Future Devonian Meetings

4th ICOS - International Conodont Symposium

Valencia (Spain)

25-30 June 2017


5th IPC - International Palaeontological Congress

Paris (France)

9-13 July 2018

 
 

 

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SDS Minutes 2007

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Minutes of the SDS Business Meeting

 Eureka , Nevada , USA , 17th September 2007

 

 

1. Introduction and apologies for absence

2. Approval of the Minutes of the Business Meeting, Leicester , 18th July 2006

3. Chairman’s Business

4. ICS Matters

5. Devonian Chronostratigraphic Definitions

6. Membership

7. SDS Newsletter and Publications

8. Financial Report

9. Future Meetings

10. AOB

 

 

The SDS business meeting for 2007 took place during the SDS International Meeting and Nevada Field Excursion on Rapid Geological Change organized jointly by TM J. Over and CM J. Morrow, 9th-17th, September 2007.

 

Attendance The Chair (R. T. Becker) & Secretary (J. E. A. Marshall), TM’s C. Brett, J-G. Casier, J. Hladil, N. Izokh. J. Over, C.A. Sandberg, E. Schindler, T. Uyeno, J. I. Valenzuela-Ríos. CM’s G.C. Baird, M D. Brice, C. Corradini, B. Ellwood, S. Kaiser, U. Jansen, M. Murphy, C. Ver Straeten. Guests J. Barrick, A. J. Bartholomew, F. Bigey, R. Brocke, C. Crônier, C. Dojen, S. Ellwood, S. Gouwy, S. Hartenfels, P. Königshof, L. Koptíková, T. Liao, F.W. Luppold, B. Mottequin, J. Nagel-Myers, M N. Savage, Schemm-Gregory, C. Stock, P. Yilmaz.

 

Documents were presented and numbered as follows:

 

1. Emsian correlation chart, P. Carls .

2. Reference sections for the Middle Givetian substage, P. Bultynck & S. Gouwy.

3. Late Devonian goniatite and conodont zonation, R.T. Becker & M. R. House, in press.

4. Late Devonian goniatite, conodont and miospore zonation, compiled by J. Marshall from information supplied by R.T. Becker & M. Streel.

5. Brachiopod faunal successions and the subdivision of the Famennian in South China , Ma Xueping & Sun Yuanlin.

6. Upper and uppermost Famennian miospore and conodont correlation in the Ardenne-Rhenish area, M. Streel.

7. The Dasberg Event in the Rhenish Massive, Carnic Alps , and the Anti-Atlas (Tafilalt, Maider) - implications for Famennian eustatics and chronostratigraphy, R.T. Becker & S. Hartenfels.

8. Reiteration of proposal for the only two Famennian Substage boundaries that are globally recognizable and coincident with major transgressions, C.A. Sandberg.

9. Should the Devonian/Carboniferous boundary be redefined?, S.I. Kaiser & C. Corradini.

 

 

1. Introduction and apologies for absence

 

The meeting started at 14:04. The Chairman welcomed the large group of participants and noted how pleased we were to be in North America . It was 20 years ago in 1987 the chairman gave his first talk at the second Devonian Symposium in Calgary , Canada . However, it was clear at the 2003 Friends of the Devonian meeting at GSA in Seattle that we would not be meeting in Calgary in 2007 but instead we were very pleased to get the offer of the western USA . We have had an excellent meeting and fieldtrips for which we have to thanks our hosts Jeff Over, Jarred Morrow and Charlie Sandberg together with Mike Murphy. We hope that it will not be 20 years before we return.

 

The joint meeting with IGCP 499 organised with Peter Königshof had been a big success. It is now more complex to create new IGCP projects. We could perhaps be able to organise another programme which initiates new research areas for SDS.

 

An address list was being circulated. Could attendees please update the list, particularly emails. A new master SDS list is being compiled and will be held and maintained by Thomas Becker.

 

The list of apologies was read out. In particular there was a problem with Ramadan and the vice-chair El Hassani had not been able to attend. Everyone was reminded that if members of SDS were not heard of and made no contact for 3 years they would be deleted from the membership list.

 

Apologies:

TM's Blieck, El Hassani, Ma, Mawson, Tsyganko, Weddige; CM's Aung, Bakharev, Benfrika, Blake, Bultynck, Burrow, Chen Xiu-qin, Day, Ebert, Feist, Garcia-Alcalde, Hartkopf-Fröder, Kim, Kirchgasser, Klapper, Mistiaen, Narkiewicz,Obukovskaya, Obut, Ovnatanova, Paris, Richardson, Slavik, Spalletta, Streel, Truyols-Massoni, Wright, Streel, Turner, Wang Chen-Yuan, Yolkin. At this point TM Jeff Over, as the local secretary, arrived to inform the meeting that the water supply to the city of Eureka had been cut. The only available drink was cold beer.

 

 

2. Approval of the Minutes of the Business Meeting, Leicester , 18th July 2006

 

The minutes had been distributed by email, were printed in SDS Newsletter 22 and were available on the new SDS website. They were approved.

 

3. Chairman’s Business

 

3.1 Devonian News The SDS Newsletter had been distributed from Münster with the assistance of Mrs Klaus. There had been problems with Newsletter 21 which had not been distributed and Rex Crick had retired from his university post. It had been available on the former SDS website but with page 28 missing. TM Alain Blieck has it available for distribution as a pdf. It is now available on the new SDS website and page 28 will be added.

 

The SDS is one of the most active ICS sub-commissions and had regular meetings. Other sub-commissions were still trying to define stages and had lots of problems. Jim Ogg of the ICS recognised that the SDS was very active and wanted us to go ahead with the first chapter of the Geological Time Scale ‘2010’. The SDS still has young workers who are still feeding into the sub-commission after their PhD’s and the meeting had many new ‘in progress’ results.

 

The new SDS homepage had been created by CM Carlo Corradini and Sophie Gouwy. The chairman was very pleased with the homepage. The old homepage was still recognized on the ICS website and the chair would talk to ICS to get the links changed.

 

CM Carlo Corradini and Sophie Gouwy then demonstrated the new homepage which is at www.unica.it/SDS. The site contained a list of SDS members with contact details, links to the ICS and IUGS with a page of planned Devonian links. Pictures were needed of members and past meetings. The members needed to check their addresses. Input from SDS members was also required for the GSSP part of the site and links to other sites.

TM Carl Brett then raised the issue of SDS members placing pdf’s of recent papers on the website. CM Carlo Corradini responded that at best we could only include links to pdf’s on other website. Publishers were generally unhappy for third parties to be distributing copyright material. The Chairman did suggest the possibility of a list of low resolution pdf’s that were available from authors by request.

 

CM Carlo Corradini also informed SDS members that as the website would include a list of all members together with their address, ‘phone number and email details then under Italian law permission is required from the individual to permit the SDS to display this information. So, an email would be sent to all members requesting this permission, a simple ‘yes’ reply was the only response required. Could all members also check their address details, there were a few duplicates and some had no names and had not been updated.

All the minutes since the Morocco meeting are now online together with the last two newsletters. It is hoped to add more. In particular pdf’s of old newsletters were requested.

There is a website link to the ICS GSSP pages. The Chairman has assembled all the figures (maps, logs and section) for the GSSP’s but requests more GSSP photographs. In particular some of the defining fossils (specific to the GSSP sections) have never been  illustrated. Examples that are missing are the basal Frasnian marker Ancyrodella rotundiloba from Morocco and Po . costatus partitus from Wetteldorf for the base Eifelian GSSP.

CM Carlo Corradini commented that it would be good to keep a permanent website record of past meetings especially pictures. More space would be available to keep open links to meeting websites such as the Eureka site. The SDS homepage needed to be more entertaining. The request is for pictures. Carlo is happy to accept these and other information at any time.     

 

At the end of the presentation the Chairman gave a big thank you to Carlo and Sophie for their hard work in establishing the new website. TM Jeff Over then arrived to inform members that there was now water at the Owl Club (allowing a sober continuation of the meeting).

 

3.2 SDS tasks and future work plan

 

The Chairman outlined these as:

 

1) Formal definition and documentation of the new sub-stages

2) the inclusion of modern stratigraphic techniques in these definitions such as chemo- stratigraphy, magnetic-susceptibility, graphic correlation and isotope curves. All of these to be linked to a Milankovitch cycle record perhaps with a special meeting on orbital tuning. This was especially important with the large error bars that exist in geochronology.

3) The production of an improved Devonian sea-level curve

4) the link between evolution and climate, perhaps again with a special meeting.

 

Ideas were then requested from the audience.

 

The Secretary commented that much of the Milankovitch cycle data was already known. It needed to be linked together.

 

TM Carl Brett highlighted the requirement for the C isotope stratigraphy

 

There was also a need for the formal definition of regional chronostratigraphic units, for example the Gedinnian and Siegenian are still used in Germany . The Secretary noted the excellent example of the Belgian regional stages which are now all defined in Geologica Belgica and freely available on the web.

 http://popups.ulg.ac.be/Geol/sommaire.php?id=979

TM Jindrich Hladil raised the question about the future of the Devonian numerical scales produced by TM Karsten Weddige and published by the Senckenberg. These are available online but difficult to access. TM Eberhard Schindler noted that Karsten was going to revise the tables but that there were problems with continuing publication of the printed versions. However, it was planned to place a link on the Senckenberg home page. In any event Karsten Weddige could be contacted for further information.

 

CM Peter Carls noted that the Early Devonian correlation table had a ‘virus’. The interval occupied by the serotinus zone was very long and the scaling was odd. TM Nacho Valenzuela noted that it was very important to provide the table and to be able to read the annotation.

 

CM Uli Jansen commented that there was discussion of the German local and regional stages in the House volume.

 

 

4. ICS Matters

 

The ICS has been very busy and there has been lots of difficulties in the last 9 months including a breakdown in relations between the IUGS and the ICS. Subcommission chairs were approached in an attempt to remove Gradstein and Ogg as officers. The ICS funding for 2007 would have been removed unless the chairs agreed to 5 points in 4 weeks. However, all the chairs agreed that Gradstein and Ogg were doing a good job. The real issues were to do with a) the Quaternary and b) the nomination and proposal of new officers. However, there would be no money for the ICS unless the Quaternary was reinstated from the Neogene. There had been representation from INQUA to the IUGS and discussions as to the definition being at either 1.8 or 2.6 Ma. The ICS did as the IUGS requested but there were still issues with the Gelasian and the definition of the Neogene. The debate had not been good for the ICS. The funds for the ICS had been eventually released but at 50% of the previous year.

 

CM Brooks Ellwood asked about the status of sub-eras and the need to have a common base to both the Quaternary and the Pleistocene. The Chair noted that all the problems were not solved as the Quaternary was back with the rank of a system.

 

The 2004 Geological Timescale had no Quaternary. The IUGS logo is on the book but it was not an IUGS approved time scale. The ICS had targeted the final production of the next timescale for the Oslo IGC in 2008. This date had now been revised to 2010. However, Berndt Kauffman ( Graz , Austria ) would not be adding his new timescale to the Gradstein compilation. The first version will soon be available for comment.

 

CM Peter Carls raised the question of the timescale. It requires our data but is a personal effort for the benefit of all. Science makes its own progress and cannot be governed by commissions. The Chairman replied that the time scale was an absolute goal and it was our duty to produce a time scale for 2010. CM Peter Carls commented as to why the SDS should publish an incorrect timescale. TM Charlie Sandberg noted that the project should be to question the biochronology of Kauffman and more directly tie the radiometric dates to the biochronology as emphasised by the ‘short’ age for the Eifelian.

 

The Chairman commented that the Kauffman chart had been discussed at the SDS meeting in Leicester . The scaling to the lithostratigraphic sections was sometimes based on single sections, e.g. large parts of the Famennian. More could be usefully added. There should be discussion between the time scales of Kauffman and Gradstein particularly involving the Eifelian and Emsian stages and the scaling of the serotinus and costatus zones.

 

CM Chuck Ver Straeten noted that Devonian timescales were work in progress and need more work. We require a more aggressive attitude to acquiring age dates but who can we get to produce the analyses. The Chairman remarked that it was not easy to generate the analyses, it takes 9 months to produce a single age date. CM Brook Ellwood reported that a group (details could be supplied) were getting funding for the zircon dating of bentonites with 10 labs dating each bentonite and at present focusing on the Cenomanian/Turonian.

 

The Chairman noted that another timescale had been produced by GeoArabia. This had been flagged as good by the ICS although it includes units such as the Mid Carboniferous and Mid Cretaceous, which have no formal base. Heavy criticism have come from various subcommissions (e.g., Carboniferous, Jurassic) and the chart shows that ICS work still is not sufficiently transmitted to the wider geoscientific community. CM Brooks Ellwood commented that we needed to lobby the ICS so that the SDS could provide input from all our past work.

 

The Chairman reported that the International Subcommission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature is currently producing a new International Stratigraphy Guide. CM Mike Murphy objected to the general aim. M. Bianca-Cita, the ISSN chairman from Italy , had produced a chapter of stratigraphic nomenclature ‘New Developments in Stratigraphic Classification’ Authors were selected/invited for each of the methods e.g. chemostratigraphy (40pp), sequence stratigraphy (100 pp). All this was to be published in Newsletters on Stratigraphy and these publications will form the base for open discussion. SDS members are asked to take part in this. 

 

The Chairman reported that the ICS prizes were open for nominations. There were the Digby McClaren prize for an individual who through a long period of time had contributed significantly to stratigraphy. The second prize was awarded on the basis of stratigraphic work in a single paper. SDS needed to submit CV’s and a case by the end of October which would be difficult. The Secretary was of the view that SDS should always make a submission (otherwise how could we claim to the ICS that we were producing top science). At this point TM Jeff Over nominated TM Carl Brett for the Digby McClaren award. 

 

The final item of ICS news was that voting was taking place on new names for the Cambrian. This included completely new and ‘invented’ names, such the Fortunian, a practise also adopted for the Ordovician and Silurian.

 

The meeting then broke for a coffee break from 15:35 until 15:54

 

 

5. Devonian Chronostratigraphic Definitions

 

5.1 Base of the Emsian

The Chairman expressed the view that this standing items was not to be discussed here and we should wait until we have seen the stratotype in Uzbekistan when it could be resampled. At the 2005 Novosibirsk business meeting it was agreed that we should revise the base of the Emsian but keep it within the same GSSP section.

CM Peter Carls then introduced Document 1. TM Nadya Isokh responded that we would have a more informed discussion of this next year. There would be a new publication on the section and she displayed some of the new conodont plates. CM Peter Carls had raised major issues but next year we could decide on this important question. In the year before the meeting the organisers would compile more data on conodonts from Zinzilban, European Russia and Salair. The Chairman noted that we needed data about “species 114” from elsewhere in the world and that we needed to bring this information to Zinzilban. TM Nacho Valenzuela commented that some of this information was available on the Macquarie University hosted Emsian working group website together with SDS Newsletter 22 and the ECOS VIII book. However, the chairman was still keen to have a presentation about “species 114” in Uzbekistan . Importantly TM Nadya Izokh will be visiting TM Nacho Valenzuela for 4 months before the meeting. The Chairman also commented that we would need both lower and upper Emsian documents.

CM Peter Carls then discussed more Emsian issues. TM Eberhard Schindler noted that TM Karsten Weddige was undecided what to do about the lower and upper Emsian and was content to leave the topic to others. TM Nacho Valenzuela noted that it was important to resolve the base Emsian issues first.

The Chairman noted the requirement for the mid-Emsian boundary in Zinzilban. CM Chuck Ver Straeten contributed with an update on the forthcoming work in the Southern Appalachians where the lower Emsian would be defined with dacryoconarids. 

 

5.2 Eifelian sub-stages

There is, as yet, nothing defined for possible lower and upper Eifelian stages. We need to think about this for the future but it was not urgent. CM Chuck Ver Straten noted that the Eifelian was rather short and contained 2 full sequences plus part of another. It was worth splitting as the different sequences had very different evolutionary histories and ecology. CM Mike Murphy offered his Emsian collections from Nevada as a contribution to this study.

 

Givetian: Although not tabled in the agenda there was then a brief discussion on the sub-division on the Givetian stage. We need to submit a formal proposal that would then be voted on/agreed/ratified by ICS as if it was a stage definition. This is the reason that the formal publication in Quart. Geol has been delayed. Sophie Gouwy then introduced Document 2. The Chairman commented that with Sarah Aboussalam he had resampled another Tafilalt section at Jebel Amelane and had located Polygnathus varcus in a goniatite marker bed, confirming that the zonation works and supported Document 2. TM Nacho Valenzuela also supported the definition based on correlative sections in Spain .

 

The Chairman commented on the formal submission of the Givetian sub-division to the ICS and noted that we should add sequence stratigraphy to the document. Any relevant data should be sent to CM Pierre Bultynck and Sophie Gouwy. We also needed other workers (to include data on spores and brachiopods) to contribute to the definition of the base of the upper Givetian, and the middle and upper Frasnian. TM Jeff Over is organising the Frasnian working group.

 

5.3 Famennian sub-stages

 

The Chairman introduced the Famennian discussion. He noted that there was an in press Becker and House paper in the important Canning Basin monograph edited by P. Playford and to be published in the Bulletin of the Geological Survey of Western Australia. In this paper the base of the Mid Famennian was defined at the base of the marginifera zone. Document 4 was introduced which was a compilation of Famennian ammonoid, conodont and spore zonations produced by the Secretary from information supplied by the Chairman and CM Maurice Streel. The first also reported that CM Christoph Hartkopf-Fröder (Nordrhein-Westfalen Landesamt) is just starting to investigate new palynological samples from Riescheid in the northern Rhenish Massif that will give better information on spore zonation in relation to conodont and ammonoid distribution. 

 

Document 5 was a report (Ma & Sun) on the brachiopod successions in the Famennian of South China. The Chairman briefly commented on the generally low brachiopod turnover in the Famennian. However, CM Denise Brice added that although she agreed that brachiopod turnover was low in the upper Famennian, it was greater in the lower Famennian. TM Jeff Over noted that this was similar to the pattern observed in the conodonts. CM Peter Carls added that both brachiopods and corals were important in the definition but that the definition should be based on conodonts. In any event, there was much work still to be done on the brachiopods and more reviews are welcomed.

 

Document 6 by CM Maurice Streel was then discussed. The Chairman noted that it was important to compare it with the account of the Strunian available online in Geologica Belgica. He agreed that the lower base of Retispora lepidophyta (base LL) was much lower than the Upper expansa Zone and that the Strunian in the traditional sense occurs at a higher level. This was followed by a discussion of the significance of Retispora lepidophyta and particularly R. lepidophyta minor. The LN spore zone occurs above the Hangenberg Black Shale and the LE zone in the Hangenberg Black Shale. However, the base of the LE is not well correlated. If the Famennian is sub-divided by the base of the Upper expansa Zone, then this was approximately equivalent to the base of R. lepidophyta minor.

 

The Chairman then introduced Document 7 which we had already heard about in a talk this morning. Palmatolepis gracilis expansa had proved to be unreliable for defining the base of the Lower expansa zone in all studied sections, hence other conodonts were used. The question was asked as to how the Lower expansa was defined. The Chairman also reported that there were problems with diachroneity in the age of the Dasberg transgression between German (top of Lower expansa Zone) and Moroccan (base of Middle expansa Zone) sections.

 

Document 8 was by TM Charlie Sandberg who gave a brief introduction to the document. He reinforced that the Famennian had to be split into 3 subdivisions rather than 4. The Strunian was difficult to define using conodonts in the type area and didn’t match to the base of the Upper expansa Zone. The answers were to the comments by CM Maurice Streel in SDS Newsletter 22. Charlie had not enjoyed writing the response to this document. The Secretary commented that we had tried to attempt an informal solution when CM Maurice Streel came over to the 2006 GSA meeting in Philadelphia . However, at the last moment TM Charlie Sandberg had not been able to make the discussion with CM Maurice Streel, CM Sandra Kaiser and the Secretary.

 

The Chairman then asked for comments as to how we should proceed on Famennian sub-division. TM Jeff Over noted that we should look for disconformities at the base of flooding surfaces in black shales. There was useful information from Eastern North America on unconformities in black shales produced by Jürgen Schieber (University of Indiana http://www.shale-mudstone-research-schieber.indiana.edu/sequence-strat.htm).

CM Brooks Ellwood commented that MS was an excellent tool in the Famennian but that we needed new data.

 

The Chairman then summarized the issue. We did not yet have the data to make good progress. We would therefore hold over the discussion to the next meeting at Oslo . Formal proposals are now needed which can then be voted upon. But we must remember that there was a clear majority for 4 rather than 3 sub-stages and this decision does not stand for reconsideration. There will be no further straw votes and formal voting on all three substage boundaries will take place right after the next annual business meeting.

 

5.4 Revision of the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary

 

The document was tabled and following the talk by CM Sandra Kaiser in the morning we moved straight onto the discussion. TM Nacho Valenzuela noted that we needed to agree on the siphonodellid and protognathodid taxonomy. CM Brooks Ellwood made a plea for the GSSP to have potential for MS and chemostratigraphy together with the need to co-ordinate with the SCS. The Chairman replied that he had attended the Carboniferous Congress in China and the SCS has agreed to set up a joint working group. The tasks of the joint working group were formulated as follows:

 

1. to refine and agree on the conodont taxonomy

2. to investigate new data

3. to consider the options of       

a. La Serre at a different level/definition

b. a new section with the original GSSP definition

c. a new section at a different level

 

TM Charlie Sandberg then proposed that we should suspend discussion of the D-C boundary indefinitely. The discussion had taken over 50 years and he had worked on it with CM Maurice Streel since 1969. The present boundary had been accepted by a 11-0 decision of the working group. The views of the conodont workers had also been over-ruled at that time. We could perhaps move the boundary down by 2 to 3 beds and let the matter rest. In addition it was more the business of the SCS. CM Sandra Kaiser then raised the difficulties over the application of the same lineage in other sections. The Chairman emphasized that the presulcata to sulcata lineage has not been found preserved in any section world-wide. CM Brooks Ellwood noted that there were excellent section close to La Serre that would make an easier solution. CM Carlo Corradini reported results from Sardinia where there was no evidence of reworking and S. sulcata occurred with S. presulcata possibly in topmost Devonian pre-Hangenberg beds.

 

The Chairman emphasised the reasons for having a revised GSSP. It should be the best section in the world and we should be able to restudy it now and in the future to obtain new information from it using techniques that we don’t yet know. La Serre does not meet these criteria. The current GSSP level cannot be correlated with precision into any other section but, based on its advanced siphonodellids (transitional forms between sulcata and duplicata) most likely post-dates the entry of Gattendorfia, which traditionally defined the Carboniferous.

 

The Chairman then moved the proposal for a working group. This would include the discussion of new samples collected from Chinese sections collected this summer. The members of the working group from the SDS side would be TM Thomas Becker, CM Sandra Kaiser, CM Carlo Corradini, CM Wang, Chen-yuan, Ji Qiang, CM Brooks Ellwood, TM John Marshall (spores), CM Hanna Matyja and CM Denise Brice. Other members would be suggested by the CSC. The working group would communicate by email rather than formal meetings.

 

6. Membership

 

Corresponding Members

The chairman noted that CM’s who had gone quiet would be removed although could still remain as SDS members. These included G. Brock, M. Dastanpour, Tsien, Hsien-Ho, and Wan yan Chong. The CM status of Morzadec and Racheboeuf would be held pending enquiries as to their future plans.

 

Six new CM’s were proposed

        Proposed                        Seconded
Sophie Gouwy (Belgium/Italy) Thomas Becker John Marshall 
Phuong Ta Hoa (Vietnam) Eberhard Schindler  Thomas Becker
Alex Bartholomew (USA) Carl Brett Thomas Becker
Mike Whalen (USA) Thomas Becker   Chuck Ver Straeten
Maya Elrick (USA) Jeff Over Carl Brett
Rainer Brocke (Germany) Eberhard Schindler

John Marshall

These proposals were approved by a show of hands with no dissent.

 

Titular Members

The Chairman noted that the ICS now had more control over the nomination and retirement of TM’s. We have to submit the names of the TM’s to the ICS in advance of each IGC and then were only normally permitted two terms of four years. He reported that both TMs Charlie Sandberg and Karsten Weddige were both scheduled to retire at the IGC in Oslo . It was also doubtful whether Zhu Min would continue beyond Oslo .

 

As regards the terms of the Chair, Secretary and Vice-Chair there were no formal rules. Our four year term finishes in Oslo . As notified to all SDS member by email the present committee were willing to continue. Therefore it had been arranged that CM Pierre Bultynck would, until the end of October, collect the names of any candidates for the posts of Chair and Vice-Chair. If there were nominations a vote would be arranged. If no candidates were brought forward, this would be seen as a confirmation (re-election) of the current officers. The present membership agreed with this procedure. The post of Secretary is through nomination by the Chair rather than separate election. This is because, historically, several separately elected chairs and secretaries have not worked well together.

 

7. SDS Newsletter and Publications

 

The next newsletter would be produced in January 2008. The deadline for copy is the end of December 2007. Therefore we need members news before this deadline. ALL SDS members are expected to contribute to the news section. There is also a new publications section that needs contributions. The Secretary will issue an email newsletter reminder at the end of November.

 

Other publications include the Proceedings of the Eureka meeting to be published in Palaeontographica America. The deadline has been moved from 15th October to 1st December. Author instructions are available from the PRI webpage but manuscripts must be sent to TM Jeff Over.

 

The Secretary drew the attention of the meeting to the recently published House volume, Geological Society of London Special Publication 278 and the copy that was on display. A substantial discount was available using the available flier. The volume was also available digitally on the Lyell Centre by institution or personal subscription or PPV (pay per view).

 

Other volumes that are in progress are the Palaeo3 Middle Devonian sea-levels and bioevents volume organised by TM Carl Brett. This currently has 5 contributions. The final date for m/s submission is the end of January 2008.

 

Another Geological Society of London Special Publication is in progress to publish the findings of IGCP 499. This currently has Devonian contributions from Argentina , China , Australia and the USA . The deadline for manuscripts is the end of December.

 

The proceedings of the Novosibirsk meeting will by published in the Journal of the Czech Geological Society (now the Journal of Geosciences). Additional contributions are required for an end December deadline.

 

Marek Narkiewicz reported by email that the forthcoming Devonian special issue of Geological Quarterly (formerly Kwart Geol) will be published by the end of December 2007. A contents list will be placed in the next SDS newsletter.

 

8. Financial Report

 

The SDS had this year received $400 from the ICS. There was $256 left over from last year. All this money would be used to produce and distribute the newsletter. We have not been able to support travel to the meeting by an SDS member this year. Last year we were able to get money from an ICS special fund to enable Vice-chair El Hassani to attend the meeting in Leicester . This fund was not available this year. The ICS funding for next year is unknown.

CM Brooks Ellwood reported on the success in getting oil companies to contribute funds. His institution had just got $5 million in sponsorship and the industry was short of biostratigraphers. However, TM Jeff Over reported that he had tried to get oil company funding for graduate students for the Eureka meeting but had had no success.

 

9. Future Meetings

 

Our next meeting is at the IGC in Oslo where we are formally required to meet. The 2nd circular is now out. There will be a special SDS sponsored symposium on the Correlation of Devonian terrestrial, neritic and pelagic strata. This would be held on the same day as the Annual Business Meeting which is 10th August 2008. A reduced rate (but not 50%) is available for half congress attendance. 

 

The meeting in the Kitab Reserve, Uzbekistan , is in September 2008. Three copies of the circular were made available. The circular had also been distributed by email to SDS member. In addition, it is also available for download from the new SDS website. Arrangements for the meeting were in progress and CM Olga Obut would be acting as translator. SDS members who attended the Novosibirsk would remember the excellent contribution she made to that meeting.

 

IGCP 499 have their final meeting in September 2008 in Frankfurt . A meeting flier was available. Full details were also on the Senckenberg website.

 

There is also a meeting in Lille on Palaeozoic climates together with a field excursion in Belgium and France . SDS members should note that there is a session on Upper Palaeozoic climate. But the dates of the Lille sessions (28-29th August) mean that it clashes with the Kitab Reserve meeting. Members who cannot attend the Uzbekistan meeting are recommended to take part in the Lille congress.

 

Further ahead, ICOS 2009 (11) will be held in Calgary , Canada . It is hoped that this meeting will interface with the NAPC meeting (June 20th-26th) at the University of Cincinnati . TM Carl Brett has invited the SDS to hold a symposium at NAPC and there will be a 4 day Devonian fieldtrip to Ohio , Kentucky , Indiana and Michigan . A good date for ICOS 2009 would be early/mid July.

 

TM Nadya Isokh then made a brief presentation on the Kitab Reserve/Uzbekistan meeting.

 

10. AOB

    

TM Charlie Sandberg requested clarification as to whether TM’s were needed to be nominated a year in advance. The Chairman agreed to look into the rules but noted that there would be an email vote for the new TM’s from existing TM’s.

 

CM Carlo Corradini reported that the SSS were meeting in Sardinia in 2009 including a fieldtrip with Upper Silurian and Lower Devonian sections. The circular was circulated. It is available from www.unica.it/silurian2009

 

The meeting closed with refreshments in the Opera House and informal discussion of a successor to IGCP 499.

 

John Marshall

SDS Secretary

November 2007