Miura City, Kanagawa Prefecture, central
Japan. Abstracts of the 1998 Annual
Meeting of the Palaeontological Society of
Japan. p. 30.
Goto M., & Okura M. 1998. Palaeozoic fish
remains from the Fukuji, Hida Gaien belt,
central Japan. Abstracts of the 105^th
Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of
Japan. p. 297.
Goto M. 1998. Origin of tooth in vertebrates.
Abstracts of the 147^thregular meeting of
the Palaeontological Society of Japan. p.
45.
Goto M. 1998. Histological structure of the
teeth and denticles of a female megamouth
shark, Megachasma pelagious, from hakata
Bay, Japan. Abstracts of the 52^ndAnnual
Meeting for the Geological Collaboration in
Japan. p. 225.
Goto M. 1997. Origin and evolution of bone.
Journal of the Society of Biomechanisms,
21 (4). pp. 157 - 162.
Goto M. 1998. Origin and evolution of the
human tooth. Acta Anatomica Nipponica,
Vol. 73, No.1. pp. 59-60.
Goto M., & Kimura, M. 1998. A summary of
elasmobranch remains from Hokkaido,
Japan. Jour. Fossil Res., 31 (1). pp. 1-6. Goto M., Okura M., & Palaeozoic Fish
Research Group. 1997. A restoration of
the Palaeozoic fish remains from Japan.
Abstracts of the 51th Annual Meeting for
the Geological Collaboration in Japan. pp.
157-158.
Uyeno T., Goto M., & Tanaka T. (editors).
1997. Newsletter for Fossil Shark Tooth
Research. 4. The Japanese Club for Fossil
Shark Tooth Research.
Uyeno T., Goto M., & Tanaka T. (editors).
1998. Newsletter for Fossil Shark Tooth
Research. 6. The Japanese Club for Fossil
Shark Tooth Research.

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Walter HOFFMAN, 5743 Idar-Oberstein, Kiefernstr. 2 GERMANY.
E-mail: WALHOFF@HOTMAIL.COM

I am still collecting fossil shark remains, but also fossil fishes. Since collecting here in Rheinland-Pfalz is very restricted, we spend our holidays at Great Britain (Kent) every year for fossil hunting. This summer we were again at Great Britain to collect sharks teeth. Most of the time we were searching the London Clay at the Isle of Sheppey. We found some really nice material and met some new collectors at the beach.
Because my profession is very time consuming, it is not possible for me to attend meetings like the one at Buckow, even so it would be very interesting for me. But who knows, one day I will join you and the other members of the Working Group. So I am waiting for Ichthyolith Issuesto read what is going on. (The wait is over, Walter-ed.)
*****************
¶Armin LEIDNER, Schneidemühler Weg 12, D-30659 Hannover, GERMANY

Phone: 49 (0)511/649 86 70

In 1997 I finished my Master-Thesis on Late Jurassic elasmobranchs under the guidance of Detlev Thies. By his intercession with different institutions I got the chance to sample articulated specimens from the collections for the scales. I have produced a comprehensive catalogue of sharks and rays displaying their scale morphology. Isolated scales can now be attributed to a certain species or genus, avoiding the difficulties of parataxonomy for the microremains with the splitting of morphotypes belonging to the same species. Specimens lacking visible remains of the oral teeth or even the complete head can now be assigned at least to a particular genus. From this new taxonomic important tool it follows that the systematics of Late Jurassic elasmobranchs can be corrected, more or less dubious synonyms can be confirmed or disproved, and this has consequent effects on higher taxa.

First results of my work were presented in a talk at the Mesozoic Fish Meeting at Buckow in July 1997 and with a poster on the identification of headless holotypes at the European Workshop of Vertebrate Palaeontology at Maastricht (May 1998). Currently my fish work has stopped due to the common difficulties in fund raising, but still I hope to stay in the business for a doctor's thesis. The taxonomy of some Late Jurassic elasmobranchs needs more comprehensive work and I hope to resolve these riddles, so that the isolated scales may become a reliable source for palaeoecological and even stratigraphic information. A publication as a comprehensive catalogue is planned, co-authored with Detlev Thies, comprising information about specimens, oral teeth and placoid scale morphology.
* * * * * * * * *
¶Alexander MUDROCH, Inst. f. Geologie u. Palontologie, Universit t HANNOVER, Germany

Papers of interest:
Mudroch A. & Thies D. 1996. Stronium-
Isotopie fossiler Fischzäne als
Salinitätsindikator. Terra Nostra Schriften
der Alfred-Wegener-Stifung 96/6 66.
Jahrestagung der Paläntologischen
Gesellschaft Vortrags-und
Posterkurzfassungen 22-28 September
1996, Leipzig, Germany: p64.
Mudroch A., Thies D., and Baumann A. 1997.
Sr isotopic evolution of Late Jurassic
epeiric seas shown on ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr analysis of
fossil fish teeth. Journal of the Czech
Geological Society42(3): p89.

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