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..............................................................................................................................
SDS
Minutes 2010
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Minutes
of the SDS Business Meeting
Lecture
Theatre 1.47,
Imperial
College
,
London
,
UK
Thursday
1st July 2010
1.
Introduction and apologies for absence
2.
Approval of 2009 Minutes
3.
Chairman’s Business
4.
ICS Matters
5. Devonian Substages
6. SDS Publications
7. Future
Meetings
8.
Financial Report
9.
Future Meetings
10.
Any other Business
The
SDS business meeting for 2010 took place during the
2010 International Palaeontological Congress (IPC3).
Attendance:
The
Chair (R.T.
Becker
), Vice-Chair (A.
El Hassani
) & Secretary (J.E.A. Marshall),
TM’s A.
Blieck
, C.E.
Brett
, Chen
Xiu-Qing, N.
Izokh,
U.
Jansen
, Ma
Xueping, J.
Over
, E. Schindler,
J.I.
Valenzuela-Ríos,
CM’s
G.C. Baird,
K.
Bakharev
, A.J.
Bartholomew
, F.
Bigey
, D.
Brice
, R.
Brocke
, P.
Budil,
P.
Bultynck,
C.
Burrow
, C. Corradini,
S. Kaiser,
E. Lukševičs,
H. Matyja,
B. Mistiaen,
L. Slavik,
C. Spalletta,
Guests SCS
Secretary M. Aretz,
O.
Artyushkova,
O. Babek,
C.
Crônier,
A-C. Dasilva,
J. Denayer,
C.
Dojen,
I. Evdokimova,
B. Hubert,
Hui
Luo, J. Kalvoda,
O.
Kossovaya,
Li
Chun-Xiang, Liao
Jau-Chyn, V. Mantsurova,
R. Owens,
E. V. Pazukhin,
E. Pinte,
E. Poty, Qi Feng, N.
Savage,
O. Tel’nova,
M. Tuite,
Wan
Zhen-Zhu, J.
Zambito.
1.
Introduction and apologies for absence
The
meeting started at 9:05. The Chairman welcomed the participants with
thanks to the organizers of the IPC3 for supporting the SDS Devonian
Session and the Business Meeting. The agenda was distributed. The SDS
membership had been notified of the meeting by an email circular. But it
was noted that 5% were being returned as incorrect. The membership is
urged to update their addresses, with notes to the Secretary or Chai, as
soon as any change occurs.
The
list of apologies was reported: TM's,
Casier
,
Hladil
, Tsyganko,
Racki
; CM’s Kim,
Obut, Kirchgasser, Rakhmonov, Sandberg, Slavik, Talent, Turner, ver
Straeten.
2.
Approval of 2009 Minutes
The
Chair reported that SDS Newsletter 25 had been circulated in March 2010.
It included the minutes of the 2009 Annual SDS Business Meeting in
Cincinnati
. The Chair then asked for any corrections to these minutes. There were
none and the minutes were approved unanimously.
3.
Chairman’s Business
The
SDS had been very active although not everything had been achieved. It
was deeply mourned that our long standing and very active former TM from
Novosibirsk
, Evgeny
Yolkin
had died. Also, the famous Devonian ostracode worker G. Becker from Frankfurt, member
of the German SDS, died at
the end of 2009 and Tom Dutro
from
New York
, who led SDS Field Trips to
New York
State
, in June 2010.
The SDS Newsletter had included the ICS report and a very useful
summary of publications. We had had the very excellent meeting in
Cincinnati
organised by Carl Brett and
colleagues. The field trips to the Devonian of Kentucky,
Ohio
, and
Michigan
were outstanding. The Chair reported that he had been in
Oslo
in January 2010 to see Felix Gradstein
and Jim Ogg, the main editors of the forthcoming new edition of the
Geological Timescale book (GTS). He was busy compiling the Devonian
chapter. This was to replace the GTS 2004 and had already been scheduled
for 2004, 2010 and 2011 but 2012 seemed more likely. It will include
very detailed correlation charts with the detailed zonations of
conodonts, ammonoids, dacryoconarids, graptolites, ostracodes, and fish
groups. They are based on updated correlation charts as produced by K.
Weddige
. Jim Ogg, the ISS Chair, has informed us that the Devonian charts
would be nicely drawn by Time Scale Creator (open access freeware). All
the data would be input into TSC. All SDS members would be able to
download the charts to check them using TSC (www.tscreator.org).
The Devonian chapter is still missing the coloured GSSP illustrations,
which have to include photos of the defining taxon from the GSSP bed.
E.
Schindler noted the
contribution of Manfred Menning
(Chairman of the German Stratigraphic Commission) with his compilation
of Devonian, Carboniferous and Permian charts. These included ammonoids,
conodonts, miospores, fish, graptolites and ostracodes. The Time Scale
Creator is seen as a very useful tool that includes an easy learning
programme. A view reiterated by P. Budil.
The Chair although happy with the stratigraphic charts regarded
them as not being perfect. There were serious problems with time scaling
using now obsolete ages. The time scale was linear to Ma. The last
summary by B. Kaufmann
(2006) had, for example, partly used sediment thicknesses to scale
between the tie-points (especially in the Famennian). After the Oslo IGC
the geochronology group of Mark Schmitz
and Mike Villeneuve had
recalibrated all Devonian dates and made a number of decisions. Age
dates were now graded with 6th class ages discarded. 1st
and 2nd class ages were regarded as optimal. The
recalibration has changed some age dates by 2-3 my with some error bars
now < 1 my. This will form the basis of the vertical scaling. The
Emsian to early Eifelian interval was now very different. The Tioga Ash
and Hunsrück ages were regarded as high quality data points whereas the
Wetteldorf ages were of low quality, with up to 5 Ma of uncertainty. It
is clear that more and better Wetteldorf zircon ages are required. The
late Emsian to early Eifelian interval now has a 15-17 my duration,
which appears to be extremely long. Nacho Valenzuela-Ríos
noted that some dates were probably in error and we had to be careful in
using obsolete dates. In contrast, zonations were good but ages change.
We have to work towards getting the fossils as accurate as possible and
then link the absolute dates to our zones.
It was noted that the Hunsrück bentonite was well correlated as
it occurred with ammonoids and darcryoconarids. The Tioga Ashes were
similarly reliable. The Secretary observed that this was all in our
control. We needed a systematic programme of zircon dating. Carl Brett
noted the problems with the Esopus Formation.
There was a 417-415 age above the Kalkberg, the upper part of the
lower Lochkovian. This gives the S/D boundary estimate of 416/417 Ma.
But there were no dates in the Silurian below.
It was affirmed that the geochronology group wanted the Devonian
as a case study for the Phanerozoic. But it was emphasized that the
acquisition of dates was very tedious. It takes up to 6 months of
analytical work to get a high-resolution absolute date. We also needed
to focus more on counting Milankovitch cycles. We should aim to get the
precise numbers of cycles within clearly fixed conodont zones. The Chair
noted that Sven Hartenfels
had in his PhD counted all the thin limestone cycles in the Famennian of
Rhenish sections from ca. the velifer
to Middle expansa zones.
The
Secretary noted that Jessica Whiteside
from
Brown
University
, who had worked on Triassic/Jurassic cycles, intended to ‘adopt’
the Devonian. We needed to make contact. Nacho Valenzuela-Ríos
noted that it was important to be careful with the statistics of cycle
counting. Lots of work had been done by Ivo Chlupáč
on the Barrandian. It was also recognized that there were 160 cycles in
the Hollardops Limestone
Member of the basal Upper Emsian in
SW Morocco
. Ladislav Slavík noted
that it could be difficult to count precise cycles in the Barrandian
Emsian-Eifelian. Carl
Brett
reported on joint work from
Morocco
where Upper Emsian cycles had been counted from localities 70 km apart
where the limestones pinched and swelled. There were the same number
cycles. Ladislav Slavík
noted that we needed scales of cycles with palaeontological ranges.
Ultimately we should work towards a calibration of zones and cycles in
separate basins.
It was noted that the GTS was now orbitally tuned down to the
Cretaceous; we need to do this at some stage for the Devonian. Nacho Valenzuela-Ríos
remarked that it was important to have an agreement to what constituted
a cycles. It was generally agreed that we should have a cycle session at
some future SDS meeting.
There was a SDS document submitted by Charlie Sandberg,
dealing with the
conodont age of the Alamo Impact and of Belgium Frasnian reefs.
Apologies were given for his absence since, very sadly, his wife Dorothe,
who was at the Nevada SDS Field Meeting, had died. The document will be
placed in the next Newsletter (see Document section). Peter Königshof
reported that samples studied by Willi Ziegler
and Charlie Sandberg had
now been returned from
Denver
. But it was often still difficult to find things. Peter Königshof is officially the curator of this collection. This
meant that new data were now available. The Alamo Breccia was from the
upper part of the punctata
zone. Therefore it did not correlate with the base of the mid Frasnian
transgression. It was equivalent to the Cassaquoy rather than the
Middlesex transgressions. The extinction of the F2 Lion Mud
Mound reefs was now in the upper part of MN zone 8 and recognized
globally. It was equivalent to the upper Rhinestreet Event.
The
Chair reminded us about the excellent Kitab Reserve meeting (
Uzbekistan
) in 2009. Some reports were in the last SDS Newsletter, others are
still awaited. A goniatite report had been included in SDS Newsletter 25
but more were expected for other groups. We need to know about research
progress and better understand the Pragian-Emsian problems. Nadia Izokh
reported on the Kitab meeting. Information on conodonts, dacryoconarids/tentaculitids,
corals, brachiopods and bryozoans were to be published in a Supplement
of the Journal of Geology and
Geophysics,
Novosibirsk
. This was expected at the end of 2010. A summary would be available for
the SDS Newsletter and a pdf on the website.
Ladislav Slavík
reported on results from
Uzbekistan
including graphic logs and isotopes. This was still in progress but the
data was needed for the
Novosibirsk
meeting. The gamma ray and MS logs were done. The first preliminary
results showed there were no polygnathids at the proposed future basal
Emsian boundary interval. Results were being discussed by Nacho Valenzuela-Ríos
and Nadia Izokh. The Chair
wondered why the polygnathid record has disappeared; obviously they were
always rare, with only 2 specimens. Nadia Izokh
reported that Bed 32/33 contained lots of P.
excavatus. But they didn’t find good ones 2 years ago when the
unit was re-collected in 2009. It was emphasized that the different
groups needed to interface. Reports were required for the Newsletter
plus pdf’s for the SDS homepage.
4.
ICS Matters
The SDS Chair had attended the ICS meeting in
Prague
. This had included an ICS workshop for 2.5 days that had mostly
discussed the GSSP concept. However, there had been a discussion about
the use of Ma to represent geochronological ages as distinct from my or
myr to represent intervals of time. The Secretary (who was not in
Prague
) clarified the concept of geological time as distinct from an interval
of time. Geological time only happens once. [For
further reference see http://www.geosociety.org/TimeUnits/
and Aubry, M.-P., Van Couvering,
J.A., Christie-Blick, N., Landing, E., Pratt, B.R., Owen, D.E.,
and Ferrusquía-Villafranca,
I.
, 2009, Terminology
of geological time: Establishment of a community standard.
Stratigraphy,
6, 100-105]
There was also a discussion on the use of stages and ages. In
future, geochronology shall strictly use ages and not stages.
The discussion on GSSP’s included a number of presentations
upwards from the base of the geological column. The Chair gave a
presentation on Devonian substages and the current status of the
Devonian-Carboniferous boundary. He reported that there were still big
problems in the sub-division of the Ordovician and that the
Ordovician-Silurian boundary required revision.
Guidelines were issued on writing a GSSP proposal. As regards the
Devonian there were problems with the Pragian and the first entry of its
marker, Eognathodus sulcatus.
It does not enter at the GSSP but is already present one bed below.
Elsewhere (
Nevada
) it could start even earlier. There was also the problem that the
Mid-Late Devonian boundary index conodont from the GSSP bed had never
been figured. There were specimens of Ancyrodella
rotundiloba figured from the beds above the boundary. Those at the
boundary were different from those published by Klapper
(1985) in the Palaeontographica
monograph. There appears to be no ancyrodellid lineage at the GSSP but
it is defined by the first appearance of the oldest Ancyrodella
representatives. It is surprising that this got through the GSSP
approval system. The new guidelines require more details and rigor,
including specimen curation.
However,
there were no rules, as yet, about sub-stages. The Chair noted that
there was a recommendation from Felix Gradstein
to Stan Finney (ICS Chair)
that the procedure should be the same as for stages. Stan Finney
now needed to discuss this with the IUGS. The Chair had raised this
issue already at the Oslo IGC and clear direction was required. He
reported that the Triassic Smithian and Spathian are also widely used
and that they should become formal substages of the Olenekian. The
Visean also was recommended for sub-stages but the Carboniferous
Subcommission is currently still busy with their remaining stage
definitions.
As regards sub-stages and the SDS, the recommendation is a
publication with a formal recommendation. Nacho Valenzuela-Ríos
stressed that a defined stratotype was required. It was agreed that
Pierre Bultynck, Sofie Gouwy, Thomas
Becker
, Sarah Aboussalam, and
others should publish accounts of the Givetian sub-stages including the
regional reference section to show that the procedure works. These
should be published together, probably in Episodes,
as a series of short papers, although yet to be ratified by the ICS. The
papers should be sent as formal substage proposals to ICS, awaiting a
decision on their procedures (which are now unclear for several years).
Tatiana Koren emphasized
that we must do sub-stages. The Silurian subdivision was created in the
1960’s. We now recognize that the Silurian stages are sub-stages and
that the current British series become the true stages.
5.
Devonian Substages
5.1
Pragian and Emsian sub-stages
There
had been no progress on Emsian sub-stages. But some progress had been
made on the Daleje Event in
Morocco
. There was some discussion about the Lower and Upper Emsian. A nowakiid
monograph was in preparation but progress was slow. Jiří Frýda
reported that it would still take some time and would not be finished
this year. Stanislava Berkyová
had been doing some work on the conodonts and tentaculitids. Jiří Frýda
was leading a task group on this boundary.
Pierre Bultynck noted that the
La Grange
nowakiids were published but there were still problems in the upper part
with Polygnathus gilberti.
There was a lack of ongoing dacryoconarid work.
Nacho
Valenzuela-Ríos had been studying the Lower-Upper Emsian
boundary and studied several tons of limestone. The collections included
P. gilberti in the late laticostatus-inversus Zone and several new taxa. The conodonts were important for
a future definition and the papers should include new data from the
Pyrenees
and a report on the dacryoconarids by Eberhard Schindler.
5.2
Eifelian sub-stages
Again
there was only limited discussion. Carl
Brett
noted the base kockelianus
Stoney Hollow Event and this was now recognised as an important eustatic
signal. However, we should define Eifelian sub-stages last.
5.3
Givetian and Frasnian
These
were covered by the decision to publish in Episodes.
We needed an additional hermanni
Zone section from
America
. Jeff
Over
reported that there was no new information on the Frasnian substages.
Nacho Valenzuela-Ríos noted that the Givetian subdivision worked well in the
Pyrenees
.
5.4
Famennian
We
can now propose a vote on the sub-division of the Uppermost Famennian.
The
Nevada
volume with the new data by Kaiser et al. has been published (Palaeontographica
Americana). In addition Sven Hartenfels
had submitted his PhD thesis on the middle/upper Famennian which
totalled 400 pp. and numerous plates. However, the conodonts (almost
80,000 Pa elements) were not so helpful for the definition of an
Upper Famennian
base. It was suggested that the base of the Annulata
Event should be used for the mid-upper Famennian boundary. Scaphignathus velifer velifer and Palmatolepis rugosa trachytera range into the first shale (or black
limestone) but not the Upper Annulata
Event layer. However, many sections only contained a single shale. So,
the onset of the black shale was important. This was known from
Australia
, South China,
Iran
,
Morocco
and Europe (Carnic Alps,
Bulgaria
). This definition used a physical event (with ammonoids) so we needed
to think about it. Nacho Valenzuela-Ríos
was concerned about the lack of conodonts.
The
Uppermost Famennian vote would be held shortly. The Lower-Middle
Famennian would also be voted on, choosing between the base of the rhomboidea
(as recommended by Maurice
Streel
) and base of the marginifera
Zone (proposals by Thomas Becker,
Willi Ziegler, Charlie Sandberg,
etc.).
6.
SDS Publications
The
Nevada
volume was now out, including the fieldguide on CD.
There
was the new IGCP publication edited by Peter Konigshof
on Devonian Change. This was supported by the SDS and had been
published by the Geological Society of London (Special Publication 314).
Also
from the IGCP 497/499 meeting in
Frankfurt
there was a special volume of Gondwana
Research (volume 17) on The Rheic Ocean: Palaeozoic
Evolution from Gondwana and Laurussia to Pangaea edited by
Damian Nance.
Carl
Brett
gave an update on the SDS Palaeo3 volumes. It had been held
up by two late contributions but was now with Fred Kop
at Elsevier. The first volume would go to into the journal next month.
It should have a 2010 date, at least as electronic pre-print.
Contributions were still required for the second volume.
There
will be a Memoirs of the
Australasian Palaeontologists Memoir 39 (Siluro-Devonian Studies 1, Editor: D.J Holloway & J.R Laurie),
to be published in July/August. It includes an Uzbekistan Lower/Middle
Devonian trilobite paper in memory of E.A. Yolkin
(Owens et al.)..
The
GTS 2012 was forthcoming.
There
was some discussion about a volume from the SDS session at the London
IPC3. Possible places to publish included Neues
Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Bulletin
of Geoscience, Acta
Palaeontologica Polonica, Palaeo3 and as a Geological
Society of London Special Publication. A show of hands showed that
there might be 10 manuscripts. A deadline was set for the end of 2011.
7. Future
Meetings
Future
meeting with SDS contributions include:
The
2010 meeting in
France
as part of the 4th Congress of Stratigraphy, August 13th-September
2rd. This included Palaeozoic stratigraphy, palaeogeography
and climate. Contributions were to be sent to Bruno Granier.
There
was to be a German SDS session at the October 2010 GeoDarmstadt meeting
in
Germany
.
IGCP
580 Application of Magnetic
Susceptibility on Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks have a November
meeting in
South China
including a 4-5 day fieldtrip. There was a link to this on the SDS
webpage.
In
September 2010 there will be a meeting on biostratigraphic events in
La Plata
City
as part of the 10th Argentinian Congress on Biostratigraphy
and Palaeontology.
In
2011 we have the main SDS meeting in the Urals,
Novosibirsk
(conference), Salair and the Kuznetsk. The first circular was on the SDS
website. Nadia Izokh
reported that an email circular had also been sent out. This would be a
meeting in memory of Evgeny A.
Yolkin
and would also include some Carboniferous.
In
2011 there was the 8th Baltic Stratigraphy Conference in
Riga
at the end of August. This would last for 10 days, including a Devonian
fieldtrip.
In
2012 there will be the IGC in
Brisbane
,
Australia
. A symposium on the “Devonian of Asia and
Australia
” has been formerly proposed to the organizers by the Chair. There
were possible Devonian fieldtrips to East Australia and the South-east
Asian Devonian in
Thailand
. It was reported that
Norman Savage
was leading an informal trip in November (1st-5th)
of 2010 to
Thailand
. There was brief discussion of a more formal SDS meeting in
Thailand
for later years, possibly in connection with a new Devonian IGCP.
For
the 2013 meeting we were invited back to
Morocco
by Ahmed El Hassani. This
would be a joint Devonian and Carboniferous meeting in spring, with 5
days of fieldwork in
SE Morocco
, concentrating on new sections that were not visited during previous
meetings. We would meet in a Tafilalt hotel. Subsequently, visits to the
Devonian and Lower Carboniferous would follow, involving the
Carboniferous group of A. Aretz and H.G. Herbig.
Also
in 2013 the ICOS meeting would be in
Mendoza
,
Argentina
. It would be in July with pre and post field excursions to
San Juan
and
Salta
. Maria Cristina
Perri
was one of the organisers.
Then
in 2014 we had the IPC4, venue yet to be decided.
9. SDS
Membership
9.1 New
CM’s
The
following new CM’s were elected.
Thomas
Suttner (conodonts, reefs),
Austria
, proposed by R.T. Becker & E.
Schindler
Petr
Budil (trilobites and the
Kacak Event),
Czech
Republic
, proposed by J. Hladil and
R.T. Becker
Irina Evdokimova
(ostracodes), Russia, proposed by V. Tsyganko
& T. Koren
Elena
Sokiran (brachiopods),
Russia
, proposed
by V. Tsyganko & T. Koren
Olga Artyuskova
(conodonts), Ufa, Russia, proposed by N. Izokh
& R.T. Becker
David
Johnston (conodonts), western
Canada
, proposed by R.T. Becker &. J
Over
9.2
New TM’s
TM’s
are only elected at IGC’s. The Chair reminded SDS members that he had
done the maximum of two terms and he was required to step down in
Brisbane
. An election would be held with senior SDS members accepting voting
proposals and counting the votes. The term of the Vice Chairman will
also end in 2012. The new Chairman will pick a secretary.
8.
Financial Report (this item was taken out of order)
INCOME
carried
over from 2009
356 $
IUGS subvention 2010
2000 $
(including an extra allocation
by the ICS Chair)
Sum
2356 $
EXPENSES
SDS
Newsletter 26, printing/mailing
500 $
Support
for three members to attend IPC3
(SDS
Business Meeting, Devonian Symposium and D/C Boundary Meeting)
1400 $
Sum
1900 $
balance
early 2011
456 $
We
had to report that we had supported Kim
from
Uzbekistan
to attend the London IPC3. But he had been refused a visa. This was
despite the best efforts of the IPC3 organising committee and Thomas
Becker
.
10.
AOB
Carl
Brett
gave thanks to the Secretary for organizing the spectacular trip to
Orkney (and
Scotland
) this was despite the complete lack in invertebrate fossils.
The
meeting closed at ~11:20 for a short break before the Task
Group D-C boundary meeting.
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