 |
The building of the palaeobotany group in Münster
is currently being renovated. Construction work started in September 1999
and will probably be finished by the end of April 2000, although it is
expected that some minor things still need to done during the summer break.
The most important part of this operation is the installation of two new
laboratories (one for normal chemical work and thin section preparation,
the other for HF work), the installation of a new dark room and the renewal
of all electric installations. |
|
In January-February 2000 Hans Kerp spent two weeks in
the field in Oman to collect more Permian plants. This collecting trip
together with Jean Broutin, Sylvie Crasquin-Soleau and Martine Berthelin
(all from Paris) was most successful. |
|
At the XVIth International Botanical
Congress (Saint Louis, August 1999) Hans Kerp and Michael Krings presented
a paper entitled "New views on pteridosperms from the uppermost
Carboniferous
and Permian". All 4700 participants of this congress received a CD-ROM
Botany
online
coordinated by Alice Bergfeld, Rolf Bergmann and Peter von Sengbusch
(Hamburg).
Our History
of Palaeozoic Forests has been included in the CD version of this
internet
hypertextbook. |
|
A recently published short note
in Nature on the oldest fossil ascomycetes received broad press coverage
(1,
2),
including the Frankfurter Allgemeine (June 30, 1999). |
|
In May 1999 Hans Kerp and Hagen Hass gave a keynote
lecture
on the 26th Annual Meeting of the Arbeitskreis für Paläobotanik
und Palynologie in Tübingen. The title was: The Rhynie Chert - the
oldest and most completely preserved terrestrial ecosystem. Sunia Lausberg
presented a poster on a conifer-dominated Rotliegend flora from Alsenz,
Saar-Nahe Basin. |
|
In March 1999 Hans Kerp, Hagen Hass and Véronique
Daviero participated in a workshop on the Rhynie Chert at the University
of Aberdeen, Scotland. The famous fossil site was of course also visited,
despite the bad weather conditions.
|
|
In March 1999 Hans Kerp presented a colloquium on Rhynie
Chert at the Museum für Naturkunde of the Humboldt University in Berlin
on the occasion of the 65th Birthday of Prof. Dr. Manfred
Barthel. |
|
In January 1999 Hans Kerp gave a public lecture on the
Development of Palaeozoic forests for the Senckenbergische Naturforschende
Gesellschaft in Frankfurt am Main. A similar colloquium lecture was given
in December 1998 at the Geological Institute of the TU Bergakademie
Freiberg. |
|
In January 1999 Prof. Thomas N. Taylor spent a week in
Münster for a joint research project on fossil fungi from the Rhynie
Chert. The first results of this work have laready been published in
Nature
(see above). |
|
In January 1999 Michael Krings
left Münster for a one-year post-doc with Prof. Thomas N. Taylor in
Lawrence, Kansas. He currently works on Carboniferous cuticles from the
United States and on Triassic floras. He received a Feodor Lynen Stipend
from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Bonn. Michael will come back
to Münster in April 2000. |
|
Two foreign guests were welcomed
in Münster in October 1998: Dr. Véronique Daviero (Lyon) and
Dr. Serge Naugolnykh (Moscow). Both arrived on October 1st, 1998 for visits
of 12 respectively 3 months. They are working on Early Devonian and Permian
floras and are funded by the European Community and DAAD. |
|
In October 1998 Hans Kerp was co-convenor of a
palaeobotany
symposium at the "Geo-Berlin 98" Congress. One paper was presented: Hans
Kerp and Hagen Hass: "Pflanzen und Substrat im Unterdevon: Beispiele aus
dem Rhynie Chert, Schottland". |
|
In September 1998 Hans Kerp was convenor of a palaeobotany
symposium at the "Botanikertagung" (Deutsche Botanische Gesellschaft) in
Bremen. Two papers were presented by the Münster group: Hans Kerp
and Hagen Hass: "Der Generationswechsel der frühesten Landpflanzen"
and Michael Krings and Hans Kerp: "Fossile Kletterpflanzen - Belege und
Überlegungen über ober karbonische
Pteridospermen". |
|
Two papers were presentedin July 1998 at the 5th European
Palaeobotanical and Palynological Conference in Cracow (Poland), i.e.,
Hans Kerp and Hagen Hass: A different view on Early devonian spores - an
example from the Rhynie Chert, and Michael Krings: Hairs and glands in
Late Carboniferous pteridosperms from Blanzy-Montceau (Central
France). |
|
Miss Kate Habgood (Cardiff) stayed five weeks in
Münster
in May 1998 to study Rhynie Chert coprolites for her Ph.D. research project.
This visit was funded by DAAD. |
|
In February 1998 Michael Krings got his Ph.D. on a thesis
entitled: " Kutikularanalytische Untersuchungen an Pteridospermen aus dem
Stefan (Oberkarbon) von Blanzy-Montceau (Zentralmassiv, Frankreich)". In
September 1998 he received a Feodor Lynen-Stipend of the Alexander von
Humboldt-Foundation giving him the opportunity to work one year in Lawrence
(KS, U.S.A.) in the institute of our cooperation partner Prof. Thomas N.
Taylor. |
|
In January 1998 Hans Kerp and Hagen Hass gave a talk
on new data from the Lower Devonian Rhynie Chert with special reference
to spores and young gametophytes at a special symposium in Göttingen
on the occasion of the 65th birthday of Prof. Dr. Walter Riegel. |
|
In November 1997 Dr. Monique Feist (Montpellier) was
in Münster to study Palaeonitella from the Lower Devonian Rhynie
Chert. She returned in February 1998 for one week. |
|
In November 1997 Prof. Thomas N. Taylor (Lawrence, KS,
U.S.A.) spent a couple of days in Münster to discuss Rhynie Chert
studies. |
|
In September 1997 Hans Kerp visited Paris (Univ. Pierre
et Marie Curie) and Orléans (BRGM) to work on cuticle-bearing
material
from the Upper Stephanian of the Massif Central and on material from
Oman. |
|
In September 1997 Prof. Robert Wagner (Córdoba
) visited Münster to work with Sunia Lausberg on a joint publication
on the Permian flora of North Greenland. In November 1997 Dr. Serge
Naugolnykh
(Moscow) spent a week in Münster to contribute to this project. He
will soon be back in Münster for another three months to work on
Permian
floras with Hans Kerp. This research is funded by DAAD. |
|
On 24 September 1997 Hans Kerp and Michael Krings
presented
a paper on "Climbing and scrambling Upper Carboniferous pteridosperms:
evidence from megafossils and cuticles" at the 67th annual meeting of the
Paläontologische Gesellschaft in Daun, Germany. |
|
On 7 July 1997 Michael Krings presented a paper on the
hair cover of Neuropteris praedentata at the Symposium
"Paläobotanische
Forschung 100 Jahre nach Freiherr Constantin von Ettingshausen" (= 25th
annual meeting of the Arbeitskreis für Paläobotanik und
Palynologie)
in Graz (Austria). At the same meeting Hans Kerp gave a paper on a newly
discovered flora from the Upper Visean of Becke-Oese (northern Sauerland,
Germany). |
|
In June 1997 Lars Brinkmann finished his M.Sc. thesis
on the geology and biostratigraphy of the eastern-central Dickson Land,
Spitzbergen. The major part of his thesis deals with the palynology of
the Middle and Upper Devonian in this area. |
|
In May 1997 Anke Grewing finished her M.Sc. thesis on
the geology and biostratigraphy of the western-central Dickson Land,
Spitzbergen.
The major part of her thesis deals with the palynology of the Middle and
Upper Devonian in this area. |
|
In April 1997 Dieter Uhl (Tübingen) spent a week
in Münster to measure venation patterns of Carboniferous and Permian
seed ferns for his Ph.D. research project. |
|
On 22 March 1997 Hans Kerp gave a talk on Reconstructing
Carboniferous Forests (Rekonstruktion von Karbonwäldern) for
the "Medizinisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft - Naturwiss. Abteilung"
in Münster. |
|
In March 1997 Hans Kerp presented a paper at a Linnean
Society Meeting in London: "Palaeozoic pteridosperm cuticles: possibilities
and limitations". |
|
In February-March 1997 Hans Kerp spent a few weeks in
Oman to collect Upper Permian plant fossils in the Huqf area. This research
project is carried out within the framework of IGCP 343 Peri-Tethys. This
field party was guided by Jack Roger (BRGM, Orléans) and Jean Pierre
Platel (BRGM-Aquitaine, Pessac). Other participants included Jean Broutin
(mega- and microfloras; Paris), Sylvie Crasquin Soleau (ostracodes; Paris),
Alda Nicora (conodonts and invertebrates; Milano) and Andrea Tintori
(vertebrates
and invertebrates; Milano). Two sedimentologists from Total (Paris) and
the Institut Français du Pétrole (Paris) later joined the
crew. The trip was most successful and many fossils were collected,
including
some spectacular plant fossils. |
|
In February 1997 Dianne Edwards (Cardiff, Wales, UK)
spent a couple of days on Münster to study Rhynie Chert material,
especially the morphology of the stomata of these earliest land
plants. |
|
In February 1997 Michael Krings, Hans Kerp and Manfred
Barthel (Berlin) visited the University of Lyon-Villeurbanne (France) to
study the Zeiller collections from the Stephanian basins of Blanzy-Montceau,
Commentry and Autun. |
|
In February 1997 Sunia Lausberg completed her M.Sc. thesis
on the Late Permian flora of Midtkap, Frederick E. Hyde Fjord, North
Greenland.
This is probably the northernmost fossil flora of the world. She worked
on new material that had been collected recently by the CASE
2-Expedition. |
|
In February 1997 Hans Kerp visited the Palaeobotany
Laboratory
in Montpellier where he was a member of the Veronique Daviero's Ph.D.
committee.
He also gave a colloquium on current research of the Münster
Palaeobotany
Group, thereby focusing on Early Devonian Rhynie Chert floras and Stephanian
cuticles. |
|
In December 1996 Gene Mapes and Gar Rothwell (Athens,
OH, USA) visited the Münster Group when they started their European
tour to see and discuss some Palaeozoic conifers. |
|
Recents guest include Dr. Karin Zonneveld (Bremen), Dr.
Gerard Versteegh (Texel), Dipl.-Geol. Thomas and Karina Schindler (Mainz),
Drs. Michiel van Houte and Hanneke Bos (Utrecht), Dipl.-Geol. Christoph
Hartkopf-Fröder (Krefeld), Prof. A.K. Shchegolev (Kiew), Dr. Volker
Wilde (Frankfurt am Main), Prof. Thomas Litt (Bonn), Dr. Ronny
Rößler
(Chemnitz), Dr. Aribert Kampe (Berlin), Prof. Manfred Barthel (Berlin),
Prof. H.-J. Schweitzer (Bonn), Dr. Erik Tegelaar (Plano, TX) and Dr. Pim
F. van Bergen (Utrecht). |
