paleonet The International Palaeontological Association - What Is It?

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THE INTERNATIONAL PALAEONTOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION - WHAT IS IT?

One way or another, most people reading this message are members of the 
International Palaeontological Association or are represented by an 
organization that is a corporate member.  Subscription to the journal 
Lethaia includes membership of the IPA, and many national palaeontological 
organisations and societies hold corporate membership in IPA on behalf of 
their members.  In this communication, we are aiming to increase general 
awareness of the activities of the Association and to encourage all 
palaeontologists to help us to make these activities more effective.

A major service provided to the palaeontological community by the IPA is 
the maintenance of three electronic databases:

The Directory of Palaeontologists of the World 
(http://ipa.geo.ukans.edu:591/Directory/);

Fossil Collections of the World (http://ipa.geo.ukans.edu:591/Fossil/); and

PaleoLink (http://ipa.geo.ukans.edu:591/PaleoLink/), a directory of 
palaeontological web sites.

In order to be of maximum value, it is important that these directories are 
as complete and up-to-date as possible, thereby facilitating contact 
between palaeontologists and the use of collections.  As a minimum response 
to this message, we ask all palaeontologists to enter or update their 
information in these directories, if you have not already done so.  Thanks 
for doing this.

Now some history.  The IPA was founded in Washington, D.C., in July, 1933, 
during the 16th International Geological Congress under the name 
International Paleontological Union. The aims of the IPA are to promote and 
coordinate international cooperation in palaeontology of all geological 
periods and to encourage the integration and synthesis of all 
palaeontological knowledge. The Association represents the interests of 
palaeontology in the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) and 
the International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS), providing the formal 
voice of our discipline in these organisations.  The Association now also 
sponsors the International Palaeontological Congresses.

The first International Palaeontological Congress (IPC2002), which many of 
you will have attended, was held in Sydney on 6-10 July, 2002, under the 
aegis of IPA together with the member palaeontological society, the 
Association of Australasian Palaeontologists (AAP). The hosts for the 
meeting, which brought together more than 400 palaeontologists from 35 
nations, were the Macquarie University Centre for Ecostratigraphy and 
Palaeobiology (MUCEP) and the Australian Museum. The IPA’s second 
International Palaeontological Congress (IPC2006) will be held in Beijing, 
China, hosted by the Palaeontological Society of China, the Nanjing 
Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, and the Institute of Vertebrate 
Palaeontology and Palaleoanthropology, CAS.  This promises to be another 
highly successful event, and we look forward to seeing a large number of 
you there.

Other activities of the IPA include sponsorship of palaeontological 
meetings organised by other bodies and the stimulation of palaeontological 
contributions at international geological and biological conferences. In 
recent years these have included, among others, the 2nd International 
Trilobite Conference (1997), Paleodiversification in the Sea and the 6th 
International Graptolite Symposium (1998), the History of Biodiversity 
symposium(2000), the 3rd International Symposium on Trilobites and their 
relatives (2001) and the Biovents meeting held at Caravaca, Spain (2003). 
In 1998, the IPA agreed to compile a list of endangered fossil sites 
worldwide, a project begun under the leadership of Dr H. Richard Lane; we 
would welcome details of additional threatened localities, which should be 
sent to the Secretary-General.  We intend, wherever possible, to take a 
more active role in representing palaeontological interests in 
international geoconservation.

As noted above, the IPA has long been linked with the international journal 
of palaeontology and stratigraphy, Lethaia, which today is a formal 
publication outlet for the IPA.  Individual subscribers to Lethaia are 
currently automatically members of the IPA, so members receive the printed 
journal and also enjoy free electronic access. A portion of each 
subscription is designated by the Lethaia Foundation to support the IPA. 
The Association’s communications used to be published routinely in Lethaia, 
but most are now made available through the Association’s website 
(http://ipa.geo.ukans.edu/index1.html).

Officers of the Association are elected at an Ordinary Meeting of the 
General Assembly of the IPA. These meetings are now held in conjunction 
with the International Palaeontological Congresses, and the current 
Executive Committee was appointed at an Ordinary Meeting in Sydney in 2002. 
The present officers, whose term of office extends to the Ordinary Meeting 
to be held in 2006, are:

Richard Aldridge (President, Leicester, United Kingdom)
Luis Buatois (Vice President, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina)
Daniel Goujet (Vice President, Paris, France)
Else Marie Friis (Vice President, Stockholm, Sweden)
Jin Yugan (Vice President, Nanjing, China)
Tat'yana Koren (Vice President, St. Petersburg, Russia)
Rosalie F. Maddocks (Secretary-General, Houston, USA)
Roger L. Kaesler (Treasurer, Lawrence, USA)
Svend Stouge (Member-at-large, Copenhagen, Denmark)
Warren D. Allmon (Member-at-large, Ithaca, USA)
John Talent (Past President, Sydney, Australia)
David Bruton (Past Secretary-General, Oslo, Norway)

It is our hope that all members of the global palaeontological community 
will continue to support the IPA and to benefit from its activities. We 
wish to keep an open dialogue with all our membership, and all officers of 
the Association welcome comments and suggestions on how we can further the 
cause of palaeontology around the world.


Richard J. Aldridge, Roger L. Kaesler and Rosalie F. Maddocks




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Dr. Rosalie F. Maddocks
Department of Geosciences
Room 312 Science & Research Bldg. 1
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-5007  U.S.A.
713-743-3429
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