The Micropalaeontological Society 50th Anniversary Conference 2020


21st Century Micropalaeontology

Online from University College London
10th-13th November 2020


Time zone - all times are given using UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). In winter UK time is exactly the same as UTC, while time most of Europe is 1 hour ahead (e.g. 13.00 UTC will be 14.00 in France).
Changes - almost certainly there will be minor changes to the programme, please check here on the day if you need to know the exact schedule.
Using this page - Click on talk titles to view the abstract in a pop-up box. Right-click or ctrl-click to view the abstract in a new window, or to download the PDF. Click session title to join a zoom session at the time it is live.
Q&A - we are taking questions from talks through the Q&A feature of zoom webinars. Where there are more questions than can be answered in the time we will try to get written answers posted here, as an extra item after the talk title (NB This requires some work from both the speaker and the web team so there will probably be at least a 24hour delay).

Tuesday 10th November - Workshop 07.00-18.30

A workshop on Microfossil Geochemistry is being organised in association with the conference. Please see the workshop page for details. NB Separate registration is needed for this event.

Wednesday 11th November

Session A - keynote talks: 13.45-16.00

Chairs: Jonathan Holmes, Jeremy Young. 30 minute presentations (25 minutes talk + 5 mins questions/changeover)
13.45 Organising committee,
Jennifer Pike (TMS President)
Welcome and explanation of procedures
14.00 Ann Holbourn
Kiel University, Germany
Reconstructing Neogene climate from a benthic foraminiferal perspective Q&A video
14.30 Pincelli M. Hull
Yale University, USA
Protists in protean seas video
15.00 Samantha Gibbs
Southampton University, UK
Surviving impact winters and reconquering the oceans: Tales from ancient coccolithophores video
15.30Jakub Witkowski
University of Szczecin, Poland
What next for Palaeogene diatoms? Lessons from the North Atlantic. video

Annual General Meeting of the TMS, and party 16.30-18.30

16.30 Jennifer Pike (President)
Phil Jardine (Secretary)
other members of the committee
Society AGM
  • President's introduction
  • Officer's reports
  • Election of new officers
  • Presentation of Awards video
18.00 Virtual Party (bring your own drink)

Thursday 12th November

Session B - keynote talks: 10.00-12.00 am

Chairs: Paul Bown, Claire Routledge. 30 minute presentations (25 minutes talk + 5 mins questions/changeover)
10.00 Charles Wellman
University of Sheffield, UK
Spores, Evo-Devo and the nature of the first land plants. Q&A video
10.30 Francesca Sangiorgi
Utrecht University, NL
Dinoflagellates and their cysts: Exploring new avenues in paleoclimate research and (past) harmful blooms.Q&A video
11.00Isa Schoen & K. Martens
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
Molecules and fossils - how DNA data contributes to our knowledge of ostracod evolution and history Q&A video
11.30 Noritoshi Suzuki
Tohoku University, Japan
Revising Radiolarian systematics: Combining traditional and integrative taxonomy with molecular phylogenetic analysis video

Session C - open session: 14.00-16.30

Chairs: Paul Minton, Claire Routledge. 15 minute presentations (10minutes talk + 5 mins questions/changeover)
14.00Isabel Fenton et al.
Univ. of Oxford, UK
Triton: a new database of Cenozoic Planktonic Foraminifera
14.15Adam D. Woodhouse et al.
Univ. of Leeds, UK
Adaptive ecological niche migration does not negate extinction susceptibility
14.30Victory Jaques & K. Holcová
Charles Uinv., Prague, Czech Rep.
Calcareous nannofossil assemblages for provenance analysis in cultural heritage painting preparation layers
14.45Siyumini Perera & J.C. Aitchison
Univ of Queensland, Australia
Late Sandbian (Sa2) radiolarians from the Pingliang Formation, Guanzhuang, Gansu Province, China
15.00Tobias Agterhuis et al.
Utrecht Univ, The Netherlands
Deep-sea temperatures across two early Eocene hyperthermals based on clumped isotopes
15.15Sofía Barragán Montilla et al.
Univ of Colombia, Bogota
Paleoenvironmental interpretation of late Oligocene deposits of the Guajira Peninsula (Colombia): integrated methodology using quantitative and qualitative benthic foraminifera analysis.
15.30Nazim Deori et al.
Kachchh University, Gujarat, India
Calcareous and organic-walled microfossil records from the Middle Eocene, Kutch Basin, Western India: An approach to develop high-resolution biostratigraphy and reconstruct palaeodepositional environment
15.45Alessio Fabbrini et al.
University College London, UK
Preliminary cyclostratigraphy on planktonic foraminifera from IODP-Hole U1406A
16.00Anieke Brombacher et al.
Univ of Southampton, UK
Does developmental plasticity influence speciation? Using high-resolution CT scanning to quantify ontogenetic trajectories in planktonic foraminifera before, during and after speciation.
16.15Thomas Fogerty
Birmingham Univ. UK
The Nannofossil biostratigraphy and palaeoecological trends across the Cenomanian–Turonian boundary of the Hart Lane Borehole, Bedfordshire, UK.

Friday 13th November

Poster Session 11.00-12.00

An opportunity for presenters of posters to introduce their work via flash talks - 2 minute/1 slide presentations. NB Viewing and commenting on posters will be possible throughout the conference, but this session will allow extra online highlighting of the posters.
Chairs: Paul Bown, Jeremy Young

Session D - open session: 14.00-16.30

Chairs: Alessio Fabbrini, Marcin Latas 15 minute presentations (10minutes talk + 5 mins questions/changeover)
14.00Catia F. Barbosa et al.
Univ. Federal Fluminense, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Cibicides pseudoungerianus surface pore area as a proxy to paleo-oxygen access.
14.15Matthew Chadwick et al.
British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK
Reconstructing Antarctic winter sea-ice extent during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5e
14.30Marta Marchegiano et al.
Vrije Univ, Brussels, Belgium
Rapid Late Pleistocene climate change reconstructed from a lacustrine ostracod record in central Italy (Lake Trasimeno, Umbria)
14.45Giulia Barbieri et al.
Bologna Univ., Italy
The distinct palaeoecological record of shallow marine benthic Ostracods and Foraminifers: Insights from the Holocene of the North Adriatic
15.00Peter Kiss et al.
Comenius Univ. Bratislava, Slovakia
Mechanisms modulating the temporal variability of the planktonic foraminifera calcite flux across Termination I in the tropical Atlantic
15.15Sneha Manda et al.
Ben Gurion Univ., Beer Sheva, Israel
Macroalgal habitat preference of benthic foraminifera: implications for future warming
15.30Aishah Norashikin Abdul A’ziz et al.
Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Malaysia
Reef Foraminifera as Bioindicators of Coral Reef Health in Pulau Tioman, Pahang.
15.45Lucy R. Roberts et al.
Univ. of Nottingham, UK
Improved understanding of Cyprideis torosa (Crustacea, Ostracoda) seasonal calcification using Mg/Ca-inferred temperatures
16.00Allyson Viganò et al.
Università di Padova, Italy
The Eocene-Oligocene Transition at Site U1509 (IODP Exp. 371): calcareous nannofossil biochronology and paleoclimatic evolution
16.15Danna Titelboim et al.
Univ. of Bristol, UK
Heat stress indications in the shells of benthic foraminifera – Insights from a thermally polluted field laboratory
16.30Jenny Pike, Jeremy YoungClosing comments - a few thank yous and comments on how the meeting went. If you have any announcements you want to make please contact one of us, ideally in advance, but we will watch out for anyone trying to get our attention via chat

Chill out: 17.00-a bit later

Normally with a meeting in UCL we would announce at this stage that if anyone wanted to join us in the pub we would be going to the Jeremy Bentham (which also has nice quiet outside tables and does serve non-alcoholic drinks). As an alternative we have set up a zoom meeting. So if want a bit more informal chat with your friends you are very welcome to join us there - and if you want a breakout room for a group we will be able to do that too.

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