TMS Newsletter Vol

Newsletter of Micropalaeontology vol. 98, August 2018 https://www.tmsoc.org

ISSN: 2398-2098 Registered Charity No.: 284013

Cover image: Hand-made porcelain coccolithophores of the modern species Cocco- lithus braarudii. The typical size of C. braarudii is c.12 µm. Model and image by Samantha Gibbs, Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre Southampton, University of Southampton, United Kingdom ([email protected]).

Correspondence: Please send items of news, comments, letters, or articles for publication such as conference reports or meeting announcements to the editor. These should be supplied as plain .txt files or as .doc/.docx documents. Photographs or illustrations to accompany articles are also welcome. Photographs are preferred to be submitted in high resolution as .jpg or .png files, graphs are preferably provided as .pdf files. The editor reserves the right to apply newsletter typographic standard to all contributions and apply minor corrections of grammar and spelling without requesting permission of the authors. Please send all correspondence to the editor: [email protected].

Copy date: The Newsletter of Micropalaeontology is published by The Micropalaeon- tological Society twice a year in January and August. The copy dates for each issue are 1 December and 1 July.

Advertising: Please supply your advert as a high resolution .jpg, .png, or .pdf ﬁle. Please pay for your advert at the time of booking; contact the Treasurer for available methods of payment. Full page 1 issue £200 Full page 2 issues £360 Half page 1 issue £100 Half page 2 issues £180 Quarter page 1 issue £50 Quarter page 2 issues £80

Disclaimer: The views expressed by the authors of any article in the Newsletter of Micropalaeontology are their own and do not necessarily represent those of The Micropa- laeontological Society.

Taxonomic disclaimer: The Newsletter of Micropalaeontology is not deemed to be valid for taxonomical or nomenclatural purposes—see International Codes of Botanical and Zoological Nomenclature. Copyright © by The Micropalaeontological Society Published by The Micropalaeontological Society, United Kingdom, https://www.tmsoc.org/ ISSN: 2398-2098

‘Journal of Micropalaeontology article highlights’ header: Copernicus Publications ‘Micropalaeontology in the news’ header: FlatIcon ‘Trends in micropalaeontology and biostratigraphy’ header: Interesting Runner Evolution Sports Silhouette ‘Methods in micropalaeontology’ header: Simple Gear Drawing

Typeset in LATEX with Stix, Carlito, and TXTT

Contributions from The Micropalaeontological Society The Grzybowski Foundation

The International Nannoplankton Association

The Newsletter is sponsored by Editorial

Manuel F. G. Weinkauf, Université de Genève (Switzerland)

The restructuring of the Newslet- community an introduction into im- ter of Micropalaeontology proceeds portant methods used in our field. at a great pace. Mike Simmons This series is open for everyone (Halliburton) continues his series and will change authors regularly. ‘Trends in Micropalaeontology and In this issue, I write about experi- Biostratigraphy’ with an essay about mental design in micropalaeontolo- 21st century aspects of biostrati- gical studies, and for the next issue graphy. Kirsty Edgar (University of Birm- On top of that, we introduce four ingham) will prepare a handy guide new series in this issue: (1) In the to preparing your own photo-plates ‘Journal of Micropalaeontology Art- in a timely and nice fashion. If you icle Highlights’, the Editor-in-Chief feel you can contribute anything to of the Journal of Micropalaeonto- this series in your field of expertise, logy (Sev Kender, University of Ex- please do not hesitate to contact me. eter) will select one or two freshly (4) To bring a little fun into micro- accepted or very recently published palaeontology, we will feature some articles and give the authors a chance enjoyable little treats like crossword to boost their impact by shortly high- puzzles in the future—you can even lighting their research in the Newslet- win something for sending in the cor- ter of Micropalaeontology. (2) The rect solution before the deadline. ‘Micropalaeontology in the News’ And naturally, you will continue series, written by Rehemat Bhatia to find all the other information like (University of Bristol) will cover conference announcements, news short reports about the use of micro- from the Society, a great deal of palaeontology in everyday-life and conference reports, and two exciting its coverage in the news. (3) Our book reviews/announcements in this new ‘Methods in Micropalaeonto- issue as well. I hope you enjoy read- logy’ series will be used to give the ing!

Contents

Conference and course announcements 9

News 13 The Micropalaeontological Society news ...... 13 Report from the Secretary ...... 13 Journal of Micropalaeontology Editor-in-Chief report . . . 17 Report from the Publicity Oﬃcer ...... 20 Oﬃcers of the Society ...... 21 Specialist group reports ...... 23 Foraminifera Group report ...... 23 Silicofossil Group report ...... 24 Nanno News ...... 26 INAsset—nannofossil summer school ...... 26 Recent meetings ...... 29 Upcoming meetings ...... 30 Nannotax update ...... 31 Grzybowski Foundation news ...... 35 TMS Small Research Grants ...... 37 Successful project 2017 ...... 38

JoM highlights 39

Micropalaeontology in the news 43

Trends in micropalaeontolology/biostratigraphy 51

Methods in micropalaeontology 57

Reports 67 Meeting reports ...... 67 Lyme Regis Fossil Festival 2018 ...... 67

7 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 Contents

Urbino Summer School 2018 ...... 68 INASSET ...... 71 TMS Grant-in-Aid reports ...... 72 International School on Foraminifera ...... 72 Computational and data literacy training ...... 75 IPA–IAL Meeting, Stockholm, 18–21 June ...... 77 FORAMS 2018 ...... 80

Obituaries 85 Edwin Spinner ...... 85

Book reviews and announcements 89 Evolution of LBF’s ...... 89 Microfossils through Time ...... 90

Fun with micropalaeontology 93

8 Conference and course announcements

The Micropalaeontological Society NANNOFOSSIL GROUP WORKSHOP

Tuesday 2nd October 2018 University of Birmingham

This TMS workshop is open to all nannofossil enthusiasts; industrial, academic & student. The event will be held as an informal open session, with short talks and plenty of time to discuss current interests, advances and approaches within the nannofossil community.

The workshop will be an afternoon event with some refreshments provided. If you are interested in attending or giving a presentation, please contact the TMS Nannofossil Group reps:

Sarah Alvarez - [email protected] Mike McKnight - [email protected]

9 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 Conference and course announcements

The Micropalaeontological Society http://www.tmsoc.org

Wednesday 14th – Thursday 15th November 2018

Leeds Town Hall

The Micropalaeontological Society (TMSoc) are delighted to announce this year’s annual conference will be hosted by the School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds. The conference is open to all aspects of micropalaeontology, providing delegates the opportunity to give either oral or poster presentations on their research.

On the first day, the conference Symposium theme is "Microfossil insights into greenhouse worlds" and will be followed by the Society’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), the presentation of Society Awards, a drinks reception and the day will end with the conference meal

Day 2 will be an open sessions for which we invite talks related to any area of micropalaeontology. These sessions will consist of short (c. 15 minute) talks and dedicated poster sessions. Further details regarding the conference schedule, keynote speakers and logistics will be added to the website, available at www.tmsoc.org/tmsoc2018

For further information please contact: [email protected]

@MicropalaeoSoc #TMSoc2018 We look forward to seeing you in November!

Registered Charity No. 284013 The Micropalaeontological Society

10 TMS Newsletter vol. 98

I S F 12th Course

Urbino - 9th - 28 th June, 2019 The 12th Course on Foraminifera is designed to provide an overview of the Taxonomy, Ecology, Biodiversity, and Geological History of Benthic and Planktonic Foraminifera. This intensive course is intended for students interested in Micropalaeontology, Palaeoceanography, Palaeoecology, Climate History, Biology, and Environmental applications. The aim is to provide a primer on the study of foraminifera and examples of how foraminifera can be used as (paleo)environmental and (paleo)oceanographical proxies. We review the current classification schemes of the foraminifera, discuss their ecology and life history, review their usefulness for biostratigraphical applications, and use case studies to investigate the geological history of the group with lab and practical sessions. The entire course consists of approximately 60 hours of lectures and 60 hours of practical work.

Course Structure Four distinct courses are planned: Foraminiferal Introduction (10-14 June), Larger Benthic Foraminiferal Course (15- 18 June), Smaller Benthic Foraminiferal Course (20-24 June) and Planktonic Foraminiferal Course (25-28 June).

Teaching format

The course consists of lectures and practical classes covering the taxonomy, distribution, ecology, and paleoecology of foraminifera. Microscope lab sessions provide the opportunity for participants to learn the foraminiferal genera and species, and view Cretaceous to Neogene foraminiferal assemblages from Petroleum Exploration areas and ODP sites as well as Quaternary and modern assemblages. At the end of each lecture session, different tasks will be assigned to participants to reinforce the knowledge learned. Course materials include the lecture powerpoints and numerous pdf reprints of classic papers.

Correspondence and information Dr. Fabrizio Frontalini - Università di Urbino, Campus Scientifico, Localita' Crocicchia, 61029 Urbino, (Italy) [email protected] or [email protected] Tel: (+39) 0722 304309, Fax: (+39) 0722 304220 How to make an application Registration must be done by submitting the registration form that can be download from http://isf.tmsoc.org website, or by sending an email to [email protected] Lectures

Prof. Michael A. Kaminski, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (Saudi Arabia) Dr. Fabrizio Frontalini, Urbino University (Italy) Prof. Laia Alegret, University of Zaragoza (Spain) Dr. Antonino Briguglio, University of Genova (Italy) Dr. Claudia Cetean, Robertson Ltd (UK) Prof. Rodolfo Coccioni, Urbino University (Italy) Dr. Danielle Foy, Blue Phoenix Geological Ltd. (UK) Prof. Andrew Gooday, National Oceanography Centre (UK) Prof. Johann Hohenegger, University of Vienna (Austria) Prof. Geraint Wyn Hughes, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (Saudi Arabia) Prof. Michal Kucera, MARUM, University of Bremen (Germany) Prof. Cesare Andrea Papazzoni, University of Modena e Reggio Emilia (Italy) Prof. Jan Pawlowski, University of Geneva (Switzerland) Prof. Maria Rose Petrizzo, Milano University (Italy)

For more information please visit our website at www.isf.tmsoc.org

The Micropalaeontological Society

11 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 Conference and course announcements

BIOSTRATIGRAPHY: A 21ST CENTURY SCIENCE NOVEMBER 13, 2019 | BRITISH GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. KEYWORTH, UK

Join us for a showcase of the applications of data science, machine learning and automation to biostratigraphy held as part of The Micropalaeontological Society Annual Meeting. Data science is changing our everyday lives and will drive increased efﬁciency and insight in many aspects of geoscience, including biostratigraphy. Topics for discussion will include machine assisted interpretation of microfossil data in terms of biozone/age and palaeoenvironments; data extraction and synthesis; automation of microfossil identiﬁcation.

Organised by The Micropalaeontological Society with the support of SEPM and the Petroleum Group of the Geological Society.

CONVENERS: Mike Simmons - Halliburton & NHM | Jim Riding - BGS

FOR MORE INFORMATION, TO REGISTER INTEREST OR OFFER A PAPER CONTACT: [email protected]

12 News

The Micropalaeontological Society news

Report from the Secretary Phillip Jardine, Universität Münster (Germany)

This year’s TMS Annual Confer- tial body of excellent research. The ence will take place at Leeds Town Medal is named in honour of George Hall on 14 and 15 November, and Stewardson Brady (1832–1921) and is being organised by Tracy Aze Henry Bowman Brady (1835–1891) (School of Earth and Environment, in recognition of their outstanding University of Leeds). The opening pioneering studies in micropalaeon- symposium has the theme of ‘Mi- tology and natural history. Nomina- crofossil Insights into Greenhouse tions for the Brady Medal are accep- Worlds’, and will be followed by so- ted by the President or Secretary at ciety business (including awards and any time (please see the TMS web- elections), a drinks reception, and site for further information). the Annual Dinner. The second day The 2018 Brady Medal will be will consist of oral and poster ses- awarded to Malcolm Hart at the sions, with presentations open to all TMS Annual Conference, for his conference delegates and on any as- extensive research into Foramini- pect of micropalaeontology. Further fera evolution and biogeography, and details will be added to the TMS their use as biostratigraphic and website as they become available. palaeoenvironmental tools, which along with other research activit- Brady Medal ies has led to an impressive back catalogue of publications and con- The Brady Medal is the Society’s sultancy reports. Malcolm has also highest award for scientists who have made a major contribution to micro- had a major inﬂuence on micropa- palaeontological teaching, project laeontology by means of a substan- supervision, and mentoring through-

13 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 News out his time at Plymouth University. be awarded at the Annual Confer- ence to Anieke Brombacher for: Alan Higgins Award Brombacher A, Wilson PA, Bailey I, The Alan Higgins Award for Ap- and Ezard THG (2017) The break- plied Micropalaeontology is given to down of static and evolutionary al- a young scientist, less than 10 years lometries during climatic upheaval. from graduation, in recognition of The American Naturalist 190 (3): a significant record of achievement 350–62. doi:10.1086/692570 in the field of applied and industrial Nominations for 2019 (best paper micropalaeontology. This year we published in 2018) should be sent to will be giving this award to Haytham the Secretary by 28 February 2019. El Atfy, for his research into palynology, palynofacies, and organic geo- TMS Student Awards chemistry and their applications to petroleum geology problems. This TMS Student Awards are given will be awarded at the Annual Con- to those nominated for their out- ference in November. standing performance on one of Nominations for the 2019 award our TMS-approved micropalaeon- should be sent to the Secretary by tological courses, and consist of 28 February 2019, using the appro- a year’s free membership. So far priate form available from the TMS this year we have made eleven website. awards to outstanding undergraduate and Masters students: Odysseas Charles Downie Award Archontikis (Université de Lille), Luke Barlow (University of Ports- The Charles Downie Award is an an- mouth), Christopher Card (Keele nual award made to a member of University), James Coston (Univer- the Society who, in the opinion of sity of Southampton), Kyra Cutler the Committee, has published the (University of Birmingham), Zur- most significant paper in any journal ine Larena (Universidad del País based on their postgraduate research. Vasco), Michael Sekula (Univer- The 2018 Charles Downie Award sity of Leicester), Graham Simons (best paper published in 2017) will (Cardiff University), Ines Vejzovic

14 The Micropalaeontological Society news TMS Newsletter vol. 98

(Universität Bremen), and Isabella dent members and early career re- Warren (University of Glasgow). searchers to consider applying for Congratulations to them all. a Grant-in-Aid. Grants-in-Aid are The TMS Student Award scheme awarded annually to help members now has 22 approved micropalaeon- of the Society who are students tological courses, and I encourage or early career researchers (within any TMS Members to consider nom- 10 years of obtaining their last de- inating their taught micropalaeonto- gree) in their ﬁeldwork, conference logical courses for the scheme to en- attendance, or any other speciﬁc courage their best students to con- activity related to their research tinue with a micropalaeontological which has not been budgeted for. career. Grants-in-Aid cannot be awarded for miscellaneous expenditure, neither TMS Grants-in-Aid can they be awarded retrospectively. A maximum of £500 can be awar- This year the TMS committee awarded to each successful applicant. ded six Grants-in-Aid. These were: Awardees are expected to write a Laura Cotton (University of Flor- short report for the Newsletter once ida), for a Foraminifera outreach their grant has been used. Applica- display at the Florida Museum of tion forms can be downloaded from Natural History; Lyndsey Fox (Nat- the website, or obtained from the ural History Museum London), for a Secretary. The next deadline is data analysis course; Calian Hazell 28 February 2019. (Northumbria University), to attend the European Palaeobotany and Pa- Please note that the International lynology Conference; Lucy Roberts School on Foraminifera in Urbino (Queen Mary University of London), (Italy) is funded via the TMS Edu- to attend the International Palaeolim- cational Trust Fund, and is there- nology Association meeting; and fore not eligible for support via the Rabecca Thiessen (MacEwan Uni- Grants-in-Aid scheme. versity) and Adam Woodhouse (Uni- versity of Leeds), both to attend FO- For further information on TMS RAMS 2018. Awards and Grants, please see the I would encourage all of our stu- dedicated page on the website.

15 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 News

TMS Small Research Grant Sale Events: These occur several times a year, and sale prices are The first award from the Small Re- available to anyone (there are no fur- search Grant scheme was made in ther discounts for society member- November 2017 to Peter Stassen ship). To receive email notifications (KU Leuven). The deadline for about forthcoming sales you can sign applications for the next award is up for Bookshop emails at the web- 31 October 2018. This scheme site, by clicking on the yellow ‘Sub- is for a single grant of up to scribe to the Bookshop Newsletter’ £1500, to support research activ- box on the right hand side of the ities rather than conference or screen. You’ll also receive notices workshop attendance. Please of new books published (including see http://www.tmsoc.org/ any TMS books) and any special tms-small-research-grant/ promotions. for further information on the award remit and application procedure. Committee vacant offices GSL Online Bookshop benefits for At the 2018 Annual Meeting, the fol- TMS members lowing TMS Committee positions will become available for election: TMS members can take advantage of various discounts and offers at • Treasurer the Geological Society Online Book- shop (http://www.geolsoc.org. • Publicity Officer (committee uk/bookshop): nominee Rehemat Bhatia) Nominations for this position TMS member discounts: As a should be submitted to the Secretary TMS member you qualify for 50 % by 30 September 2018. Nominees, off TMS books, and up to 40 % off proposers, and seconders should all other GSL published books (but not be members of the Society. Those books from other publishers). To who consider standing for election get these discounts you’ll need to re- are welcome to contact the Secretary gister with GSL, and then register or President for information on what your affiliation to TMS, which is all duties these posts entail. explained in the Bookshop FAQs.

16 The Micropalaeontological Society news TMS Newsletter vol. 98

Journal of Micropalaeontology Editor-in-Chief report Sev Kender, University of Exeter (UK)

The Journal of Micropalaeontology back content that went online since (JOM) is progressing well with the the move to Copernicus Publications, move to Copernicus Publications and it will be in 2020 that our papers this year, under which we have so far from this year will be included in the published 29 papers. We have had IF. 24 submissions in the rolling year You may have noticed that the since August 2017, under the art- JOM had not initially been given an icle processing charge (APC) open IF in the 2017 Journal Citation Re- access rules. With a rejection rate ports (recently published by Clariv- of 28 %, this means that our initial ate Analytics), which was ostensibly year of operating with APCs has due to a high proportion of ‘self- seen our annual publication numbers citations’ in 2017. The IF is a widely stay similar to before the move. I re- used measure by which journals are gard this as a success in our ﬁrst op- evaluated by authors, employers, and erating year under the new system. funding agencies and, whatever our The website, which has the entire individual views are on IFs, I am back content of JOM papers open clear that we needed to address this. access, along with all the inform- After Copernicus Publications and ation needed to submit your work, TMS lodged queries about this with can be found here: https://www. Clarivate, they reviewed their de- j-micropalaeontol.net/ cision and then reversed it to include us in the citation reports and provide us with an Impact Factor for 2017 Impact Factor (see below). Here is an excerpt from Impact Factors (IF) are calculated by their letter: Clarivate using the number of citations that all our papers from 2015 Our investigation un- and 2016 got in 2017. Therefore, covered a population of next year will be the ﬁrst IF that unlinked journal self- takes into account the open access citations, and when

17 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 News

these were success- data are reloaded in the fully linked to the cor- fall these will also be responding published fully incorporated into source items the cited the product. year shifted out of Clarivate Analytics the two-year Journal Impact Factor win- Total citations: 402 dow. Consequently Journal Impact Factor: 0.794 this lowered the self- 5-year Impact Factor: 0.931 citation rate of Journal Immediacy Index: 1.364 of Micropalaeontology to a degree where it Most recent papers in 2018 would no longer sur- • ‘Wangshangkia, a new Devo- face as problematic in nian ostracod genus from our analysis of 2017 Dushan of Guizhou, South JCR data. China’, Junjun Song and Yim- In light of these excep- ing Gong tional circumstances and in consideration • ‘Larger Foraminifera of the of these new data we Devil’s Den and Blue Hole have decided to take the sinkholes, Florida’, Laura J. highly unusual step of Cotton, Wolfgang Eder, and lifting the suppression James Floyd of Journal of Micropa- • ‘Paleocene orthophragmin- laeontology from 2017 ids from the Lakadong Lime- JCR data. stone, Mawmluh Quarry sec- The 2017 metrics will tion, Meghalaya (Shillong, be listed in the JCR NE India): Implications for help ﬁle within the the regional geology and next few weeks, and paleobiogeography’, Ercan we provide these be- Özcan, Johannes Pignatti, low for your advance Christer Pereira, Ali Osman use. When the JCR Yücel, Katica Drobne, Filippo

18 The Micropalaeontological Society news TMS Newsletter vol. 98

Barattolo, and Pratul Kumar apply, and there are funds available Saraswati for those who do you not have access to open access funding. TMS mem- • ‘Monitoring benthic fo- bers receive reduced page charges raminiferal dynamics at Bott- (60 e per page plus vat) which are sand coastal lagoon (western some of the lowest of any quality Baltic Sea)’, Joachim Schön- journal. feld1 Table 1: Impact Factor (calculated for pre- • ‘New species of Cenozoic ceding two years). benthic Foraminifera from the Year Impact Factor former British Petroleum mi- 2009 0.375 cropalaeontology collection’, 2010 0.719 Lyndsey R. Fox, Stephen 2011 0.759 Stukins, Tom Hill, and Hay- 2012 0.778 don Bailey 2013 1.000 2014 0.800 Why publish with the Journal of 2015 1.250 Micropalaeontology? 2016 0.889 We have fast publication times, with 2017 0.794 papers online within just weeks of acceptance. This can be very good Submissions/rejections since for students who require papers as July 2017: part of their Ph.D. submissions. The Submissions: 24 review process is the same as before, Currently under review: 10 but the online system makes it much Rejections: 5 faster for our editors and reviewers to Rejection rate 28 % communicate and carry out reviews. There is maximum visibility for your Editorial board: research, with open access publishing and online metrics and supple- • Dr Laia Alegret (benthic Fo- ments. Article processing charges raminifera) 1See section ‘Journal of Micropalaeontology Article Highlights’ in this Newsletter.

19 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 News

• Dr Thomas Cronin (ostra- minifera) cods) • Prof. Emanuela Mattioli (nan- • Dr Taniel Danelian (siliceous nofossils) microfossils) • Dr Kirsty Edgar (planktonic • Dr Luke Mander (palynology) Foraminifera) • Dr Francesca Sangiorgi (pa- • Dr Sev Kender (benthic Fora- lynology)

Report from the Publicity Oﬃcer Tom Hill, The Natural History Museum (UK)

We continue to raise the profile of gical Society has run their micro- the Society through our publicity fossil image competition. A sum- activities. Facebook and Twitter con- mary of the winning images can be tinues to increase in popularity and found embedded within the compet- use. Our Society is regularly publi- ition web page. cised at micropalaeontology-related All TMS members are invited to conferences and sponsored sessions submit images of microfossils. Non- through our TMSoc banners. We members are also encouraged to take continue to encourage all conference part. An overall winning image will conveners to get in touch (publi- be selected and eleven joint runner- [email protected]) to request banners, up images will be chosen for use in in addition to society flyers or pub- a TMS calendar for 2019. licity posters, as part of the event We will be accepting images preparations. until 30 September 2018. This The main news relates to the will provide the competition panel launch of our 2018 TMSoc image sufficient time to select the best competition, which will contribute twelve images for the calendar, get to the 2019 TMSoc Micropalaeon- the calendar designed, and sub- tology Calendar. 2018 will be the sequently printed in time for dis- fourth year The Micropalaeontolo- tribution towards the end of the

20 The Micropalaeontological Society news TMS Newsletter vol. 98 year. Image submissions should be lected for the calendar, with one im- of micropalaeontology-related ma- age being chosen as the overall win- terial. The subject can be an indi- ner of the 2018 image competition! vidual specimen or an assemblage The winner will receive 200 e. All and it can be a fossil or a living or- twelve winners will of course receive ganism from a microfossil producing free copies of the calendar in addi- group. The type of image is also en- tion to a certificate! tirely open, and can include micro- Images should be submitted as scope photographs (reflected light, high resolution .jpg or .tif files compound), scanning electron mi- (less than 20 MB) and should be ac- croscope images, or other innovat- companied by your name, basic tech- ive visual techniques, or more tradi- nical details, and a short caption. If tional artwork. you have any problems please get in Twelve winning images will be se- touch.

Oﬃcers of the Society

Dr Phillip Jardine Dr Jim Riding Secretary President Institute of Geol. and Palaeontol. British Geological Survey Universität Münster Keyworth Heissenbergstraße 2 Nottingham NG12 5GG 48149 Münster United Kingdom Germany [email protected] [email protected]

Dr Sev Kender Matthew Hampton Journal Editor Treasurer Camborne School of Mines Network Stratigraphic Ltd. University of Exeter Harvest House Tremough Campus Cranborn Road Penryn Potters Bar EN6 3JF Cornwall TR10 9EZ United Kingdom United Kingdom [email protected] [email protected]

Dr Trazy Aze Events Secretary School of Earth and Environ. University of Leeds Maths/Earth/Environ. Bd. Leeds LS2 9JT Dr Matt Wakeﬁeld United Kingdom Industrial Liason Oﬃcer [email protected] [email protected]

21 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 News

Dr Tom Hill Dr Matthew Pound Publicity Oﬃcer Palynology Group Secretary Department of Earth Sciences Department of Geography The Natural History Museum Northumbria University Cromwell Road Ellison Building London SW7 5BD Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST United Kingdom United Kingdom [email protected] [email protected]

Dr Manuel Weinkauf Newsletter Editor Dr Janine Pendleton Department of Earth Sciences Webmaster Université de Genève PetroStrat Ltd. 13 Rue des Maraîchers Parc Cær Seion 1205 Genève Conwy LL32 8FA Switzerland United Kingdom [email protected] [email protected]

Dr Jeremy Young Dr Peter Osterloﬀ Archivist Special Publications Editor Earth Sciences Shell UK Ltd. University College London 1 Altens Farm Road Gower Street Nigg London WC1E 6BT Aberdeen AB12 3FY United Kingdom United Kingdom [email protected] peter.osterloﬀ@shell.com

Dr Fabienne Marret-Davies Prof. Dr Martin Langer Special Publications Editor Foraminifera Group Chair Department of Geography Bereich Mikropaläontologie University of Liverpool Steinmann-Institut Roxby Building Nussallee 8 Liverpool L69 7ZT 53115 Bonn United Kingdom Germany [email protected] [email protected]

Dr Sarah Alvarez (née O’Dea) Dr Lyndsey Fox Nannofossil Group Chair Foraminifera Group Secretary School of Geographical Sciences Department of Earth Sciences University of Bristol The Natural History Museum University Road Cromwell Road Clifton London SW7 5BD Bristol BS8 1SS United Kingdom United Kingdom [email protected] [email protected]

Dr Michael McKnight Nannofossil Group Secretary School of Geogr./Earth/Environ. Sci. Dr Ian Wilkinson University of Birmingham Ostracod Group Chair Aston Webb Building British Geological Survey Edgbaston Keyworth Birmingham B15 2TT Nottingham NG12 5GG United Kingdom United Kingdom [email protected] [email protected]

22 Specialist group reports TMS Newsletter vol. 98

Anna March Dr Manuel Vieira Ostracod Group Secretary Palynology Group Chair School of Geography Shell UK Ltd. Queen Mary University of London 1 Altens Farm Road Mile End Road Nigg London E1 4NS Aberdeen AB12 3FY United Kingdom United Kingdom [email protected] [email protected]

Dr Matthew Pound Dr Marco Chiari Palynology Group Secretary Silicofossil Group Chair Department of Geography Ist. di Geoscienze e Georisorse Northumbria University Univ. degli Studi Firenze Ellison Building via G. la Pira 4 Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST 50121 Firenze United Kingdom Italy [email protected] [email protected]ﬁ.it

James Williams Silicofossil Group Secretary School of Earth & Ocean Sciences Cardiff University Park Place Cardiff CF10 3AT United Kingdom williamsja8@cardiff.ac.uk

Specialist group reports

Foraminifera Group report Lyndsey Fox1 and Martin Langer2; 1The Natural History Museum (UK), 2Steinmann-Institut (Germany)

Meetings ing Past Ocean Environments with Foraminifera and Nannofossils’. The The 2018 Foraminifera and Nanno- meeting was very well attended, with fossil Spring Meeting took place delegates from FORAMS 2018 and on 22 June and coincided with the TMSoc able to move between the international FORAMS 2018 con- various sessions held throughout the ference (17–22 June 2018), hos- day, followed by a TMSoc poster ted by the University of Edinburgh. session. The theme for the one-day TMSoc Almost 400 abstracts were submit- spring meeting was: ‘Reconstruct- ted to FORAMS 2018 in Edinburgh,

23 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 News covering a massively diverse range The symposium was supplemen- of topics, including foraminiferal ted by numerous social events and biology, geochemistry, biomineraliz- ﬁeld trips, and was followed by a ation, environmental genomics, ap- series of workshops in St Andrews. plied and industrial micropalaeonto- The conference was a massive suc- logy, proxies of climate change, bio- cess, as can be seen from the meet- monitoring, evolution, stratigraphy, ing report by Rabecca Thiessen and impact of invasive species, and the Adam Woodhouse (page 80 of this history of micropalaeontological re- Newsletter). search schools. Future Meetings The 2019 Foraminifera and Nanno- fossil Group Spring Meeting will take place in Fribourg, Switzerland. The FORAMS 2022 meeting will take place Perugia, Italy.

Figure 1: The Foraminifera and Nannofossil Spring Meeting at FORAMS 2018.

Silicofossil Group report James Williams1 and Marco Chiari2; 1Cardiﬀ University (UK), 2Università degli Studi Firenze (Italy)

Diatom news the world gathered in Berlin for the 25th International Diatom Sym- Members of the deep sea SponGES posium. Keynote speakers included community convened in Porto in Irena Kaczmarska, Karine Leb- April for the annual general as- lanc, and Nichola Turland. The sembly meeting. oral presentations covered a wide This June, diatomists from around variety of diatom topics including

24 Specialist group reports TMS Newsletter vol. 98 taxonomy and phylogeny, palaeocli- tical microscope sessions and discus- matology, and DNA sequencing of sions. diatoms. Following the symposium, The 2018 British Diatomist Meet- the Young Diatomists of the Interna- ing will take place at FSC Mar- tional Society of Diatomist Research gam Discovery Centre from Fri- continued the activities with a series day 2 to Sunday 4 November. Re- of workshops covering how to pub- gistration is now open and can lish research and the use of statist- be completed at https://goo.gl/ ics. The Young ISDR is a group forms/XlJKV6F7MJnaDGdE3. Par- aimed at early career researchers and ticipants can expect to ﬁnd them- provides a forum for networking and selves among fantastic company and the sharing of resources and know- in a friendly environment where they ledge. The group can be found on can wax lyrical about all things dia- twitter (@young_isdr) and online tom. (http://www.ids2018-berlin. org/young-diatomists.html). Radiolaria news The joint meeting of the Interna- During the last 5th International Pa- tional Paleolimnology Association leontological Congress, which was and the International Association of held in Paris from 9 to 13 July 2018 Limnogeology was hosted at Stock- (https://ipc5.sciencesconf. holm University, Sweden. A session org/) were presented several contri- chaired by Rosine Cartier, Elodie butions about radiolarian research. Brisset, Daniel Conley, and Sherilyn In the Session S 16 ‘3 D Imaging Fritz was titled ‘Diatom-Rich Sedi- of Fossils: Novel Approaches, Ad- mentary Archives: Production, Pre- vances and Data Management’ two servation, and Paleoenvironmental posters were presented by Sheng et Potential’. al. about the economic signiﬁcance On 5–10 August the Lakeside of radiolarians and µ-CT investiga- Laboratory, Iowa (USA) will host tion of Middle Cambrian radiolari- the 6th Polar Marine Diatom Work- ans. shop. The workshop aims to transfer The keynote of Session S 26, ‘Mi- sound taxonomic skills of fossil and croorganism Evolution and Interac- modern polar diatoms through prac- tion with Biogeochemical Cycles

25 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 News and Climate’, by Baumgartner et al. stratigraphy. In the same session, showed the evolution of siliceous Gorican et al. presented the current plankton and its relation with the car- status and future direction of the bon and silicon cycles and climate. Mesozoic radiolarian biochrono- In the same session, other presenta- logy, while Matsuoka presented tions regarded the Triassic–Jurassic the phyletic analyses of Loopus– boundary in the Paciﬁc sites (Hori Pseudodictyomitra and Vallupus et al.), Upper Palaeozoic radiolari- lineages at the Jurassic/Cretaceous ans in southwest Japan (Ito), and the boundary. dimorphism of the Permian Albail- At last, Danelian and Monnet lellaria (Ito et al.). presented the pattern of changes in O’Dogherty et al. presen- the Ordovician radiolarian diversity. ted, as keynote of Session S 28, This contribution was presented in ‘New Trends in Stratigraphy— Session S 37, ‘The Onset of the Stratigraphic Section (SGF) Ses- Great Ordovician Biodiversiﬁcation sion’, the chronostratigraphic cal- (GOBE): Fossils, Radiations and ibration of Middle–Upper Jurassic Lagerstätten—IGCP 653 session’. radiolarites utilizing carbon isotope

Nanno News—updates from the TMS Nannofossil Group and the INA

Jeremy Young1 and Sarah Alvarez2; 1University College London (UK), 2Uni- versity of Bristol (UK)

INAsset—nannofossil summer for planktonic Foraminifera, pa- school, Lyon 1–7 July 2018 laeoceanography, and agglutinated Forminifera and debated whether Nannofossil specialists have long felt to attempt something similar. Fi- a need to organise some kind of train- nally, it was resolved in the last INA ing opportunity for students join- conference, (INA 17 Athens 2017) ing their specialization. More par- to organise a summer school, and ticularly, we have watched the suc- Emanuela Mattioli accepted the in- cess of the Urbino Summer Schools

26 Nanno News TMS Newsletter vol. 98 vitation to host it in Lyon. This Young (INA web editor). Loosely seemed a fine choice of venue for following the model of the Urbino multiple reasons including: Summer Schools we set a registration fee of 500 e for the week, so 1. Emanuela, with Fabienne as to properly cover the costs of or- Giraud, has built up a power- ganising the event and of bringing ful research group and they in first class lecturers. However, re- have excellent facilities in- cognising that this is still a major cluding particularly multiple expense for many students we also light microscopes. sought as much support and spon- 2. Lyon is a centrally placed sorship as possible for the course European city with excellent so as to make it better value for transport connections. all participants and to be able to sponsor some of the participants 3. Lyon is a beautiful European with funding difficulties. This ef- city with fine restaurants, a fort proved successful (fortunately, long history, and lots of bars. training students is still a priority for 4. Emanuela is an enthusiastic re- many bodies) and we received valu- searcher with a fine record of able support from the INA Founda- organising meetings and work- tion, The Micropalaeontological So- shops. ciety, Lyon University (IDEX Lyon, LabEx LIO, and the Geology De- It was further decided to focus the partment LGL-TPE). Equally im- first Summer School on Caenozoic portantly, the announcement of the nannofossil biostratigraphy and tax- course resulted in a rapid response onomy since this was the most com- from students wishing to benefit mon focus for new nannofossil work- from it. Indeed we ended up being ers. Organization of the summer over-subscribed even after expend- school2 was lead by Giuliana Villa ing the number of places we could (INA president) and Emanuela Mat- offer to the maximum. tioli, with support from Matt Hamp- ton (INA treasurer) and Jeremy So, after much planning, the 2Aptly named ‘International Nannoplankton Association Summer School in Evolution and Taxonomy’

27 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 News

Figure 2: Group photo of the students and lecturers at the nannofossil summer school. course finally took place in early dents were a similarly diverse group July 2018, in the midst of both the working in or coming from Canada, FIFA World Cup and a heatwave Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, China, affecting most of Europe and cer- Nepal, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, tainly Lyon. It lasted one week Greece, Hungary, Germany, Russia, with systematic tuition provided by Sweden, Italy, France, Portugal, and Claudia Agnini (Università degli Ireland. The systematic sessions Studi di Padova; Palaeocene), Jean were heavily focussed on practical Self-Trail (United States Geological work in the microscope laboratory Survey; Eocene), Giuliana Villa for which the lecturers had prepared (Università di Parma; Oligocene), multiple sets of slides from repres- Eric de Kaenel (consultant; Mio- entative samples with fine preser- cene), and Luc Beaufort (CEREGE; vation and abundant nannofossils. Pliocene & Quaternary) supplemen- These provided the opportunity for ted by lectures on specific meth- students to learn the key marker spe- ods and topics by Baptiste Sucheras- cies and gain an appreciation of nan- Marx, Jorge Ferreira, Jeremy Young, nofossil diversity through the Caeno- and Emanuela Mattioli. The 20 stu- zoic. Having a wide range of lectur-

28 Nanno News TMS Newsletter vol. 98 ers meant that each time period was nally a one day field-trip (no Caeno- covered by a worker with real expert- zoic, but lovely ammonites). All par- ise and enthusiasm for it. Perhaps ticipants seemed to leave happy, both equally importantly, having lecturers knowing a lot more about nannofos- with different research priorities and sils and with many new friends— taxonomic approaches meant that and since this was both a talen- students were exposed to variable ted and and enthusiastic group we taxonomic concepts and the prob- can reasonably predict that many of lematic reality that taxonomy is a these friendships will be maintained subjective human construct rather through long careers of nannofossil than a simple description of discrete study. Indeed they will probably con- entities. tinue long after most of the lecturers have turned off their microscopes.

Recent meetings TMS Foram and Nannofossil Group Meeting

The joint Foraminifera and Nan- nofossil Group Spring Meeting Figure 3: At work on the microscopes during took place in Edinburgh on Friday the summer school in Lyon. 22 June. The session was held within Perhaps even more important, the the FORAMS 2018 conference, and course gave the students the oppor- ran as a two-hour session of talks tunity to properly meet both experts and an accompanying poster session. in their field and each other. To facil- The theme was ‘Reconstructing Past itate this, the social dimension was Ocean Environments with Foramini- not neglected, and we had an ice fera and Nannofossils’. Many thanks breaker party (in a riverside bar), a to the conveners Lyndsey Fox, Kirsty summer school dinner (in a fine Ly- Edgar, and Martin Langer for arran- onnnaise bouchon), an end-of-event ging the session, which was well- meal (in a local bar while watching attended throughout. The nanno- the Brazil–Belgium game), and fi- fossil presence at this meeting was

29 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 News noticeably reduced in comparison to look forward to hearing from you! previous years, which is unfortunate. However, those of us that did make it managed to fit in some useful discus- TMS Annual Conference, sion of nannofossil taxonomy, and Leeds—14–15 November 2018 our ideas for a Nannofossil Group workshop later this year—see below. The TMS Annual Conference will be held at the Town Hall in Leeds Upcoming meetings on 14 and 15 November 2018, hosted by the School of Earth and En- TMS Nanno Group workshop, vironment, University of Leeds. The Birmingham—2 October 2018 theme for the first day is ‘Microfossil The next Nannofossil Group work- Insights Into Greenhouse Worlds’, shop will take place at the University which will comprise a selection of of Birmingham on Tuesday, 2 Oc- talks that span the geological record tober 2018, and will be held as an of microfossils. The second day will informal and open session with as be held as an open session, with many short talks as possible. This short talks and posters related to any event will provide a much-needed area of micropalaeontology. Fur- opportunity for us to get together ther details are available at http: to discuss current interests and ad- //www.tmsoc.org/tmsoc2018. vances within the nannofossil community. The workshop will be open to all nannofossil workers; indus- INA 17, Santos, trial, academic, and student. Fur- Brazil—September 2018 ther details will be announced on the TMS website and associated so- Our next INA conference will take cial media platforms shortly. Please place next year in Santos Brazil, a email the Nannofossil Group rep- coastal resort town near São Paulo. resentatives if you are interested in It is scheduled to take place in the attending or in giving a presenta- first week of September and more tion ([email protected] or details will be available shortly on [email protected]). We the INA website.

30 Nanno News TMS Newsletter vol. 98

Nannotax update typically with both phase contrast and cross-polars images of carefully In December last year a set of five selected beautifully preserved speci- papers was published, in the Journal mens. Most obviously though, the of Nannoplankton Research, by Jim papers include description of some Bergen, Eric de Kaenel, Emily 63 new species. Browning, Stacie Blair, and Todd Boesiger (Bergen et al. 2017, Blair This is by far the most im- et al. 2017, Boesinger et al. 2017, portant publication on the tax- Browning et al. 2017, de Kaenel onomy of nannofossils of this et al. 2017). This team have been time interval for decades. So, collaborating for over two decades incorporating the new informa- on the biostratigraphy of the Gulf tion into the Nannotax webdata- of Mexico Neogene and Oligocene, base (http://www.mikrotax.org/Nan- within BP and its heritage compan- notax3) has been a major project. ies or as consultants working for BP. Since the paper was published in The work has also included intensive the Journal of Nannoplankton Re- study of the exceptional material research, there are no copyright issues covered during ODP Leg 154 from in doing this, it is journal policy the Ceara Rise, and development of that content published in the Journal a new cyclostratigraphic framework of Nannoplankton Research may be which is due to be published shortly. used on Nannotax unless the authors These five papers documented the request otherwise, and in this case taxonomic concepts applied, includ- the authors were fully supportive of ing comprehensive revision of three their work also being online and the key genera—Discoaster, Spheno- full resolution image are available lithus, and Helicosphaera. Virtu- within the .pdf files. Preparing the ally all species in these genera are images and metadata was a signific- covered from the Late Oligocene to ant task, but the major challenge was the Pliocene. This includes a wealth assessing and incorporating the pro- of new data on stratigraphic ranges posed new taxa. As an indication and the taxa are illustrated by 170 of the scale of this, the proposed 65 line drawings and more than 1000 new taxa represent an approximately colour light microscope images— 50 % increase in the number of spe-

31 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 News

Figure 4: Discoaster bollii—screenshot of nannotax page showing how proposed species based on ray-number are displayed as subtaxa/variants.

32 Nanno News TMS Newsletter vol. 98 cies included in nannotax in these and to indicate where some work- genera in this time interval, and a ers (e.g. palaeoceanographers) may significant number of taxa regarded wish to use broader species concepts. as synonyms in other treatments are Moreover, in some places the new here considered discrete species. taxonomy outlined in the BP papers Obviously, the authors have ad- has no proven stratigraphic utility— opted more of a splitting approach i.e. morphotypes appear to have been to taxonomy and this stems from a separated as species in order to test philosophy of attempting to achieve if they have discrete stratigraphic the maximum possible biostrati- ranges but the species have been re- graphic resolution both by using fine tained even when they do not have morphological differences, and by discrete ranges. So a degree of inter- using events based on variations in pretation has been necessary in in- abundance as well as total range. corporating the new taxonomy into The utility of the approach is re- Nannotax. I have done this in vari- corded by the fact that the group ous ways: have successfully been recording more than two hundred biostrati- 1. In a few cases, where the new graphic events in the period from taxa seem to have no utility, 1 to 30 Ma—i.e. approximately one I have simply recorded them event per 150 000 years, which is an as synonyms (e.g. de Kaenel order of magnitude higher than we et al. 2017, recommend di- normally expect—although not dis- viding Discoaster exilis into similar to what has been routinely two forms based on whether achieved in the Pleistocene and Late they have straight proximal Quaternary. ridges (Discoaster gozoensis) or curved ones (Discoaster Clearly, where taxa have proven exilis)). However, since they utility they need to be properly doc- record the two forms as inter- umented in Nannotax, even if this grading, and having the same is dependant on finer splitting than range, I have treated them as has been routine. On the other hand synonyms. it is important to maintain continu- ity with previous taxonomic work 2. In some other cases, I have

33 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 News

Figure 5: Sphenolithus delphix group—screenshot showing how proposed species are displayed as related species within a species group.

recorded the alternate taxa as microdelphix and Spheno- variants and presented them lithus spinula—these are ar- within the species page—for guably variants of Spheno- example it is proposed to lithus delphix but distinguish- treat forms of Discoaster bol- ing them is shown to be use- lii with 3, 4, or 5 rays as sep- ful for stratigraphic precision. arate species—Discoaster tri- So all three species are in- bollii, Discoaster quadribol- cluded in Nannotax but within lii, and Discoaster pentabol- a single S. delphix group lii. I have essentially treated (Fig. 5). these as sub-taxa of D. bollii (Fig. 4). References

3. In other cases, I have used Bergen JA, de Kaenel E, Blair SA, Boesinger TM, and Browning E (2017) Oligocene– species groups to record the Pliocene taxonomy and stratigraphy of alternate taxa with annota- the genus Sphenolithus in the circum tions making it clear where North Atlantic basin: Gulf of Mexico and alternate species concepts ODP Leg 154. Journal of Nannoplank- might be used. For example, ton Research 37 (2–3): 77–112. Blair SA, Bergen JA, de Kaenel E, Brown- Bergen et al. (2017) describe ing E, and Boesinger TM (2017) Up- the new species Sphenolithus per Miocene–Lower Pliocene taxonomy

34 Grzybowski Foundation news TMS Newsletter vol. 98

and stratigraphy in the circum North At- cene to Late Pliocene taxonomy and strati- lantic basin: Radiation and extinction of graphy of the genus Discoaster in the cir- Amauroliths, Ceratoliths and the D. quin- cum North Atlantic basin: Gulf of Mexico queramus lineage. Journal of Nanno- and ODP Leg 154. Journal of Nanno- plankton Research 37 (2–3): 113–44. plankton Research 37 (2–3): 189–214. Boesinger TM, de Kaenel E, Bergen JA, de Kaenel E, Bergen JA, Browning E, Blair Browning E, and Blair SA (2017) Oligo- SA, and Boesinger TM (2017) Upper- cene to Pleistocene taxonomy and strati- most Oligocene to Middle Miocene Dis- graphy of the genus Helicosphaera and coaster and Catinaster taxonomy and other placolith taxa in the circum North stratigraphy in the circum North Atlantic Atlantic basin. Journal of Nannoplankton basin: Gulf of Mexico and ODP Leg 154. Research 37 (2–3): 145–75. Journal of Nannoplankton Research 37 Browning E, Bergen JA, Blair SA, Boesinger (2–3): 215–44. TM, and de Kaenel E (2017) Late Mio-

Grzybowski Foundation news (gf.tmsoc.org)

Mike Kaminski, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (Saudi Ar- abia)

The spring of 2018 was a busy one half full. This cabinet now stores the for the Grzybowski Foundation. We DSDP/IODP shipboard micropalae- helped organize the 11th Interna- ontological slides from Legs 29, 123, tional School on Foraminifera and and 323. gave a full tuition scholarship to a de- The 11th course of the Interna- serving student, we helped organize tional School on Foraminifera took the 19th Czech–Slovak–Polish Pale- place in Urbino from 27 May to ontological Conference, and we had 14 June. This year’s participants a table at the FORAMS 2018 con- came from as far away as China, ference. We also received additional Madagascar, and the Ivory Coast! books for our library at Micropress For a snapshot of activities that tran- Europe. spired during the course, please read At the European Micropalaeonto- the review by Yvette Bauder on logical Reference Centre, we took page 68 of this Newsletter. possession of another wooden slide The Grzybowski Foundation had cabinet, which is already more than a strong presence at the FO-

35 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 News

Figure 6: Looking at recent Micropaleontology Press publications at the Grzybowski Found- ation/Micropress table during the FORAMS 2018 meeting.

RAMS 2018 conference in Edin- has agreed to publish the Abstract burgh, which took place on 17–23 Volume of the FORAMS 2018 con- June. We had a table on which we ference as a Grzybowski Foundation displayed Micropaleontology Press Special Publication. The editing of publications, Grzybowski Founda- this volume is now in its ﬁnal stage, tion Special Publications, and ad- and participants of the FORAMS vertised the next ISF course. A meeting will receive a print copy. major advance in the subject of fo- This volume will serve as a perman- raminiferal taxonomy is the newest ent record of the meeting, and the publication by Meena Förderer and .pdf of the volume will also be Martin Langer, the ‘Atlas of benthic available to download from the Grzy- Foraminifera from the coral reefs of bowski Foundation website. Hard the Raja Ampat Archipelago (Irian copies will be distributed to libraries Jaya, Indonesia)’, which has been worldwide. published as a double issue of Mi- The call is now out for papers cropaleontology. An important and presented at the 10th International welcome development is the fact, Workshop on Agglutinated Forami- that the Grzybowski Foundation nifera, which took place in Slovakia

36 TMS Small Research Grants TMS Newsletter vol. 98 in April 2017. We intend to publish will be organized by the Institute the proceedings of the conference of Geology of the Czech Academy as a double issue of Micropaleonto- of Sciences in Prague. The venue logy—the last issue for 2018. If you will be the Villa Lanna, a residence would like to submit a paper to the of the Czech Academy of Sciences. volume, please submit a complete For more information about this .pdf of the paper with all ﬁgures, year’s meeting, please write to 19pa- plates, and tables to micropaleonto- [email protected]. We hope to [email protected]. see all our members and friends at The next Grzybowski Founda- the meeting. tion activity is the 11th Micro- The 12th International School on paleontological Workshop ‘Mikro- Foraminifera will take place at the 2018’, which will be held in conjunc- University of Urbino on 9–28 June tion with the 19th Czech–Slovak– next year. For more information, Polish Paleontological Conference, please visit the ISF website: www. 17–19 October 2018. The meeting isf.tmsoc.org.

TMS Small Research Grants

TMS oﬀers a single grant of up to £1500 each year to support micropalaeontological research by students or researchers of the Society. This grant is aimed to support stand-alone research projects, and funds can be used to assist with any costs associated with the work, e.g. analytical costs, visits to museums, ﬁeldwork, etc. This grant is open to any TMS member but if funding relates to a funded Ph.D. or Master’s project, then a case must be made as to why funding is required above that already available and a letter of support must be provided by one of your advisors. This award cannot be used to support conference or workshop attendance (please see Grants-in-Aid).

37 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 News

Successful project 2017—Eocene Nummulites: High-resolution archives of early Eocene greenhouse conditions Peter Stassen, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium)

Eocene larger benthic Foraminifera, linking their distribution and evolu- mainly Nummulites, occur in mul- tion to Eocene climate development. tiple levels in Belgium and are well-represented in museum collections. These occurrences in the North Sea Basin are probably con- trolled by pulses of northward mi- gration during warmer climate conditions. Recently, a new palaeotem- perature proxy has been proposed for their use in climate reconstructions, as variations in the shell chemistry can reveal both annual and sea- sonal changes of seawater temperature. The integration of geochemical Figure 7: A well-preserved specimen of and biotic data will deﬁne the down- Nummulites aquitanicus from the Egem sands in the Ampe Quarry near Egem (Bel- fall of one species and the rise of an- gium), deposited during the early Eocene other on a NW European scale, thus climate optimum.

38 Journal of Micropalaeontology article highlights

Benthic foraminiferal monitoring revealed environmental triggers of faunal changes Joachim Schönfeld1 1Palaeoceanography Research Unit, GEOMAR—Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany Foraminiferal monitoring receives a growing attention for investigations of the response to global climatic changes and assessments of the anthro- pogenic impact on marine environments. Decadal or longer time series depicting climatic and environmental variability are very rare. The few existing European marine long-term monitoring projects of governmental authorities mainly consider plankton composition, seawater chemistry, and hydrography. Attempts to monitor benthic foraminiferal assemblage dynamics face the lack of continuous funding since monitoring is still deemed as a non- scientific pursuit in academia, because it is missing a sound hypothesis to be tested. A way to overcome these objections to long-term monitoring studies is to combine them with field and laboratory courses for undergraduate students, as for instance the field course ‘Foraminiferen im Schleswig- Holsteinischen Wattenmeer’ in the Master of Geoscience curriculum at the Christian-Albrechts Universität Kiel. This course was held every year at the same place at Bottsand coastal lagoon, western Baltic Sea (Fig. 8). Quality control was ensured by the lecturers, consistency of methodology was given by the course subjects, and there was sufficient manpower to work up all the samples in due time. Supplementary environmental data were obtained with commercially available, budget data loggers. The faunal and environmental data accumulating over the years con- tain secret treasures waiting to be unveiled. The recent paper published in volume 37 of the Journal of Micropalaeontology described benthic

39 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 JoM highlights

Figure 8: The author sampling Bottsand lagoonal sediment for benthic foraminiferal monitoring, 16 November 2012 (photograph: Maike Nicolai, GEOMAR). foraminiferal dynamics from Bottsand coastal lagoon, which has been mon- itored annually since 2003, and which has been accomplished by monitoring the hydrography of the lagoon two months before sampling since 2012. To my surprise, Elphidium incertum, a common species of the Baltic deep- water fauna and adapted to high salinities, colonized the lagoon in 2016, most likely during a period of salinities >19 units and average temperatures of 18 ◦C in early autumn. The high salinities probably have triggered their germination from displaced propagules (tiny unilocular resting stages of benthic Foraminifera) in the lagoonal bottom sediment. Such a bloom initiated from propagules has not been observed in nature before, neither has it been coupled with instrumental data revealing the environmental trigger of their germination. The E. incertum population showed densities higher by an order of magnitude than those of the other, indigenous species. Another surprise was that E. incertum survived extended periods of brackish conditions in fall 2017 with low abundances. The results of the monitoring study revealed an immediate faunal re-

40 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 sponse to environmental changes, and we even may envisage response time constraints. The populations sustained if the new conditions prevailed for a period longer than the growth time, about two weeks in the present case, and unfavourable conditions do not last longer than the generation on time of species concerned, probably 3 to 6 months as implied by Wefer (1976). The remarkably high resilience of near-shore Foraminifera imposed caveats on the interpretation of palaeo-records. Can we be sure that faunal changes truly indicate switches to new ecosystems or do they rather mir- ror the excess of certain threshold values? A continuation of monitoring at Bottsand lagoon and more time series of benthic foraminiferal dynamics, environmental, and ecosystem properties are needed to answer this question.

The original article has been published as: Schönfeld J (2018) Monitoring benthic foraminiferal dynamics at Bottsand coastal lagoon (western Baltic Sea). Journal of Micropalaeontology 37: 383–93. doi:10.5194/jm-37-383- 2018

References

Wefer G (1976) ‘Umwelt, Produktion und Sedimentation benthischer Foraminiferen in der westlichen Ostsee’. Ph.D. thesis. Kiel: Christian-Albrechts Universität zu Kiel. 103 pp. http://epic.awi.de/46945/.

Micropalaeontology in the news Rehemat Bhatia, University of Bristol (UK)

The microfossils we know and love can be used within the public domain for a variety of endeavours, from climate change studies to forensic investigations. I think it’s really important that we recognise that although they are very small, they can tell us stories with massive implications. This new column will feature ﬁve cool ways that microfossils have helped within society, sourced from various platforms and supported with information from the scientists involved.

Did you know the North Atlantic overturning circulation has weakened over the past 150 years? Microfossil group: Foraminifera Statement provided by: Dr David Thornalley (UCL) Remember the 2003 film ‘The Day After Tomorrow’? The over-exaggerated changes in climate (which would not occur on such short timescales) across the Northern Hemisphere shown in that film were caused by a shutting down of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation current, also known as the AMOC. Scientists at the University College London (UK) and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (USA) have been using the planktonic and benthic Foraminifera to reconstruct the overturning circulation of the Atlantic in the past, to better understand future climate responses. Dr David Thornalley, lead author of this study, gave us this statement: The overturning circulation of the Atlantic (known as the AMOC) plays an essential role in climate through its redis- tribution of heat and its influence on the carbon cycle. There has been a recent decline in the AMOC, but the brevity of observational datasets precludes a longer-term assessment of the modern state and variability of the AMOC. However, the

43 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 Micropalaeontology in the news

AMOC has a particular surface ocean temperature ﬁngerprint, therefore we exploited the habitat preferences and geochemical response of Foraminifera to reconstruct this AMOC ﬁnger- print back in time. Using these techniques we discovered that AMOC has been anomalously weak over the past 150 years. The results suggest climate model simulations may be missing important processes or are not sensitive enough to freshwa- ter forcing. Our work demonstrates how simple micropalaeontological proxies like the relative abundance of the polar foraminifer Neogloboquadrina pachyderma can reveal new insight into complex and socially important aspects of the climate system. Dr David Thornalley (UCL)

The microfossils taking the term Palaeo-Diet to a whole new level Microfossil group: Microvertebrates Statement provided by: Prof. Emanuela Cristiani (Sapienza Università di Roma) Think you can get away with eating your favourite snacks and hide it? Not anymore. Enter the microfossils with the ability to reveal your dietary secrets. Scientists from Italy have identified the diets of Mediterranean Mesolithic hunter–gatherers by analysing the composition of plaque found on ancient teeth. Hunter gatherers are humans who find food by foraging, i.e. by hunting wild animals and collecting plants. An international team, led by Prof. Emanuela Cristiani (Sapienza Uni- versità di Roma), has revealed direct evidence of fish and plant consumption during the Mesolithic in the Mediterranean. The object of the study was an individual buried c.10 000 years ago at the cave of Vlakno, located on the Dugi Otok island (Croatia). Scientists sampled mineralized dental plaque

44 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 from the young male and analysed it in order to identify microfossils of food consumed during the forager’s life. The study revealed the first frag- ments of fish scale and flesh ever found in ancient human dental plaque. Starch granules from two wild grass groups were also recovered, suggesting the consumption of energy-rich plants. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes in human bones further confirmed that the individual regularly consumed marine fish resources. By revealing the role of marine food during the Mesolithic and suggesting that energy-rich plants were part of the Holocene forager dietary habits in the region, the results obtained by the international team provide a novel perspective on forager diet in the Medi- terranean. The interdisciplinary work was part of the ERC Starting Grant project HIDDEN FOODS; plant foods in Palaeolithic and Mesolithic societies of SE Europe and Italy (www.hiddenfoods.eu). The results were published in the paper ‘Dental calculus and isotopes provide direct evidence of fish and plant consumption in Mesolithic Mediterranean’ in Scientific Reports (doi:10.1038/s41598-018-26045-9).

Diatoms: The forensic clues hiding in water Microfossil group: Silicofossils Statement provided by: NA When you think of a diatom, you probably think they are happily hanging out in their aquatic environments. However, if humans decide to enter a body of water, this means they come into contact with them too. If a person drowns whilst alive, diatoms cannot enter their body. But, if a victim has inhaled water upon death, diatoms can enter their blood stream, bone marrow, brain, lungs, and kidneys. As the Times of India reports, forensic scientists based at the Chemical Examiners Laboratory in Thiruvananthapuram (India) have been using the presence of particular diatom species to identify whether an individual called Kevin P. Joseph was alive when he drowned in the Chaliyakkara

45 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 Micropalaeontology in the news

Figure 9: A scanning electron image of the new species Syracosphaera azureaplaneta alongside a porcelain sculpture. The cells are around 12 µm in diameter.

River in Thenmala, India. The river water was sampled to identify which species of diatom were present. Josephs bone marrow was subsequently sampled to identify if these species were also present. The report concluded that Joseph was alive when he died, as the diatom species were present in his bone marrow, which would only have happened if he was alive when he fell. The case is continuing, but this part of the mystery has been solved by diatoms!

Meet the latest nannoplankton species: Syracosphaera azureaplaneta Microfossil group: Nannofossils Statement provided by: Prof. Paul Bown (UCL)

During April 2018, Prof. Paul Bown and Dr Jeremy Young from Uni- versity College London (UK), named a new species of coccolithophore (Journal of Nannoplankton Research) in honour of the BBC Blue Planet

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Figure 10: Sir David Attenborough with Syracosphaera azureaplaneta. series. This also coincided with the re-opening of the Kathleen Lonsdale Building, the new home of the UCL Earth Sciences Department, by Sir David Attenborough. The new species, Syracosphaera azureaplaneta (Fig. 9) was found in the South Atlantic during an Atlantic meridional transect research cruise in 2008, but is widely distributed and belongs to one of the most diverse living coccolithophore groups. Sir David Attenborough was presented with a porcelain sculpture (Fig. 10) of the new species (at 12 000 times actual size!) made in collaboration with Dr Samantha Gibbs (University of Southampton). UCL researchers have described more than 400 new living and fossil species, and these and many others can be seen through the Nannotax web resource (http: //www.mikrotax.org/Nannotax3/), which includes images of the entire ancient and modern diversity (~4500 species).

47 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 Micropalaeontology in the news

Where are the standing stones? Microfossil group: Palynomorphs Statement provided by: Dr Martin Bates (University of Wales) For those of you who like Stonehenge, you’ll really enjoy this next piece of news. A community from north Devon created a monument around 3000– 4500 years ago called Yelland Stone Row. This included at least eighteen moniliths arranged in a pair of parallel rows. In the 1930s, an excavation discovered nine pairs of stones, or stone sockets, along with a scatter of flint tools and some evidence for occupation during the Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Early Bronze Age. These disappeared from view in the 1980s after the closure of the Yelland power station changed currents in the estuary, causing silts to build up around the area. Historic England recently funded a survey to find this archaeological site. Drs Martin Bates and Erin Kavanagh, from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David Lampeter, undertook an electromagnetic geophysical survey in an attempt to locate the row beneath up to 0.5 m of modern marsh deposits. A number of potential targets were identified, and although the row itself remained elusive, the ancient landsurface associated with it was identified. This provided an opportunity to recover palaeoenvironmental samples for a micromorphological study, along with some for microfossil analysis. It is hoped that these investigations will reveal evidence related to the climate, vegetation, and conditions during the time the monument was first constructed. On completion of the study, the Devon County Council Historic Environment Service, the RSPB, and Historic England hope to provide a new interpretation panel for the Tarka Trail, which will explain more about this unique site and the ancient history of the area.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this months news round–up. Big thank yous to Dr Martin Bates, Prof. Paul Bown, Prof. Emanuela Cristiani, and Dr David Thornalley for providing me with information and statements about their

48 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 research and involvement in the studies that we have featured. If you know of anything exciting microfossil news, let me know and we can feature it in the next issue!

Trends in micropalaeontology and biostratigraphy

Biostratigraphy: A 21st century science Mike Simmons1 1Halliburton, Aberdeen, UK

A few years ago, many of us would of analysis, automation of otherwise have had little understanding of laborious work, and insights gener- terms such as ‘data science’ and ‘ma- ated from the analysis of datasets chine learning’. Now, even if we that require computation assistance do not fully understand the maths (‘big data’). and statistics that underlie these ap- Biostratigraphy and palaeontology- proaches, they form part of our subjects that have often been pigeon- everyday lives. Retailers recom- holed by the uninformed as more mend purchases based on our buying in keeping with the 19th century history, and increasing automation than the 21st century turn out to be of driving, medical procedures, and ideal disciplines for the application image recognition are all examples and testing of data science, machine of how data science affects day-to- learning, and automation (I prefer day activities. the term ‘assisted interpretation’ to In comparison with commerce automation, because final decision- and some other branches of sci- making still often resides with hu- ence, geology, not least as applied mans). Perhaps, this is not entirely within the oil industry, has been surprising because palaeontology relatively slow to adapt to the ad- has long benefited from statistical vances occurring around us. This approaches to taxonomic classific- will soon change as data science ation and palaeoenvironmental or and geoscience harmonize and both stratigraphic interpretation (Ham- industrial and academic geologists mer and Harper 2006). reap the benefits of increased speed Current examples of the applic-

51 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 Trends in micropalaeontolology/biostratigraphy ation of data science include fossil data from our discipline with other recognition, the extraction of strati- geological disciplines. Robots are graphic, palaeoenvironmental, and unlikely to replace humans at the mi- palaeogeographic range data from croscope any time soon, but we will published literature and reports, and see increasing automation of routine the interpretation of palaeontolo- tasks. gical datasets (e.g. fossil distribu- It is important to stress that data tion charts from wells) in terms of science is not just the integration age/biozone and palaeoenvironment. of maths and statistics with com- The latter contributes to assisted well puter coding skills, it also requires correlation alongside the recognition input from subject matter experts of lithologies and facies from auto- (Fig. 11). Palaeontological and mated wireline log interpretation. biostratigraphic expertise is vital to It is all too easy to recourse to capture the nuances of interpreta- the argument that ‘a machine’ could tion and to ensure meaningful res- never undertake the tasks performed ults. ‘Black box’ approaches are to by trained (micro)palaeontologists be avoided, those that allow the ex- or biostratigraphers. The subtleties pert input in the interpretation are of fossil identification are too diffi- preferable. cult, taxonomic complications make At the recent FORAMS 18 con- use of the old data fraught with ference, Ross Marchant from the dangers, reworking or caving needs Centre Européen de Recherche et an expert eye to recognise, and so d’Enseignement des Géosciences de on. The reality is that great advances l’Environnement (CEREGE) gave are now being made across a wide an interesting presentation on the front of applications, clearly mark- automation of fossil identification using out our subject as a 21st century ing neural networks (the same ap- science. This is good news for the proach that is used in facial recogni- status of palaeontology and biostrati- tion software). Progress has reached graphy (better funding, increasing the point at which the identification use); it also means that practitioners of Foraminifera from a disaggreg- can focus on the subtleties of inter- ated and dried sample is possible, pretation and on the integration of so automating ‘picking’ prior to ana-

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Figure 11: Data science exists in the overlap between maths and statistics, computer coding skills, and domain expertise. Without all three areas of knowledge being applied, results may be less than optimal. Figure adapted from Drew Conway Data Consulting, LLC. lysis in due course. The identifica- the GeoDeepDive initiative, led by tion of actual species remains in its Shanan Peters from the University infancy, although it is showing signs of Wisconsin, shows the potential of of promise. Other groups are work- data mining and feeds this inform- ing in this space. Gard et al. (2016) ation into the Paleobiology Data- reported on the automation of nan- base (see Peters et al. 2014, Peters nofossil identification, and several 2018). The British Geological Sur- teams are working on the automation vey has initiatives underway with the of pollen grain identification. Two- Nanjing Institute of Geology and Pa- dimensional images may be easier to laeontology to maximise value from process than three-dimensional im- data in historical reports (Stephen- ages, but O’Neill and Denos (2017) son et al. 2018). Subject to careful have shown that their GeoDAISY compliance with publishers’ copy- system has promise. rights, more initiatives in this field are expected over the next few years, In terms of extracting and syn- enhancing the compilation of spe- thesising data from the literature,

53 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 Trends in micropalaeontolology/biostratigraphy cies dictionaries. white manner and to be able to apply the nuances used by expert biostrati- Fossil distribution data from out- graphers when they make an inter- crops and wells are routinely in- pretation, such as recognizing dubi- terpreted in terms of age/biozone ous occurrences and weighing dif- or depositional environment, en- ferent occurrences as more or less abling temporally constrained cor- signiﬁcant. relation, better reservoir model- Next year, as part of the TMS An- ling, and the drafting of palaeogeo- nual Meeting, Jim Riding from the graphic maps at a variety of scales. BGS and I will convene a one-day These are time-consuming tasks, and meeting on the applications of data much value could be rapidly re- science to biostratigraphy and (mi- leased from new and vast amounts cro)palaeontology (see initial ﬂyer of old data by assisting interpreta- on page 12 of this newsletter). We tion through machine learning tech- very much hope you will join us to niques. The typically quantitative participate in what should be a very nature of raw biostratigraphic data stimulating showcase of where some captured as distribution charts makes aspects of our science are heading. it highly amenable to the statistical approaches that underlie machine learning algorithms. These al- References gorithms may be unsupervised (i.e. analyse the data without preconcep- Gard G, Prince I, Crux JA, Shin JM, and Lee B (2016) Remote well site tions) or supervised (i.e. use a train- biostratigraphy and advances in auto- ing dataset in which the interpret- mated fossil analysis. AAPG Search and ation is known to ‘teach’ the al- Discovery 2016: Article 41930. http : gorithm how to interpret a new set / / www . searchanddiscovery . com / documents / 2016 / 41930gard / ndx _ of data). Such approaches have a gard.pdf. great deal of promise, and several in- Hammer Ø and Harper D (2006) Palaeon- dustrial groups, including my own, tological Data Analysis. (Malden, Ox- are currently working to determine ford, and Carlton: Blackwell Publishing). which machine learning techniques 351 pp. O’Neill MA and Denos M (2017) Automat- provide the best results. The subtlety ing biostratigraphy in oil and gas explora- is not to treat the data in a black-or- tion: Introducing GeoDAISY. Journal of

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Petroleum Science and Engineering 149: Stephenson M, Fan J, Condon D, and Howe 851–9. doi:10.1016/j.petrol.2016.11.032. M (2018) Setting biostratigraphical data Peters SE (2018) Automated Text and Data free: A collaboration between the Brit- Mining: Knowledge Base Creation and ish Geological Survey and the Nanjing Augmentation. https : / / youtu . be / Institute of Geology and Palaeontology. wzGKFS4IefI?t=8801. In: Fernandez S, Germain D, Goussard Peters SE, Zhang C, Livny M, and Ré C F, and Kerner A (eds). The Fossil Week (2014) A machine reading system for as- Abstract Book: 5th International Palae- sembling synthetic paleontological data- ontological Congress. (Paris: Paleontolo- bases. PLOS ONE 9 (12): e11352. doi:10. gical Society), p. 100. https://ipc5. 1371/journal.pone.0113523. sciencesconf . org / data / IPC5 _ Abstract_Book.pdf.

Methods in micropalaeontology

Experimental design: The joys and caveats of setting up a proper study framework Manuel F. G. Weinkauf1 1Department of Earth Sciences, Université de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland

Experimental design is an important, this article, I will try to share the but often neglected topic in micropa- very basics of experimental design laeontology. Fortunately, quite a lot and show some of the problems and of literature exists to introduce this pitfalls that come with it. topic properly to natural scientists (Federer 1955, Hurlbert 1984, Quinn Mensurative vs. manipulative and Keough 2002, Dytham 2011). experiments But why is experimental design in all its facets important? For starters, When thinking about experiments, having a proper experimental design many people tend to think only of makes all ensuing quantitative ana- manipulative experiments, i.e. exper- lyses much more easy, because one iments where something (e.g. a pop- does not have to tweak statistical ulation of benthic Foraminifera) is methods for an ill-chosen or com- manipulated in the laboratory (e.g. plicated setup that introduces unne- cultured in water with diﬀerent sa- cessary random terms and bias into linities). I believe this is part of the analyses. But the problem does the reason why many palaeontolo- not end there, because an inappro- gists tend to think that experimen- priate experimental design can lead tal design need not concern them, to wrong results, incomparable stud- since they only work with mater- ies, experiments that cannot be rep- ial sampled in the ﬁeld without act- licated, and many other problems. In ively manipulating anything. Un-

57 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 Methods in micropalaeontology fortunately, this is wrong (Hurlbert temporal pattern, and assemblages 1984)! We indeed distinguish two or populations are investigated con- types of experiments, and experi- cerning their reaction to that change. mental design is important for both This type of experiment is what the of them. majority of micropalaeontological The first type, as already men- analyses entails (e.g. Aldridge et al. tioned, are manipulative experi- 2012, Weinkauf et al. 2014, Knap- ments. Those are all experiments pertsbusch 2016). Mensurative ex- which are performed by actively ma- periments are a bit more complic- nipulating some of the variables in- ated to analyse, since they do not volved, so that one has an actively have a control treatment in the strict chosen treatment. Often, manip- sense (as manipulative experiments ulative experiments take place in do). They also have a larger error as- laboratories, where organisms can sociated with the treatment variable be cultured in several vessels that are because it is only measured (often exposed to different environmental with a non-negligible error due to parameters (e.g. culturing popula- temporal or spatial integration) in- tions at a range of different temperat- stead of actively chosen by the ex- ures, salinities, light levels, etc.) (see perimenter. Therefore, although this Marschner et al. 2012, Schmidt et al. is often forgotten, mensurative ex- 2014, for examples of well-designed periments often call for more robust manipulative experiments). They statistical analyses than manipulat- can, however, also be performed by ive experiments to be meaningfully manipulating populations directly in analysed (Dytham 2011). situ (e.g. Nomaki et al. 2005). Mensurative experiments, on the Sampling schemes other hand, are experiments where samples are taken in nature across The sampling scheme is the most in- space and/or time and then analysed tegral part of any design, because it for similarities and differences. The provides the raw material for manip- ‘treatment’ is space or time, i.e. it ulative experiments and comprises is known that some environmental the entire dataset of mensurative ex- parameters changed in a spatial or periments. In order not to make

58 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 things overly complicated, I will that mainly consists of limestones present the three most prevalent end- but has thin intercalations of sand- members here, which are equally stone, or a mudflat that is crossed by useful for mensurative and manipu- a river which delivers coarser sedi- lative experiments and for sampling ment and more nutrients to the area in space (area) and time (sediment in its vicinity. In both cases there column) (Fig. 12). is a dominating environment (limestone/mudflat) and a rare environ- Random sampling scheme ment (sandstone/river area). A completely random design runs the risk The random sampling scheme is the of by chance only or disproportion- easiest and on first glance the most ately often sampling the dominat- robust, because it takes samples at ing environment and neglecting the completely random locations. When rare environment. This can give a the environment is very homogen- biased picture of the development eous, for instance a sediment column of e.g. the microfossil community that comprises only one lithology over time or space, because it can be or a mudflat area without changes assumed that the under-represented in environmental parameters or sedi- rare environment has a different as- mentology, this is the easiest design semblage than the dominating envir- to follow. Sampling locations are onment. The solution for this is the depicted by a random generator and stratified random sampling. Here, it are thus ensured to not be biased by is made sure that each stratum (e.g. any pre-existing assumptions of the dominating environment and rare en- experimenter. vironment) is represented with the same number of samples but samples Stratified random sampling within each stratum are still distrib- scheme uted randomly in space and time.

It can happen that previous know- Systematic sampling scheme ledge of the sediment column or area to be sampled requires to modify Systematic sampling is most often the sampling scheme. For instance, applied in micropalaeontology, be- one can imagine a sediment column cause it is easily designed and fol-

59 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 Methods in micropalaeontology

4 Random Stratified random Systematic

Limestone

Sandstone 3

2 metres

Figure 12: Examples of three prevalent sampling schemes, shown on the example of sampling a geological sediment column. Random sampling: For a pure limestone assemblage, where the environment was stable over the entire time, three randomly distributed samples (black triangles) may be enough for analyses and do not bias the results. Stratified random sampling: When there are intercalations of sandstone in the limestone, the three original random samples (black triangles) would by chance all fall in the limestone facies, obscuring the short-term environmental changes. A stratified random sampling (black and red triangles combined) with two random samples per stratum gives a better picture of the true development over time by sampling equally in both lithologies. Systematic sampling: A systematic sampling every 1 m (black triangles) could lead to the conclusion that the sediment column represents only one environmental gradient, from sandy to calcareous, because each sample is a little bit more calcareous than the one before. In reality, there are three limestone–sandstone cycles, which are obscured because the sampling interval (1 m) shows interference with a naturally occurring pattern (c.1.25 m- cyclicity). A random sampling design (red triangles) would give a less biased picture here, but a systematic sampling with a much finer resolution may be the best choice to fully understand this sediment column.

60 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 lowed in the field. In systematic it is composed of three limestone– sampling, samples are taken in pre- sandstone cycles (e.g. indicating in- defined distances to each other (e.g. tervals of slow uplift phases termin- every 1 m along a sediment column ated by rapid subsidence). System- or every 1 by 1 m across a mud- atic sampling on that scale would flat). Under many circumstances, thus lead to a completely wrong this scheme is not problematic and observation and interpretation of eliminates bias by the experimenter the real situation, where random as effectively as the random schemes. sampling would at least show you However, the systematic sampling that the pattern is rather complex can lead to a large bias when the and may warrant further investiga- chosen sample distance interferes tion. In a spatial sampling, an equi- with a naturally underlying pattern. valent example may be sampling in a In Fig. 12, the sampling interval of mudflat in a 20 by 20 m grid, where 1 m would create as set of samples there are waste-water exhausts at which show gradually more cal- the coast in 20 m intervals. When careous components and fewer sand by chance samples are taken in the content. This is because there is a drainage channels, assemblages ob- real cyclicity with three limestone– served there will indicate much more sandstone cycles of c.1.25 m thick- eutrophic conditions in the mudflat ness. In effect, each of the three sys- than is really the case. tematic samples comes from another cycle, but because the cycles are a little bit thicker than the sampling in- Laboratory setup terval, each sample is located a little bit further down in its cycle than the There is a vast variety of more or previous sample was in the previous less established experimental setups cycle. In absence of further know- (for which analytical methods are ledge, only based on these three sys- well understood) for manipulative tematic samples, one may interpret experiments, which are partly de- the sediment column as one large rived from the sampling schemes dis- sandstone–limestone trend (e.g. due cussed above (Dytham 2011, Corn- to slow subsidence), when in effect wall and Hurd 2015). The important thing about a proper laboratory setup

61 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 Methods in micropalaeontology is first and foremost an unbiased dis- each day) but otherwise cultured un- tribution of treatment and control der the same conditions as the exper- units. There are different types of imental control group. controls, but the two most important are (1) the procedural control and (2) When designing the setup of con- the experimental control (Dytham trol and experimental groups, it is 2011). important to make sure that there are no confounding factors. For in- The experimental control is what stance, having all the experimental many scientist consider the only con- groups stand closer to the window trol in an experimental setup. It is and all the control groups further in a population, that is not exposed to the room closer to the air condition- the treatment (e.g. increased salin- ing in an experiment studying the ity) of the experimental group, but effect of salinity levels can lead to is instead cultured at natural condi- an unobserved influence of light at- tions. This allows to evaluate, if the tenuation and temperature. It can treatment had any effect on the in- thus lead to an observed difference vestigated parameter, or if the con- between control and experimental trol group shows the same patterns group, that has nothing to do with as the experimental group. salinity but is misinterpreted as such, The procedural control is another because salinity was the only factor type of control group that may be that was actively manipulated. The worthwhile when the treatment in- two most common base forms of volves a lot of disturbances (e.g. spe- proper experimental setup are the cimens have to be taken out of the Latin square design and the random- aquaria each day for measurements ized block design (Hurlbert 1984, and then put back). In such cases, the Dytham 2011). In the Latin square stress from the manipulation alone design, all treatments are applied can have an effect, independent of within one block, but the different the actual treatment. A procedural treatments have different positions control is a control group that is dis- in each row to avoid confounding of turbed in the same way as the exper- treatments. In the randomized block imental group (e.g. taken out of the design, treatments are equally dis- aquarium into measurement vessels tributed across blocks (e.g. incubat-

62 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 ors) but their position per block is by Hurlbert (1984) requires elabor- randomized (Fig. 13). ate design, and Heffner et al. (1996) Latin square Randomized block and Cornwall and Hurd (2015) in- ABCD Block 1 Block 2 dicate that the situation in scientific A C B A practice had not changed for the bet- B CDA D B C D ter since. There are two things to say CDA B about this here. DABC D B C D A C B A The first is, that Hurlbert (1984) Block 3 Block 4 is right in demanding proper replication of experiments. Some of Figure 13: Examples of the two most com- the experimental setups he criti- mon experimental setups. In the Latin square design all treatments (including con- cises as pseudoreplication (Hurlbert trols) are set up in one block, and each row 1984, fig. 1), for instance simple or and each column contains exactly one of clumped segregation or no replica- each treatment. The shown arrangement is tion, can easily be avoided by just indeed not optimal, because treatment ‘D’ occurs in the corner twice (in the first and sticking to the guidelines outlined last row). In the randomized block design in this article and the literature here the experiment is spatially segregated into cited. Others may be harder to grasp blocks, and each block contains one of each for the reader. For instance, the fact treatment (the arrangement of treatments is different in each block). that having only one incubator or aquarium per treatment—so that all control groups are in Incubator 1 Replication and all experimental groups in In- cubator 2—is isolative segregation Replication is a very controversial (Hurlbert 1984, fig. 1) and not rep- matter, and far too complex to be lication may be hard to understand. discussed here. Ever since Hurlbert The simple reason is, that even mod- (1984) published his devastating con- ern technology does not work per- clusion about extensive pseudorep- fectly, and one of the incubators may lication in scientific experiments, not work properly, break entirely, or experimental design was the most have in the past accidentally been dreaded part of work for many scient- contaminated with a substance that ists. Indeed, replication as expected influences the experiment. This can

63 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 Methods in micropalaeontology lead to erroneous results, and it is ous. As Oksanen (2001, p. 33) put it: not only in the interest of proper rep- ‘Let us face it. If the concept pseu- lication but also of saving time in doreplication is used in the broader the case of catastrophic events (e.g. sense, including compound treat- one incubator breaks down entirely, ments, then all experiments are pseu- destroying the entire experiment if doreplicated, though we do not al- there is no replication in another in- ways have enough information to un- cubator) to avoid this. derstand how.’. The second thing is, that there are those who argue that Hurlbert (1984) might be a bit too restrictive in his References approach (Hargrove and Pickering Aldridge D, Beer CJ, and Purdie DA (2012) 1992, Oksanen 2001). Especially Calcfication in the planktonic Foramini- when dealing with mensurative and fera Globigerina bulloides linked to phos- manipulative field experiments (nat- phate concentrations in surface waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. Biogeosciences ural experiments), the high standards 9: 1725–39. doi:10.5194/bg- 9- 1725- of replication demanded by Hurlbert 2012. (1984) can hardly be met, or if so Cornwall CE and Hurd CL (2015) Experi- only by strict spatial or temporal lim- mental design in ocean acidification re- itation of the study. In such cases, a search: Problems and solutions. ICES Journal of Marine Science 73 (3): 572– large range of treatments that offers 81. doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsv118. properly robust results takes priority Dytham C (2011) Choosing and Using Stat- over replication, if replication would istics: A Biologist’s Guide. 3rd ed. (Ox- mean that the potential range of treat- ford, Chichester, and Hoboken: Wiley– Blackwell). 298 pp. ments is so small that any potentially Federer WT (1955) Experimental Design. observable effect is ambiguous. (New York and London: Macmillan & Co.). 544 pp. To make this clear, one should Hargrove WW and Pickering J (1992) Pseu- try to properly replicate ones ex- doreplication: A sine qua non for regional periments as far as possible and ecology. Landscape Ecology 6 (4): 251– avoid pseudoreplication whenever 8. doi:10.1007/BF00129703. possible. But the wish to replicate Heffner RA, Butler MJ, and Reilly CK (1996) Pseudoreplication revisited. Eco- must never limit the experiment in logy 77 (8): 2558–62. doi:10 . 2307 / a way that makes its results ambigu- 2265754.

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Hurlbert SH (1984) Pseudoreplication and Limnology and Oceanography 50 (1): the design of ecological field experiments. 134–46. doi:10.4319/lo.2005.50.1.0134. Ecological Monographs 54 (2): 187–211. Oksanen L (2001) Logic of experiments in doi:10.2307/1942661. ecology: Is pseudoreplication a pseudois- Knappertsbusch M (2016) Evolutionary pro- sue? Oikos 94 (1): 27–38. doi:10.1034/j. spection in the Neogene planktic fo- 1600-0706.2001.11311.x. raminifer Globorotalia menardii and re- Quinn GP and Keough MJ (2002) Experi- lated forms from ODP HOLE 925B mental Design and Data Analysis for Bio- (Ceara Rise, western tropical Atlantic): logist. (Cambridge, New York, Port Mel- Evidence for gradual evolution superim- bourne, Madrid, and Cape Town: Cam- posed by long distance dispersal? Swiss bridge University Press). 537 pp. Journal of Palaeontology 135: 1–44. Schmidt C, Kučera M, and Uthicke S (2014) doi:10.1007/s13358-016-0113-6. Combined effects of warming and ocean Marschner L, Triebskorn R, and Köhler H.-R acidification on coral reef Foraminifera (2012) Arresting mantle formation and Marginopora vertebralis and Hetero- redirecting embryonic shell gland tissue stegina depressa. Coral Reefs 33 (3): by platinum2+ leads to body plan modi- 805–18. doi:10.1007/s00338-014-1151- fications in Marisa cornuarietis (Gastro- 4. poda, Ampullariidae). Journal of Mor- Weinkauf MFG, Moller T, Koch MC, and phology 273 (8): 830–41. doi:10.1002/ Kučera M (2014) Disruptive selection jmor.20019. and bet-hedging in planktonic Foramini- Nomaki H, Heinz P, Nakatsuka T, Shiman- fera: Shell morphology as predictor of ex- aga M, and Kitazato H (2005) Species- tinctions. Frontiers in Ecology and Evol- specific ingestion of organic carbon ution 2: Article 64. doi:10.3389/fevo. by deep-sea benthic Foraminifera and 2014.00064. meiobenthos: In situ tracer experiments.

Reports

Meeting reports

Lyme Regis Fossil Festival 2018 Michael McKnight, University of Birmingham (UK)

One of the society’s regular public Dynamic Earth. engagement exercises is our stall at The activity went down a storm at the annual Lyme Regis Fossil Fest- the festival. The kids were all very ival. The festival draws in crowds of excited to solve a mystery and the fossil collectors, dinosaur obsessed parents were keen to get involved children, and scientifically curious too. This led to many conversations parents who have often never heard about what microfossils are, why we of micropalaeontology. Thankfully study them and how they fit into The Micropalaeontological Society geoscience as a whole. In my ex- is there every year to open their perience, the weekend often turns minds to our wonderful field and, as into a series of enthusiastic conver- someone that has been doing this for sations about micropalaeontology in 5 years now, I can attest to how in- between helping children and par- credibly rewarding this is. This year ents with microscope work, followed at Fossil Fest we decided to collabor- usually by catching up with the other ate with my new home, the Univer- contributors in the evenings, and this sity of Birmingham, to do this. One year was no exception. As a result, of our students designed an activity it’s often difficult to say how many to introduce children to sediments people we engage with as part of and microfossils by having them use these events but a conservative es- forensic science to solve a dastardly timate for this year would be around crime! Namely the theft of some 400 (based on the number of congrat- dinosaur bones. Look here for a ulatory stickers we gave out). This is nice overview of the activity and a impressive given that whilst working glimpse into the initial showcase at the stall our students were also busy

67 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 Reports documenting our time at the festival! ideas for activities/exhibits, if you Look here for a video overview of would like to volunteer for the Lyme our time there. Regis Fossil Festival, or know of any All in all, we had another great other science or geology events that success this year. I think the collab- you think we should be looking at oration with Birmingham worked in- engaging with, please drop me an e- credibly well and I know that Birm- mail at [email protected]. ingham’s earth science team are keen for a repeat next year! So I’m Credits: already looking forward to next year. Exhibit design: Jonathan Hall If you have run successful micro- Video Production: Jack Richardson palaeontological activities, have any Video Presenting: Amy Jones

International School on Foraminifera—Urbino, Italy, 2018: Foraminifera, food, fun, and friendships Yvette Bauder, Macquarie University (Australia)

Each year the International School working hard, we managed to enjoy on Foraminifera provides students, the wonderful Italian cuisine and cul- academics, and industry represent- ture while making good friends. atives with the opportunity to come together to learn and immerse them- selves in all things Foraminifera. In 2018, the 11th Course on Forami- nifera (ISF 11) continued this tra- dition, providing an atmosphere of collegiality for the gathering of over forty plus scientists from over twenty countries who met in Urbino, Italy. Figure 14: Our ﬁrst group photo for Over eighteen days from late May ISF 2018. we undertook lectures, tutorials and ﬁeld trips and focused on the diverse Italy is a long way from my home study of Foraminifera. In between in Australia, where I am complet-

68 Meeting reports TMS Newsletter vol. 98 ing my Master of Research on Fo- opportunity to sample local tradi- raminifera. With the support of my tional food. These functions helped university, Macquarie University, I to foster a friendly and cooperative was able to attend ISF 11 in Urbino, atmosphere, which enabled every- a beautiful and historic UNESCO one to get to know each other better. World Heritage site. The course The full course was broken into was expertly organized and run by four modules, each between four and Prof. Michael Kaminski (King Fahd five days long. The first module was University of Petroleum & Miner- the introductory session, followed by als, Saudi Arabia) and Dr Fabrizio larger benthic (LBF), then the smal- Frontalini (Urbino University, Italy). ler benthic, and finishing up with the These two excellent teachers, along planktonic Foraminifera component. with other respected academics and The introductory block provided a industry experts, were always on very detailed overview of the study hand to help answer questions. In of Foraminifera. Starting with the addition, each student was given a history of foraminiferal research and comprehensive library of references taxonomy we quickly moved on to and published literature on Foramini- ecology, test morphology and mo- fera, including many works that are lecular genetics, and the application no longer in print. of Foraminifera in both scientific re- We stayed in modern accommod- search and industry. This valuable ation at the Collegio Internazionale, introduction brought participants up surrounded by the stunning renais- to date with any changes in current sance buildings where our social methodologies and classification and functions were held. Urbino has also helps solidify morphological many wonderful restaurants and bars identification criteria. As well as lec- with a good range of pricing op- tures from Prof. Mike Kaminski we tions, all offering delicious food and were fortunate to have sessions with drinks, not to mention the best gelato Prof. Johann Hohenegger, Prof. An- I have ever eaten. Throughout the drew Gooday, Dr Claudia Cetean, course several group social events and Prof. Jan Pawłowski. were arranged to help participants I am fascinated by the LBF with meet, and each also provided the their exquisite tests and complicated

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Figure 15: ISF 2018 participants enjoying the sun and beauty of Urbino before presentation night. life histories, so the second module tion was provided at each stop, how- was probably my favourite. We in- ever it was also a lot of fun and we vestigated LBF forms through the all found fossils! We finished off a Phanerozoic, learning about modern wonderful day spent at interesting genera as well as the most important geological sites with a delicious so- groups used in stratigraphy and pa- cial dinner, of course followed by laeoenvironmental studies. We had dancing and karaoke. wonderful additional teachers includ- The modules on smaller benthic ing Prof. Cesare Andrea Papazzoni, and planktonic Foraminifera were Prof. Michal Kučera, Prof. Geraint just as detailed and interesting. In Wyn Hughes, and Dr Antonino addition to the study of all the ma- Briguglio. This module finished jor taxonomic groups and their im- with a field trip to the Mesozoic and portance in many forms of palaeo- Caenozoic exposures in the Umbria– studies, we looked at their applic- Marche area, including the K/Pg ation in stratigraphy and environ- boundary sequence at Bottaccione. mental studies. Industry specialist The field trip was very informative Dr Danielle Foy discussed life on and detailed stratigraphic informa- board a drilling rig and the roles

70 Meeting reports TMS Newsletter vol. 98 available to micropalaeontologists depth of learning, the range of mater- interested in a career in industry. ial available to study, and their sup- Prof. Laia Alegret, as well as tak- port was incredible. I would recom- ing us though the Palaeogene fauna, mend this course to any student inter- also discussed her involvement in the ested in studying these truly amaz- IODP JOIDES Resolution expedi- ing creatures. I would also like to tion. This module also had a wonder- say that for me, the opportunity to ful ﬁeld trip and provided an oppor- stay and learn in a place as beautiful tunity for participants to share their as Urbino will be cherished. research by presenting at the Pizza Sponsors who helped make this Party in a truly stunning setting. It course happen included: The Mi- was very informative to see the range cropalaeontological Society, Mi- of research being undertaken using cropress Europe, The Grzybowski Foraminifera. Foundation, CGG, Network Strati- I am very grateful to the teach- graphic Consulting, Kreativika Mi- ers and sponsors of this course. The croslides, and PLOS ONE.

INASSET: A fantastic week in Lyon learning about calcareous nannofossils Anita Nyerges, Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem (Hungary)

The International Nannoplankton new areas of coccolithophore re- Association organized for the very search. I especially enjoyed the inter- first time the Summer School on active microscope sessions, where I Evolution and Taxonomy (INAS- had a chance to learn from the fellow SET) on 2–7 July at the Laboratoire students as well: same research area, de Géologie de Lyon, Université same stage of career, same scientific Lyon 1, France. problems or questions. All parti- This five-days training focussed cipants became really good friends on the Caenozoic taxonomy and and colleagues within a short time. gave a really extended view about As a Ph.D. student, this week was biomineralisation, palaeodata ana- the most stimulating period in my lyses methods, and the pioneering doctoral training so far. Now I can

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Figure 16: Participants of the INASSET meeting. continue and extend my research pro- izers for the unforgettable experi- ject with a strong basic knowledge. ence and the TMS for giving me I would like to thank the organ- the opportunity to be there.

TMS Grant-in-Aid reports

11th International School on Foraminifera (ISF), Urbino (Italy), 28 May–14 June 2018 Juan Castaneda Venegas1 and Naima el Bani Altuna2; 1University of Birm- ingham (UK), 2Norges Arktiske Universitet (Norway)

After a not-so-short multimodal- which works as both accommoda- transport journey, we reached tion and lecture venue (very conveni- Urbino. This medieval town oﬀers ent). Daily lectures started promptly breathtaking views of ancient walls, at 9:00 a.m., after breakfast, and narrow streets, and idyllic hilly sur- ended at around 5:30 p.m. There roundings. Once inside the city, we were enough breaks in between for found the Collegio Internazionale, Italian coﬀee and lunch. The course

72 TMS Grant-in-Aid reports TMS Newsletter vol. 98 comprised four modules: Introduc- questions. It was a great privilege tion, large benthic, smaller benthic, to meet with authors whose papers and planktonic Foraminifera. Stu- we have read in the past. It is highly dents are free to attend as many beneficial for any early career re- of these modules as they deem ne- searcher to interact with important cessary. Two short day field trips researchers and ask questions about were held in the lovely Gubbio area Foraminifera, research, and science where we studied stratigraphic sec- in a candid environment. tions of Cretaceous and Palaeogene ages. Some important chronostrati- ISF is a bit like the Foramini- graphic boundaries were visited fera’s World Cup, some of the best such as The Cretaceous/Palaeogene academic players in the field come boundary in Bottaccione and the Eo- to Urbino, not to play against each cene/Oligocene boundary in Massig- other but to share their scientific nano. Social activities included skills with students. Unlike foot- icebreaker and group meals. There ball’s World Cup, spectators are was even a ‘Foraminiferal Party’, equally active players who get to where attendees showcased their re- learn and practice research skills search around pizza and drinks in an in the lab and build strong teams outdoor venue. with their peers. The 39 attendees of this year came from 23 different ISF equips attendees with a com- countries and research backgrounds. plete overview of Foraminifera in a Most of the attendees were post- broad context. This is extremely use- graduate researchers, however, there ful for early career researchers that were a few experienced researchers, usually focus on a single Foramini- industry employees, and undergradu- fera group or study area, and often ate students! We worked in pairs on neglect biological, ecological, and the microscope, which allowed pro- palaeontological aspects of other Fo- ductive discussions related to Fora- raminifera groups. Students have minifera. There were bonding activ- close access to lecturers who are ities in and around the beautiful town accomplished researchers in their of Urbino. These casual friendships fields and have the expertise to guide will be the base for the scientific students into meaningful research collaborations of the future! Never

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Figure 17: Attendees and lecturers in the lab, ﬁeld, and Urbino. Photographs by Shuai Zhang.

74 TMS Grant-in-Aid reports TMS Newsletter vol. 98 underestimate a birra con aperitivo and Danielle Foy were extremely with colleagues! helpful, especially in the micro- We are extremely grateful for the scope sessions! We are thankful generous Education Trust Award to Profs Laia Alegret, Antonino from The Micropalaeontological So- Briguglio, Andrew Gooday, Johann ciety that supported our participation Hohenegger, Geraint Wyn Hughes, in the 11th edition of the Interna- Michal Kučera, Cesare Papazzoni, tional School on Foraminifera (ISF) and Jan Pawłowski for coming down held in Urbino two months ago. We to Urbino and sharing their know- are equally thankful to lecturers and ledge with us. Last, but not least, organizers of the school. we thank our classmates that made Scientiﬁc directors Prof. Mike this learning experience unforget- Kaminski and Dr Fabrizio Fronta- table and fun! lini did an amazing job of coordinat- Grazie di cuore alla TMS! ing the school. Drs Claudia Cetean

Training in computational and data literacy skills for research, 4–7 June 2018, The Natural History Museum, London Lyndsey Fox, The Natural History Museum (UK)

Many thanks to TMSoc for fund- The ﬁrst two days were spent ing my attendance of the ‘Training learning programming basics in R in Computational and Data Liter- and getting to grips with the prin- acy Skills for Research’ short course, ciples of ‘tidy code’ and ‘code re- held at the Natural History Mu- view’, as well as covering basic data seum, London, this year. The course, literacy, such as: aimed at Ph.D. students and early career researchers, consisted of short • Methods for eﬃcient collec- lectures, computer practicals, and a tion of data and metadata for unique opportunity to put skills into future analyses practice using data gathered in the NHM’s ‘behind the scenes’ collec- • Data wrangling, tidying, and tions. organisation in R

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Figure 18: Location map of Challenger stations, colour coded by the month they were visited, produced in R on the ﬁnal day of the course.

• Data visualisation and ana- lected at each station by the Chal- lysis in R lenger scientists, as well as generat- ing my own. The course opened my Of particular interest to me was eyes to Open Science principles and the training in ‘The Fundamentals procedures such as data archiving op- of Programming’, ‘Data Visualisa- tions and best practice and code shar- tion’, and ‘Analysis in R’. The skills ing options. This has enabled me to I learned on the course have already create accessible data sets from the had immense beneﬁt to my current Challenger expedition, which will research on the HMS Challenger soon be made available for public collections held at the NHM. use. The ‘Challenger Revisited’ pro- I cannot recommend the course ject requires me to handle large enough to anyone working with large volumes of data relating to the vari- data sets, my only regret is I didn’t ous stations and measurements col- do it sooner!

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Joint International Palaeolimnology Association and International Association of Limnogeology (IPA–IAL) meeting, Stockholm, 18–21 June Lucy Roberts, Queen Mary University of London (UK)

Between 18 and 21 June, 370 pa- of the week to think more critic- laeolimnologists and limnogeolo- ally and widely. Another prom- gists met in Stockholm to present inent message of the meeting was 212 oral presentations and 110 to use generalized additive mod- posters at the ﬁrst joint Interna- els (GAMs) instead of ‘eye-balling’ tional Palaeolimnology Association trends in palaeo-data. Across the (IPA) and International Association week, keynotes spanned the breadth of Limnogeology (IAL) meeting. of palaeolimnology research includ- With the theme of the meeting ‘Un- ing micropalaeontology talks from ravelling the Past and Future of John Anderson (diatoms) and Jen- Lakes’, talks and posters covered a nifer Korosi (zooplankton). range of topics including human im- On Monday afternoon, I gave pacts, climate change, natural haz- a talk in the Ecosystem Recov- ards, and catchment scale processes ery session entitled ‘Understanding on lakes. Shallow Coastal Lake Response to Gradual Long-Term and Episodic Salinity Increase: A Multi-Proxy Approach’. The talk centred around the use of ostracod geochemistry (Sr/Ca, Mg/Ca, 18O, and 13C), ostracod fauna, and plant macro- fossil data to reconstruct salinity in the Norfolk Broads, eastern Eng- Figure 19: The city of Stockholm. land. The future management of On Monday morning, we gathered land drainage and macrophytes re- at Stockholm University for a key- lies upon knowledge of the rate of, note from John Anderson, provid- or lack of, recovery of the system ing one of the take-home messages from past high intensity storm surge

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Figure 20: The Alua Magna lecture theatre, Stockholm University events. The combined use of faunal ated to diatoms and talks and posters assemblages and shell chemistry has covering pollen, macrofossils, and helped to identify intense salinity ostracods. The Micropalaeontolo- events associated with storm surges gical Society Ostracod Group was beyond the instrumental and doc- well represented with oral presenta- umentary record. Alongside mac- tions, in addition to my own, from rofossil assemblages, these recon- Anna March (Queen Mary Univer- structions will facilitate better un- sity of London and Ostracod Group derstanding of recent salinity for- secretary) on the use of ostracod cing in the Norfolk Broads and other 18O to reconstruct rainfall at mar- coastal wetlands over longer (multi- ine isotope stage 11 site Marks millennial) timescales. Tey, Jonathan Holmes (University College London) on ostracod 18O There was good representation to reconstruct the extent of Lake of micropalaeontology across the Mega Chad during the African hu- week, with a whole session dedic-

78 TMS Grant-in-Aid reports TMS Newsletter vol. 98 mid period, and Steﬀen Mischke Kylander (Stockholm University), (University of Iceland) on the use Richard Bindler (Umeå University), of ostracod faunal assemblages and and Dan Hammarlund (Lund Uni- mutual salinity ranges to reconstruct versity) for providing such a diverse salinity over the early Holocene in conference with conference dinner NW China. memories that will surely last a life time!

Figure 21: Me presenting my work.

Obviously, a group of palaeolim- nologists would want to get close to some water, so on Tuesday afternoon some delegates elected a cruise around the Swedish archipelago, which the sun eventually came out for! The highlight of the week was Figure 22: Sing-along lyrics book presented by far the conference dinner with to us at the conference dinner. a rather surreal traditional Swedish sitting, which involved a ﬂash mob After the meeting, two new twit- tribute to the nations sweetheart’s, ter accounts were established for ABBA, and a sing-along rendition the Journal of Palaeolimnology and of the song ‘Helan Gar’, Angli- the IPA early career research net- ﬁed to ‘Hell and Gore’, and some work. Follow @J_of_paleolim and Swedish proverb wisdom—‘there’s @IPA_ECN to keep up to date. The no such thing as bad weather, only next joint IPA–IAL meeting will be leather pants’. Thanks to Malin held in Argentina in 2021.

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Finally, a big thank you to The Mi- ing my travel to Stockholm. cropalaeontological Society for fund-

FORAMS 2018, Edinburgh, 17–22 June 2018 Rabecca Thiessen1 and Adam Woodhouse2; 1MacEwan University (Canada), 2University of Leeds (UK)

FORAMS 2018 took place on the by lectures operating concurrently 17–22 June in the idyllic setting within three theatres, broken up with of Edinburgh, Scotland, which hos- coffee breaks which provided the opted a great atmosphere and stunning portunity to demonstrate research in weather for the duration of the week. poster sessions held in the nearby It was organised by Kate Darling South Hall. (University of Edinburgh) and Bill Austin (University of St Andrews), with a fantastic turnout of 424 delegates from a total of 40 different countries! The conference kicked off with an ice breaker event on Sunday, 17 June, held in the Playfair Library, Old College. The venue was beautiful, with terrific refreshments followed by several welcome speeches, Figure 23: The icebreaker held in the Play- namely that from the Lord of Ed- fair Library, Old College (photo by Cían inburgh. The icebreaker provided McGuire). a great opportunity to connect with known colleagues, and provide in- Monday’s keynotes featured Jen- troductions to all new ones. The nifer Fehrenbacher (Oregon State remainder of the congress contin- University) providing insights in the ued in the John McIntyre Conference utility of the planktonic foraminifer Centre, wherein each day began with Neogloboquadrina dutertrei in pa- a plenary session featuring a trio of laeoceanographic reconstructions, selected keynote speakers, followed Elisabeth Alve (Universitetet i Oslo)

80 TMS Grant-in-Aid reports TMS Newsletter vol. 98 with advances in foraminiferal bio- Tuesday morning saw keynote lec- monitoring, and ﬁnally Tine Lander tures from Bruce Hayward (The Uni- Rasmussen (Universitetet i Tromsø) versity of Auckland) on the use of who demonstrated that benthic fo- modern foraminiferal data as an ana- raminifers respond more readily logue for quantitative estimates of to temperature over food supply. past tidal elevation, water depth, sa- For the remainder of the day, linity, and temperature around New sessions were held on ‘Biomin- Zealand and Valeriya Mikhalevich eralisation and Geochemistry of (Rossíiskaya akadémiya naúk), who Proxies—Field Calibrations, Labor- took us through the history of the atory Culture and Paleooceano- Russian school of foraminerology. graphic reconstructions’, ‘Advances The keynotes were concluded by in Foraminiferal Geochemistry’, ‘Ad- Raphaël Morard (Universität Bre- vances in Foraminiferal Biomonit- men), who demonstrated recent in- oring’, ‘Planktonic Foraminifera, a sights on the global diversity of Bridge between Ecological and Evol- planktonic Foraminifera. Sessions utionary Dynamics in Deep Time’, were then resumed, within ‘Fora- and ‘Foraminifera in Quaternary Re- minifera in Quaternary Research’, search’. ‘Evolution, Stratigraphy and Geo- logical Crisis’, ‘Advances in Plank- tonic Foraminiferal Ecology and Population Dynamics’, ‘Single-Cell Genomics of Foraminifera, from Or- ganismal Interactions to Integrative Framework’, ‘Environmental Gen- omics of Foraminifera: From Global Diversity of Foraminifera and Bey- ond’, and ‘Foraminifera, Bridging the Gap between Ecology and Pa- laeoecology’. Following on from Figure 24: The Paleogene Planktonic Fo- the sessions, a well-catered recep- raminiferal Working Group formally introducing the ‘Atlas of Oligocene Planktonic Fora- tion was provided by the Cush- minifera’ at the Cushman Reception (photo man Foundation for Foraminiferal by Dave King).

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Research where, to much anticipa- studies, and finally Anna Weinmann tion, The Paleogene Planktonic Fo- (Universität Bonn) on the distribu- raminiferal Working Group presen- tion and dispersal of Foraminifera ted the third and final contribution in times of global change. The day to the series they have been working followed with sessions on ‘Forami- through for over 25 years, the ‘Atlas nifera and Ocean Drilling, Celebrat- of Oligocene Planktonic Foramini- ing 50 Years of Discovery’, ‘Deep fera’. The evening was concluded Time Records of Climate Change Im- by a Celidh, accompanied by a tra- pacts’, ‘Foraminiferal Biology in a ditional Scottish band who took us Changing World’, ‘Foraminiferal In- through much dance and merriment vasions as a Threat to the Environ- to see the night out! ment’, and ‘Foraminifera in Applied Wednesday saw a day of huge vari- Micropalaeontology (Industrial and ety amongst field trips and cultural Academic)’. That evening, the Sym- excursions. These included a hike up posium Dinner was held in the As- Arthur’s Seat offering stunning pan- sembly Rooms in Edinburgh City oramic views, a historical tour of Ed- Centre. This venue was stunning, inburgh Castle, a trip to Siccar Point and the dinner was a match, allow- to see Hutton’s Unconformity, a boat ing another great opportunity to con- out to the Isle of May to observe the verse with peers and meet some new amazing wildlife, as well as to the friends over good food and wine. Royal Yacht Brittania. An evening The final day was introduced with Whiskey Experience was also avail- keynote lectures from Hidetaka No- able, detailing a brief history of Scot- maki (JAMSTEC) on foraminiferal land’s whiskey industry, followed by ecology revealed by in situ and labor- a much-anticipated tasting! atory experiments, Laia Alegret The sessions picked up once again (Universidad de Zaragoza) on the on Thursday with more great key- benthic foraminiferal record of cli- notes by Bridget Wade (University mate change across the Palaeogene, College London) on planktonic Fo- and Maria Rose Petrizzo (Università raminifera and their utility within degli Studi di Milano) on the late ocean drilling, Mike Simmons (Hal- Turonian to early Campanian plank- liburton) on applied foraminiferal tonic foraminiferal records from

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(a) View of Edinburgh City from Arthur’s Seat (b) Foraminifer enthusiasts positioned upon (photo by Adam Woodhouse). Hutton’s Unconformity at Siccar Point (photo from Cushman Foundation twitter).

(c) Puﬃns with freshly caught ﬁsh (photo by (d) Some whiskey enthusiasts at the Scotch Isabel Fenton). Whiskey Experience (photo by Sev Kender).

Figure 25: Impressions from the FORAMS 2018 excursion day. low–high latitudes. Sessions fol- ural History Museum), Kirsty Edgar lowing included ‘Foraminiferal Re- (University of Birmingham), and search Schools: The Past can Inform Martin Langer (Universität Bonn). the Future’, ‘Larger Benthic Forami- The conference closing ceremony nifera as Historical Archives of Deep was held on Friday afternoon, which Time Changes’, and ‘Advances in included awards for best conference Foraminiferal Experimental Studies’, posters to David King (University as well as the TMS Spring Meet- College London) and Dana Titel- ing convened by Lyndsey Fox (Nat- boim (Ben-Gurion University of the

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Negev), as well as a congratulation What an amazing week filled with to Natalie Chernihovsky (The Inter- science and networking we had! We university Institute for Marine Sci- would like to extend a huge thank ences) for her submission of the win- you to both Kate and Bill for their ning photo to the Shellscapes art and remarkable efforts in hosting and or- science project. Finally, the confer- ganising FORAMS 2018, as well as ence was concluded with the vote for all other members of the organising the next venue for FORAMS 2022. and scientific committees, and am- The result being the beautiful city bassadors! Finally, we are incredibly of Perugia in the Umbria region of grateful to The Micropalaeontolo- Italy! gical Society for providing each of us a Grant-in-Aid, aiding our travel, and allowing us to present our research to the international foraminiferal community in Edinburgh, an opportunity which will undoubtedly benefit us in the years to come!

Figure 26: Some of the amazing 3 D-printed Foraminifera on show at FORAMS (photo from Cushman Foundation twitter page).

84 Obituaries

Dr Edwin (Ted) Spinner (* 1938, † 2018)

Imagine the cultural shock facing some students arriving in Sheffield in the late 1950s. The city was in the process of re- building after the war, damaged buildings were still obvious, trams trundled their noisy way in almost every direction and everywhere could be subject to serious air pollution from the burgeoning steel industry. The shock to the young Ted Spin- ner must have been severe. Ted was brought up in a farming family in the charming little Suffolk village of Worlingworth, so small it didn’t appear on many road maps. He was the youngest of seven children and attended the local primary school. On passing his 11-plus examinations, Ted and a friend became the first ever two children from the village to win a place at Eye Grammar School. As no-one from the local primary school had previously achieved this, the Local Education Authority (LEA) buses did not connect the village to the school. The solution to this dilemma was to provide Ted with an ‘LEA bike’ to cycle the 7 miles journey to and from school! Ted excelled, became Head Boy, and appeared on the School academic honours board in two con- secutive years. On passing his university entrance exams he became the first Spinner to achieve this feat and opted to study geology at the University of Sheffield. He would have arrived in Sheffield by train with his first impressions having been the views from the train window of the formidable steelworks. A dramatic contrast to the Constable-like landscape he had left a few hours before. Ted spent his undergraduate days in lodgings at Nether Edge with the Collins fam-

85 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 Obituaries ily, forming a strong relationship that was to survive more than 40 years. He was a fully committed member of the 1957 Honours Geology cohort and graduated in 1960 with an Upper Second. Almost half of the people graduating that year decided to continue with postgraduate studies, and Ted initially embarked on something close to his Suffolk heart, a study of the Quaternary palynostratigraphy of the Hoxne district of Suffolk. The project was in difficulties from the outset with problems over accessing suitable sample sites and poor recovery from the material he did have. Fortunately a solution emerged that changed everything. Head of De- partment Professor Leslie Moore suggested that Ted work alongside the recently appointed palaeobotanist Bob Wagner (who incidentally passed away only three days before Ted) undertaking a major palynological project on the Coal Measures of the Forest of Dean to run in tandem with Wagner’s own macroplant investigations. Instant results were obtained and the dye was cast for a life-long study of Carboniferous megaspores. In the early 1960s, access was still available to many of the mines and audits of the Forest of Dean coalfield and Ted made detailed collections of everything available. Whilst access to the material didn’t present any problems, extracting the megaspores was at the time a largely undeveloped tech- nique and Ted was compelled to experiment. The laboratory in the top floor of St George’s operated with the best safety standards available at the time, but many of his contemporaries worried about the amount of bromine he employed in the processes! Life in St George’s saw Ted sharing the lab with a large group that included David Wall, Graham Williams, Tony Jenkins, John Varker, Ralph Coffey, Frank Spode, Bernard Owens, and Barrie Dale. Most days ended about 10 p.m. before transfer- ring to the Hallamshire Inn on West Street. Since most of the group had acquired motorbikes for fieldwork purposes, departure would witness Ted get kitted up and blaze off home astride a monster 650cc BSA. A truly awesome sight. It wasn’t of course all work. Ted decided early in his post-graduate days to become a football referee. He qualified first as a linesman and then as a referee able to officiate at Sunday League matches. Local football played to the Spinner interpretation of the rules did not always seem to meet with the approval of players or spectators. Maybe the 650cc BSA was a good idea. When he finished his Ph.D. in 1964, Ted was appointed as Leslie Moore’s Research

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Assistant to work on the organic remains in the Precambrian Nonesuch Shale from the USA. During this time Ted also continued his work on Carboniferous megaspores, including a productive collaboration with Mavis Butterworth, who at the time was a Research Fellow in the department. In 1971 Ted was appointed as a lecturer and remained on the staff until his retirement in 1997. Ted lectured in geology at undergraduate level and also on the famous Sheffield M.Sc. in Palynology that was inaugurated in 1967 and ran continuously until 2001. During his time in Sheffield, Ted will have interacted with all of the 300- plus palynology students (c.100 Ph.D. and c.200 M.Sc.) that graduated through the ‘Sheffield Palynology School’. Ted was an incredibly popular lecturer whom students naturally gravitated towards. He adopted an open-door policy and was a first port of call for students for academic advice or to air their concerns and problems, that Ted would solve in a most genial manner. It is not too surprising that Ted’s skilful pastoral care of students lead to roles working with students in the university halls of residence. Between 1965–1973 Ted served as a Tutor at Earn- shaw Hall. Later, between 1975–1983, Ted was Warden of Tapton Hall. This was a role in which he was particularly successful, operating as an efficient director but still available and accessible to students. Ted also generously served the geological community involving himself in the organisation and development of geology teaching in schools. Between 1970–1975 Ted was responsible for the introduction of geology teaching within the Postgradu- ate Certificate in Education (PGCE) in the Department of Education (a new approach based on field studies). Subsequently he became chairman of examiners of the NUJMB Geology Advanced Level and was responsible to the board for syl- labus development and for the setting and marking of papers. When Charles Downie and Roger Neves retired in 1984, Ted became course director for the M.Sc. in Palynology. He duly set about invigorating and modernising the course and ensuring its survival through what were challenging times in the UK Higher Education sector. It is an indication of Ted’s appreciation and respect within the palynological community that when he retired in 1997, a dinner for ex- Sheffield palynologists was organised at Tapton Hall and attended by over 100 former students and colleagues including some that had travelled from as far away as Canada.

87 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 Obituaries

Ted was a highly successful scientist. He supervised numerous M.Sc., M.Phil., and Ph.D. projects and published more than 50 papers including co-operations with Mavis Butterfield, Geoff Clayton, David Jolley, Bob Wagner, and postgraduate students such as Steve Brindley and Nick Turner. These papers were largely on Car- boniferous megaspores, but also on other diverse subject areas deriving from postgraduate student research projects. Ted served a number of roles within scientific societies including Council Member and Newsletter Editor of the British Micropa- laeontological Society (now TMS) and Council Member of the Yorkshire Geological Society. Ted will be remembered with affection by all the students he encountered, be that in his capacity as Warden, lecturer, or project supervisor. All his students and colleagues will recall his trademark pipe and aromatic tobacco, always with him whether lit or unlit, and used to great effect as an article of gesticulation when he offered his wise council. The ‘Sheffield Palynology School’ owes a huge debt of gratitude to Ted for a lifetime of dedication.

Bernard Owens, Mike Romano, and Charles Wellman (The University of Shefﬁeld, UK)

88 Book reviews and announcements

Evolution and Geological Signiﬁcance of Larger Benthic Foraminifera

Alison Fox, UCL Press (UK)

Author: Marcelle K. BouDaugher-Fadel Title: Evolution and Geological Signiﬁcance of Larger Benthic Foraminifera Edition 2 Year: 2018 Publisher: UCL Press Place: London Pages: 702 pp. ISBN: 978-1-911576-93-8 978-1-911576-95-2 978-1-911576-94-5

Description ‘Evolution and Geological Significance of Larger Benthic Foraminifera’ is a unique, comprehensive reference work on the larger benthic Foraminifera. This second edition is substantially revised, including extensive re-analysis of the most recent work on Caenozoic forms. It provides documentation of the biostratigraphic ranges and palaeoecological significance of the larger Foraminifera, which is essential for understanding many major oil-bearing sedimentary basins. In addition, it offers a palaeogeographic interpretation of the shallow marine late Palaeozoic to Caenozoic world. Marcelle K. BouDagher-Fadel collects and significantly adds to the information already published on the larger benthic Foraminifera. New research in the Far East, the Middle East, South Africa, Tibet, and Americas

89 TMS Newsletter vol. 98 Book reviews and announcements has provided fresh insights into the evolution and palaeographic significance of these vital reef-forming forms. With the aid of new and precise biostratigraphic dating, she presents revised phylogenies and ranges of the larger Foraminifera. The book is illustrated throughout, with examples of different families and groups at the generic levels. Key species are discussed and their biostratigraphic ranges are depicted in comparative charts. The digital version of the book is available at https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ucl- press/browse-books/evolution-and-geological-significance-of-larger-benthic- foraminifera.

Microfossils through Time: An Introduction

Sorin Filipescu, Universitatae Babeş–Bolyai (Romania)

Author: M. Dan Georgescu Title: Microfossils through Time: An Introduction Year: 2018 Series: First Steps in Micropaleontology No.: 1 Publisher: Schweizerbart Science Publishers Place: Stuttgart Pages: 400 pp. ISBN: 978-3-510-65413-0

Review

As always, introductory books in micropalaeontology are more than welcome, both for enthusiastic students and educators. Many groups of microfossils, originating from simple to very complex forms of life, are presented

90 Microfossils through Time TMS Newsletter vol. 98 passing through their biology, morphological characters, classification, living habitats, evolution, and distribution in time. All these are meant to highlight the importance of microfossils for applications in palaeoecology, palaeobathymetry, biostratigraphy, sequence stratigraphy, and basin evolution. Some of the essential concepts in micropalaeontology are the subject of the first section of the book, which deals with some aspects related to science and non-science, origin of fossils, geological time, stratigraphy, sedimentary environments, evolution, classification, and the rise, development, and importance of micropalaeontology. The following sections of the book are dedicated to 40 groups of microfossils, from prokariotes, protists, fungi and plants, to invertebrates, chordates and vertebrates, and microproblematica. I would like to add a special remark on the quality of the graphic material. A consistent list of cited references and a helpful index of generic names are added at the end of the book. As the book provides the fundamentals and ‘opens the doors’ for applied micropalaeontology, it gives good chances to young researchers to gain and improve expertise. Our hope is that the series ‘First Steps in Micropaleon- tology’ will continue, offering more insights into the fascinating world of the ancient and recent microscopic world.

Fun with micropalaeontology

TMS Newsletter crossword no. 1 Rehemat Bhatia, University of Bristol (UK)

We have decided to include a micropalaeontologically themed puzzle in each version of the TMS Newsletter! There are clues to entice those in all specialist groups. Return your completed crossword to the Newsletter Editor by e-mail to be entered into a prize draw to win a TMS Calendar for 2019. Submission deadline is 1 November 2018!

Across 2 The ﬁnal chamber in a fo- Down 1 Lots of Foraminifera culturers raminifer has an opening called like that. work on this genus. 3 Earliest chamber 3 Elongate group of diatoms. 7 Coiled in of a foraminifer. 4 A type of foraminifer successively changing planes, like a ball wall texture, which evolved in the Creta- of twine. 8 An incertæ sedis phytoplank- ceous. 5 Resting stage of benthic Fo- ton group. 9 Long sticky cytoplasm ex- raminifera. 6 Placolith with a spiral tensions. 12 Miliolid Foraminifera could margin. 10 An organic microfossil; pol- have this type of coiling. 14 Types of len and spores for example. 11 Ostracod these little helpers include chrysophytes shell. 13 Y-shaped mark on a spore. and dinoﬂagellates. 15 Examples of this include calcium carbonate, chitin, and phosphate. 16 In morphological de- scriptions, a projecting rim or rib is also known as this. 17 Type of method which determines the evolutionary relationship amongst fossil organisms. 18 Dinocyst excystment hole.

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