Spring Meeting 2010 11-14th June, Isle of Skye Field Meeting (Organisers: Dave Horne and Alan Lord) The aim is to visit localities for: - Jurassic marine and nonmarine ostracods (as featured in PhD research by Robin Whatley and Matt Wakefield) - Living marine and nonmarine ostracods (based on as-yet unpublished work by Dave Horne) - Spectacular scenery (the Cuillins, the Quirang etc.) - The Talisker Distillery This "Spring" meeting is scheduled later than usual due to the need to coincide with good low tide times for access to coastal localities.   The heart of the Cuillin from the Elgol foreshore. The cliff in the foreground is the Valtos Sst Fm. part of the Great Estuarine Group (Bathonian). Please send notification of planned attendance, and any queries, to Dave Horne. Outline schedule: Friday 11th June: arrive at Kyle Hotel, Kyle of Lochalsh. Saturday 12th June: Field excursion, Isle of Skye. Sunday 13th June: Field Excursion, Isle of Skye. Monday 14th June: end of meeting - departures (for those interested, however, there is the option to join an exploratory trip to the island of Raasay (essentially for Jurassic nonmarine ostracods) on the Monday, necessitating an extra night's stay at the hotel and departure on Tuesday 15th). Further details of the itinerary will be circulated in due course. Accommodation: Kyle Hotel, Main Streeet, Kyle of Lochalsh, Ross-shire, Scotland IV40 8AB They have agreed to give us a group booking rate of £40 per person per night for B&B (this representing a 20% discount on their normal rate). Please make your own arrangements directly with the hotel; tell them you are with the TMS group and remind them that according to Dave Horne they have agreed the above-mentioned discount rate. They can be reached by email or phone (+44 (0)1599 534 204). The hotel is conveniently situated close to the mainland end of the Skye Bridge for access to the Isle of Skye, and is just a few minutes walk from the railway station for anyone who wishes to travel by rail from or via Inverness. When we know more about who is coming and by what mode of transport, we will consider whether we can make do with private cars or, if necessary, hire a minibus locally for the field trips. Report on the 16th  International Symposium on Ostracoda (ISO 16): Biostratigraphy and Applied Ecology The Sixteenth International Symposium on Ostracoda (ISO 16), organized in Brasilia on 'Biostratigraphy and Applied Ecology " by Professor Dermeval A Do Carmo University of Brasilia was held from July 26 to 30. This Congress was sponsored by the IRGO (International Research Group on Ostracoda), PETROBRAS and the Brazilian Paleontological Society. About a hundred experts attended the meeting, from 23 countries: Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belorussia, Belgium, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Great-Britain, India, Italia, Japan, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United States. Presentations and posters, numbering 101, including 4 invited conferences were divided in 8 sessions! Biology, Morphology and Morphogenesis (8), Biogeography and Paleobiogeography (18), Biostratigraphy (7), Freshwater Ecology and Environmental Reconstructions (174), Marine Ecology and Environmental Reconstructions (7), Paleolimnology and Paleoclimates (6), Paleoceanography and Paleoclimates (6), Systematics and Evolution (32). The 4 invited lectures were presented by K. Martens, Belgium (Zoogeography on non-marine Ostracoda), R. Matzke-Karasz, Germany (Synchrotron holotomography ostracods in research - an assessment of prospects and limits), J.-P. Colin, France (Marine ostracods at the K / T boundary: state of knowledge) and J. Salas, Argentina (Diversity Patterns of Ordovician ostracods from Argentina). The prize for best oral delivery for students (Sylvester-Bradley award) went to Laurent Decrouy Lawrence (University of Lausanne, Switzerland) for his brilliant presentation "Controlling factors valve geochemistry of ostracods: insights from analysis of live species in Lake Geneva (Switzerland). It must however be noted that although the year 2009 be the Year of France in Brazil, only 2 representatives of our countries attended this international event (including one whose travel and subsistence was paid by Brazil – guess who!,  the other an unemployed enthusiastic post-doc who paid from his own pocket!). Oral presentations will be published after approval in a special issue of the journal Hydrobiologia In addition to the oral sessions and poster presentations, participants have visited the city of Brasilia, capital of Brazil, the work of architect Oscar Niemeyer and urban planner Lucio Costa, which will turn 50 in 2010. A workshop entitled "Procedures in micropaleontologic curatorship" was also organized by G. Miller the Natural History Museum in London. In replacement of Koen Martens whose term expired, Renate Matzke-Karasz was elected new president until the next Congress IRGO (ISO 17) to be held in Rome in 2013 and is organized by Elsa Gliozzi University of Rome (Italy). Jean-Paul Colin Spring Meeting 2009 25-26th April Update: The abstract submission deadline has been extended to 30th March. The Ostracod Group will hold its Spring Meeting in 2009 (Darwin Year) at Down House in Kent, the former home of Charles Darwin which re-opens to the public in February following extensive conservation and restoration work. The meeting, on the theme "Ostracods and Evolution", will take place on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th April. The organisers are Dave Horne (Queen Mary University of London) and John Whittaker (The Natural History Museum). The provisional schedule is as follows: Saturday 25th April: 10.00. Meet at Down House.  10.15 - 12.15. Multimedia tour of the house and gardens (public access). 12.15 - 13.00. Light lunch in the Tea Room at Down House. 13.00 - 17.00. Private meeting in the Board Room of Down House: talks on the theme of "Ostracods and Evolution". Sunday 26th April: Field trip to Lower Thames interglacial sites, with a focus on the theme of "Ostracods and Human Evolution", considering the occupation of Britain by hominids (Homo heidelbergensis, H. neanderthalensis and H. sapiens) and what ostracods tell us about the environments and climates in which they lived. The main site will be the SSSI in Greenlands Pit at Purfleet (MIS 9), featured in a new multi-proxy study (Bridgland et al. in press) but may include visits to other key sites such as Swanscombe (MIS 11) and Aveley (MIS 7). Accommodation will be arranged at a convenient location, with the option of (1) Friday and Saturday night or (2) Saturday night only; further details will be circulated to those who have expressed interest in the meeting and will also be posted on TMS website.   Due to the small size of the Board Room and its hire cost the meeting will be limited to a maximum of 25 participants and a registration fee of £10 per person will be charged (but this includes the multimedia tour, for which the normal charge for an adult is £9). Expressions of interest and offers of talks (with a title and a short abstract) should be submitted 30th March to Dave Horne.  This is a fantastic opportunity to participate in a scientific meeting at a unique venue! Archive meeting reports Reports from previous Ostracod Group meetings and International Ostracod meetings. More >> Ostracod related WWW links More >>