Palass Conference 1994

[NEIL CLARK <NCLARK@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I am now free to write something about the conference in Glasgow 
(note the spelling:)).  

The conference began on Sunday the 18th December with a splinter 
group of conodontologists.  I'm afraid I was unable to join them as my 
car had broken down.  Perhaps the best way to proceed is to provide 
a list of the talks and people who were at the conference can edit in 
their own comments on the various talks as I was not able to go to all 
of them.

I'll do day 1 tonight and see if I can do the second day tomorrow....

Monday 19th December
Session 1:

 (SK Donovan, RK Pickerill, DG Mikulic & J Kluessendorf:_Amazed at 
the upright position: crinoid columnals preserved perpendicular to the 
bedding in the Silurian of Nova Scotia and Illinois_)
Steve Donovan talked on the preservation of upright crinoid columns 
from two Silurian sections in North America.  He interpreted these as 
being parautochthonous accumulations rather than in growth position. 

(Clare Milsom:_Floating and feeding in stemless crinoids: a 
numerical investigation_)
Although there are obvious problems with using rigid models for what 
were probably flexible animals, Clare was able to demonstrate how 
critical the hydrodynamic balance in these crinoids is between arm 
length and stability in the water column.

(JO Buckman & AH Rufell: _Palaeoecology of giant orthocone 
hardground substrates from a highstand Leitrim Group, NW Ireland_)
Some really spectacular images of epizoans on giant orthocones as 
well as boring stratification within the orthocone shell.  This 
*Carboniferous* relationship of encrusting and boring organisms 
developed during a maximum flooding event with associated 
sediment starvation during the Brigantian.

Kevin J Tilbrook:_Encrusting bryozoan communities from the 
Pliocene Coralline Crag of England_)
Kevin used ecological and sedimentological changes in his study of 
the three members of the Coralline Crag Formation, to characterise 
their different depositional environments.

Session 2 (Sorry I couldn't make this session and I regret that I had 
to:():

(Dave AT Harper:_The late Ordovician Foliomena brachiopod fauna of 
the Holy Cross Mountains, Poland_)

(Soren Jensen:_Trace fossils Cruziana and Rusophycus from the 
Lower Cambrian of Sweden: Implications fro the interpretation of 
trilobite burrows_)

(Richard J Twitchett:_ Trace fossils behaving badly in the Early 
Triassic_)

(Caryl Plewes:_Jurassic boring phoronids - non-boring insights into 
the fossil record of some soft bodied worms_)

(Peter Lang:_Insect related feeding traces on fossil angiosperm 
leaves from the Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary of North America_)


Session 3:

David Siveter, Mark Williams & Adrian Rushton:_Distribution and 
affinities of British Cambrian Bradoriida_)
I thought this talk was particularly interesting with some beautiful 
images of these beasts.  I don't remember any images of specimens 
with soft part preservation although this was talked about.  I was also 
suggested that these fossils could be of immense stratigraphical 
value for the Cambrian.

(DA Wright:_The discovery and significance of mantle canals on 
brachiopod interareas_)
The canals found in the interareas of the articulate orders Protremata 
and Telotremata (after Beecher 1891) suggest that these subdivisions 
have some merit despite recently (more recent than 1891) falling into 
disuse due to questions having been raised as to their validity.

(Mark A Purnell:_Scratching the surface: direct evidence of tooth use 
in conodonts_)
A very important talk.  I was convinced!  No question about 
it....conodonts chewed:)

(Neil DL Clark, Jeff Liston & Sally Solomon:_A look inside the Time 
Capsule Eggs_)
Dinosaur embryo, or not a dinosaur embryo? I couldn't decide and it 
was my talk!  I did show images of the prepared eggs with Segnosaur 
embryos partially disarticulated inside as a consolation though.

Session 4:  (sorry I shall continue this tomorrow)

(Howard A Armstrong & Gail Radcliffe:_Biotic recovery after mass 
extinction - the role of climate and ocean-state in the post-glacial 
(Upper Ordovician - Lower Silurian) recovery of conodonts_)


(David H Evans & Charles H Holland:_The nautiloid cephalopod Order 
Endocerida in the Silurian_)

(Paul Wignall:_Lazarus versus Elvis in the Early Triassic_)

(Crispin TS Little:_Recovery from the Early Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) 
extinction event_)


Neil Clark
Curator of Palaeontology
Hunterian Museum
University of Glasgow
email: NCLARK@museum.gla.ac.uk

Mountains are found in erogenous zones.
(Geological Howlers - ed. WDI Rolfe)