Title: Message
Dear Ichnologists,
If you are planning
to attend Ichnia 2004 next April, please
consider giving a talk on ichnotaxonomy. I see ichnotaxonomy as including
careful observation of traces and creative discernment of patterns that are
useful to other aspects of ichnology, not just dry naming and classification.
The best talks are those that make the audience eager to look again at their own
material.
Other recent
meetings emphasizing this topic have included the two Workshops on
Ichnotaxonomy, and the symposium "Complex Trace Fossils" at the North American
Paleontological Convention (whose results were published early in 2003 in
P3).
I particularly would
like to encourage talks concerning:
Historical case studies
New insight on old puzzles
Revision of common
ichnogenera
Nomenclatural problems and solutions
Computer-aided approaches to ichnotaxonomy
Interrelationships
among ichnotaxa and their makers
Progress in revision
of morphologic groups of ichnogenera (particularly as related to ongoing
Treatise work)
Keeping in mind that
"Names are just names," talks that contain new data and new insight about
BEHAVIOR are particularly welcome.
The deadline
for submission of abstracts is October 30. The head of the Organizing Committee,
Jorge Genise, informs me that authors are allowed to give more than one talk. To
submit abstracts, see the Ichnia 2004 website at
www.ichnia2004.com , or the SEPM
announcement at http://www.sepm.org/news/newsitem03.htm .
By the way, even if
you do not plan to attend the meeting, you should see the beautiful photos of
the coastline at Trelew, and the other natural sites! When asked late in
life which part of his world travels
he recalled most often, Charles Darwin responded,
"Patagonia."
Cheers,
Andrew
Andrew K.
Rindsberg
Geological Survey of
Alabama