CPS at the 9th European Palaeobotanical Palynological Conference (EPPC)

The University of Padova was hosting the 9th EPPC in late August.

Approximately 450 participants from 43 different countries experienced interesting days at an extremely well organized conference in this beautiful medieval city.

The opening ceremony took place in the old University Building, dating back to the 13th century, in the famous Aula Magna, where also Galileo Galilei and Copernicus used to have their lectures. Absolutely, a special feeling to be there!

The welcome cocktail reception in the Historical Botanical Garden, and the social dinner at the spectacular Caffè Pedrocchi were other very pleasant and unforgettable events.

The Palaeontolgical Museum, where the impressive Eocene fossil records of plants and animals from the Bolca locality are exhibited, were also visited by many conference members.

A wide variety of palynological and palaeobotanical topics, ranging from Paleozoic to Recent, were presented by talks and posters. Excursions to localities covering Quaternary, Eocene, Triassic and Permian, were arranged.

18 CPS members from Scandinavia and Iceland attended the conference. Presentations given by members are listed below. Among these is the 2014 recipient of CPS scholarship, Johannes Bouchal:

Bouchal, Johannes M. A preliminary report on a combined method study of the palynoflora of the Miocene Yatagan basin, Turkey.

Bouchal, Johannes M. and Denk, Thomas. An overview of the palynoflora of the Miocene Yatagan basin, Turkey, light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy.

Friis, Else Marie, Pedersen, Kaj Raunsgaardand Marone, Frederica. High resolution synchrotron based X-ray tomographic microscopy (SRXTM) in the study of fossil megaspores.

Friis, Else Marie, Pedersen, Kaj Raunsgaard and Crane, Peter R. Clamydospermous seeds and early angiosperms.

Bodor, Emese R., Friis, Else Marie and Barbacka, Maria. The taxonomic affinity of genus Padrakultia Knoboch et Mai.

Grímsson, Friðgeir, Zetter, Reinhard, Pedersen, Gunver Krarup, Pedersen, Asger Ken and Denk, Thomas. Middle Eocene palynoflora from a resinite-rich coal bed on Hareøen (Qeqertarsuatsiaq) West Greenland.

Grímsson, Friðgeir, Zetter, Reinhard and Denk, Thomas. Revisions of the early Cenozoic macrofloras from West Greenland reveal the actual age and floral elements of Oswald Heer’s (1868-1883) classic Upper Atanikerluk "Miocene" floras.

Grímsson, Friðgeir, Højgaard, Bartal, Hofmann, Christa-Charlotte, Pott, Christian, Grimm, Guido, Fridgeirsson, Grimur R., Denk, Thomas and Zetter, Reinhard. Revisiting the late Paleocene Mykines macrofossil site, Feroe Islands.

Beck, Louise, Rasmussen, Jan Audun and Grímsson, Friðgeir. Unravelling the Macclintockia species complex in the Paleocene of West Greenland.

Beck, Louise, Rasmussen, Jan Audun and Grímsson, Friðgeir. Preliminary study on the early Eocene Macclintockia leaf fossils from Fur, Denmark.

Denk, Thomas, Grímsson, Friðgeir and Zetter, Reinhard. Origins of the north-temperate tree flora: Revisiting Engler’s concept of the Arcto-Tertiary element.

Kuosmanen, Niina, Fang, Keyan, Reitalu, Triin, Clear, Jennifer L., Bradshaw, Richard H.W. and Seppä, Heikki. Predictors of long-term stand-scale dynamics in taiga forest of NW Russia.

Kürschner, Wolfram. Palaeopolyploidy in fossil plants: Evidence from Early Jurassic pollen tetrad and pollen size analysis.

Mueller, Steven and Kürschner, Wolfram. Integrated Magneto-Carbon isotope and quantitative palynostratigraphy of the Upper Triassic Kapp Toscana Group on Spitsbergen, Norway.

Lopes, Gilda, Pereira, Zelia, Picarra, Jose Manuel and Fernandes, Paulo. New Ordovician palynostratigraphic data of the Phyllodocites Shales Formation, Barrancos Region, Ossa Morena Zone, Portugal.

Lopes, Gilda, Pereira, Zelia, Picarra, Jose Manuel, Fernandes, Paulo and Marques, Jodo. Palynostratigraphic study of Lower Karoo rocks in the Moatize-Minjova Coal Basin, Mosambique. Preliminary results.

Mangerud, Gunn, Paterson, Niall W., Mørk, Atle, Cetean, Claudia and Mørkved, Pål T. A multidisciplinary approach to the Upper Triassic succession on Hopen, Arctic Norway.

Paterson, Niall W., Mangerud, Gunn, Lundschien, Bjørn A. and Mørk, Atle. Late Triassic (Carnian) palynostratigraphy of a shallow stratigraphic core, offshore Kong Karls Land, Northern Barents sea, Norwegian Arctic.

Pott, Christian, Grímsson, Friðgeir, Zetter, Reinhard and Tekleva, Maria. Cycas-like pollen from the Eocene of West Greenland.

Pott, Christian, Grímsson, Friðgeir, Højgaard, Bartal, Hofmann, Christa-Charlotte, Grimm, Guido, Fridgeirsson, Grimur R. and Denk, Thomas. First Ginkgo leaf from the Feroe Islands.

Pott, Christian and McLoughlin, Stephen. Divaricate growth habit in Williamsoniaceae (Benetittales): Unravelling the ecology of a key Mesozoic plant group.

Launis, Ahti and Pott, Christian. New plant fossils from the Upper Triassic of Hopen, Svalbard.

Seppä, Heikki, Fang, Keyan, Morris, Jesse L., Salonen, J. Sakari, Miller, Paul A., Renssen H. and Sykes, Martin S. How robust are Holocene treeline simulations? A model-data comparison in the European Arctic treeline region.

Clair, Jennifer, Bradshaw, Richard H. W. and Seppä, Heikki. Spatio-temporal variability in fire and vegetation dynamics in Fennoscandia.

Li, Jianyong, Zhao, Yan, Xu, Qinghai, Zheng, Zhuo, Lu, Honyuan, Luo, Yunli, Li, Yuecong, Li, Chunhai and Seppä, Heikki. Human influence as a potential source of bias in pollen-based quantitative climate reconstructions.

Vajda, Vivi, Badawy, Ahmed and Mehlquist, Kristina. Greening of Baltica – Late Ordovician spore assemblages from Sweden.

Vajda, Vivi, Raine, J. Ian and Prior, Christine. Carbon isotope anomaly across the New Zealand terrestrial Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary revealing disruption.

Bomfleur, Benjamin, Vajda, Vivi and McLoughlin, Stephen. The spectacular preservation and manifold impacts of a Jurassic royal-fern rhizome "frozen" in hydrothermal calcite.

McLoughlin, Stephen, Bomfleur, Benjamin and Mörs, Thomas. Clitellate
annelid cocoons as a fossilization medium for micro-organisms.

Wappler, Torsten, Grímsson, Friðgeir and Denk, Thomas. Patterns of plant-insect associations from the Miocene of Iceland.

Solounias, Nikos and Denk, Thomas. The late Miocene "hipparion faunas" were different from present ecologies.

Güner, H. Tuncay and Denk, Thomas. Middle Miocene floras and vegetation of the Yatağan Basin, Western Turkey.

Denk, Thomas and Solounias, Nikos. The vegetation of the Central Indian
Highlands: Modern analogue for the Pikermian biome?

During the conference, at 28th August, CPS arranged a member’s meeting in the Department of Geosciences of the University of Padova. GRANA editors that are not CPS members, were invited. 18 members attended the meeting. Ordinary Collegium matters and status for the journal GRANA were the main issues. The meeting minutes can be downloaded here.

The meeting was finished off in a nearby, nice tapas bar, Las Ramblas, with excellent food and drinks and time for the members to get better acquainted.