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Newsletter Number 54 The Palaeontology Newsletter Contents 54 Association Business 2 News 4 Association Meetings 6 Association Diary 8 From our correspondents Darwin’s cirripedology 10 Inside and outside skeletons 17 Interesting Times 22 The Mystery Fossil 26 Future meetings of other bodies 28 Meeting Reports 35 Postgraduate opportunities 39 Book Reviews 49 Discounts for Pal Ass members 91 Palaeontology vol 46 part 6 92 Dinosaur abstracts 97 Annual Meeting 113 schedule 116 talks 122 posters 162 Reminder: The deadline for copy for Issue no 55 is 10th February 2004 On the Web: http://www.palass.org/ Newsletter 54 2 Newsletter 54 3 (or later) rather than the hectic February Meeting, when Sylvester-Bradley Awards are decided. Association Business Accounts and the Annual Report will be published in the Summer Newsletter without danger of this not getting to the membership with the statutory four weeks notice before the A.G.M.. Sylvester-Bradley Award It is necessary to put the proposed changes to a vote of the membership, and therefore Council proposes to hold an E.G.M. at the Leicester Annual meeting. Overseas members will be notified Awards are made to assist palaeontological research (travel, visits to museums, fieldwork etc.), by post. with each award having a maximum value of £1,000. Preference is given to applications for a single purpose (rather than top-ups of other grant applications) and no definite age limit is Proposed changes to the constitution applied, although some preference may be given to younger applicants or those at the start of their careers. The award is open to both amateur and professional palaeontologists, but 1) Clause 5 para. 2. The President shall serve for two years. Periods of service for other Officers preference will be given to members of the Association. The awards are announced at the AGM. shall be flexible but should normally not exceed two years for Vice-Presidents, and five years for Secretary, Editors, and Treasurers. Total consecutive service as an Officer (excluding service as Council will also consider awards in excess of £1,000, particularly for pilot projects which are President) shall not exceed ten years. Other members of the Council shall be elected for a period likely to facilitate a future application to a national research funding body. of three years. All members of Council are Trustees of the Association in accordance with charity Electronic submission of applications, through the website, is preferred and will comprise a law. CV, an account of research aims and objectives (5,000 characters maximum), and a breakdown Proposed change: of the proposed expenditure. Each application should be accompanied by the names of a Periods of service for other Officers shall be flexible but should normally not exceed two years personal and a scientific referee. Successful candidates must produce a report for Palaeontology for President and Vice-Presidents, and five years for Secretary, Editors, and Treasurers. Total Newsletter and are asked to consider the Association’s meetings and publications as media for consecutive service as an Officer (excluding service as President) shall not exceed ten years. conveying the research results. Deadline 28th November 2003. Other members of the Council shall be elected for a period of three years. All members of Council are Trustees of the Association in accordance with charity law. 2) Clause 6. The Annual General Meeting shall be held on a date in the first six months in every Notification of the reorganisation of the year. Other meetings shall be held as determined by Council. Association year Proposed change: Clause 6. The Annual General Meeting shall be held within 12 months of the end of the E.G.M. to be held on Monday 15th December, at 4pm, at Association year. Other meetings shall be held as determined by Council. the University of Leicester 3) Council also seeks the agreement of the membership that the President (Prof. Briggs) and Over the last few years there has been a steady decrease in the number of members attending senior Vice President (Prof. Harper) remain on Council until the December A.G.M. 2004. the Annual General Meeting of the Association in May. This has coincided with a decision by Council to move more of our formal events to the Annual Meeting at Christmas. Council is Howard A. Armstrong seriously concerned that the membership has been disenfranchised by these changes and this Palaeontological Association Secretary could have implications for our charitable status. <[email protected]> Council has fully considered the issues and proposes that the A.G.M. should become part of the Annual Meeting, likely to precede the Annual address. The Charity Commissioners have been consulted as an interim measure and have agreed to a rescheduled December AGM in 2004. This reorganisation will have little impact on the rest of the Association year and has a number of advantages apart from allowing members a greater stake in Association business. The Executive Officer and the Auditor will not have to spend many days preparing the figures over Christmas and the New Year, at the time when there is maximum activity from membership renewals. It will no longer be necessary to make provision in the accounts for as many items still going through the system. Council will be able to approve the figures at the March meeting Newsletter 54 4 Newsletter 54 5 news Palaeontographica Canadiana – Discounts to Palaeontological Association Members IGCP Project No. 491 – Middle Palaeozoic Vertebrate Biogeography, Palaeogeography and Climate The project aims to enhance the exchange of ideas and data among scientists globally, through a series of web-based forums, workshops and field trips. The main focus is to compile a complex and highly organized global data set on the distributions in space and time of The inventory on some early Palaeontographica Canadiana volumes is getting low (less than 100 Early/Lower vertebrates. This in turn will provide more rigorous controls on the timing of copies), thus it shortly will be impossible to buy a complete, unused set. connections and barriers implied by competing palaeogeographic hypotheses that incorporate The Geological Association of Canada is now offering a limited time, 20% discount on a set of extensive equatorial oceans during the Middle Palaeozoic. It will also provide a framework for Palaeontographica Canadiana No. 1–12 to Members of the Palaeontological Association (and understanding the global diversification of terrestrial ecosystems during the ‘Age of Fishes’ and their institutional libraries). The advertised selling price of $406.50 has now been reduced to its interaction with atmosphere composition, climate change, and extinction events. $325.00 ($CDN for orders shipped to Canadian addresses; $US for orders shipped outside of The scope is primarily Devonian, but at a recent meeting in Riga, Latvia, the “Middle Palaeozoic” Canada), until 29th February 2004. This price includes postage and handling via surface mail. was stretched to include a presentation on the distribution of Ordovician microvertebrates. The Please note the following: project is a successor to IGCP projects 328, 406 and will extend the results of 411 and 421 with a link to the IUGS Sub-commissions on the Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous. • this offer is not available through the GAC website; The meeting next year will be held in conjunction with the 10th International Symposium on • you must be a PA Member (state this on your order) or a member’s institutional library (give Early/Lower vertebrates to be held in Gramada, Brazil on 24–28 May 2004. Funding towards member’s name); attendance at IGCP activities will be available with precedence given to students who are • since the inventory of some of the volumes is low, the offer will only be available until the presenting their work. British workers should contact the National Representative, Giles Miller, above date, or until supplies last, whichever comes first; at the address below for further details of these funds and for details about the project. Those • GAC requires prepayment (Visa, MasterCard, American Express); seeking funding from outside Britain will need to contact their own national representative. Future meetings will be advertised in the Newsletter of Palaeontology. • Orders can be faxed to Arlene Power at 709-737-2532, or mailed to Geological Association of Canada, c/o Dept. of Earth Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Giles Miller NL A1B 3X5; Department of Palaeontology, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD <[email protected]> • GAC offers standing orders for this series, and if your university library would like to continue to receive these volumes as they are published Arlene can arrange to set up a standing order. • No. 22 by Chatterton and Ludvigsen (Early Silurian trilobites from Anticosti Island) will be published by the end of 2003. Do not hesitate to contact Arlene Power, Publications Manager if you require any further information. You can see the full Palaeontographica Canadiana listing at the GAC website (<www.gac.ca>). Sandy McCracken Chair, Joint Committee on Paleontological Monographs <[email protected]> NewsletterNewsletter 5452 66 Newsletter 5452 7 Joint meeting between The Geological Society of London, the Progressive Palaeontological Association, the Palaeontographical Society, The Palaeontology Micropalaeontological Society and The Linnean Society of London 2004 DINOSAUR PALAEOBIOLOGY Wednesday 11th February 2004, Burlington
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