Permo-Triassic biotic crisis. Selan Meco (Univ. Politeknik, Tirana) covered the Triassic of Albania and Mike Orchard (Geol. Surv., Canada) reviewed on Triassic multielement gondolellids. The final session returned to the palaeobiological theme. Richard Krejsa (California Polytech.) expressed his biological concerns about basal bodies. Kim Freedman		(Univ. Leicester) discussed the taphonomy and function of the Promissumapparatus. Phil Donoghue (Univ. Birmingham) resolved the paradox of growth and function in conodont elements with a study of internal discontinuities. Mark Purnell (Univ. Leicester) built on knowledge of form and function of conodont apparatuses to undertake a broad trophic analysis. Karsten Weddige (Forsch. Senckenberg) produced a "scissor and basket" model for Lower Devonian spathognathodid apparatuses. In many ways this ECOS was one of consolidation of the primary biochronologic utility of conodonts. There were a large number of high quality poster presentations mostly covering biostratigraphic issues, but also including biofacies analysis, thermal analysis, palaeobiology and palaeogeography. Unlike some previous ECOS conferences that have sparked a revolution in scientific thinking about conodonts and generated passionate debate both during and outside of scientific sessions (such as multielement taxonomy - ECOS 1, zoological affinities - ECOS 4), or held out promise of new insights through geochemistry (ECOS 5), this conference was dominated by the traditional applications of conodontology. This is not to say that ECOS 7 was any less significant than previous events. Quite the opposite, in fact, as the vast array of new data demonstrates the intrinsic international strength of modern conodont research. Conference organisers are to be congratulated for developing a scientific program that showed how conodont research continues to gather momentum across a broad range of geological and biological applications. The organisers were also responsible for producing a social program that can only be described as breath taking in scope and style. This program acted as an excellent catalyst for collaborative international communication and will be a hard act to follow for future ECOS organisers. The IGCP421 project meeting benefited enormously through its concurrence with ECOS 7. Nine of the 108 conference abstracts, principally those dealing with other fossil groups, were specifically marked as exclusive contributions to IGCP421. The vast majority of the papers presented, however, were directly relevant to IGCP421 project outcomes as they dealt with high-resolution Palaeozoic biochronology and inter-regional correlations of direct relevance to the north Gondwana margin. This project continues to generate an enormous volume of data and foster the international collaboration essential for the ambitious synthesis to follow. See also the British Micropalaeontological Society Newsletter ( http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted_sites/bms/, reports in *Geochronique(by Catherine Girard and Marie-France Perret) and in Nachrichten Deutsche* *Geologische* *Gesellschaft*(by Dieter Stoppel).
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