ContentsConference and Course AnnouncementsBook ReviewMeeting ReportsThe Micropalaeontological Society NewsTMS Grant-in-Aid ReportsSpecialist Group NewsNanno News - updates from the TMS Nannofossil Group and the INAGrzybowski Foundation NewsAdvertisers

page

25792226263238

CorrespondencePlease 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 text files or as Word documents. Photographs or illustrations to accompany articles are also welcome. Please send photos as high resolution JPEG images. Please send all correspondance to the editor: Claudia Cetean, Robertson Ltd. (UK), Tyn y Coed, Llandudno, North Wales LL30 1SA, UK, or by email to newsletter@tmsoc.org.

Copy DateThe Newsletter of Micropalaeontology is published by The Micropalaeontological Society twiceyearly in January and August. The copy dates for each issue are 1st December and 1st July.

Advertising RatesJournal of MicropalaeontologyAdvertising in Journal of Micropalaeontology is managed by the Geological Society Publishing House and enquiries should be directed to Sarah Gibbs, Production Editor (sarah.gibbs@geolsoc.org.uk).

Newsletter of MicropalaeontologyFull page, 1 issue £400Full page, 2 issues £720Half page, 1 issue £200Half page, 2 issues £360Quarter page, 1 issue £100Quarter page, 2 issues £160

Supplying Your AdvertPlease supply your advert as a high resolution JPEG or PDF file. Please pay for your advert at the time of booking; contact the Treasurer for available methods of payment.

DisclaimerThe views expressed by the authors of any article in Newsletter of Micropalaeontology are their own and do not necessarily represent those of The Micropalaeontological Society.

Taxonomic disclaimerNewsletter of Micropalaeontology is not deemed to be valid for taxonomical or nomenclatural purposes - see International Codes o f Botan ica l and Zoo log ica l Nomenclature.

The Newsletter is sponsored by

Grzybowski Foundation

Contributions from:

The Micropalaeontological Society

The International Nannoplankton Association

1/42

Conference and Course Announcements

2/42

3/42

RCMNS Interim Colloquium 2015, Mediterranean-Atlantic Gateways (Neogene to present), 5-8th May 2015, Rabat, Morocco.

Abstract submission and registration now open.

The focus of this meeting is the Mediterranean-Atlantic gateway system, both today and in the past and a major aim is to start developing proposals for IODP and/or ICDP drilling that recovers a complete record of Miocene Mediterranean-Atlantic exchange. The meeting includes a half day fieldtrip to classic exposures of Morocco’s Miocene Mediterranean-Atlantic gateway sediments. Contributions from scientists working on all aspects of marine gateways, both modern and ancient are most welcome.

Abstract deadline 29th January 2015

Please see the website for more information: http://www.mediterraneanatlanticgateways.net/

4/42

Book Review

Lower Jurassic Foraminifera from the Llanbedr (Mochras Farm) Borehole, North Wales, UK

The monograph finally arrived at my front door, way too thick to get through the letter box. This magnum opus is 403 pages long, containing 21 SEM plates, plus 2 very large supplemental online range charts. This text is largely based on the two doctoral theses of Ben Johnson (Upper Pliensbachian and Toarcian Foraminifera, thesis completed 1975) and Phi l l ip Copestake (Hettangian – Lower Pliensbachian Foraminifera, thesis completed 1978). Both authors had hoped to publish their datasets in the Reports of the Institute of Geological Sciences journal, however, due to unforeseen circumstances (including financial ones) which had caused long delays to publication, plus the subsequent curtailing of the journal proceedings, led to the project not being published. Both authors put publishing the whole of this work on the back burner for a long time, however, both Phil and Ben continued to work up the Lower Jurassic foraminifera throughout their long careers in the oil industry using both industrial (onshore and offshore well data) and academic (borehole and outcrop) materials. This fortuitously led to a more comprehensive and detailed dataset, enabling more detailed foraminiferal correlations throughout Europe, plus a more refined and pertinent classification of the foraminifera. As Professor John R. Haynes states in the Preface “ t h e m o n o g r a p h r e p r e s e n t s t h e m o s t comprehensive treatment yet carried out on the foraminiferal faunas of the Boreal Realm in the Lower Jurassic”. It may have taken over 35 years to get published, but it has certainly been worth the wait; it is one of the best pieces of work to be have been published on this material.

The monograph starts with a short Abstract, followed by a Preface by Professor John R. Haynes, lately of University College Wales, who supervised both their doctoral theses on the foraminiferal faunas of the Mochras Borehole. This is followed by a general Introduction discussing why the Mochras Borehole was drilled, the research projects that were carried out on the cored material, and importantly including the full taxonomy of all the foraminiferal taxa recorded from the borehole. Materials and methods are briefly discussed, while an expanded history of

foraminiferal research since the middle 1800’s is described.

One of the more important parts of this monograph commences with the Jurassic stratigraphy of the Mochras Borehole. The m o n o g r a p h f i r s t l y d e a l s w i t h t h e chronostratigraphy, discussing both the original stratigraphic subdivision post-drilling (mid 1960s), plus the re-evaluation / revisions by Dr. Kevin Page in the 2000s. The lithostratigraphy of the UK Lower Jurassic is briefly discussed, while the sediments within the borehole are compared to those from other onshore areas.

As well as the extensive study of the foraminifera from the borehole, both authors have through the various decades since completing their doctoral theses examined additional material from numerous onshore and offshore wells / boreholes, outcrops and

Copestake, P & Johnson, B. 2014.

Monograph of the Palaeontological Society, London, 403 pp., 21 pls. (Publ. 641, part of Vol. 167 for 2013)

5/42

other deposited foraminiferal collections.

The monograph d i scusses the genera l characteristics of the foraminiferal fauna recorded at Mochras, and also theirs and others previously published biozonation schemes for the Lower Jurassic both onshore and ofshore in northwest Europe. One of the more significant and useful parts of this monograph (29 pages) concerns the foraminiferal biozonation for the Lower Jurassic, based mainly on the foraminifera recorded from the Mochras Borehole. The outline of this zonation has been previously published by Copestake & Johnson (1989) in the Stratigraphical Atlas of Fossil Foraminifera. It comprises 16 biozones and 6 zones, with the zonation based on the 55 most regionally important index taxa from the Boreal Atlantic providence. These biozones / subzones comprise Total, Partial, Interval or Concurrent Range Zones. Throughout this expanded and detailed biozonation section are text figures showing the age, ammonite zonation, gamma ray, lithology and foraminiferal marker horizons and zonation. Each zone / subzone possesses an extensive remarks section.

The most important part and the main bulk of the monograph concerns the very detailed taxonomic chapter (266 pages, plus 21 black background SEM plates and captions), discussing all of the Lower Jurassic foraminifera recovered from the borehole, plus a small section (7 pages) discussing the stratigraphically important index foraminiferal taxa not present in the borehole, but recorded elsewhere in the UK. The first part of this section comprises taxonomic principles, and is followed by the classification of the foraminifera. This latter part describes the criteria for classification, the recent classification of the foraminifera including in particular the wall structure, and then the classification used by the two authors in this monograph. The systematic descriptions are extremely detailed from Subclass through to Species / Subspecies, with 270 species / subspecies described and illustrated, with each taxon possessing an appropriate synonymy, diagnosis, full description, dimensions, material and horizon, variation and a remarks section. Where new species / subspecies are defined, both holotype and paratypes have been assigned.

A detailed comprehensive reference list (running to 21 pages) completes the monograph, plus 4 Appendices describing the studied British sections, the samples analysed in the borehole, the recorded foraminiferal species / subspecies and the ammonite records recognised from Mochras.

The online record contains the supplementary data (an absolute must have to complement the book) comprising the two large foraminiferal distribution charts (1. Hettangian – Sinemurian, 2.

Pliensbachian – Toarcian). These were too large to be included within the monograph itself.

In conclusion this monograph has been extremely well researched, is highly detailed, very well illustrated with 21 beautiful SEM plates, and is a must for anyone working with or has an interest in (Lower) Jurassic foraminiferal faunas. I would thoroughly recommend this monograph to anyone working in either industry or academia. It may be expensive to purchase, but university libraries will possess a copy. If not beg, steal or borrow one. You will not be disappointed. It’s a shame more works are not like this, the industrial / academic world would be a better place for it, even though bookshelves will have to be reinforced!!

References:

Copestake, P. 1978. Foraminifera from the Lower and Middle Lias of the Mochras Borehole. Unpublished Ph. D. thesis, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Copestake, P., Johnson, B. 1984. Lower Jurassic (Hettangian-Toarcian) Foraminifera from the Mochras borehole, North Wales (U. K.) and their application to a worldwide b i ozona t i on . Ben thos ’ 83 , Second International Symposium on Benthic Foraminifera Pau, April 1983, 183-184.

Copestake, P., Johnson, B. 1989. The Hettangian to Toarcian, in: Jenkins D.G., Murray, J.W. (Eds). Stratigraphical Atlas of Fossil Foraminifera, 2nd Edition, Ellis Horwood Limited, Chichester, for the British Micropalaeontology Society, pp. 129-189.

Johnson, B. 1975. Upper Domerian and Toarcian foraminifera from the Llanbedr (Mochras Farm) Borehole, North Wales. Unpublished Ph. D. thesis, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Dr. Nigel AinsworthPalaeoDate Ltd.

6/42

Meeting Reports

TMSoc Annual Conference 2014, The Oxford University Museum of Natural History, 19th and 20th November 2014

Phillip Jardine, The Open University, UKphotos Claudia Cetean, Robertson (UK) Ltd.

The 2014 TMS annual conference took place on 19th and 20th November, in the neo-Gothic magnificence of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. It was organised by Tracy Aze (University of Leeds) and Paul Smith (University of Oxford), and attracted 99 delegates with 43 oral and poster presentations across the two days. The open ing sympos ium had t he t heme o f ‘Micropalaentological phylogenies and their applications’. Talks by Michal Kucera (University of Bremen), Samantha Gibbs (University of Southampton), Robert Morley (Palynova), Helen Coxall (Stockholm University) and David Siveter (University of Leicester) showed how traditional micropalaeontological approaches are being in teg ra ted w i th mo lecu la r phy logen ies , morphometr ics, imaging techniques and neoecological data to understand better the origins and diversification trajectories of different microfossil groups.

The AGM directly followed the symposium, and included short presentations from each of the society officers, covering membership, awards, finances, publications, publicity, the Educational Trust and the TMS website. New society officers Phil Jardine (Secretary), Claudia Cetean (Newsletter Editor), Alan Bowden (Archivist), Cherry Newsham (Nannofossil Group Secretary) and Anna March (Ostracod Group Secretary) were officially welcomed, and departing officers Sev Kender (Secretary), Mark Williams (Special Publications Editor), Matt Hampton (Nannofossil Group Chair) and Ian Boomer (Ostracod Group Chair) were thanked. The Charles Downie award was given to Lyndsey Fox for her paper Fox, L.R. and Wade, B.S. 2013. Systematic taxonomy of early-middle Miocene planktonic foraminifera from the Equatorial Pacific Ocean: Integrated Ocean Dri l l ing Program Site U1338. Journal of Foraminiferal Research 43: 374-405. The Brady Medal was awarded to David Siveter, with an overview of David’s career to date provided by Alan Lord, and some insights into the production of the Brady Medal given by David himself, who was instrumental in its development.

A drinks reception (as ever generously sponsored by Petrostrat) and dinner in the Court of the Museum of Natural History rounded off the

programme for the first day. The Court is the main exhibition space of the museum, and the foss i l - f i l l ed d isp lay cases and reconstructed dinosaur skeletons provided a wonderful setting for mingling, chatting, drinking and eating. It’s not all that often that one gets to eat one’s dinner directly under a Tyrannosaurus rex! After the dinner the delegates dispersed to Oxford’s pubs (of which there are many) and carried on the micropalaeontological chatter into the small hours of the morning.

The second day of the meeting started with a poster breakfast, which allowed delegates to peruse the research posters while taking in restorative (some would say medicinal) coffee and pastries. The 24 posters were on display along the upper gallery of the museum, and it was great to have a dedicated poster session to take in the range of research and talk to the presenters. And to consume coffee and pastries before the talks started.

Oxford Museum of Natural History

7/42

Dinner under the dinosaurs

As has become the norm for the two-day format TMS annual conference, the talks on the second day were in ‘open’ sessions, where any research with a micropalaeontological focus was welcomed. There were 14 talks across two sessions, which encompassed foraminifera, nannoplankton, radiolarians, terrestrial and marine palynomorphs, ostracods and gastropods, from the Cambrian through to the Holocene, and with topics including biostratigraphy, taxonomy, palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, phylogenetics and biodiversity. The meeting officially ended with closing remarks by TMS President John Gregory. Some of us stayed on for a ‘behind the scenes’ tour of the museum,

which was kindly given by Paul Smith. Paul ta lked us th rough the h is to ry and architecture of the museum and plans for continued refurbishment, and in addition to showing us some of the key collections took us up to the room where the 1860 Oxford Evolution Debate between Thomas Huxley and ‘Soapy’ Samuel Wilberforce took place.

It was a splendid meeting in a splendid setting, and carried on the success of the preceding two-day TMS meetings at the NHM (2013) and BGS (2012). Thanks to Tracy Aze and Paul Smith for their hard work in organising this conference.

"Behind the scenes" tour of the Museum

8/42

The Micropalaeontological Society News

Report from the PresidentJohn Gregory

TMS has gone from strength to strength over the past few years and this has been particularly reflected in the attendance numbers at, and the quality of our flagship meeting, the 2 day conference and AGM. This ‘new ‘meeting style with its roving location and format is now well established after 3 years and is popular amongst most members. This year’s AGM conference in Oxford was spectacular in terms of the meeting location and the setting of the conference dinner. The talks and posters were diverse and interesting, so thanks to the organisers Paul Smith and Tracy Aze for an excellent, and well run meeting. One sad item to report is that shortly after this meeting, Prof Martin Brasier, who presented on his work from the last 20-30 years, was unfortunately killed in a car accident just outside Oxford. Our condolences go to his family and friends and the society will carry an obituary in the newsletter.

The next AGM will be held in Liverpool, organised by Fabienne Marret-Davis and then in 2016 we are planning to hold our first AGM meeting outside the UK in Lille, France, hosted and organised by Taniel Danelian. We do intend to return to London on a regular rotation as we know this is also a popular and traditional location for meetings.

I would like to take this opportunity to make members aware of the hard work that your Committee carries out on our behalf to make the society a success. Most of this is done behind the scenes, but the effort is reflected in good group meetings, at the AGM, by educational funding and representation, or via the newsletter, Journal and website.

A few items/changes I would like to highlight are:

A new Events Secretary committee position has been created so help can be given to organisers of group and AGM meetings, and suggestions for new meetings/fieldtrips can be proposed and acted upon. Kirsty Edgar has agreed to take this on, and I wish her well in this post.

The Journal is steadily climbing the impact factor ladder, although whether this metric is the be all

and end all raison d'être for publishing in the journal, is debatable. The editor Alan Lord welcomes longer papers now that the word limit (historically 8000) has been relaxed (check with the editor before thinking of submitting) and he will be reporting on exciting new developments regarding online manuscript submissions in the coming months.

TMS is actively involved in representing the educational side of our discipline at all levels and I am pleased to note that the Birmingham MSc Micropalaeontology course is now in its 3rd year and student numbers are up. TMS Educational Trust Fund, which has funded a number of MSc and other students, is now well established and thanks are due for the support from a number of sources in particular from Shell, BP and BG. However, as many of you are becoming aware, there are challenging times ahead for those of us in the industry sector; a number of cutbacks have already been implemented, so additional sources of funding for the trust fund will have to be sought.

The Newsletter in its new pdf version is now being ably looked after by Claudia Cetean and I urge members to send news/announcements/articles for her to include. There are no limits on pages/word count, or numbers of images that can be reproduced.

The website has also had a significant facelift and major surgery and is now live, so thanks to Janine Pendleton for organising and following this through so efficiently. Again content is paramount, so please let Janine know if there are any broken links, or if anyone has content to upload. This is our front page, so is very important and with the rise of social media, we have also now a good presence on “Faceache” and Twitter thanks to Tom Hill in his relentless publicity

9/42

campaigns. The Calendar was a great success this year and we will try and run this again.

I urge you all to support your society in any way that you can, and in particular by attending meetings/fieldtrips, contributing articles to the

newsletter or papers to the Journal. Please let myself, or any other committee member, know if there are any parts of the society, or its activities that can be improved.

Dr. F. John Gregory; PetroStrat Ltd

Report from the SecretaryPhillip Jardine

The Micropalaentological Society had another successful year in 2014, with active specialist groups, increased membership, and further funding available for meetings and grants. Notable achievements include the new TMS website, which still has the same address (www.tmsoc.org) but has improved functionality across platforms and devices, and is much more user friendly than its previous incarnation. Please do keep on checking the website for updates on TMS-related events, and thanks to our Webmaster Janine Pendleton for all of her hard work on this. The first TMS photo competition was also a colossal success, and has resulted in a stunning 2015 calendar that can be purchased here: http://www.tmsoc.org/photo-competition-and-calendar-2015/. I thank Tom Hill for making the competition and calendar so successful, and for continuing to enhance the presence of the Society on social media.

This was the third year that the TMS Annual Meeting took place as a longer, two-day event, moving out of London again to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. It succeeded in living up to the 2013 sell-out meeting at the Natural History Museum, London, with an opening symposium with the theme of ‘Microfossil phylogenies and their applications’, a conference dinner in the neo-Gothic splendor of the museum’s main exhibition hall, and talks and posters that c o v e r e d a b r o a d r a n g e o f c u r r e n t micropalaeontological research and applications (see full conference report on page 8). My thanks go to Tracy Aze and Paul Smith for organising this meeting, and I look forward to the TMS Annual Meeting 2015, which will take place in November at the University of Liverpool, organised by Palynology Group Chair Fabienne Marret-Davies.

Finally, I would like to thank outgoing committee members Sev Kender, Mark Williams and Ian Boomer for their hard work and contributions to the Society (and thanks especially to Sev for making my transition into the Secretary position as trouble-free as possible). I would also like to welcome new committee members Cherry Newsam and Anna March, who will be taking over the roles of Nannofossil Group Secretary and Ostracod Group Secretary, respectively.

Brady Medal

The 2014 Brady Medal was awarded to David Siveter at the TMS Annual Meeting, for his extensive, high-profile research into Palaeozoic ostracods and exceptionally preserved fossil faunas. This has covered ostracod palaeobiology, palaeoecology, evolution, preservation and taxonomy, and analysis of the fossil assemblages of the Silurian Herefordshire Lagerstaette in the UK, and the Cambrian Chengjiang fauna in China. David Siveter has also been heavily involved with the Society, from being Ostracod Group secretary, senior editor of the Stereo-Atlas of Ostracod Shells, to President from 2004 to 2007, during which time the Society awarded the first Brady Medal.

The Brady Medal is the Society’s highest award for scientists who have had a major influence on micropalaeontology by means of a substantial body of excellent research. The Medal is named in honour of George Stewardson Brady (1832- 1921) and Henry Bowman Brady (1835-1891) in recognition of their outstanding pioneering studies in Micropalaeontology and Natural History. Nominations for the Brady Medal are accepted by the President or Secretary at any time (please see the TMS website for further information).

Alan Higgins AwardThe Alan Higgins Award for Applied Micropalaeontology is given to a young scientist, less than 10 years from graduation, in recognition of a significant record of achievement in the field of applied and i n d u s t r i a l m i c r o p a l a e o n t o l o g y, a s documented by publications, software, patents, leadership or educational activities. The award was established with the help of Alan’s family and friends, to commemorate his contribution to micropalaeontology and encourage young researchers in the field.

10/42

Nominations for the 2015 award should be sent to the Secretary by 28th February 2015, using the appropriate form available from the TMS website: http://www.tmsoc.org/awards/.

Charles Downie AwardThe Charles Downie Award is an annual award made to a member of the Society who, in the opinion of the Committee, has published the most significant paper in any journal based on their postgraduate research. The committee has awarded the 2014 Charles Downie Award (best paper published in 2013) to Lyndsey Fox at the 2014 TMS Annual Conference, for her paper: Fox, L.R. and Wade, B.S. 2013. Systematic taxonomy of early-middle Miocene planktonic foraminifera from the Equatorial Pacific Ocean: Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Site U1338. Journal of Foraminiferal Research 43: 374-405.

Nominations for 2015 (best paper published in 2014) should be sent to the Secretary by 28th February 2015.

TMS Student AwardsTMS Student Awards are given to those nominated for their outstanding performance on one of our TMS-approved micropalaeontological courses, and consist of a year’s free membership. In 2014 the Soc ie ty made 9 awards to outs tand ing undergraduate and Masters students: Barbara Casas (Universidad del País Vasco), Deborah Fish (University of Leicester), Ryan Kingsley (University of Keele) , Benjamin Man (Univers i ty of Birmingham), Ryan Marek (University of Bristol), Nicholas Poole (Cardiff University), Ruairidh Salmon (University of Glasgow), Niall Shute (University of Portsmouth) and Anne Strak (Universität Bremen). Congratulations to them all.

The TMS Student Award scheme now has 19 approved micropalaeontological courses, and I encourage any TMS Members to consider nominating their taught micropalaeontological courses for the scheme to encourage their best students to continue with a micropalaeontological career.

TMS Grants-in-AidIn 2014, TMS awarded six Grants-in-Aid for costs towards attendance at specific micropalaeontological conferences/training. These were: Christopher Poole (University College London), to attend the TMS Spring Meeting 2014; Marites Villarosa Garcia (University of Chicago), to attend the TMS Spr ing Meet ing 2014 ; Jamie Boyd (University of Leeds), to attend the 4th International Palaeontological Congress in Mendoza; Karen Halsall (University of Liverpool), to attend the 9th European Palaeobotany Palynology Conference in Padua; Rehemat Bhatia (University College London), to attend the International School on Foraminifera, Urbino; and Sam Slater (University of Sheffield), to attend the 4th International Palaeontological Congress in Mendoza and carry out field work in Argentina.

I would encourage all of our student members and early career researchers to consider applying for a Grant-in-Aid. Grants-in-Aid are awarded annually to help members of the Society who are students or early career researchers (within 10 years of obtaining their last degree) in their fieldwork, conference attendance, or any other specific activity related to their research which has not been budgeted for. Grants-in-Aid cannot be awarded for miscellaneous expenditure, neither can they be awarded retrospectively. A maximum of £500 can be awarded to each successful applicant. Awardees are expected to write a short report for the Newsletter once their grant has been used. Application forms can be downloaded from the website (www.tmsoc.org), or obtained from the Secretary. The next deadline is 28th February 2015.

For further information on TMS Awards and Grants, please see the dedicated page on the website: http://www.tmsoc.org/awards/.

TMS Grants-in-Aid

TMS Grants-in-Aid are awarded annually to help student members of the Society in their fieldwork, conference attendance, or any other specific activity related to their research which has not been budgeted for. Grants-in-Aid cannot be awarded for miscellaneous expenditure (e.g. slides, sample bags, sample preparation, laboratory costs, SEM photography or producing, photocopying, printing

and binding of these), nor can they be awarded retrospectively.A maximum of £300 can be awarded to each successful applicant. Awardees are expected to writea short report for the Newsletter of Micropalaeontology once their grant has been used. Application

forms may be downloaded from TMS website or obtained from the Secretary.

Deadline for application is 28th February 201511/42

Charles Downie Award

The late Charles Downie was one of the pioneers of palynology in the UK and a mentor whoguided the thinking and development of a large number of postgraduate students who passed

through the University of Sheffield. Through the efforts of former colleagues at Sheffield, a permanentmemorial has been established to recognise Charles’ contribution to micropalaeontology.

An annual award will be made to The Micropalaeontological Society member who, in the opinionof The Micropalaeontological Society Committee, has published the most significant paper, in any

journal, based upon his or her postgraduate research.An award of £200 will be made for the best paper published during 2013 and will be presentedat The Micropalaeontological Society AGM in November 2014. Nominations for the best paper

published in 2013 should be submitted to the TMS Secretary by 28th February 2015.

The Brady Medal

The Brady Medal is the highest award of The Micropalaeontological Society. It is named inhonour of George Stewardson Brady (1832-1921) and Henry Bowman Brady (1835-1891) inrecognition of their outstanding pioneering studies in micropalaeontology and natural history.The Medal is awarded to scientists who have had a major influence on micropalaeontology by

means of a substantial body of excellent research. Service to the scientific community may alsobe a factor for consideration by the Award Committee. The medal was commissioned and was

awarded for the first time in 2007.The Medal is cast in bronze from original sculptures commissioned by The MicropalaeontologicalSociety in 2007. The sculptor is Anthony Stones, Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptorsand President (1999-2004) of The Society of Portrait Sculptors. The Medal is hand crafted by the

leading sculpture foundry Pangolin Editions of Chalford, England.Mechanism for making a nomination:

All nominations must be made on the TMS “Brady Medal” pro-forma which can be downloadedfrom TMS website. Nominations must have a Proposer and Seconder, both of whom should beMembers of the Society and not be affiliated to the same institute as the person they nominate.Nominations should be made in strictest confidence and in no circumstance should the personnominated be informed. The completed nomination form should be returned to the Secretary of

the Society. Nominations may be made at any time of the year.

Alan Higgins Award for Applied Micropalaeontology

Alan Charles Higgins (1936–2004), a British micropalaeontologist and expert on conodonts,made major contributions to Paleozoic biostratigraphy and helped firmly establish the value ofmicropalaeontology in hydrocarbon exploration. He was a founding member of TMS, its past

Chairman and Honorary Member. The award of £300 is given to a young scientist, less than 10years from graduation, in recognition of a significant record of achievement in the field of appliedand industrial micropalaeontology, as documented by publications, software, patents, leadershipor educational activities. The award was established with the help of Alan’s family and friends, tocommemorate his contribution to micropalaeontology and encourage young researchers in thefield. It is presented in person at the Society’s AGM in November. The first award was made in

2010.Nominations can be made by any TMS member using the nomination form available on the

website or from the Secretary, and sent by the end of February of each year to the Secretaryof TMS. The nominees need not be members of TMS. The award is normally given each year,

resubmission of unsuccessful nominees is possible.

12/42

Committee Vacant Offices

At the 2015 AGM, the following TMS Committeepositions will become available for election:

Special Publications Officer

Publicity Officer

Nominations for these positions should be submitted to the Secretary by 30th September 2015. Nominees, proposers and seconders should all be members of the Society. Those who consider standing for any of the offices are welcome to contact the Secretary or President for information on what duties these posts entail.

Journal of Micropalaeontology Report Alan Lord, Editor-in-Chief

Volume 33(1) was issued in January 2014 and contained a thematic set of 4 papers on The legacy of early radiolarian taxonomists with a guest editorial by David Lazarus, and a Notebook item.

Volume 33(2) was issued in October 2014 and contained a thematic set of 7 papers and a guest editorial by Taniel Danelian and Claire Allen arising from two TMS meetings on Siliceous Microfossils; also included were 2 other papers, one on radiolarian biostratigraphy and one on sample preparation techniques, and an obituary for former TMS Chair Richard Aldridge. The delay in publication of 33(2) was a consequence of the volume of material to be handled during the editing and production stages.

The accidental publication of thematic sets of papers in successive parts has caused a buildup of regular submissions accepted for publication, however, the backlog has been relieved by the advent of Online First whereby accepted papers are published electronically immediately after the proof stage. The first 3 papers were published Online First on 1 July.

Volume 34(1) is full and will be published on time in January 2015.

Submissions/Rejections.2013 – 34 submissions of which 15 accepted, 16 rejected, 3 withdrawn.2014 (to date) – 29 submissions of which 12 accepted, 8 rejected, 2 with authors for revision, 2 with Editors and 5 in review.

Printed pages.Volume 33 benefitted from a revised contract with the Geological Society Publishing House (GSPH) that increased the number of printed pages per volume from 192 to 224, an increase of 16.6%.

Impact Factor. In the latest round the IF reached 1.000:

While this is pleasing there is more to life than IF and in the category ‘Palaeontology’ JM ranks as only 37 out of 50.

The Royal Society and the Geological Society are both signatories to the San Francisco Declarat ion on Research Assessment (DORA) (http://am.ascb.org/dora/) and as GSPH acts as publisher for TMS our society is indirectly supporting DORA.

Open Access (OA).To date OA has had little impact on JM, with only two papers in the present volume (33) qualkifying as Gold OA.

Electronic Manuscript Management System.GSL are in the final stage of selecting of the new system and a contract will be signed

13/42

shortly. Work will begin at the end of 2014 with a go live date in Q1 2015.

Revised Information for Authors.Editors in co-operation with our Production Editor will be updating the Information for Authors.

Editorial Board.Following his elevation to TMS President John Gregory stepped down as Editor for Radiolaria after long and dedicated service including as

Editor-in-Chief. Cathy Stickley retired as Editor for Diatoms. Taniel Danelian has been appointed Editor for Siliceous Microfossils. Bridget Wade has retired as Editor for Plantonic Foraminifera and has been succeeded by Sigal Abramovich.

Thanksto retiring Editors Bridget, Cathy and John, and especially to our Production Editor Sarah Gibbs.

Journal of Micropalaeontology34(1) January 2015

Waśkowska, A. Small-sized Trochammina assemblages in deep-water Eocene flysch deposits (Outer Carpathians, Poland) and their

palaeoecological implications.

Yasuhara, M. & Okahashi, H. Late Quaternary deep-sea ostracod taxonomy of the eastern North Atlantic Ocean.

McCartney, K. et al. Two rare silicoflagellate double skeletons of the Star-of-David configuration from the Eocene.

Perrier, V. et al. A pelagic myodocopid ostracod from the Silurian of Arctic Russia.

Pearson, P.N. et al. Effect of diagenetic recrystallization on the strength of

planktonic foraminifer tests under compression.

Mischke, S. The sub-Recent Paracypretta lineata (Ostracoda, Crustacea) in Israel.

Murray, J.W. Some trends in sampling modern living (stained) benthic foraminifera in fjord, shelf and deep sea: Atlantic Ocean and adjacent

seas.

Mette, W. et al. Deep-water ostracods from the Middle Anisian (Reifling Formation) of the Northern Calcareous Alps (Austria).

Horne, D.J. & Lord, A. The 2014 recipient of the Brady Medal: Professor David J. Siveter.

14/42

Treasurer’s reportJeremy Young

Overall result (a record surplus)

This has been a good year for the society financially, as summarised in the accounts presented in the table. Our accounts are always drawn up before the AGM and so run from early November to early November. This year income during this period was £32,499 whilst expenditure was £23,804, i.e., there was a surplus of £8.694, which is the highest the society has ever recorded. Comparable figures from last year were income £18,994, vs. expenditure of £20,654 giving a deficit of £1660. So, this year income substantially increased whilst expenditure only slightly increased. A significant part of this was due to lower than usual net cost to the society of the AGM and conference for 2013 (organised in the NHM by Tom Hill on the theme of Micropalaeontology and the International Ocean Drilling Project) due to a combination of a high level of sponsorship and relatively low costs. This was factored in to our budget for the year, as was reduced expenditure on publication due to the transfer of the Newsletter of Micropalaeontology to digital publication. The £8.6k surplus was thus primarily due to three other factors.

Explanation of the surplus - and plans for spending it.

First we underspent our planned budget by about £1.8k. Second, the membership income increased by £1.9k, this is a very welcome development since it is a tangible indication that the society is valued by its membership, and obviously the more members we have the more we can do. Third, the Foram Nannofossil Group meeting and associated workshops (organised by Els Ufkes and colleagues at Texel) yielded a surplus of £4.6k, due to a combination of substantial sponsorship and the host institution, NIOZ, generously waiving venue hire costs. So, there was a windfall element to the surplus, and next year will certainly be harsher as the fall in oil prices affects us all, but the society’s underlying finances are very good. This means we will be able to increase expenditure next year, and do not need to raise membership fees. Plans for increased expenditure for next year include TMS provision of student bursaries for the AGM and conference (we have already done this), increased funds for grants in aid (and the maximum value of grants in aid has been increased to £500) and an increased grant to the TMS Education Trust.

Website development and student support

As explained above our budget for general expenditure had already increased in 2013-4 and we have spent money on a range of projects, awards and meeting support. A one off project this year was redesign of the website, for which a professional consultant, Jaime Harty, was employed, in collaboration with our webmaster Janine Pendleton. We are very pleased with the result and would recommend the consultant - his contact details are subtly included at the bottom of the home page. Another first for the society was serious participation in a public outreach activity - Tom Dunkley Jones led a team running a microfossil picking activity over three days at the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival. This was very well received and we do plan to build on this. The activity also gave the three student participants valuable experience in this type o f engagement exerc ise , wh ich i s increasingly necessary for young scientists. We also supported students via grants in aid, AGM bursaries, our contribution to the Education Trust and IRGO student awards. So, as treasurer I have had the pleasant task of sending money to a few dozen students over the year.

Meeting support

A slightly more onerous activity as treasurer is helping run the finances of meetings, in association with the webmaster and the local organisers. We did this for the AGM and conference in London, for the FNG meeting and partially for the INA Crete Workshop. What we do is to set up online payment and registration on the TMS website. The funds for the meeting are then held in the TMS accounts until needed by the local organiser - and to varying extents we invoice sponsors and pay the local suppliers for the organisers. This allows organisers to do the science organisation and hosting without having to get involved with setting up bank accounts and online payment systems, or invo lve the bureaucrac ies o f the i r institutions. This is becoming an increasingly important function of the society and our new meetings organiser, Kirsty Edgar, will help develop this. We also sponsored several o ther meet ings inc lud ing the TMS palynology group meeting, the TMS

15/42

nannofossil group workshop on reticulofenestrid taxonomy, the International Research Group on Ostracoda meeting, and the workshop on Radiolaria in Poland organized by Jakub Witkowski at Szecin, Poland. We hope most members of the society saw some of the benefits of this general expenditure, as well as receiving the Journal and Newsletter.

16/42

Industrial Liaison Officer’s ReportMatt Wakefield

This has been my first full year as Chair of the Education Fund, having taken over from Haydon Bailey at the AGM in 2013. The fund received nearly £50,000 of applications;

¥ To part fund a Ph.D. studentship (multi-week training element in the US)

¥ Undergrad class training at BOSCORF¥ Palynology microscope purchase¥ 6 M.Sc. Student applications

After much deliberation between the trustees of the Education fund there was a split decision in favour of providing tuition fees for two M.Sc. students on the Applied and Industrial Micropalaeontology course at the University of Birmingham. These ‘studentships’ were named after the two major sponsors of the fund this year namely Shell International and the Mediterranean, Middle East & Africa Industry Scout Group (MMEA).

The fund continues to provide £1k p.a. to the ‘Foram’ summer school at Urbino, the use of which is managed with Prof. Mike Kaminski to support student attendance.

Following the above expenditure the financial status of the fund is limited. I have endeavoured to

obtain additional funding but without success so far. I fear that this may continue for a while longer given the low oil price and that the hydrocarbon industry has provided over 90% of the funds spent to date. Therefore, our ability to provide grants in 2015 will be limited and I fully expect the process to be even more competitive than this year. I will put details of how to apply in 2015 on the new webpage early in the year; http://www.tmsoc.org/tms-educational-trust-awards/

One positive piece of funding news came from Matt Hall the editor of Agile-Libre. That publishing house has produced a number of books in a series entitled “52 things you should know about………….”, the first two books being Geology and Geophysics. The latest book is about palaeontology and c o n t a i n s m a n y s h o r t e s s a y s b y micropalaeontologists. Matt decided to make a donation to the Education Fund of £1.50 for every book sold globally. Meanwhile if you by the book directly from TMS the fund wi l l make £6 per purchase; ht tp: / /www.tmsoc.org/52-things-you-should-know-about-palaeontology-book-available/

Publicity Officer’s ReportTom Hill

T h e r e h a s b e e n g r e a t p r o m o t i o n o f micropalaeontological activities over the last 6months. This is exemplified by the success of our first ever TMSoc Image Competition, which was launched in May 2014. As we planned to redesign our Society website, it was evident that the Society had a very limited image archive and hence the image competition was proposed to help support the new website. We received over 120 images, and subsequently selected 12 winners. The winners were then incorporated into a 2015 calendar. The Society sold out of the first print run and we have sold about 200 calendars at the time of writing this report. There may be some calendars still available, and can be purchased from the TMSoc website: http://www.tmsoc.org/photo-competition-and-calendar-2015/

Inclusive of postage costs, calendars can be purchased for £8 (UK), £9.50 (Europe), or £11 (worldwide).

We feel this has been an immense success. We

now have a very large image archive, spanning all specialist groups that can be used for promotional activities, including regularly updating the re-launched web page. Considering this is the first time such an activity has been undertaken, to receive over 120 entries suggest this competition-style activity is popular. We therefor plan to make this an annual event as it has been a great way to publicise the Society, its members, and micropalaeontology in general.

Twitter and Facebook activities continue apace, with 250 Twitter followers and over 600 Facebook Group members. This has been an excellent route to advertise and publicise our various activities, including the AGM, the calendar competition and calendar sales etc. For example, the winning calendar images were retweeted over 100 times.

17/42

As always, please do keep me informed of any micropalaeontology-related activities if you wish the society to help with publicity. If you plan to hold a conference/short-course/workshop etc, please do let me know. Similarly, don’t forget about the TMSoc banners that we have for display at events

of this nature (especially if you are receiving financial support from the Society). The Society will provide assistance in trying to find someone to transport the banners and will also provide financial support to pay for the cost of this extra luggage etc.

18/42

Membership of the society currently stands at 536 with approximately 45% of members based outside of the UK. The society welcomes the following new members who have joined since the publication of the last newsletter:

Sigal AbramovichZainab Al RawahiAlexander AskewAzrin AzmiClare BirdJamie BoydRoger BurgessDavid CarpenterCatherine CasemanShane CurranCarlos DapolitoJirina DaskovaBrian DavidsonRowan DejardinElwood EgertonZeynep ErdemThomas EzardJohan FagerholtLawrence FeboMay FitzgibbonMeriel FitzPatrickJoe GianninotoGauthier HainautMatthew HallKaren HalsallMichael HarrisonAndrew HawkinsCalian HazellBjörn HolsteinThomas HoyleNatalia HudackovaDavid Hulks

Membership Secretary’s ReportGeorge Swann

Anna JentzenFranciscus JorissenHojung KimRyan KingsleyMartin LatasBenjamin ManAnna MarchRyan MarekMichael Martinez-ColonEphrem MchanaAnna MikisSamuel MorrisonDonald MurrayAnthony MuscenteClaire NobleDiana OchoaDharel PatelChristopher PooleNicholas PooleLee RauschAngela RobertsJenkins RosemaryAndrej RumanPatrick SchwingNiall ShutePaula SmithRebecca StampAnne StrackLuka SuprahaQing TangHolly TurnerRik Van BaelRobert WieseThomas WigleyMaria WilliamsJordan WilsonClarissa Wright

19/42

TMS Student Awards

In order to support the teaching of micropalaeontology at all BSc, MSc and equivalent levels, as well as to encourage and reward student engagement and

achievement in this field, The Micropalaeontological Society has established TMS Student Awards. Each award consists of one year’s free membership of the Society,

including two issues of Journal of Micropalaeontology and Newsletter of Micropalaeontology, discount on TMS and GSPH publications, discounted

registration fees at TMS specialist group meetings, and eligibility for awards and grants-in-aid.

The awards are given annually by tutors of registered micropalaeontology courses. Only one award per year per institution may be given. Nominating tutors must be members of TMS and in order to register a course they must submit a completed

form to TMS Secretary who will confirm in writing that the given course is approved for the award. The Secretary will keep a list of registered micropalaeontology

courses, conferring with the Committee when necessary. Course tutors of registered courses may then give the award at any time of the year on the basis of any criteria

to students deemed to have achieved meritorious grades. The tutor reports the name and address of the awardee, as well as a brief statement on the criteria used to

select the awardee, tothe Secretary, who will collate a list of citations to be tabled each year at the AGM

and printed in the Newsletter.

Each year, one TMS Student Award will be awarded in memory of Brian O’Neill.

Eleven courses are currently registered:

EA2009 MicrofossilsSchool of Earth and Ocean Sciences, CardiffUniversity

500016 Foraminiferen im Schleswigholsteinischen WattenmeerIFM-GEOMAR, Kiel

Advanced MicropalaeontologyDepartment of Geology, University of Leicester

Microfossils, environments and timeSchool of Ocean & Earth Science, University of Southampton

MikropaläontologieInstitut für Geowissenschaften, Eberhard-KarlsUniversität Tübingen

MicropalaeontologyUniversity of Bristol

Micropalaeontology: Principles andApplicationsKeele University

16199 MicropalaeontologyUniversidad del País Vasco

GLY 5102 Marine Micropalaeontology /GLY 5104 Applied Micropalaeontology/GLY 5207 Case Histories in MarineMicropalaeontology / research projectinvolving micropalaeontologyEnvironmental and Marine Masters Scheme in the Faculty of Science, University of Plymouth

ESCM 320/440 MicropalaeontologySchool of Geography, Earth and EnvironmentalSciences, University of Birmingham

Introduction to MicropalaeontologyMasters in Geology, University of Ghent – K.U.Leuven

20/42

TMS Student Awards

Information for Tutors: In order to register a micropalaeontology course at your institute, please fill in the form below and send it to TMS Secretary. You only need to do this once, unless the course has changed or you wish to report a different course for the award scheme. Tutors are welcome to submit the form electronically.

21/42

TMS Grant-in-aid Reports

9th European Palaeobotany and Palynology Conference (EPPC), Padova, Italy 26 – 31 August 2014Karen Halsall (University of Liverpool) & Haytham El Atfy (Senckenberg Research Institute)

The reception for this conference was held in the world’s oldest Botanic Gardens and the formal opening ceremony was held in the magnificent Aula Magna of Palazzo del Bo. This started what for us was a truly engaging conference. The Aula Magna is in the main part of the University of Padova where Galileo Galilei lectured 1592-1610. This was a well organised, well attended international conference. Around 500 registered

attendees came from 44 countries not only from Europe, they also included Asia, Australia, Africa and North and South America. The venues were spread across the city so that attendees were able to absorb Italian history, culture, hospitality and experience the rich academic legacy of Padova.

Opening reception at the Botanical Gardens, Padova

I (Karen Halsall) am a second year PhD student at the University of Liverpool, my research topic concerns Holocene environmental drivers in fire prone habitats such as U.K. upland ombrotrophic bogs using a data/model approach with multi-proxy data. I am grateful to have received travel grants from The Micropalaeontological Society (TMS) and the International Federation of Palynological Societies (IFPS) so that I could attend this conference and share my research with fellow palynologists. There was a fr iendly and encouraging atmosphere for research students and I enjoyed seeing old friends and making new ones. The presentations represented a Europe wide reflection of the increasing visibility of Palaeobotany, its immense contribution to a better understanding of historic landscapes and the interrelatedness of Earth’s dynamic ecological systems and feedback mechanisms.

I mostly attended symposia covering the

Quaternary era with many inspiring talks given by both students and established researchers. As we know, conferences are a great opportunity to discuss studies within your own field of research and to discover new areas of interest; this conference provided such a platform. Symposia also covered the Cenozoic, Mesozoic and Palaeozoic eras and other subjects such as pollen morphology and development. Various society meetings were also held in the evenings.

There were many inspirational talks, keynote or otherwise. For myself I must mention the one given by Mary Edwards on the rise and fall of the (late Quaternary) Bering land Bridge as an example of being introduced to new areas of research. It was a fascinating insight into Beringia, a place where prehistoric people travelled from NE Siberia

22/42

to Alaska across an extinct landscape type now under water. Steppe-Tundra as described in Russia or Tundra-Steppe as described in USA! The flooding of this major land bridge had a huge effect on regional climate.

I presented 2 posters and was asked to give a 5 minute synopsis of my research at a poster p resen ta t i on even t f o r t he Non -Po l l en Pa lynomorphs i n Qua te rna ry Research symposium. I greatly enjoyed the interaction with the group and our discussions of each other’s work. The posters presented were of a high standard and a good insight into a wide range of international research.

The conference also provided an opportunity to sample the food and culture of an historic Italian city where the remains of a Roman amphitheatre and the Basilica of Saint Anthony sits comfortably within streets that sells very tasty Gelati (ice-cream). I took advantage of the tasty coffee provided at the conference and I sampled lots of pasta and pizza in the evenings supplemented with the occasional glass of wine from a fabulous bar where you could make your choice from a floor to ceiling selection of wine bottles.

I (Haytham El Atfy) am currently a PhD student although my research has been accomplished at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt and already submitted to the administration of the Goethe Frankfurt University, Germany to obtain my PhD degree.

My topic focuses on the palynology and o r g a n i c g e o c h e m i s t r y o f M i o c e n e successions retrieved from three deep boreholes at the southern part of the Gulf of Suez, Egypt. The area of investigation is of potential interest as petroleum province. D e s p i t e t h i s i m p o r t a n c e , d e t a i l e d palynological and palynofacies analyses were still lacking until the recent effort in my PhD thesis. The results of this project have been disseminated to peer-review journals through four publications. One of those contributions has been appeared in 2103 in the Journal of Micropalaeontology which belong to the TMS society.

I presented a piece of my work in the 9th EPPC as an oral presentation within the session S26, and I got useful feedbacks and comments from the audience of specialists as well as from my colleagues.

I really appreciate the TMS travel grant so that I could attend this conference and share my research with palynologists and palaeobotanists as well. I totally agree with Karen that there was a friendly and encouraging atmosphere for sharing our research.

Karen Halsall and Hatham El Atfy at the entrance to the Department of Geoscience of the University of Padova

23/42

IPC4, Mendoza, ArgentinaJamie Boyd (University of Leeds) & Sam Slater (University of Sheffield)

We’d just like to take this opportunity to thank The Micropalaeontology Society for their generous contribution in getting us to the American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists (AASP –TPS) meeting. The meeting took place in Mendoza, Argentina from the 28th September to the 3rd of October and was part of the 4th International Palaeontological Congress (IPC4) that takes place every four years, and with over 900 delegates it really was amazing.

The 4th International Palaeontological Congress covered talks and posters on all aspects of palaeontology, highlights included keynote talks by

Professor Michael Benton and Professor Derek Briggs. We were both involved with the AASP session of the conference which took place for a day and half at the beginning of the week. It included a very varied program which we both participated in with talks and Jamie was thrilled to receive the award for the best student talk. There was also a poster session for each day of the conference. The posters sessions were all named after different types of wine and free tasters of each were available.

Jamie receiving her award “L.R. Wilson Best Student Paper Award” from Lanny Fisk

Mendoza is a really lovely place and the locals were incredibly accommodating and friendly. The city was filled with trees and parks and plenty of steak and wine to sample, making it a very relaxing stay. We were given the opportunity to attend the Gala dinner which took place in a nearby vineyard. We were again plied with plenty of wine and food and given a tango demonstration followed by nearly the whole conference taking to the dance floor, it was a great night. We also got to attend the business meeting for free being student

members of the AASP. This involved another night of free wine and food and getting to know everyone with a good laugh!

On the Wednesday we were given a day off to go on field trips and to further explore the area. Everyone we spoke to seemed to have done something different that day from relaxing in the local thermal waters in the mountains, to a private tour of the Andes, plenty of wine tast ings as wel l as participating in the fields trip associated with

24/42

the conference including: Darwin and the Highest Andes, A Triassic History of the Cuyana Basin: Geology, Fossils, Fuels and Wine, Ichnology Throughout the Palaeozoic in the Atuel Canyon, A Cretaceous Marine Odyssey in the Neuquén Basin and Dinosaur Tracks, Littoral Biota and Late Cretaceous Environments at the Foot of the Andes.

It was a great experience to attend such a large conference that covered a wide range of palaeontological topics and we thank TMS for the opportunity.

Road from Santiago to Mendoza through the Andes

Sam talking at AASP

Just one of the amazing meals we had!

25/42

Specialist Group NewsNanno News - updates from the TMS Nannofossil Group and the International Nannoplankton AssociationCherry Newsam & Jeremy Young

TMS Nannofossil Group changesThere has been some restructuring in the committee positions of the Nannofossil Working Group. Simon Cole has taken over as Chair of the group from Matt Hampton, whom we would like to thank for his contributions towards this group during his time in this position. Cherry Newsam has taken the place as secretary of this group; a PhD student at UCL, working on exceptionally preserved Paleogene nannofossils from the North Atlantic.

TMS Foram/Nanno Group Meeting – 14-18th June, Plymouth, UKThe next meeting will be hosted by Malcolm Hart in Plymouth. Initial details are available on the TMS website and further information will be available soon. There will be two days of presentations and

posters followed by a day field trip to a local site. Attached to this meeting we are proposing to hold a Discoaster taxonomy workshop (probably Thursday 18th June but TBC). This will hopefully include short presentations by 3, 4 or more guest speakers with discussions proceeding each presentation. We would like to extend an invitation to anyone who wishes to present on Discoaster taxonomy at this workshop to get in touch with either Simon or Cherry within the next month (and definitely by the end of February). As demonstrated by the Reticulofenestra workshop earlier in 2014, these meetings are a great opportunity for nannoplankton workers to get together and present their work.

Plymouth and Bohol - our next two meeting venues

INA15 The Philippines, March 2015As we go to press we are getting ready for our next big Nannofossil conference. This promises to be a spectacular meeting with a beautiful beachfront location on the island of Bohol, and some alluring excursions. It also should be an excellent scientific meeting with special sessions on Advances in Nannofossil Biostratigraphy and New Imaging and Morphometric Methods and a chance to meet colleagues from across SW Asia. There will be a full report on the meeting in the next newsletter.

Coccolithophores 2014 - Crete INA Workshop on Extant CoccolithophoresIn October about 50 specialists on extant coccolithophores converged on Crete for a specialist workshop. This was an excellent turnout

and said much for the first class work of Stella Psarros and Maria Triantaphylou in organising a workshop at very reasonable cost in a lovely location. It also, however, reflects the fact that environmental concerns such as ocean acidification and biotic response to global change have pushed into a more prominent role in plankton and biogeochemical research. As a result the meeting although primarily intended to concent ra te on taxonomic and biogeographic aspects did attract a wider range of participants. This was reflected in the topics of the meeting:

1 Coccolithophore biocalcification and Ocean Acidification

2 The paleontological agenda for extant coccolithophore research

26/42

3 Coccolithophore phylogeny, species-concepts and molecular genetics

4 Coccolithophore life-cycles, ecology and biogeography

To address these topics we took a slightly unconventional format with one and half days of open talks followed by an afternoon excursion. Then we had one day of training workshops focussed on methods - or how you go from coccolithophores floating in the ocean to respectively - assemblage count data, laboratory cultures or molecular genetic sequence data. Ian Probert (Roscoff Marine Lab.), Kyoko Hagino (now

at Shikoku University) and Mehdi Bendif (currently at the MBA Plymouth) played major roles in leading these. For the last day we directly addressed the topics with panels of ‘volunteered’ experts giving overview of progress in the four topics and leading discussions on them. This proved a rewarding format enabling us both to present our research to each other and spend a lot of time discussing it. Finally we ended with a remarkably good meal in the unique setting of the CretAquarium.

Happy workshop goers in the October sun

Nannoplankton in the NewsSebastian Meier and colleagues described a new species Pileolosphaera longistirpes in the September issue of the Journal of Nannoplankton Research. This would not normally make the news but it was found in the Kiel Estuary and its coccoliths resemble papal skull caps - hence the name (Pileolus is the correct latin name for these hats). So that was enough for Kiel University to put out a press release and it got extensive coverage in german newsmedia.

The pope, his hat, the coccosphere and how they appeared on German TV. Apparently Sebastian is now looking for a holococcolith shaped like a cardinal’s hat.

27/42

Nannotax (ina.tmsoc.org/Nannotax3)Work has proceeded consistently with the Nannotax database. Since the last newsletter the big event in the nannoplankton world’s calendar was the Crete workshop on extant calcareous nannoplankton and this was also a useful benchmark to present progress on the project. In preparation for the workshop a major effort was made to improve the coverage of extant nannoplankton. This focussed on preparation of 1000 more images of modern coccolithophores and uploading them to the site (the uploading process is essentially automatic but image preparation and data compilation takes longer). These new images included a mix of high quality unpublished SEMs, an index collection of cut out SEM images covering nearly every known extant species, and a large number of colour light microscope images, mostly miniplates of 4 images of the same coccosphere in different illumination. Having uploaded the images we then revised all the higher taxon pages which include extant species to make full use of the new images and especially the index images. Also as part of this

preparation a new module was added to the system covering calcareous dinoflagellates and other non-haptophyte nannoplankton that we find in our preps. This is in an earlier state of completion than the main parts of the site but hopefully will be a useful extension of it.Shortly before the workshop a regular issue of the JNR came out including several papers with new taxa and one with taxonomic changes resulting from the Nannotax work. The workshop also saw publication of a special issue of the JNR with m o r e s h o r t p a p e r s o n e x t a n t coccolithophores. All the new taxa and taxonomic images from both issues have now been included in the system including numerous images of fossil coccospheres from the JNR paper by Bown et al.More recently a major effort has been put into to improving the consistency and completeness of links to the bibliography and to the Farinacci catalog of type descriptions. The Farinacci catalog pages have also been

Some of the new stuff now in Nannotax. A The Farinacci catalog of original descriptions showing how current identifications are now shown, including this bizarre case of a Helicosphaera species originally described as an Acanthoica. B. An example colour miniplate of Algirosphaera robusta and C. an SEM index image of the same species. D. A spectacular combination coccosphere of Acanthoica quattrospina holococcolith and heterococcolith stages - from a JNR paper by Luka Supraha. E. A fossil Toweius subpertusus, coccosphere with a developing coccolith inside, from JNR paper by Bown et al.

28/42

changed so that it is now much clearer which taxa have accepted modern identities.Finally, in December we were pleased to be designated the 2014 golden trilobite award winner by the Palaeontological Association. Almost at the same time we suffered our first cyber attack as the site nearly ground to a halt as a result of an “SQL sleep injection”. These are usually used to obtain credit card details or personal data from websites, or to disrupt films about Korean dictators, so I am not sure what the toe-rags thought they would get from the nannofossil database.

The Golden Trilobite award - sadly we don’t get an actual solid gold medal but the picture looks good on the website

Palynology Group ReportLuke Mander

It is with sadness that the Palynology Group notes the death of the palynologist Jens Jørgen Lund, who passed away on the 20th of December 2014 in Celle, Lower Saxony, Germany.

29/42

30/42

31/42

The Grzybowski Foundation[gf.tmsoc.org]

A note from the Chairman’s deskMike Kaminski, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals

The current year has been a rather important one for the Grzybowski Foundation, -- with the opening of the Micropress Europe office at the AGH University of Science & Technology in Kraków the GF will be able to make use of new top-class facilities to hold meetings, workshops and seminars. The GF Library at the Geology Museum of the Jagiellonian University has become too small to accommodate the growing book and journal collections, and space for expansion there is very limited. The new MPE office at AGH therefore fulfills an important role and will enable the GF to better carry out its activities. This autumn, I transferred some of my own books and journals from London to the new MPE office in Kraków, and we purchased new wooden microscope slide cabinets to house the growing microfossil slide collections. New bookcases have been ordered for the office, and we will soon have plenty of shelf space for additional books and journals. The MPE office is rapidly becoming a top-class micropaleontological facility, and will soon house most of the micropaleontological journals, the Catalogues of Foraminifera and Ostracoda, as well as a number of binocular microscopes and archive microscope slide collections. John Van Couvering has recently sent us back issues of the t w o M i c r o p a l e o n t o l o g y P r e s s j o u r n a l s (Micropaleontology and Stratigraphy). This spring, Lucyna Bobrek will be organizing and cataloging the microscope slide collection of Irena Heller, and I will be transferring my own archive microscope slide collections that refer to studies published in Micropaleonto logy or in the Grzybowski Foundation Special Publications. The Eighth International School on Foraminifera will take place during the month of June in Urbino. Thanks to sponsorship from ECORD (The European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling) and The Micropalaeontological Society, this year we are able to offer five full tuition scholarships to eligible students. The support will also sponsor other educational events, for example we will continue the tradition begun last year of holding evening presentations on the grounds of the Castle in Urbino. This year one of the evening seminar topics will be „Micropaleontological Results from the Ocean Drilling Program”. Last year’s evening seminar was a very popular event, and this year we plan to host evening seminars during each week of the course. In 2015, we will organize a number of workshops and meetings that wil l be of interest to

micropalaeontologists. The first event will be a w o r k s h o p o n „ A r c t i c O c e a n Micropaleontology” which will take place on April 9–11, 2015, the weekend before the EGU meeting in Vienna. The main objectives of the workshop are:

(1) To assess on the state of the present knowledge on the distribution and ecology of the microfossils in the Arctic ocean;

(2) To do microscope work for sharing criteria for an “operational” taxonomy of some microfossil group, notably ostracods and benthic foraminifers;

(3) To discuss the usefulness and l im i t a t i ons o f t he respec t i ve microfossil groups in the Arctic Ocean fo r t he s tudy o f l a te Quaternary, and possibly older, sediments

The workshop begins on Thursday, April 9, with presentations on Foraminifera and dinoflagellate cysts. The Microscope session will be held on Friday, and participants will g ive the departmental seminar that afternoon. Panel discussions and additional microscope sessions will be held on Saturday. On Sunday the participants will depart Bratislava for the EGU meeting in Vienna. This workshop is open to anyone who wishes to attend, and will focus mainly o n t h e m o d e r n a n d P l e i s t o c e n e micropaleontology of the Lomonosov Ridge. The workshop will be held at the Earth Sciences Department of the Comenius University of Bratislava, which is just a one-hour bus trip from Vienna airport. The workshop will be hosted by Stefan Jozsa of the Commenius University, and is organized by myself and Anne de Vernal (U. Montreal). At the EGU meeting, our colleague Flavia Fiorini from the Petroleum Institute (Abu Dhabi) is convening a session entitled „ B e n t h i c F o r a m i n i f e r a : a t o o l t o unders tand ing modern and anc ient environments”. The session will cover topics on ecology, and the use of foraminifera as p r o x i e s f o r p a l e o e n v i r o n m e n t a l reconstruction, paleoclimate, and sea-level change. If you are planning to attend the EGU meeting, please come to this session.

32/42

In June 2015, we will use the ISF Course in Urbino as a venue to hold a meeting of the „Working Group on Foraminiferal Classification”. We have invited Valeria Mikhalevich to attend this year’s course in Urbino, and our working group will meet in the evenings (probably at one of the excellent local restaurants) to discuss the recent updates to the classification. The XVI All-Russian Micropaleontological c o n f e r e n c e w i t h t h e t h e m e “ M o d e r n Micropaleontology” will be in Kaliningrad, Russia (near Poland) in August, 2015. Information about conference available on the website: http://jurassic.ru/;http://ocean.ru/.The contributions for this meeting usually address different points: the d e ve l o p me n t o f co n o d o n t s , o s t r a co d s , foraminifers, calcareous nannoplankton, radiolaria from their first appearance in the Paleozoic or Mesozoic to modern times, Cenozoic diatoms, palynomorphs, as well as other microfossil groups. The problem of establishing and substantiating stratigraphic boundaries based on microfossils and m o d e r n m i c r o - o r g a n i s m s a s environmentalindicators and the origin of life on Earth are also recurring topics of this conference.In September 2015, we will host our MIKRO-2015 meeting, which will be held jointly with the Czech-Slovak-Polish Paleontological Conference. The dates of the joint conference are September 9–11, and it will take place at the Palacky University in Olomouc, Czech Republic. The opening sessions and micropaleontological part of the meeting will take place on September 9th, and we will have a joint poster session and field excursion on September 10th. The meeting is dedicated to the memory of Richard Schubert, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his death in the First World

War. We plan to publish the abstract volume of the joint conference as a GF Special Publication, edited by Miroslav Bubik. We additionally plan to make an E-book with the collected reprints of Richard Schubert. The GF will make available some Mikro-grants to enable postgraduate students to attend the meeting. For additional information and registration, please contact MiroslawBubik at miroslav.bubik@geology.cz. The 10th Romanian Paleontological Symposium is scheduled to be held in October, 16–18, 2015 at the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca. It is our tradition to sponsor refreshments at the social gathering after the Micropaleontological Session at this meeting. Ioan Bucur ioan.bucur@ubbcluj.ro is President of the Organizing Committee of the conference. The First Circular will be sent out in January. This year the Russian Paleontological Society under the auspices of the Russian Academy of Science formed a section in Saint-Petersburg. Our correspondent Valery Vuks was named the head of the Saint-Petersburg sect ion o f the Russ ian Paleontological Society. Information (in Russian) about the Russian Paleontological Society is available on the website: PO_RAN@vsegei.ruF i n a l l y , w e e x t e n d o u t w a r m e s t congratulations to Dr. Raluca Bindiu, who was awarded a post-doctoral position at the Babes-Bolyai University. Raluca was previously the recipient of the Brian J. O’Neill Memorial Scholarship.

Secretary’s Report: Scientific Session on the 85th Birthday of Professor Krzysztof Birkenmajer

Jaroslaw Tyszka, ING PAN – Research Centre in Kraków

This unusual event was organized to celebrate the 85th Birthday of Professor Krzysztof Ludwik Birkenmajer (born in 1929 in Warszawa, Poland), the world class geologist specialized on geology of Alpine and polar regions. This session was held in the Great Auditorium of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences on November 28, 2014. Prof. Birkenmajer has been strongly involved in various micropalaeontological studies, mostly using foraminifera, coccoliths, dinoflagellates, spores, pollen, closely linking the microfossil record with macrofauna and macroflora, including all aspects of regional and structural geology, biostratigraphy, sedimentology, and palaeoecology. He has also promoted the field of micropalaeontology by supervising several PhD projects, reviewing

scientific reports and grant proposals.

Prof. Birkenmajer has published more than 600 original scientific publications, including research articles, book chapters, geological maps, teaching books. He is aware that the popularization of science is the key to the future, therefore, he strongly believes that scientists should disseminate knowledge to society. Following this important track, he published four popular science books on his Polar expeditions to Antarctica, Spitsbergen, and Greenland. Actually, his interest in science started very early in the thirties of the twentieth century thanks to a little booklet

33/42

on animals. Then he slightly shifted from living creatures to fossils, studying geology at the Jagiellonian University in 1947 and the University of Mining and Metallurgy in Kraków later on.

Prof. Birkenmajer joined and/or organized 23 polar scientific expeditions, exploring and discovering new glaciers, mountains, valleys, sedimentary formations, and geological structures. In 2013 in

recognition of his polar discoveries, he received the Super-Colossus Prize. Prof. Birkenmajer is a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences (PAU), Romanian Academy of Sciences, the honorary member of the Polish Geological Society and many international scientific societies.

Spitsbergen Expedition 1974 (Prof. Birkenmajer's archive)

The session was opened by Prof. Stefan W. Alexandrowicz on behalf of the Academy, a malacologist who used to be a very active foraminiferologist some time ago. Then the opening ceremony was taken over by ING PAN authorities – Prof. Marek Lewandowski and Prof. Jan Środoń. Just to explain, the ING PAN – Institute of Geological Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences with its Research Centre in Kraków is Professor’s scientific home for dozens of years. It was not surprising to anybody that the session gathered around 100 guests from absolutely all generations, including Professor’s family, friends, colleagues, former students, most of them being geologists, geophysicists, palaeobiologists, and micropalaeontologists. Actually, four micropalaeontologists presented lectures focused on the Arct ic and the PieninyKlippen Belt, following Prof. Birkenmajer’s investigations and his impact on our scientific knowledge. Other lectures st ressed the investigations in the Polar and Carpathian areas. At the final stage of the session, Prof. Birkenmajer and his wife, Prof. Ewa Zastawniak-Birkenmajer presented a very personal overview of all 85 years. The whole session was perfectly coordinated by Dr Przemysław Gedl, the palynologist from the ING

PAN, with help from Prof. Zastawniak-Birkenmajer and the ING PAN staff members.

With our sincere congratulations, we all wish Professor Krzysztof Birkenmajer the very best health and many more scientific discoveries. All of us know that the Professor has collected enough research materials to carry on his further investigations. As I write this report, Prof. Birkenmajer is already sitting at the window thinking about a new paper and watching the beautiful white Tatra Mountains a few days before Christmas 2014.

Happy New Year 2015 to Prof. Krzysztof Birkenmajer and all of you, the members of t h e G r z y b o w s k i F o u n d a t i o n , T h e Micropalaeontological Society and readers of our Newsletter.

34/42

85th Birthday of Professor Krzysztof Birkenmajer Session (photo by Prof. Adam Walanus)

Book Review: Post-Cambrian Testate Foraminifera as a System in its Evolution, by V.I. Mikhalevich. Nova Publishers, New York, ISBN 978-1-62808-586-0

Mike Kaminski, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals

Valeria Mikhalevich is not only the leading world’s expert on foraminiferal taxonomy, but she is also an accomplished poet, artist, and was recently named „Woman of the Year” in her native St. Petersberg. For the past 35 years, she has almost single-handedly revised the entire classification of t h e F o r a m i n i f e r a , p r o v i d i n g t h e o n l y comprehensive alternative to the classification of Loeblich & Tappan (1964, 1987, 1992). Although other foraminiferal workers have revised and updated certain smaller groups of Foraminifera, Mikhalevich has uniquely taken a top-down approach that considers the position of the Foraminifera alongside other protist groups. She was the author of the foraminiferal chapter of the Russian encyclopaedia of Protozoans, and therefore has the prospective of working with other Protozoologists on the classification of the whole protozoan kingdom. While Loeblich and Tappan (1987, 1992) regarded the wall strucure of foraminifera as the defining criterion for classification of the group, Mikhalevich has pointed out the many examples of morphological isomorphism between many agglutinated, microgranular, and calcareous genera, suggesting that they are more closely related than we think. Using gross morphology of the test as a defining criterion, Mikhalevich came up with a conceptually simple subdivision of the Foraminifera into five classes, which combine isomorphic agglutinated and calcareous genera.

Most students prefer the Mikhalevich classification because of its simplicity. This is seen in the figure on the front cover of her book.The book begins with a historical review of the previous attempts at classifying the Foraminifera beginning with d’Orbigny. Both western and Russian sources are quoted, so the review is quite comprehensive and an impressive list of references is cited. The r e v i e w a l s o m e n t i o n s i m p o r t a n t breakthroughs in the study of Foraminifera, such as ultrastructural and cytoplasmic studies and molecular biology. She concludes that „foraminiferal research still represents a vast field of investigation: the taxonomy within the main phyletic lines, the inner shell structure of many taxa, shell wall ultrastructure of some large taxa, life cycles, cytoplasmic and nuclear structure”. Chapter IV gives the outline classification of the Phylum Foraminifera d’Orbigny, 1826. By regarding the Foraminifera to be a phylum (which is more in line with the classifications adopted by Protozoologists), there is more room for higher taxonomic groups with as subclasses and superorders. The subdivision of the Foraminifera into five classes is an elegant solution, and it to a large extent is backed up by SSU RNA

35/42

studies carried out by the research group of Pawlowsk i . In fac t , i n the M ikha lev ich classification, Pawlowski’s “monothalamids” is regarded to be a junior synonym of her class Astrorhizata Saidova, 1981. The Class Spirillinata Mikhalevich, 1992 is the regarded to be the senior synonym of “Tubothalamea” of Pawlowski et al. (2013), while the “Globothalamea” of Pawlowski et al., 2012 is synonymized partly under the Class Miliolata Saidova, 1981 and partly under the Class Rotaliata Mikhalevich, 1980. Of course with a Five-Class system there must be some foraminiferal groups from the Loeblich & Tappan classification that fall by the wayside. The Miliolata turns out to be the “Borg collective” of the Foraminifera, and has assimilated the agglutinated Schlumbergerinana, Haplophragmiida, Lituolida, Cyclolinida, and Loftusiida, as well as the microgranular Superorders Endothyroida and Fusulinoida, alongside the group of superorders that constitute the milioloids of Delage & Herouard,

1 8 9 6 . M i k h a l e v i c h r e g a r d s t h e Silicoloculinina as enigmatic: “the secreted origin of silica in the foraminiferal shell has not yet been convincingly demonstrated and hence the taxonomic position of all such foraminifera is still problematic”. In this chapter two new orders are erected (Cymbaloporida, Cassigerinellida), bringing the total number of foraminiferal orders to 76 in her scheme. Notice that the “Agglutinated Foraminifera” no longer constitute a separate group of foraminifera, but have been split up and appear as subclasses of the Spirillinata, Miliolata, Nodosariata and Rotaliata. The systematics of the groups and the logic behind the classification are explained in detail in Chapter XI, which occupies over a third of the book. In this chapter, Mikhalevich reviews recent work and discusses some of the problems that remain open, such as the

36/42

position of the komoki within the Astrorhizata, and why other groups have been omitted, such as the xenophyophores, etc.Chapter V on shell morphology and wall structure presents an excellent review of the subject and gives necessary information in support of the classification. Also, the author does not let us forget that we are dealing with living animals (not just fossils), and provides chapters on “Cytology & Physiology”, and “Observations of Recent miliolids in culture”. Finally, no book of this nature would be complete without a discussion of the main trends in foraminiferal evolution, which is alluded to in the book’s title. This topic is covered in Chapter VIII. One of the main points the author makes in the conclusions is the fact that the morphology of agglutinated and calcareous forms within a class is the same – she writes “I came to the conclusion to regard the different groups of the agglutinated foraminifera as the earlier step in the development of their calcareous analogues, and hence the latter ones may be the i r d i rec t descendan ts (Mikhalevich, 1980a,b)”. This is astonishing in the fact that these morphological studies predate the molecular studies by more than a decade. Her conclusion is that “different kinds of calcareous wall appeared in the evolutionary development of foraminifera independently, in parallel in different phyletic lineages and at the different times in geological history”. In view of the new work by Pawlowski’s group, we have to concede that

Loeblich & Tappan were wrong, and that Mikhalevich is basically right…The final chapter is a discourse on the Universal Character of Evolut ionary Regularities (Foraminifera as part of the Universe), in which some of the ideas of the Russian evolutionary school are explained for the benefit of the uninitiated (the late Stephen J. Gould would have taken delight in this chapter). The author points out the analogies between the increasing complexity of human society, inst i tut ions, and government, and the increasing complexity of foraminiferal morphology. In her view, the “basic evolutionary regularities elaborated first for living organisms represent general evolutionary principles applied to all levels of organization of the matter of the universe (Mikhalevich, 2008)”. This chapter is worth reading, and is unique in the Foraminiferal literature. The author concludes her book by stating “This book presents a new approach to foraminiferal systematics and evolution. The implications require profound revisions of many taxa, especially of agglutinated groups, of the class Spirillinata, and of several major groups within the subclass Rotaliana. The unifying trends and patterns revealed in this study provide a roadmap for such revision”. In my humble opinion, this is the foraminiferal book of the decade.

37/42