paleonet BMS - ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2001

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21 November 2001
BMS - ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre, University College London, UK
 
The 2001 British Micropalaeontological Society AGM will take place on
Wednesday 21st November commencing at 2.00pm. Items for inclusion on the
agenda must be notified to the Convenor by 21st October 2001. Following
Society business, two talks will be presented.
 
 
Dr Paul Smith, Dr Philip Donoghue and Dr Ivan Sansom (School of Earth
Sciences, University of Birmingham): Microvertebrates and macroevolution -
unravelling the origin and early history of the vertebrate clade

The study of Early Palaeozoic microvertebrate faunas has, in the last
decade, had a major impact on the understanding of vertebrate palaeobiology.
A review of pre-Silurian vertebrates carried out as recently as 1991
concluded that only five species could confidently be included in the clade.
Since then, a number of key discoveries have been made, many of them reliant
on micropalaeontological methodologies. For example, the first armoured fish
are now known to be present in the Late Cambrian, and the biodiversity of
Ordovician vertebrates is far higher than previously suspected, even at high
taxonomic levels. One particularly important change has been the increasing
recognition that conodonts are vertebrates, which has both changed the
temporal perspective of vertebrate phylogeny and increased the known generic
and specific diversity by two orders of magnitude. Together, these
developments demonstrate the importance of integrating micropalaeontological
and traditional, vertebrate macrofossil, datasets since neither picture is
complete in itself. The new discoveries have a significant part to play in
elucidating the phylogeny of the group and in testing evolutionary
scenarios, in assessing the completeness of the fossil record of early
vertebrates, and in the determination of biogeographic and large-scale
ecological patterns and processes.

 
Dr Jeremy Young (Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum,
Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD): Coccolithophore species - results from
CODENET (Coccolithophorid Evolutionary Biodiversity and Ecology Network)

In 1997 we (VU Amsterdam, ICM-Barcelona, U. Bremen, AWI-Bremerhaven, U.
Caen,  U. Lisbon, Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, U. Oviedo,
ETH-Zurich) were successful in obtaining EU funding for a Training and
Mobility of Researchers network project, CODENET, to train young scientists
in interdisciplinary research and carry out basic research into
coccolithophorid ecology, microevolution and phylogeny. The project was
focused on six key species and included culture isolation; studies of
cytology, morphogenesis, life-cycles and pigments; calibration of oxygen
isotope, Sr/Ca, and alkenone palaeoproxies; plus taxonomic synthesis and
molecular genetic study. This work was planned to: "(1) Probe high-level
diversity in key aspects of coccolithophorid biology; (2) build a
representative suite of case studies in species-level diversity and
microevolutionary processes and (3) advance our understanding of the ecology
of extant coccolithophorids and palaeoceanographic information recovery from
fossil coccoliths."

The project is now nearing its end after some three and a half years of
gratifyingly productive research (it formally ends on 30th Sept 2001). This
talk will briefly overview the project as a whole and discuss the potential
this type of research for micropalaeontology in general. I will then focus
on one topic which brings together a range of interesting research -
microevolution and species concepts. 

As with most microfossil groups there has been a strong tradition in
coccolith studies of detailed morphometric study of key taxa and lineages,
both to understand evolutionary process and to refine biostratigraphy. There
has, however, remained considerable uncertainty about the correlation
between such morphospecies (often based on rather arbitrary size
definitions) and biological species. Within the CODENET project we were able
to combine detailed morphometric study of key species in the geological
record, in sediment traps, in plankton samples and in laboratory cultures.
In parallel with this we used the laboratory cultures to investigate both
ecophenotypic variation in selected strains and molecular genetic
differentiation between multiple strains. Finally life-cycle studies have
provided an unexpected source of additional information, from comparison of
coccolith differentiation in the haploid and diploid phases.  The work is at
varying stages in the six taxa being studied but a rather consistent pattern
is emerging. It appears that the individual species consist of a small set
of closely-related sub-species/genotypes with distinct morphologies and
discrete ecological preferences; but with overlapping geographical ranges
and each with essentially global distributions.  This pattern does not fit
easily with either allopatric or sympatric models of microevolution, but
does correlate well with biostratigraphic observations of very low
diachronism and endemism in calcareous nannofossils.
 
 
Following the AGM and lectures, a wine reception with poster displays will
take place in the North Cloisters of UCL. Members wishing to contribute a
poster should contact the Convenor by 31st October 2001 to allow adequate
hanging space to be reserved. Please supply the title of your poster and a
short abstract, if possible.
 
Convenor: Dr James Powell, Dinosystems, 105 Albert Road, Richmond, Surrey
TW10 6DJ (Tel: 020 8948 6443; Fax: 020 8940 5917; Email:
ajp@dinosystems.co.uk <mailto:ajp@dinosystems.co.uk>).

===================================
Dr James Powell
Dinosystems
105 Albert Road
RICHMOND
Surrey TW10 6DJ
England, UK
 
Tel: +44 (0)20 8948 6443
Fax: +44 (0)20 8940 5917
Email: ajp@dinosystems.co.uk <mailto:ajp@dinosystems.co.uk>
 
Secretary, British Micropalaeontological Society
<http://www.bmsoc.org>



Publicity, British Micropalaeontological Society

Rachel Preece

Stratigraphy and Modeling
Chevron Petroleum Technology Company
6001 Bollinger Canyon Road
San Ramon
CA 94583-2324
U. S. A.

E-mail: rprc@chevron.com
Phone: 925 - 842 0231
Fax: 925 - 842 3030