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31
May

Microfossil Image Competition 2018

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Entries are now closed, thank you to everyone who submitted fantastic fossil images!

2018 will be the fourth year The Micropalaeontological Society runs their Microfossil Image Competition. The outstanding success of the last three years is reflected by the creation of our annual Micropalaeontology Calendar! Each year, the calendars have required two print runs and have sold out! A summary of the winning images can be found here (2014, 2015 2016, 2017), whilst a Flickr archive of all submitted images can be found here. Read more

24
Oct

Microfossil Image Competition & Calendar 2018

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Buy a Calendar

The Micropalaeontological Society is delighted to announce the winner of this year’s Micropalaeontology Image Competition!

The overall image winner was submitted by Adam David Woodhouse from the University of Leeds, with his beautiful image of the planktonic foraminifera Acarinina praetopilensis from the Eocene equatorial Pacific. The image clearly displays the heavy recrystallistion of the foram test and the adherence of calcareous nannofossils with large muricae projecting through coccolith debris. The main image diameter c. 150 µm, and the image to be used within the calendar (August) will include an image of the complete foram (c. 400 µm diameter) for context. Not only does Adam win the competition’s first prize of €200, but also has his image included on the front cover of out TMSoc2018 Calendar (see above)!

On behalf of the Society we would like to congratulate Adam on his success. Eleven additional winners were selected from the fantastic submissions, and are on display below! A wide variety of microfossils and imaging techniques have been championed this year, and we are already looking forward to next year’s competition. Read more

28
Jun

Lyell Meeting 2018: Mass extinctions, 8th March 2018, London

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The study of mass extinctions is one of the most interdisciplinary research areas within Earth and environmental sciences. Recent, major advances have come from a broad spectrum of fields, including atmospheric modelling, high-precision age dating, volcanology, geochemistry, stratigraphy and palaeontology.

The 2018 Lyell Meeting aims to highlight these achievements and showcases the improved understanding we now have of the great environmental catastrophes of the past. The Meeting aims to encompass the full spectrum of crises seen in the Phanerozoic fossil record.

The 2018 Lyell Meeting provides a platform to assess the current stratigraphic and geochemical records of environmental change during mass extinction events and the role of atmospheric climate modelling in understanding the causes of the crises. The goal is to evaluate the relative importance of environmental changes in major episodes of species extinctions, and to further explore the mechanisms that link these proximal kill mechanisms to the ultimate drivers, such as large igneous province eruptions and meteorite impacts.

This will be a rare opportunity to hear research developments happening in diverse disciplines applied to all mass extinction events.

Abstract deadline: 1st December 2017

More info at The Geological Society webpage

 

27
Jun

Change of Journal Publisher (Copernicus Publications)

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We are delighted to announce The Micropalaeontological Society has signed a new deal with Copernicus Publications (http://publications.copernicus.org) to publish the Journal of Micropalaeontology (JoM). After many fantastic years with the Geological Society Publishing House (GSPH), the Society’s contract with GSPH was due for renewal at the end of 2017 and through negotiations with a number of potential publishers (including GSPH) we aimed to increase Open Access publishing. After considerable discussions the committee decided that Copernicus would be our first choice as publisher of JoM from 1st January 2018 onwards, for a three-year period in the first instance. This means that JoM is now the first entirely Open Access journal in micropalaeontology. This arrangement does not affect our agreement with GSPH for the delivery of TMS Special Publications. The new platform is now set up within the Copernicus website and can be viewed here:

http://journal-of-micropalaeontology.net/index.html

Manuscript submission is now open, and we have developed a promotion for authors without funding that will start in 2018 (see below)!

There is a lot of information to disseminate that relates to: (1) how the new journal approach differs to GSPH, and (2) how this new model will be of benefit to TMS members and indeed our micropalaeontology community as a whole. Here, we will try and summarise many of the key changes that will result from this new contract with Copernicus. In addition, there is a pdf of ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ (FAQ’s), attached to this email.

More information and FAQ download:

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Change of Publisher FAQ 150.50 KB
23
Jun

Microfossil Image Competition 2017

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Image Comp Poster 2017

2017 will be the third year The Micropalaeontological Society runs their Microfossil Image Competition. The outstanding success of the last two years is reflected by the creation of our 2015, 2016 and 2017 Micropalaeontology Calendars. Each year, the calendars have required two print runs and have sold out! A summary of the winning images can be found here (2014, 2015 2016), whilst a Flickr archive of all submitted images can be found here. Read more

21
Oct

Microfossil Image Competition & Calendar 2017

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0-calendar-cover-2017

 

Buy a Calendar

View all image entries in our Flickr album.

The Micropalaeontological Society is delighted to announce the winner of this year’s Micropalaeontology Image Competition!

Maxence Delaine, Lille 1 University, France won the competition with this beautiful image of two testate amoebae:  Difflugia pyriformis (L), Difflugia viscidula (R). These testate amoebae on display typically have a length of between 150-300 µm and are built by the organism using recycled mineral grains. The specimens were sampled in a small river of Brittany (Rau de l’étang du Loc’h, Peumerit-Quintin, France). The winning image is a composition of 2 pictures obtained with the SEM of the Laboratoire d’Océanologie et de Géosciences (UMR 8187) at Lille 1 University. The 2 pictures were subsequently combined into a single one, which was then processed in order to obtain this final colour enhanced SEM picture. Read more

21
Oct

Microfossil Image Competition 2016 – View album on Flickr

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All of the fantastic entries into the Microfossil Image Competition & Calendar 2017 can be viewed here, and are also available on Flickr.

Please do not use these images without the authors permission. If you are interested in obtaining high resolution versions of any image please contact the Secretary, who will direct your enquiry to the appropriate person.

Read more

04
Oct

Lyell Meeting 2017: Sticking Together: microbes and their role in forming sediments, 7th March 2017, London

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At The Geological Society, Burlington House

Sedimentology and geomorphology have traditionally been seen as fields in which physical, and sometimes chemical, processes dominate completely. Even in settings where biological processes have long been recognised, for example in marine carbonates, focus has been almost entirely on metazoans. This is curious, because microbial communities since the Pre-Cambrian, have suffused all sedimentary environments on Earth, and at least half global biomass is prokaryotic. Are all these microbes simply bystanders? Recent research has hinted that they are key agents in controlling an impressive range of processes and products in sedimentology, bringing the fields of microbe palaeontology and bio-sedimentology into intimate alignment. The implications are fundamental, and pose the question “are large-scale sedimentological features actually microbial trace fossils?”. Read more

10
Jun

Microfossil Image Competition 2016

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microfossil image competition 2016

2016 will be the third year The Micropalaeontological Society runs their Microfossil Image Competition. The outstanding success of the last two years is reflected by the creation of our 2015 and 2016 Micropalaeontology Calendars. Each year, the calendars have required two print runs and have sold out! A summary of the winning images can be found here (2014, 2015), whilst a Flickr archive of all submitted images can be found here. Read more

25
May

Quaternary Palaeoecology Advanced Training Short Course, 23rd-27th January 2017, London

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The NERC-funded Quaternary Palaeoecology Advanced Training Short Course (ATSC) will be running for its third year and is scheduled for w/c 23rd January 2017 at The Natural History Museum, London.

Reconstructing past environments is a key initiative within current attempts to i) contextualise contemporary environmental change, ii) model the Earth’s climate and iii) predict future climate and associated environmental change. Palaeoenvironmental research is of critical importance due to the relative lack of reliable documented climate records predating the 20th century. This has resulted in the use of biological climate ‘proxies’, often microfossils preserved within sedimentary archives, to provide qualitative and quantitative reconstructions of the past, in terms of climate and environmental conditions. As students are expected to work with complex multi-source palaeoecological datasets, there is a need for palaeoecologists to be suitably trained in the application of a wide range of proxy indicators. This 1 week course is therefore designed to provide an overview of key taxonomic groups often utilised in palaeoecological studies, with a focus on diatoms, pollen, chironomids, beetles and vertebrates.

Each day will be dedicated to a different microfossil/macrofossil group, with morning lectures designed to review taxonomy and environmental gradients in terms of palaeoecological reconstructions. The afternoon sessions will be dedicated to the provision of bespoke laboratory microscopy and desk-based activities, with the students being introduced to relevant NHM reference collections and learn the taxonomic skills required to differentiate between species.

The course is fully funded by NERC and there are only 12 places available (the course has been oversubscribed in all previous years). The course is designed for PhD students and ECRs but is of course open to all. NERC funded students get priority but if spaces are left over, non-NERC applicants are considered. All expenses are covered to ensure little/no cost to the course delegates. For further information on the course, its contents and associated learning outcomes, please visit the link below, where you will also find the course application form: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/courses-and-students/short-course-quaternary-palaeoecology.html

Registration deadline is 26th November. For any enquiries regarding the course, please contact Tom Hill

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