The International Research Group on Ostracoda

Activities

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ARGENTINA

 

Sara C. Ballent

Continues to undertake research on:

  • Mesozoic-Cainozoic marine ostracods, mainly those of Gondwanine distribution—implications for intercontinental correlation and reconstruction of paleo-migration routes
  • Upper Paleozoic-Triassic to Recent nonmarine ostracods from Argentina.Systematic updating.

 

Ana Paula Carignano

Working on her PhD with Dr. Sara Ballent in calcareous microfossils from the Upper Cretaceous – Early Tertiary from nonmarine environments, on taxonomic and paleoenvironmental research.

 

Corina Coviaga

She finished her undergraduate thesis with Dr. Gabriela Cusminski and Dr. Patricia Perez.She worked on the life cycle of ostracods in ephemeral ponds in northern Patagonia.She has just started her PhD on modern ostracods from Holocene sequences in northern Patagonia.

 

Gabriela C. Cusminsky

Continues to undertake research on taxonomic, paleoecological and paleoenvironmental aspects of Upper Tertiary, Quaternary and modern lacustrine ostracods from Argentina.Some topics include:

  • Reproductive strategies in lacustrine ostracods from northern Patagonia
  • Systematic and paleoenvironmental interpretation

She is especially concentrating on the comparison of modern and Quaternary ostracods from two lacustrine basins:Laguna Cari-Laufquen (410S) and Lago Cardiel (490S) in Patagonia.This research is part of a multidisciplinary project.

 

Analia R. Diaz

Is a Post-Doctoral Fellow of the National Research Council.She has presented her PhD thesis entitled “Systematics, diversity and distribution of Mesozoic nonmarine Ostracoda (Crustacea) from Argentina: Comparison with modern analogs” under the supervision of Drs. Estela Lopretto and Sara Ballent.Her thesis deals with Recent nonmarine Ostracoda (Crustacea) from Argentina—taxonomy, functional morphology and reproductive strategies.

 

Cecelia Laprida

  • Is working on nonmarine ostracods from the Pampas plain and from southern Patagonia, the southernmost tip of South America.The main objective of this research is to reconstruct the paleohydrological evolution of permanent and temporary water bodies during the last millennia, in order to achieve paleoclimatological hypotheses from both areas.
  • She is studying marine ostracods from the southwestern South Atlantic inner shelf from Holocene cores.

 

Maria Josefina Ramon Mercau

Is a PhD student under the direction of Dr. Cecilia Laprida, both at the newly created Pablo Groeber Andean Studies Institute (University of Buenos Aires).Her thesis involves studying the autecology of modern southern Patagonian nonmarine ostracods and the assemblages of their Quaternary counterparts recovered from lacustrine sediment cores for environmental reconstruction purposes.She is currently drafting a paper to present the results obtained in the first two and a half years of her research.

 

Patricia Pérez

Works with Gabriela Cusminski on Quaternary and modern lacustrine ostracods in northern Patagonia, especially physicochemical parameters related to lacustrine ostracods.

 

Daniela Pineda

Is working with Dr. Gabriela Cusminsky on Quaternary ostracods from the Cari-Laufquen area, Patagonia, Argentina, at the Centro Regional Universitario Bariloche, Universidad Nacional del Comahue.

 

Maria Sofia Plastani

Is a PhD student in geology currently working at the Pablo Groeber Andean Studies Institute at the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), Argentina, under the guidance of her research director, Dr. Cecilia Laprida.She is in the first year of her PhD thanks to the scholarship granted by the National Council of Science and Technology (CONICET).The main work of her PhD thesis is the reconstruction of environmental and climatic parameters of the Southern Pampa during the Late Holocene through the autecology and assemblages of nonmarine ostracods recovered from lacustrine cores.

 

Maria Jose Salas

Continues to work on Ordovician ostracod faunas from Argentina, focusing on taxonomy, paleoecology and paleobiogeography.At present she is dealing with early ostracods from Tremadocian and Floian successions from a northwestern basin of Argentina.

 

 

AUSTRALIA

 

Michelle Guzel

Near completion of her PhD studies on the Cretaceous Ostracoda of Western Australia.

 

Ivana Karanovic

 

John Neil

  • Discovery of soft-part preservation in Miocene ostracods from Riversleigh in NW Queensland, Australia was reported in the last Cypris.This has led to cooperation with Renate Matzke-Karasz from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and Robin Smith of Lake Biwa Museum on the taxonomy and preservation of the assemblage of more than 600 specimens which I picked and assembled for preparatory analysis in 2008 – 2009.The sample was provided by Mike Archer and Henk Godthelp (University of New South Wales) from the Riversleigh World Heritage Fossil Area.
  • My work on the taxonomy and paleoecology of the Middle Miocene ostracod fauna from the Fyansford Marl and Batesford Limestone of the Batesford Quarry has resumed.

 

Mark Warne

  • I am continuing my research work on Cenozoic ostracod taxonomy and paleoecology of southeastern Australia.
  • A study on the ostracod paleoecology of the Pliocene Whalers Bluff Formation, Otway Basin, Victoria, was recently completed in collaboration with Brent Soutar, and was presented at the 16th ISO, Brasilia.
  • Collaborations continue with Robin Whatley on Australian and SW Pacific ostracod taxonomic studies.
  • Research on ostracod faunas from modern southeast Australian estuarine systems.

 

 


AUSTRIA

 

Dan L. Danielopol

  • Dan Danielopol is continuing to work on Neogene ostracods of the long-lived paleo-lake Pannon (especially on Amplocypris and Amnicythere) and on Recent groundwater dwelling ostracods (Pseudocandona).
  • He prepares with his colleagues a manuscript on Mondsee ostracods.
  • All of this work is done in cooperation with various colleagues from Austria and other countries. Other information will be delivered during the EOM-7 in Graz.

 

Claudia Dojen

My research interests focus on the taxonomy, biostratigraphy, biogeography, and palaeoecology of late Silurian to late Devonian ostracods. So far, I have worked on faunas from Germany, Spain, Nevada (USA), Turkey, and Morocco. Future studies will include Paleozoic ostracods from the Carnic Alps, as I just moved to Austria.

 

Martin Gross

  • Martin worked on Late Miocene brackish ostracods of the Pannonian Basin. This work included high-resolution sampling of sediment cores (5 mm intervals) and tried to link them to other parameters (magnetic susceptibility) as well as to different sampling scales (classical bulk sampling, gamma- and kappa-log, TOC, TS, grain size, mineralogy, etc.).
  • In 2009, a cooperative project “Evolution and Phylogeny of Cyprideis” started. This project aims to investigate morphological traits of Late Miocene Amazonian and Central European ostracods by application of morphometrics and geochemical proxies. The project is in cooperation with Maria Ines Ramos (Belem), Frank Gitter (taxonomy, morphometry), and Marco Caporaletti (geochemistry) as well as PhD students.

 

Wolfgang Mette

  • I am currently working on microfaunas from Permo-Triassic and Triassic-Jurassic sections of the southern and northern Alps.
  • Current project—marine microfossils and extinction in the northern Calcareous Alps.

 

Benjamin Sames

  • In 2009, Benjamin finished his doctoral thesis and now continues to explore the taxonomy of mainly Mesozoic nonmarine ostracods and their application to biostratigraphy, phylogeny, paleoecology, paleobiogeography, and paleoenvironmental analysis. He is about to expand his study areas well beyond the immediate confines of the North American Western Interior Basin to cover the whole Northern Hemisphere and parts of the Southern Hemisphere and, by degrees, to develop a supraregional to global stratigraphic approach and network of stratigraphic ties based on these ostracods. This work includes fruitful continuing collaboration with vertebrate paleontologists and geologists.
  • Ongoing research:
    • Biostratigraphy, paleoecology and paleobiology of Cretaceous nonmarine ostracods (in cooperation with Michael E. Schudack, David J. Horne, and Ulla Schudack)
    • Principles and methods of the biostratigraphic application of late Mesozoic nonmarine ostracods with David J. Horne
    • Origin and early evolution of the nonmarine Cypridoidea (with Robin Whatley, Aberystwyth and Michael E. Schudack)
    • Revision of representatives of nonmarine Mesozoic (Late Jurassic-Cretaceous) Cytheroidea, Cypridoidea (Cyprideidae, Trapezoidellidae, Cyprididae and Notodromadidae) and Darwinuloidea in collaboration with, amongst others, Joao Villar de Queiroz Neto and Jean-Paul Colin
    • Documentation, revision and biostratigraphic application of associated Late Jurassic-Cretaceous Charophyta in cooperation with Carles Martin-Closas, Barcelona and Michael E. Schudack

 

Irene Zorn

  • Irene Zorn worked on the documentation and publication of the ostracodal type specimens (holotypes, neotypes, syntypes) which are stored in the paleontological collections of the Geological Survey in Austria (the pdf can be found at http://www.geolba.ac.at/ - see Publikationen/Jahrbuch/Band 150 2010/Heft 1+2). The data of the available specimens are additionally included in the OeTyp-database (http://www.oeaw.ac.at/oetyp).
  • She is participating in collaboration with others on the fauna and flora of a temporary construction site within Karpatian sediments near Korneuburg in Lower Austria (Stetten).

 

 

BELGIUM

 

Jean-Georges Casier

  • Organisation of the 22nd Réunion des ostracodologistes de langue française in June, 2008
  • During 2008, and in collaboration with E. Olempska (Polish Academy of Sciences), I have finished and published the study of a rich and well preserved ostracod fauna collected in Arche quarry, a classic reference section in the type region for the definition of the Frasnian stage.The comparison with faunas from the Frasnes railway section (Casier and Olempska, 2007) and from the access path to the Lion quarry (Becker, 1971) in the same region, shows that ostracods did not suffer a crisis in relation neither with the abrupt and high-amplitude negative carbon isotopic excursion detected by Yans et al (2007) in the Pa. punctata Zone, nor with the Alamo Event.
  • During 2008, and in collaboration with A. Preat (University of Brussels) for the sedimentological analysis, I have also finished the study of ostracods collected in three sections at Nismes, a little village close to Frasnes. The main section exposes the upper part of the Fromelennes Fm. (Givetian), and the stratotype for the Nismes Fm. (Givetian and Frasnian). This section has been chosen by the Subcommission of Devonian Stratigraphy (Prague, 1986) as an auxiliary stratotype for the G/F boundary in neritic facies. However, its exact temporal relationships with the GSSP for the G/F boundary, defined in the Montagne Noire are still in debate (Klapper, 2000). A comparison with the study of ostracods and the sedimentological analysis of the GSSP (Casier and Preat, 2007) shows that the G/F boundary should be fixed in the Nismes section closer to the Givet Group/Frasnes boundary. The results of this study were published in 2009.
  • In collaboration with X. Devleeschouwer and E. Petitclerc, both at the Royal Belgian Institute of natural Sciences and A. Preat (University of Brussels), I have started in 2008 the study of ostracods, and the sedimentological and magnetic susceptibility analysis of the Givetian at the Mont d’Haurs, close to Givet. A first paper, entitled “Ostracods, rock facies and magnetic susceptibility of the Trois-Fontaines and Terre d’Haurs Formations (Early Givetian) in the Rancennes quarry at the Mont d’Haurs (Givet, France)” has been submitted in 2009. The section exposed in the Rancennes quarry is proposed in order to complete the stratotype of the Terres d’Haurs Fm. located on the southeastern flank of the entrenched camp of the Mont d’Haurs. In the stratotype, the Trois-Fontaines Fm./Terres d’Haurs Formation boundary is not visible.

 

Koen Martens, Isa Schön

The ostracod research group of Koen Martens and Isa Schön at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels (Belgium) consisted in 2010 of:

 

Postdocs on ostracod-related topics:

  • Valentina Pieri: Cryptic species in ostracods from Lake Baikal (Marie-Curie Fellow)
  • Merlijn Jocque: Ostracoda in phytothelmata

PhD students on ostracod-related topics:

  • Lynn Vandenbroeke, Univ. Ghent, Belgium: DNA repair in nonmarine ostracods
  • Saskia Bode, PhD student, Univ. Sheffield, UK (with R. Butlin): Phylogeography of Eucypris virens (finished 2010)
  • Thijs Van der Meeren, PhD student, Univ. Ghent, Belgium: (Palaeo-)ecology of non-marine ostracods from western Mongolia (with D. Verschuren and E. Ito) (finished 2011)

Master’s students on ostracod-related topics:

  • Els Van Mulken, Univ. Ghent, Belgium: Morphological studies of Cytherissa from Lake Baikal.

 

Research topics in 2010:

  • We continue to study taxonomy, phylogeny and ecology of non-marine ostracods from the world, presently with a focus on Europe, Australia (with Stuart Halse and Patrick De Deckker), Africa (several collections), Italy (with Valentina Pieri and Giampaolo Rossetti) and South America (with Janet Higuti and Ricardo Pinto).
  • Phylogeography, cryptic species and the evolutionary genetics of Eucypris virens from Europe and Australia (with Roger Butlin, Saskia Bode, Dunja Lamatsch, Stuart Halse, and Annette Koenders)
  • Ostracod diversity and speciation in ancient lakes (Baikal, Tanganyika)
  • Evolutionary ecology and genetics of putative ancient asexual darwinulid ostracods with Giampaolo Rossetti and Ricardo Pinto (Recent) and Dave Horne (Mesozoic)
  • The effect of transposable elements on ostracod evolution (with Irina Arkhipova)
  • Taxonomic revision and evolution of the Australian genus Bennelongia (with Stuart Halse, Patrick De Deckker, and Annette Koenders)
  • Phylogeography and phylogeny of marine Cypridocopina from the deep-sea off the Antarctic shelf (with Simone Nunes Brandao)
  • Some non-ostracod related activities include:
    • Editing of the book “Lost sex” (Isa Schon, Koen Martens, Peter Van Dijk) on asexual reproduction in animals and plants (published October 2009)
    • Koen is coordinator of the Federal part of the Belgian Biodiversity Platform, which promotes interactions between scientists and policy makers in the field of (aquatic) biodiversity. The platform implements projects such as SCARMARBIN (on Antarctic Biodiversity databases) and FADA (Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment). The latter project produced a special volume of Hydrobiologia (volume 595, January 2008) in which the specific and generic diversity of all freshwater animal groups in the world is described.
    • Koen is editor-in-chief of Hydrobiologia and series editor of two book series and is presently setting up (also as editor in chief) a new online taxonomic journal, the European Journal of Taxonomy, published by a consortium of European Natural History Museums.
    • Koen and Isa are heading or are participating in several national and international research projects, among them Biofresh (www.freshwaterbiodiversity.eu), for which Koen is work package leader of WPI.
    • Isa is editor-in-chief of the Belgian Journal of Zoology; vice-president of BeWiSe, the Association of Belgian Women in Science; and treasurer of EPWS, the European Platform of Women Scientists.

 

Karel Wouters

Retired on December 1, 2009, but still active (part-time) on ostracode research.

In 2010:

  • Check-list of marine Ostracoda of Belgium and “Belgian Register of Marine species”
  • Inventory of marine and freshwater ostracods of the Netherlands for the book “De Nederlandse Biodiversiteit” (together with R. Kleukers, Naturlis, Leiden).

 

 

BRASIL

 

Lucas Silveira Antonietto

  • Currently working on his Ph.D. with Dr. Dermerval do Carmo on ostracods from the Brazilian Alagoas Stage (Aptian-Albian) in the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin, northeastern Brazil, in taxonomic and paleoenvironmental research.
  • Developing research in the same stage in the Araripe Basin and inside the OSTRAKi Project, in association with PETROBRAS S/A.

 


Cristianini Bergue

  • I am working on Cretaceous marine ostracods from Santos Basin (Brazil) and Paleogene deep sea ostracodes from the Southern Ocean.
  • I am supervising two undergraduate students—Kelli Lemes do Nascimento (deep sea ostracods from DSDP Leg 72) and Viviane Corteletti (freshwater ostracods).
  • Gerson Fauth and I are supervising the PhD project of Enelise Katia Piovesan on Cretaceous ostracods from Potiguar Basin.

 

Joao Carlos Coimbra

I am working mainly in the following projects:

  • Continued my long-term project on the taxonomy and zoogeography of Brazilian marine ostracods, including oceanic islands (Atol das Rocas, Trindade Island, Martin Vaz Island, Saint Peter and Saint Paul Rocks, and Archipelago of Fernando de Noronha), with Ana Luisa Carreno, Maria Ines Feijo Ramos, Claudia Pinto Machado.
  • Southwestern Atlantic Quaternary paleoceanography based on calcareous microfossils (ostracods, foraminifers, and coccoliths), stable isotopes, and trace elements, with Cristianini Trescastro Bergue, Felipe Toledo, Karen B. Costa
  • Nonmarine Cretaceous ostracods from Potiguar Basin, NE Brazil; project headed by Dermeval A. do Carmo
  • Taxonomy and zoogeography of the genus Elpidium (found only in water accumulations with epiphytic bromeliads) in Brazil; project headed by Ricardo Pinto

I have three Ph.D. students:

  • Adriana Leonhardt is concluding a study on paleoceanography (based on calcareous nannofossils and stable isotopes) of drill holes from Santos basin, southern Brazil (co-advised by Felipe Toledo)
  • Demetrio Nicolaidis is working on ostracods and paleoceanography of the late Quaternary from Campos Basin, Brazil.
  • Fernando Erthal is working on taphonomy of Holocene marine mollusks from the Brazilian continental shelf (co-advised by Carla B. Kotzian)

I have two M.Sc. students:

  • Lisandra Sartori is finishing a work on taxonomy and paleoecology of Pleistocene deep sea ostracods from Campos Basin, southeastern Brazil.
  • Silvia Bottezini is beginning a study from Saint Peter and Saint Paul Rocks.

 

Dermeval A. Do Carmo

Research Activities:

  • He is vice-director of the Institute of Geosciences, head of the Laboratory of Micropaleontology and curator of the fossil collection of the Museum of Geosciences at the Institute of Geosciences, University of Brasilia, UnB. Since 2009, as chairperson, he was engaged on the 16th International Symposium on Ostracoda held in Brasilia. He is working with Prof. Koen Martens (Royal Museum, Brussels) and Dr. Ricardo L. Pinto (University of Brasilia) on the proceedings.
  • Working with Dr. Jean-Paul Colin (University of Lisbon) on trachyleberids of Lower Cretaceous age from Brazil and Africa.
  • He is working mainly with Lower Cretaceous limnic ostracodes from Brazilian basins focused on taxonomy, paleoecology and biostratigraphy with Prof. J.C. Coimbra (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul) and Prof. R. Whatley (University of Wales).

In 2011, three ostracodologists are working with him in the Laboratory of Micropaleontology at the Institute of Geosciences:

  • Since September 2010, Dr. Ricardo Lourenco Pinto became a permanent lecturer of staff at the University of Brasilia. His expertise on Recent ostracodes will improve the integration between studies on fossil and Recent ostracods.
  • Dr. Claudio Magalhaes de Almeida finished his Ph.D. thesis on ostracods of Cretaceous/Paleogene from Santos Basin and is working on a post-doctoral project on limnic and marine ostracods from Alagoas Stage (uppermost Aptian-Lower Albian).
  • Since October 2010, M.Sc. Lucas S. Antonietto became a permanent member of staff at the University of Brasilia. On March 2011 he will start his Ph.D. with Lower Cretaceous ostracods from Sergipe/Alagoas Basin.

He is supervising three graduate students and several undergraduate students.

Graduate students:

  • Lucas Silveira Antonietto, Ph.D. student, on Lower Cretaceous ostracods from Sergipe-Alagoas Basin.

Undergraduate students:

  • Rodrigo Rodrigues Adorno, a geology student working on Cretaceous ostracods from Paraceis Basin
  • Raphael Teixeira de Paiva Citon, a geology student working on Cretaceous ostracods from Potiguar Basin
  • Osvaldo de Oliveira Nunes Junior, a geology student working on Precambrian microfossils from Paranoa and Bambui Groups
  • Marcelo Vasconcelos Brandao, a geology student working on Cretaceous ostracods from Araripe Basin
  • Jean Marcel Roque da Costa, a geology student, assisted by Dr. Claudio Magalhaes de Almeida, working on Upper Cretaceous ostracods from Potiguar Basin

Main research projects:

  • Atlas of Ostracods from Brazil—CNPq
  • Stages Alagoas, Jiquia and Buracica: Taxonomic study of ostracods from Campos and Santos Basins—ANP/PETROBRAS

 

Gerson Fauth

Research:

  • I am currently working on Cretaceous marine ostracods from different Brazilian marginal basins.

Thesis supervision:

  • Gislaine B. Rodrigues, Paleoenvironmental reconstruction and isotopic analysis of the Upper Cretaceous in the Potiguar and Paraiba Basin, Brazil.
  • Enelise K. Piovesan, Taxonomy, biostratigraphy and paleoecology of Upper Cretaceous marine ostracods from Potiguar Basin (with Cristianini Bergue).

 


Silvia Regina Gobbo

  • Working on continental Cretaceous ostracods and their biochronostratigraphic and paleoecological correlations.
  • Interested in paleobiogeography, science communication, museology and museography, and geosciences education.

 

Jeanine de Lacerda Grillo

  • Study of nonmarine Lower Cretaceous ostracods from Santos, Campos, Espirito Santo and Potiguar basins, Brazil, together with Joao Villar de Queiroz Neto.

 

Janet Higuti

  • Biologist and researcher of the Centre of Research in Limnology, Ichthyology and Aquaculture (NUPELIA) of the State University of Maringa (UEM), Maringa, Parana State, Brazil.
  • I have been working on Ostracoda from freshwater environments, especially in streams, reservoirs and floodplain systems. In relation to ecological aspects, I am interested in identifying the patterns of biodiversity and the factors determining them. Specifically, I have been investigating the effect of the flood pulses and habitat complexity on ostracod community structure.
  • In taxonomic research, we have found several new genera and new species in the Parana River and Pantanal floodplains, which we are describing in collaboration with Koen Martens. Another two floodplains will be investigated in the new project, Araguaia and Amazon floodplain.

 

Ricardo Piazza Meireles

Ph.D. student working on Recent and Fossil Ostracoda of Atlantic Islands, University of Azores.

 

Demetrio D. Nicolaidis

  • Doctoral student advised by Dr. Joao Carlos Coimbra, working on Quaternary bathyal ostracods from Brazilian continental margin
  • Taxonomy, biostratigraphy, and paleoecology of Albian-Turonian ostracods from Santos Basin, Brazil

 

Claudia Pinto Machado

Research includes:

  • Taxonomy, paleozoogeography, and zoogeography of Holocene Ostracoda from the Brazilian northeastern and eastern continental shelf.

 

Ricardo L. Pinto

Currently working on:

  • Nonmarine Cretaceous ostracods from coastal Brazilian basins, in a project coordinated by Dermerval A. do Carmo
  • Quaternary ostracods from Lagoa dos Patos (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), in collaboration with Jair Weschenfelder (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil)
  • Freshwater ostracods from wetlands and springs in central Brazil, as part of two different projects, one coordinated by Lourdes M.A. Elmoor Loureiro (Universidade Catolica de Brasilia, Brazil) and another one by Luciana de Mendonca Galvao (Universidade Catolica de Brasilia, Brazil).
  • Bromeliad ostracods from the Atlantic forest in southern Brazil, in collaboration with Elise Vargas Pereira (M.Sc. student, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil), Carlos E.F. Rocha (Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil) and Joao Carlos Coimbra (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil)
  • Bromeliad ostracods from Honduras and French Guyana, in collaboration with Merlijn Jocque (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Belgium)
  • Darwinulid ostracods and (semi-) terrestrial faunas with Koen Martens, Isa Schön, and Giampaolo Rossetti.

 

Enelise Katia Piovesan

I am working with Cretaceous ostracods from Brazilian continental margins:

  • Albian-Cenomanian from Santos Basin
  • Turonian-Campanian from Potiguar Basin: taxonomy, paleoecology, paleogeography and biostratigraphy (Ph.D. student)

 

Joao Villar de Queiroz Neto

Study of nonmarine Lower Cretaceous ostracods from Santos, Campos, Espirito Santo and Potiguar Basins, Brasil, together with Jeanine de Lacerda Grillo.

 

María Inés Feijo Ramos

 

Marta Claudia Viviers

She is working for Petrobras on Brazilian Cretaceous transitional and marine ostracods.

 

Henrique Zimmermann Tomassi

  • Lives in Brasilia, and is the Curatorial Assistant of the Museu de Geociencias, Universidade de Brasilia.
  • Teaches paleontology and geology at Universidade de Brasìlia (UnB).
  • Working mainly with Permian ostracods from Parana Basin. The sections he studies are related to the final regression of large epicontinental seas in Brazil. The work focuses on taxonomy, paleoecology, and paleobiogeography.
  • He is dedicated to the creation of didactic texts on paleontology for undergraduates.
  • Some of his papers and abstracts can be downloaded at http://sites.google.com/site/HZTomassi

 

 

CANADA

 

Joan Bunbury

Although my Post-Doctoral research has me working in peatland environments in Canada’s Hudson Bay Lowlands, I am still very interested in freshwater ostracod research and have had discussions with Dave Horne regarding harmonizing the taxonomy across the Northern Hemisphere.

 

Reba Macdonald

  • I am working on the oxygen and carbon isotope compositions of late Pleistocene and Holocene ostracods from Lakes Michigan and Huron (of the North American Great Lakes).
  • I am using modern ostracod species from Lake Huron to calculate any isotopic fractionation that may be involved in valve formation

 

 

ESTONIA

 

Tonu Meidla

  • I am mainly working on several aspects of Ordovician and Silurian ostracods, in cooperation with O. Tinn, V. Perrier, and K. Truuver. Work on several collections from Estonia, Latvia, and Sweden is in progress.
  • Ordovician and Silurian ostracods from Lithuania (in cooperation with S. Radzevicius), from Siberia (with A. Kanygin and T. Gonta), from Canada (with A. Desrochers), and from Great Britain (with M. Mohibullah, M. Williams, and D. Siveter).
  • Quantifying the biogeographic patterns of Ordovician ostracods (in cooperation with O. Tinn, M. Williams, D. Siveter, M.J. Salas, T. Vandenbroucke, and K. Sabbe).
  • Study of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene subfossil ostracods in lacustrine sediments of Estonia (in cooperation with K. Sohar).

 

Vincent Perrier

  • I am actively working on Paleozoic ostracods
  • I am still working on the Silurian myodocopid ostracods in collaboration with David J. Siveter and Jean Vannier.
  • I have a Post-Doctoral position in Tartu University (Estonia), working on the impact of environmental changes (bentonites, Ordovician/Silurian extinction) on ostracod biodiversity with Tonu Meidla, Oive Tinn, Leo Ainsar, and Karin Truver
  • I am treasurer of the Group of French Palaeozoists (http://sites.google.com/siter/groupefrancaispaleozoique/home

 

 

FRANCE

Bernard Andreu

  • Jurassic ostracods from India (with J.-P. Colin, Toulouse)
  • Cenomanian ostracods from the Carbonate Platform of the Pre-African Trough, Morocco

 

Jean-Paul Colin

  • In 2010, teaching courses on ostracods in PETROBRAS (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), University of Brasilia (Brasilia, Brazil), and a course on Biostratigraphy in Oil Exploration in University of Lisbon, Portugal.

Current activities:

  • Pre-salt Lower Cretaceous ostracods with J. Villar, B. Sames
  • Albian ostracods from Brazil and West Africa with D. Do Carmo
  • Jurassic ostracods from Portugal with C. Cabral
  • Cretaceous/Tertiary nonmarine ostracods from the Western Interior (USA) with N. Tibert
  • Associate Editor Revue de Micropaleontologie
  • Scientific Committtee Notebooks on Geology: http://paleopolis.rediris.es/cg/fr-index.html

 

Sylvie Crasquin

  • For several years I have been working on the Permian-Triassic boundary ostracods: extinctions and recovery. I work in South China (Guizhou, Guangxi, Sichuan, Zhejiang) and Tibet, and also in Turkey and Hungary.
  • We already published the ostracods of the two main reference sections (GSSP (Global Stratotype section and point) in Meishan and Bulla section in Dolomites, Italy). Some other key sections in Turkey and Hungary will be published very soon.
  • I published an extinction/recovery scheme for the group at the Permian-Triassic boundary.
  • Important work on the ostracods related to microbial formations in the earliest Triassic was and is conducted in the goal of Marie-Beatrice-Forel PhD thesis. Marie defended her thesis November 25, 2010.
  • My two former students defended their thesis:
    • Yuan Aihua, in Wuhan, Hubei Province, on May 28, 2008: Latest Permian deep-water ostracod (Crustacea) fauna from South China. Yuan has a permanent position as Assistant Professor at Wuhan Geosciences University and had a baby boy in July 2010.
    • Anisong Chitnarin, in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, on May 7, 2010: Taxonomy of Permian ostracods from central, northeastern and western Thailand: Implication for paleoenvironment and paleobiogeography. Anisong has a permanent position in the Paleontological Museum of Khorat. She is in charge of the Invertebrate Division.

 

 

GERMANY

Lisbeth Perez Alvarado

  • I recently finished my Ph.D titled “Non-marine ostracodes from the Yucatan Peninsula as late Quaternary paleoenvironmental indicators”. A calibration training set consisting of 63 aquatic ecosystems of the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico), Guatemala, and Belize was established and transfer functions to infer lake level changes and conductivity were developed and applied to ostracod species assemblages in long core PI-6 (85 ka) retrieved from Lago Peten Itza, northern Guatemala. Advisors:Antje Schwalb, Burkhard Scharf (Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany), and Mark Brenner (University of Florida, Gainesville, USA)
  • I will continue using extant and fossil nonmarine ostracodes from central Mexico to infer past environmental and climate change in the American tropics and soon I will begin my postdoctoral studies at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City. Advisors: Socorro Lozano, Margarita Caballero(UNAM), with the cooperation of A. Schwalb, B. Scharf, and M. Brenner.

 

Börner, Nicole

  • PhD thesis on trace element analysis of ostracod shells using modern and Late Pleistocene to Holocene ostracods from the Tibetan Plateau, supervised by Antje Schwalb.
  • Participation in a multi-technique inter-laboratory comparison study on geochemical analysis of ostracod shells, together with Bart de Baere (UBC, Vancouver) and Klaus Peter Jochum (MPI, Mainz).

 

Simone Nunes Brandão

  • I am a postdoctoral fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and work in Hamburg and Wilhelmshaven in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Angelika Brandt and Prof. Dr. Pedro Martinez-Arbizu.
  • The main purpose of my research projects today is to contribute to the understanding of biodiversity patterns in two of the least known ecosystems on Earth (i.e., the deep sea and the Southern Ocean) and to investigate different scales (global, regional, populational, morphological and genetic). For this, I am studying 110 samples collected with standardized methodologies from a wide geographical (from the equator to the Southern Polar region) and bathymetric range (from the continental shelf to the abyss). I will use this dataset to study biodiversity patterns across different spatial scales (i.e., a and g diversity), and to examine patterns of b diversity.
  • I am finishing the compilation of a global, deep-sea database with all previously published records of recent ostracods living deeper than 2000 meters. Together with Moriaki Yasuhara, based on this database I will investigate the distribution of single species and genera, and I will test if the deep-sea ostracods are distributed according to published biogeographical provinces.
  • I am preparing reviews of the ostracod species (and its types) described from the material collected during the HMS Challenger Expedition in the late 19th century (Brady, 1880). Brady figured different species under the same name, and information on the lectotypes was very scarce prior to the present project. As a consequence, many species were recorded from distant localities, that has important implications to the biodiversity and biogeographic patterns observed (e.g., cosmopolitan distribution of deep-sea species instead of endemic distribution), which in turn influences decisions on nature conservation. For that reason, I began to revise Challenger ostracod species, verify their previous published records. Re-descriptions and SEM photos of key species will be uploaded to the Ostracoda Lifedesk (http://ostracoda.lifedesks.org/), to the Encyclopedia of Life, and to the EMU (the online catalogue of the Natural History Museum, London). Additionally, the revised biogeographical information of the Challenger Ostracoda will be uploaded to the GBIF.
  • I keep editing the Ostracoda session in the World Register of Marine Species (WORMS, http://www.marinespecies.org/) and the Register of Antarctic Marine Species (RAMS, http://www.scarmarbin.be/index.php) and since there is still a lot of curatorial and editorial work to be done, I am happy to receive information on mistakes in these two databases.
  • In collaboration with Ivana Karanovic, I am beginning to work on taxonomy of deep-sea myodocopes (mostly from the Southern and Atlantic Oceans).

 

Thomas Daniel

I am still working on the freshwater ostracods of the Hominid site Bilzingsleben (Thuringia, Central Germany) and the surrounding area. The intention of the work is a paleoenvironmental and geoarcheological reconstruction of the site genesis.

 

Peter Frenzel

  • My focus lies on Quaternary Tibetan Ostracoda. Together with Steffen Mischke (Potsdam), Antje Schwalb (Braunschweig), Claudia Wrozyna (Graz), and Peng Ping (Beijing), I am using this group for paleoclimatological studies, especially of the Late Glacial and Holocene of this remote region. The collection of ecological data and set up of transfer functions as well as some taxonomical and biogeographical work are a base under construction for the use of Ostracoda on the Tibetan Plateau. A new PhD student (Lailah Gifty Akita) just started work in this field under my supervision here in Jena.
  • My interest still lasts for brackish ostracods. This concerns Quaternary marginal marine faunas as well as athalassic ones. Actual working areas are mainly the southern Baltic Sea, but, in collaboration with colleagues of the Geographical Institute in Köln, Bonaire and Saudi Arabia also. Anna Pint is finishing her PhD thesis on athalassic brackish forams and ostracods for additional sampling we did in in central Germany. The star of our research is clearly Cyprideis torosa.
  • The third field is the application of micropaleontology (with a lot of ostracods) for geoarcheology. Thomas Daniel is writing the last pages of his PhD thesis on the Middle Pleistocene Hominid site of Bilzingsleven, central Germany.He just moved from Jena to Göttingen, working now in the Geoscience collections of the university. We are studying archeological sites in central Germany and at the southern Baltic Sea coast as well as abroad.

 

Roland Fuhrmann

The Recent and Quaternary freshwater ostracodes of Central Germany are still the subject of his scientific interest. The publication “Neue und bemerkenswerte Ostrakoden aus dem Quartär Mitteldeutschlands” with K. Goth is being finalized.

In preparation:

  • “Die quartäre Ostrakodenfauna Mitteldeutschlands”
  • „Die Ostrakodenfauna der weichselzeitlichen Schichtenfolge des Braunkohlentagebaues Schadeleben (Randfeld des Tagebaues Königsaue) bei Aschersleben“
  • „Die Ostrakoden- und Molluskenfauna des eemininterglazialen Seebeckens im Braunkohlentagebau Cottbus-Nord“

 

Eugen Kempf

Work on the “Kempf Database Ostracoda” is progressing. It is intended to be published as CD-ROM editions for the volumes 11 – 15 of the Series “Index and Bibliography of Nonmarine Ostracodes” during the course of the year 2011. The marine parts are growing as well. There are already about 1200 additional taxa to the second supplement published in 2008.

 

Dietmar Keyser

  • Being retired since 2008, I do not feel as if I am really in pension. During the last few years we had Vladimir Chavtur and Ivana Karanovic as guests in our Institute.
  • I am busy with Prof. Munif Mohammed from Sana’a, Yemen, working on the ostracods of the southern coast of Yemen. Unfortunately, we have only paleontological material of the Recent species. But we are trying to get a joint excursion funded to collect living ostracods.
  • Together with Shinnosuke Yamada, we are investigating the calcification of the inner lamella of Semicytherura.
  • Work with Burkhard Scharf on the fresh-water ostracods of Tunisia.
  • With Scharf and Petkowski, we have investigated some ostracods from Spitsbergen.

 

Alexander Liebau

Continues, now at home, his research on the phylogeny of trachyleberidid ostracods (Jurassic – Recent), focusing on sculpture characters.

 

Alan Lord

Ostracod research:

  • Ostracods and Holocene environmental history of the Skagerrak region (core MD99-2286)
  • Ostracods and Holocene environmental history of the Rio Sizandro, Portugal (with R. Dambeck, Universität Frankfurt and M.C. Cabral, Universidade de Lisboa)
  • Lower Jurassic of North-West Europe (Germany, UK)

 

Julia Lorenschat

PhD thesis: “Scientific Collaboration on Past Speciation Conditions in Ohrid (SCOPSCO)—Recent and fossil Ostracodes from Lake Phrid as indicators of past environments: A coupled ecological and molecular genetic approach with deep-time perspective”. Supervisors Antje Schwalb and Burkhard Scharf

Goals:

  • Performance of autecological and taxonomical analysis of Recent ostracods from ancient Lake Ohrid (Macedonia/Albania) and its catchment.
  • Characterization of the response of the lake system and ostracods during the Eemian and the Holocene with focus on climate transitions, climate extremes, and geological events.
  • Determination of anthropogenic impacts on species diversity.
  • Unraveling phylogeny and date speciation events with genetic techniques.

Diploma thesis on modern ostracod species in the highlands and lowlands of southern Guatemala.

 

Renate Matzke-Karasz

Several projects have been started, continued, or finished in 2010:

  • Holotomographic data on Cretaceous Harbinia micropapillosa obtained in 2008 at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France (in collaboration with Robin Smith, Radka Symonova, Giles Miller, and Paul Tafforeau) have been further analyzed and interpreted and will be formed into a final report in 2011.
  • Neogene ostracods from the Tabriz Basin (NW Iran) have been analyzed taxonomically and biostratigraphically, this work forming a part of a multi-author collaboration on stratigraphy, paleoecology and paleogeography of this area
  • A collaboration started with John Neil (La Trobe University, Bendigo, Australia) and Robin Smith (Lake Biwa Museum, Japan) on exceptionally preserved Miocene freshwater ostracods from the Australian Riversleigh World Heritage Site
  • In June 2010, Renate welcomed Shinnosuke Yamada at the GeoBioCenter of the Ludwig-Maximilian-University Munich. Shin came equipped with a 2-year-grant of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science and instantly started his delicate histological work on mandible musculature and Zenker organ morphology, with the first resulting manuscript already being submitted. Renate very much enjoys the presence of a partner for ‘ostracod talks’ in Munich, normally leading a hermitic life, ostracodology wise.
  • In November 2010, Renate worked together with Robin Smith on Cypridoidean sperm morphology at the occasion of a visit at Lake Biwa Museum in Japan. This very successful exchange included e.g., a sampling trip around Kanazawa, perfectly organized by Takahiro Kamiya and his industrious and lovely students. The stay in Japan was made possible by funding through the Lake Biwa Museum.
  • Last, but not least, Renate continued work as subject editor for ostracode-related manuscripts submitted to the journal Zootaxa, the world’s foremost journal in taxonomy. She would like to take the opportunity to thank again all reviewers, who invested their valuable time in writing extended reviews, thus making the publication of ostracod papers within Zootaxa possible.
  • Besides pure natural science, Renate also did some historic research on the famous ostracod, cladoceran, and copepod worker and physician, Sebastian Fischer (1806-1871), known e.g., through the ostracod genus Paradoxostoma. This work was initiated by a request of David Damkaer, copodologist and experienced biographer, author of The Copepodologists’ Cabinet. Since the 1960s, he had unsuccessfully been searching for a portrait of Fischer for the second volume of his Cabinet and hoped that Renate, located in Fischer’s home town, would be more effective. Tracking began on one of Munich’s oldest cemeteries and indeed brought the breakthrough, resulting in very delightful contacts with Fischer’s descendants, in lots of information on Fischer’s life and work, and in a big pile of documents released from various Bavarian archives. Renate co-authored the resulting biography which will be published in the Archives of Natural History.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sebastian Fischer in 1839—Director of the Central Military Hospital at Qasr Al-Eini, Egypt.(Courtesy of J. Fischer-Rast, Munich)

 

Steffen Mischke

  • I am now working as a Heisenberg Research Fellow at the University of Potsdam.
  • I continue to work on Pleistocene and Holocene ostracod records from Central Asia (China, Mongolia, and Tajikstan) and the Near East (Israel and Jordan).
  • I have started to work on Holocene ostracod records from Turkey and Libya.
  • I still work on an enlargement of the ostracod-based calibration data sets for the Tibetan Plateau and the Near East.
  • I recently got involved in archeological work in the Jordan Valley in Israel.

 

Burkhard Scharf

  • Lisbeth Perez et al. have published some papers on the Ostracoda from the Yucatan Peninsula.
  • The paper on the ostracods and cladocerans from the Island Terschelling (Netherlands) is published.
  • I have investigated many ostracod species from Lake Ohrid, which Dr. Trajan Petkovski have given to me.
  • T. Petkovski, D. Keyser and I are preparing a paper about a new species and new genus found in Spitsbergen.
  • During 2010, W. Hollwedel (Cladocera), G.-O. Brandorff (Diaptomidae) and I (Ostracoda) have collected in the town moat of Bremen.
  • In November I was in Tunisia and have collected ostracods.

 

Michael Schudack

Research activities:

  • Research projects on the Jurassic and Cretaceous (marine and nonmarine) of Europe
  • Main focus on biostratigraphy, paleoecology, biogeography, paleoclimatology, and stable isotope shell geochemistry

New ostracod research projects:

  • Stable isotope compositions of charophytes and ostracods and paleolake reconstructions in the upper Jurassic and lowermost Cretaceous of Western Europe (under approval)
  • Micropaleontology of the Santonian (late Cretaceous) Menuha Formation (Southern Negev, Israel (in preparation)
  • Biogeography of middle Jurassic marine ostracods in western Europe (in preparation)

 

Antje Schwalb

Research activities:

  • Aquatic ecosystem evolution and monsoon dynamics in Southern Tibet using Recent and Late Pleistocene to Holocene Ostracoda, together with Claudia Wrozyna and Nicole Börner (PhD students) and Marleen Stuhr and Björn Herlt (Bachelor students), Peter Frenzel (co-PI) and Steffen Mischke (co-PI).
  • Ancient Lake Ohrid (Macedonia) biodiversity, together with Julia Lorenschat (PhD student), Hubert Kanfa (Diploma student), Finn Viehberg and Burkhard Scharf (co-PIs).
  • Postglacial Patagonian lake level changes (in collaboration with Gabriela Cusminski and Finn Viehberg).
  • Landscape and environments of Late Glacial campsites in the Jeetzel Valley, Northern Germany, in collaboration with Finn Viehberg.
  • Late Quaternary environmental change in the Yucatan Peninsula, a contribution to the Lago Peten Itza Scientific Drilling Project, together with Liseth Perez (now Dr.).

 

Helga Uffenorde

  • I am retired since 2003 and my last lecture (Micropaleontology, Historical Geology) was in 2008 (as Honorable Scientist), but I’m still working some hours per day in the GZB of Göttingen University, together with my husband Henning Uffenorde.
  • I have finished a project with Alike Nasik on Turkish Devonian ostracods
  • Last year I began a study on a large Lower Devonian ostracod fauna (collected in Morocco by colleagues from the Senckenberg Institute in Frankfurt). This work was interrupted by my mission in the micropaleontological collection of the GZG of Göttingen University because of the unexpected death of my former Chief (who specialized on conodonts and Devonian tentaculites).
  • A joint project with Claudia Dojen on Devonian ostracods from Morocco is planned for the near future.

 

Henning Uffenorde

  • Work on species similar to the Hungarian Eocene Asperrissimocythere and the Eocene/Oligocene group of “Hermanites” acuticostata—together with G. Radtke (Wiesbaden, Germany) and M. Monostori (Budapest, Hungary)—proves to be more difficult than previously thought and is still in progress.
  • Being still associated with the Museum of the Geoscience Centre, University of Göttingen, further published and unpublished material was catalogued, amongst others:
    • Carbonnel, G. and Ritzkowski, S., 1969, Ostracodes lacustres de l’Oligocene (Melanienton) de la Hesse (Allemagne): Archive de Science de Geneve, 22(1): 55-82.
    • Moos, B., 1968, Zur Ostracoden-Fauna (Crust.) des Unteroligozäns von Latdorf:Geologisches Jahrbuch, 87: 1-40 (with paratype material).
    • Moos, B., 1970, Die Ostracoden-Fauna des Unteroligozäns von Brandhorst bei Bunde (Bl. Herford-West, 3817), III. Schulerideinae Mandelstam 1959 und Cytherideinae Sars, 1925:Geologisches Jahrbuch, 88: 289-320 (with paratype material).

 

Claudia Wrozyna

  • I still work on aquatic ecosystem evolution and monsoon dynamics in southern Tibet together with Antje Schwalb, Peter Frenzel, Steffen Mischke, Nicole Börner, and Peng Ping.
  • I finished my PhD thesis “Ostracodes as indicators of Holocene monsoon variability in southern Tibet”, supervised by Antje Schwalb and Peter Frenzel.
  • At present, I am guest scientist at the University of Graz, Austria. Here, I collaborate with Werner Piller and Martin Gross on Recent ostracods from Brazil.

 

Shinnosuke Yamada

  • JSPS Post-doc fellow for research abroad
  • Since June 2010, I have been working at the LMU collaborating with Renate Matzke-Karasz. I have a grant for 2 years from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science and will stay in Munich till the end of May 2012.
  • Research activities:
    • Ultrastructure and function of the fulcral point based on the analysis of the skeleton-musculature of the mandible (in collaboration with Renate Matzke-Karasz)
    • Histological analysis of the Zenker organ in some freshwater species (in collaboration with Renate Matzke-Karasz)
    • Calcification of the carapace in Semicytherura species (in collaboration with Dietmar Keyser)
    • Taxonomy on some Semicytherura species from Japan (in collaboration with Akira Tsukagoshi and Hayato Tanaka)
    • Carapace structure and calcification in myodocopid ostracods

 

 

GREECE

 

Stylianos Galoukas

  • My main interest is in ostracod paleogeography in relation to the Mediterranean Sea-Paratethys
  • I am working on ostracod morphometrics and their contribution to ostracod semi-automated identification.

 

Theodora Tsourou

  • I have finished my PhD thesis in 2008. It concerned the study of recent marine ostracods from the Aegean Sea (Andros Island, Greece).
  • I have expanded my research on the distribution and ecological preferences of living marine ostracods from several coastal localities of the Aegean Sea (Crete, Karpathos, Chios, etc.)
  • I have also worked on Neogene ostracods (e.g., Miocene ostracods, Karpathos Island).
  • I have participated in several paleoenvironmental studies of important coastal archeological sites of Greece (e.g., Marathon, Vravron).

 

 

HONG KONG

 

moriaki Yasuhara

I have just moved to the University of Hong Kong and continue to work on climatic and anthropogenic impact on deep-sea and shallow-marine ecosystems and biodiversity in collaboration with Gene Hunt, Thomas M. Cronin, Hiyaso Okahashi, and many other colleagues. My website is http://sites.google.com/site/moriakiyasuhara/

 

 

IRAQ

 

Sanad A.M. Al-Khashab

I am still working on Cretaceous and Tertiary ostracods from different localities of Iraq. Many samples were collected this summer from northern and northeast Iraq.

 

 

ISRAEL

Avi Honigstein

  • Continues with Mesozoic-Cenozoic studies of assemblages from Israel and adjacent countries, but is occupied to date with administrative tasks in his oil and gas exploration job for the Ministry of Infrastructures, Israel.
  • Works on a research project on Triassic ostracods from outcrops and wells in Israel.
  • Avi was on a sabbatical from October 2009 to February 2010 at the UPMC University of Paris (host: Sylvie Crasquin—thanks Sylvie!), studying Triassic assemblages. A joint paper (Honigstein and Crasquin) was prepared:“Late Scythian-Anisian ostracods (Crustacea) from the meged-2 borehole, central Israel” and was accepted for publication in Journal of Micropalaeontology, volume 30, part 1 for 2011. The planned sabbatical stay in Innsbruck with Wolfgang Mette had to be postponed.
  • Other activities: The study on the paleoclimate and paleolimnology of Lake Kinneret during the last glacial period continues. Lilach Lev, a PhD student from Tel Aviv University, in collaboration with the Geological Survey of Israel, is analyzing for this project the stable isotope (delta 18O and delta 13C), the 87Sr/86Sr and Mg/Ca composition of selected ostracods that are excellently preserved in the sedimentary record of the lake.

 

 

ITALY

Elsa Gliozzi, Ilaria Mazzini, Costanza Faranda, Francesco Grossi, Maria Chiara Madici, and Silvia Ligios belong to the Roma ostracodologist group (Department of Earth Sciences of the Roma Tre University and Istituto di Geologia Ambientale e Geoingegneria, CNR). This group is involved in several research projects about Neogene and Quaternary marine, brackish, and freshwater ostracods of the Mediterranean area.

 


Costanza Faranda

  • Costanza Faranda continues her studies on the marine pre-evaporitic Messinian and early Pliocene ostracods of the Mediterranean areas in order to depict the environmental changes that affected the Mediterranean immediately before and after the Messinian Salinity Crisis. In collaboration with other colleagues, she has submitted the study of the Messinian pre-evaporitic section of Legnagnone (central Italy) and is carrying out the analyses of samples collected from the Messinian pre-evaporitic deposits of the Adana Basin (Turkey).
  • After the study of the ostracods collected in the Early Zanclean at Maccarone (central Italy), she is now starting to analyze the marine epibathyal ostracods from the early Zanclean of Eraclea Minoa (Sicily).
  • Together with Elsa Gliozzi, is starting the study of the marine and brackish Pannonian-Pontian (Tortonian-Messinian) ostracod assemblages from the Strimon Basin (Macedonia), a possible connection corridor between Dacic and Mediterranean during late Messinian.

 

Elsa Gliozzi

  • Elsa Gliozzi continues to work on the paleoenvironmental changes that occurred in the Mediterranean area during the Messinian Salinity Crisis. The large amount of data collected during these years from several post-evaporitic successions in the Mediterranean area from Gibraltar to Adana (central southern Turkey) are now in study in a biostratigraphical perspective in order to construct a biostratigraphical zonation of the Mediterranean Messinian based on Ostracods (MMO zones).
  • In the frame of a joint research project among Roma Tre and Birmingham universities with the Russian Academy of Science (Moscow and St. Petersburg), the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, and the VSGEI and the VNIGRI Institutes (St. Petersburg), Elsa Gliozzi and Ian Boomer, together with Natalia Dykan, Nick Aladin, Tatiana Dmitrieva, Irina Nikolaeva, and Ekaterina Tesakova, are carrying out the taxonomical revision of Livental’s species, arising neotypes that could substitute for the lost holotypes.

 

Francesco Grossi

  • He is working on the paleoenvironmental changes that occurred in the Mediterranean area during the Messinian Salinity Crisis—in particular, the late Messinian Lago-Mare ostracods from several late Messinian successions from Gibraltar (Malaga Basin, Spain) to eastern Mediterranean (Adana Basin, Turkey).
  • He is assistant curator of the geo-paleontological museum “Civico Museo Ardito Desio” of Rocca di Cave (Roma, Italy), dealing with much larger fossils such as rudists and corals.

 

Silvia Ligios

  • She is the mother of a beautiful one-year old baby girl names Penelope, but is still able to find some time to finish the research linked to her PhD thesis. In particular, together with Elsa Gliozzi and other colleagues, she submitted the study on the taxonomy and geochemistry of Late Miocene brackish ostracods from central and southern Italy, mainly from a taxonomical point of view.
  • She is carrying on the taxonomical revision of the Italian Neogene Cyprideis using the morphometrical approach proposed by Danielopol et al.

 

Ilaria Mazzini

  • Ilaria Mazzini is a research fellow within the Vertical Anatolian Movements Project (VAMP) under the umbrella of the TopoEurope initiative of ESF. She is studying the ostracod assemblages recovered from Neogene deposits from the North Anatolian Plateau. In particular, she is dealing with continental and brackish associations of the central and northern areas of the Plateau, whereas Costanza Faranda and Elsa Gliozzi are studying the ostracod assemblages coming from the southern margin of the Anatolian Plateau within the same projects.
  • Together with Costanza Faranda, she is studying the Holocene ostracod assemblages from two cores drilled in the archeological site of Portus. Roman Emperor Claudius built the ancient port along the Tyrrhenian coast (1st Century A.D.); later, Emperor Trajan (2nd Century A.D.) modified the harbor that was Rome’s principal maritime port from the middle of the first century onward to the IV Century A.D.
  • Ilaria Mazzini is also studying the freshwater ostracods from a 40 m long core drilled in the Anagni Basin (central Italy) at the Coste San Giacomo (CSG) fossil locality. CSG represents a crucial site to understand the paleoenvironmental and faunal changes of Italy in the Gelasian, just before the dispersal events that led into Europe during the Early Pleistocene African taxa such as, among the others, Homo.

 

Maria Chiara Medici

  • She will discuss next April 2010 her PhD thesis on the taxonomy of the freshwater and brackish ostracods collected from Pliocene and Early Pleistocene deposits in northern and central Italy: RDB quarry (Piedmont), Valdelsa Basin (Tuscany) and Tiberino Lake (Umbria).
  • Together with Elsa Gliozzi, she has submitted the taxonomical revision of the Valdelsa Pliocene ostracods.

 

Valentina Pieri

  • Valentina Pieri is still collaborating with Prof. D. Goi of the Department of Chemistry, Physics and Environment (ex Department of Chemical Sciences and Technology) of the University of Udine. Her research topic focuses on the use of Recent freshwater ostracods as water quality indicators.
  • She is continuing her research on the taxonomy and distribution of the Recent freshwater Ostracoda in Italy (G. Rossetti, University of Parma).
  • She is now working at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences di Brussels (Belgium) as a Marie Curie Post Doc on the project “CRYSTAL, Cryptic ostracode species in an ancient lake: the Cytherissa flock from Baikal” with Prof. Isa Schön and Prof. Koen Martens.

 

Giampaolo Rossetti

  • Giampaolo Rossetti is focusing his research on the taxonomy and systematics of the Recent Darwinulidae, in cooperation with Koen Martens and Isa Schön (RBINS, Brussels) and Ricardo Pinto (University of Brasilia).
  • He continues to maintain research collaborations with colleagues participating in the EU project SexAsex (From Sex to Asex: a case study on interactions between sexual and asexual reproduction).
  • A new edition of the checklist of Recent freshwater ostracods from mainland Italy and nearby islands is currently in progress, in collaboration with Valentina Pieri and Koen Martens (RBINS, Brussels).
  • Other research projects are investigating the diversity and ecology of ostracods in mountain springs.

 

Valeria Rossi

Valeria Rossi is continuing her work on the ecology of Recent freshwater ostracods and their applications to ecology and evolutionary ecology in collaboration with G. Benassi at the Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Parma, Parma

 

Nevio Pugliese, Karin Mezgec

Investigating the post-Last Glacial Maximum ostracods of OGS cores drilled in the Svalbard area during the summer 2008 cruise of the R/V OGS-Explora in the framework of EGLACOM project (OGS contribution to the International Polar Year 2007-2009) under the umbrella of the IPY NICESTREAM activity.

 

Alessandro Bossio, Simone Da Prato

  • Alessando Bossio is at the Universita degli studi di Pisa
  • Simone Da Prato is at the IGG-CNR
  • They are working on Neogene ostracods from Malta and Tuscany, Italy. They are studying the applications of ostracods in Quaternary stratigraphy and paleoenvironments of the Tuscany

 

Antonio Russo, Nevio Pugliese, Paolo Serventi

  • Studied the ostracod fauna of some cold seeps of the Miocene in the Apennine near Modena.
  • Presented the article “Miocene ostracodes of cold seep settings from northern Apennines (Italy), during the ROLF 23 (Reunion des Ostracodologistes de Langue Francaise) held in Tunis May 6-8. 2010, organized by Rakia Said-Benzarti.It will be published in the Revue de Micropaleontologie.

 

Francesco Sciuto

See references in 2009, 2010.

 

JAPAN

Ryouichi Higashi

  • JSPS post-doc fellow; taxonomy and phylogeny on marine ostracods.
  • Research activities:
    • Taxonomy of marine interstitial ostracods around Japan (collaborating with Akira Tsukagoshi)
    • Molecular phylogenetics and evolutionary patterns of marine interstitial ostracods
    • Biogeography on marine interstitial ostracods
    • Reproductive isolation mechanism on cytheroids

 

Toshiaki Irizuki

Research activities:

  • Temporal changes of recent ostracods with relation to anthropogenic pollution and natural climatic changes in enclosed seas
  • Migration and speciation of Ostracoda in eastern Asian bays during the Quaternary
  • Reconstruction of Pliocene marine climatic conditions in eastern Asia based on analyses of fossil ostracodes

 

The following three doctoral students in my lab have studied ostracods:

·Hokuto Iwatani has finished his doctoral thesis: Plio-Pleistocene ostracod faunas in the Pacific off southwest Japan

·Takashi Goto has studied Late Pliocene marine ostracods from Japan Sea region

·Fauzielly Lili came to my lab from the Padjadjaran University, Indonesia. She has studied recent ostracods in Jakarta Bay with relation to anthropogenic pollution.

 

Katsura Ishida

Research activities:

  • Oceanographic shifts and relative sea-level changes during the Plio-Pleistocene in the Japan Sea
  • Cenozoic relative sea-level changes from shelf core sediments off New Zealand
  • Freshwater Ostracoda in mountain areas, central Japan

 

Tomonari Kaji

  • JSPS post-doc fellow; evolutionary developmental biology of Crustacea
  • Ongoing research topics:
    • Functional morphology and development of the podocopan musculoskeletal system
    • Gene expression around the cephalon-thorax boundary of a cypridid ostracode
    • Evolutionary origin of “suction disc” in Branchiura
    • Evolutionary background of convergence in the conchostracon “clasper”
    • Functional purposiveness of cephalothorax morphology in the caligid copepod
    • Epigenetic perspective in evolutionary biology (philosophical issue)

 

Yu Maekawa

  • MSc student
  • Current research:
    • Comparative anatomy of the adductor muscles and their scars from the viewpoint of evolution. I am investigating the adductor muscles and their distinct scars with histological methods and trying to understand their evolutionary significance.

 

Hirokazu Ozawa

Current research:

  • Taxonomy, paleobiogeography (i.e., origin, speciation, migration, extinction, and survival) of cytheroidean ostracods in Late Cenozoic at the Japan Sea coasts and its adjacent area (with Dr. Takahiro Kamiya)
  • Ecology, taxonomy, and biogeography of modern cytheroidean ostracods in the Japan Sea and its adjacent area
  • Sexual dimorphism with paedomorphosis on hingement and phylogeny for species of Loxoconcha with loxoconchids from Japan and its adjacent area (with Dr. Tohru Ishii)
  • Paedomorphosis of Semicytherura in Late Cenozoic at the Japan Sea coasts
  • Pore distribution-pattern and palaeobiogeography of Aurila species from Pliocene to present at the Japan Sea coasts and its adjacent area.

 

Robin Smith

  • I am continuing with the research of the taxonomy and biogeography of living nonmarine ostracods of Asia, in particular Japan.
  • I am continuing with research on the ontogeny and evolution of podocopan ostracods.
  • I have recently started a new project on the spermatozoa of podocopid ostracods with Takahiro Kamiya and Renate Matzke-Karasz.

 

Gengo Tanaka

I am an Ostracodologist and Assistant Curator of the Gunma Museum of Natural History.

Research fields include:

  • Theoretical morphology of ostracod valves using morphospace analysis
  • Exceptionally preserved fossil arthropod eyes (with Professor David Siveter, University of Leicester and Professor Andrew Parker, Natural History Museum)
  • Paleozoic ostracods from Japan (with Professor David Siveter; Dr. Haruyoshi Maeda, Kyoto University; Mr. Teruo Ono, Gifu Prefecture; Tomohiro Nishimura, Hobetsu Museum of Hokkaido; Dr. Yuan Ai-Hua, China University of Geosciences)
  • Geological map of Uwajima, SW Japan and Tomioka (central Japan) districts

 

Hayato Tanaka

  • Ph.D. student
  • Current research:
    • Taxonomy, behavioral ecology, biogeography and molecular phylogeny of living cladocopid ostracods from Japan
    • Reproductive isolation mechanism in the interstitial genus Parapolycope (Myodocopa: Cladocopina)
    • Taxonomy and biogeography on interstitial ostracods from Japan

 

Akira Tsukagoshi

The members of the Tsukogoshi laboratory are now mainly focusing on taxonomy and phylogeny of interstitial ostracods and ostracod morphology with the confocal laser scanning microscope. In March 2010 Ryouichi Higashi got a Ph.D. for his thesis on evolution and phylogeny of the marine interstitial ostracods, and Tomonari Kaji also got a Ph.D. for his thesis on crustacean morphology with some histological analyses in March 2011.

Research projects include:

  • Taxonomy and distribution on podocopid ostracods from the riverine area
  • Taxonomy, growth rate and reproductive behavior of the interstitial family Cobanocytheridae
  • Taxonomy and morphological evolution of the interstitial Neonesidea species
  • Population dynamics of some freshwater ostracods with comments on their body colors

 

Shinnosuke Yamada

  • JSPS Post-doc fellow for research abroad
  • Since June 2010, I have been working at the LMU collaborating with Renate Matzke-Karasz. I have a grant for 2 years from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science and will stay in Munich till the end of May 2012.
  • Research activities:
    • Ultrastructure and function of the fulcral point based on the analysis of the skeleton-musculature of the mandible (in collaboration with Renate Matzke-Karasz)
    • Histological analysis of the Zenker organ in some freshwater species (in collaboration with Renate Matzke-Karasz)
    • Calcification of the carapace in Semicytherura species (in collaboration with Dietmar Keyser)
    • Taxonomy on some Semicytherura species from Japan (in collaboration with Akira Tsukagoshi and Hayato Tanaka)
    • Carapace structure and calcification in myodocopid ostracods

 

Tatsuhiko Yamaguchi

My ongoing research:

  • Marine ostracods across the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum;
  • Shallow marine ostracods across the Eocene-Oligocene boundary in the Gulf Coast of Mexico;
  • Population of the Indo-West Pacific ostracods; and
  • Oligocene cold-seep ostracods.

I am studying them with Dr. Cronin (USGS), Mr. Goedert (University of Washington), Prof.Kamiya(Kanazawa University, Japan), Prof. Norris (Scripps Institution of Oceanography), and Prof. Takai (Kyoto University, Japan).

 

 

LUXEMBOURG

 

Claude Meisch

Claude is continuing his work on the taxonomy of the freshwater Ostracoda, mainly of Europe, and the evolutionary morphology of the Ostracoda in general.

 

 

MEXICO

 

Ana Luisa Carreno

  • Recent marine ostracods from the equatorial offshore Brazil
  • Cretaceous ostracods from the Reconcavo Basin, Brazil
  • Continuation of my long-term research on Baja California Tertiary calcareous microfauna and microflora (Ostracoda, Foraminifera, and calcareous nannoplankton)

 

Ma. Luisa Machain-Castillo and F. Raul Gio-Argaez

  • Holocene ostracods of the Mexican seas, especially in the diversity and distribution patterns of the continental shelf and coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico

 

Alejandro Rodriguez

  • I am currently working on Recent and Holocene nonmarine ostracods from some lake sediments along central Mexico
  • I am involved in a paleolimnological project, reconstructing the late Quaternary environmental and climatic variability of central Mexico (Transmexican Volcanic Belt).This multi-proxy paleoenvironmental research project includes magnetic properties, sediment geochemistry, pollen, diatoms, and ostracod analyses.
  • My interests include:
    • Paleoclimatic and paleolimnologic reconstruction from lake sediment analysis, based on ostracod composition and shell and sediment geochemistry
    • Study of the modern ostracods and distribution in the lakes of central Mexico
    • Paleolimnology and ecology of diatoms

 

 

NEW ZEALAND

 

Stephen Eagar

  • I have retired from the university and moved to the South Island. I spend some time at the Cawthron Institute looking at sediment under salmon farms, mainly in the Marlborough Sounds.
  • I have been looking at the ostracods in the Haven, Nelson and the Waimea Estuary. I have renewed acquaintance with the freshwater species in this region. I have limited facilities at the Cawthron Institute for looking at ostracods, but there is enough to make it worth my time.
  • I have a section in: New Zealand Inventory of Biodiversity (editor Denis Gordon), volume 2 (2010): Phylum Arthropoda: Subphylum Crustacea: shrimps, crabs, lobsters, barnacle slaters and kin. University of Canterbury Press.

 

 


POLAND

 

Tadeusz Namiotko

My research is focused on the taxonomy, ecology, and distribution of Recent and subfossil (Quaternary) freshwater ostracods, mainly from Europe. I am currently working on:

  • Recent and subfossil ostracods from lacustrine profundal of postglacial and long-lived European lakes (with S. Belmecheri, D.L. Danielopol, S. Iepure, W. Staniszewska, U. von Grafenstein, and others)
  • Quaternary ostracods from southern Baltic Sea (with J. Krzyminska)
  • High latitude Palaearctic nonmarine ostracods (with D.L. Danielopol, A. Iglikowska, and others)
  • Evolutionary ecology and taxonomy of ostracods from temporary waters (with K. Martens, M.J.F. Martins, F. Mezquita, J. Vandekerkhove, G. Rossetti)
  • Groundwater ostracods from Romania, Italy, Croatia (with D.L. Danielopol, K. Finger, S. Iepure, A. Montanari, T. Radja, and others)
  • Nonmarine ostracods from Portugal (with M.C. Cabral and M.J.F. Martins)

 

Agnieszka Szlauer-Lukaszewska

I work on Ostracoda, mainly in rivers.

 

 

PORTUGAL

 

Maria Cristina Cabral

Ongoing research:

  • Recent ostracods from salt marshes of Portuguese estuaries (Minho, Lima, Mira, Tagus, and Sado rivers). Mira and Sado finished; Tejo and Lima ongoing, Minho will be started in 2011. In order to estimate the former sea levels in the same estuaries, the study of the ostracodes from several 1 meter depth core marshes, from all the five estuaries, is also started.

The work on Recent and Sub-recent ostracods is made within the scope of a Research Project funded by the Portuguese FCT. WesTLog—Recent evolution of Portuguese W coast estuaries: high resolution studies from marshes geological records.PTDC/CTE-GIX/105370/2008. In this project, Ana Rita Rigueiredo (formerly Master student) collaborates in ostracod studies.

  • Jurassic ostracods from the Lusitanian Basin, Portugal: marine and nonmarine Sinemurian ostracods (in collaboration with Jean-Paul Colin); marine Toarcian and Pliensbachian ostracods.

The work on Jurassic ostracodes is made within the scope of a Research Project funded by the Portuguese FCT.Project PTDC/CTE-GIX/098968/2008—High resolution stratigraphy of the Lower Jurassic organic-rich marine section in the Lusitanian Basin.In this Project, Isabel Martins Loureiro (formerly Master student) collaborates in ostracod studies.

  • Holocene ostracods from different cores of coastal lagoons and estuaries in Portugal: Mira River (1 lone core), Pederneira lagoon (2 long cores), and Sizandro River (in collaboration with Alan Lord).

The work on Holocene ostracods is partially made within the scope of a Research Project funded by the Portuguese FCT.Project PTDC/CTE-GEX/65789/2006. Paleoenvironmental Evolution of the Nazare coastal plain since the Lateglacial (PaleoNaz)

  • Recent ostracods from the Western Algarve continental shelf. Supervision of one Master thesis related to this subject.

 

 

ROMANIA

 

Sanda Iepure

  • Working on taxonomy, ecology and phylogeny of subterranean ostracods (with Dan L. Danielopol and Tadeusz Namiotko).
  • Working on paleoecological and paleoenvironmental research (Quaternary) of lacustrine ostracods from the alpine and sub-alpine areas in the Romanian Carpathians (with Tadeusz Namiotko).
  • Focused on investigations of evolutionary patterns in both recent and fossil assemblages by the application of geometric morphometrics.

 

Marius Stoica

 

  • Associate Professor, Faculty of Geology and Geophysics, Department of Geology and Paleontology, University of Bucharest
  • Biostratigraphy, micropaleontology and mapping for Miocene-Pliocene deposits of Paratethys Basins: Dacian Basin, Romania; Pannonian Basin (Banat, Transylvania, Serbia); Black Sea, Taman area, Russia; Caspian Basin, Azerbaijan
  • Well site biostratigraphy expert, Forest Oil International
  • Geological field survey and biostratigraphy for Mesozoic and Neozoic, Iraq (Kurdistan region)
  • Research projects:
    • Darius, A32, Geodynamic and paleoclimatic evolution of the Caspian Sea: Paratethys restriction during Maikop and Productive Series, Coordinator Utrecht University, Prof. Dr. C.G. Angereis (2009-2010).
    • ESF-EUROCORES: TOPO-Europe—4D topography evolution in Europe: Uplift, subsidence and sea level change. SourceSink Project—IP 7, The post Messinian evolution of the Black Sea-quantification of sediment transport, tectonics and sediment distribution (2008-2010).
    • ISES—Netherlands Research Centre for Integrated Solid Earth Science: Biostratigraphic and stable isotope constraints on the paleoenvironmental evolution of the Carpathian foredeep (200-2009), VRF Project.
    • TUBITAK-106Y052 project.High resolution investigation of Miocene aged fluvial lake deposits around Ankara (Beypazari-Cayirhan) by cyclic sedimentology, sequence stratigraphy and sedimentary geochemistry (2006-2008).
    • ASSEMBLAGE—Assessment of the Black Sea sedimentary system since the last Glacial Extreme, EVK3—2002—00142.
    • WASEDY—Water and sediment dynamics affecting nutrient cycles and greenhouse gas emissions in the Danube Delta, SNF-ESTROMORSED.
    • INCO---COPERNICUS Programme, Fluxes of greenhouse gases in the northwestern region of the Black Sea coastal zone: influence on the Danube River system.
    • UNESCO-IUGS Project 343—Stratigraphic correlation in Peri-Tethyan epicratonic basins.

 

 

RUSSIA

 

Anna Stepanova

  • A new study of the Equatorial Pacific deep-water ostracods from ODP Leg 202, Site 1238, MIS 1-12. It is one of the very few studies from this area, which aims to bring to light the data on taxonomy and paleoceanographic history of this area. First results will be presented at the EOM 7 meeting in Graz, Austria.
  • We carried out a high-resolution investigation of the 4.5 m thick sequence of Late Saalian-Eemian marine beds in Bychye, the White Sea region. Ostracod assemblage variations (three assemblages) reflect paleoenvironmental changes during the penultimate glacial-interglacial transition. Results will be presented at the EOM 7 meeting in Graz, Austria.
  • Participated in several projects carried out by the Oceanographic Institute RAS and Moscow State University on Holocene ostracods from the Black and Caspian Seas.
  • In cooperation with colleagues from Norwegian Polar Institute (Tromso), I analyzed the distribution of ostracods in core NP05_11_GC (Barents Sea) dating back to approximately 14 ka. Three ostracod assemblages were recognized. They reflect changes in Atlantic water inflow (maximum during Bølling-Allerød time), and the transition to modern-like environments. These results were presented at the APEX meeting in Iceland, May 2010.

 

 

SERBIA

 

Nadezda Krstic

  • After the München meeting (21 – 23 Mai 2010), an excursion visited early Miocene outcrops along the northern slopes of the Alps. In the subsiding area there were terrestrial deposits of desert type with rare fluviatile beds and random ponds with ostracods. This area in the northern lying Danube cuts was studied by Straub, 1952 and therefore is very important.
  • For the 15th Congress of Serbian Geologists (26 – 29 Mai), two overviews were prepared. One of them listed all ostracods known from the Serbian Lake sediments. The second dealt with an explanation of the tectonic implications on lacustrine Lower Miocene sediments in the Dinaric Alps.
  • In the summer 2010, there was a laboratory study of ostracods and accompanying fossils from a new formation lying below the marine Middle Eocene on the northern slopes of the Lybian part of Tibesti volcano. With the help of J.-P. Colin and some others, it was possible to distinguish two environments, both after short-lived ponds. One transitions to sabkha with loose cores of different meiofossils. The other was silica-rich, filling the ostracods with quartz instead of calcium carbonate or gypsum (not sufficiently analyzed), but observed in thin sections.
  • In October, there was a short visit to Knin, Polje, from which Paralimnocythere dalmatica Sokak, 1969 was described. This species was recently recognized in the lower part of the Lower Miocene from the Dinaric Alps at Kupres Polje, which dips slightly toward the Adriatic Sea, and has an average altitude of 1150 m. So, Knin Polje must be much older than Parelephas trogontherii collected 0.5 m above the ostracod sample.
  • A social status observation was communicated during the International Sciences of Humboldt Kolleg (28 – 30 October in Belgrade), dealing with the devastation of natural sciences in Serbia.

 

 

SLOVENIA

 

Natasa Mori

  • I am studying the ecology, habitat selection and biogeography of living freshwater Ostracoda in Slovenia. My main interests are ostracods in interstitial and karstic groundwaters and springs, and the mechanism that shapes their distributional patterns at different scales.
  • Recently I carried out a regional study of alpine karstic aquifers and springs where a rich ostracod fauna was collected.
  • I am especially interested in the genus Mixtacandona, with many different “forms” occurring in Slovenian groundwaters. My intention is to solve the taxonomical puzzle of Mixtacandona species in Slovenia over the next few years.
  • I am still working together with Claude Meisch (Luxemburg).

 

 

SPAIN

 

Francesc Mezquita-Joanes

My research is focused on the ecology and paleoecology of nonmarine ostracods, mainly from the Iberian Peninsula. Ongoing research projects include:

  • Ecology of exotic ostracods with invading potential in the Iberian Peninsula. PhD students Josep A. Aguilar-Alberola, Andreu Escriva and Alexandre Mestre work in the framework of this project with various aspects of the ecology of Heterocypris bosniaca, Fabaeformiscandona japonica and Ankylocythere sinuosa.
  • Ostracod palaeolimnology and geochemistry of Lake Albufera (with M.R. Miracle, PhD student; Javier Marco, Univ. Valencia; and J. Holmes, UCL).
  • Ecology and geochemistry of Cyprideis torosa (with Emi Ito, Univ. Minnesota and Ph.D. students J. Marco, E. Carbonell).
  • Paleolimnology of Lakes Ivars and Somolinos, Spain (with R. Julia, CSIC-Barcelona, S. Riera, Barcelona, J. Armengol, Valencia, L. Zamora, PhD student).
  • Evolutionary ecology of reproductive modes in Eucypris virens (SexAsex project, coordinated by Koen Martens, KBIN-Belgium), with close collaboration with Olivier Schmit (PhD student), Jochen Vandekerkhove (Brussels), G. Rossetti (Parma) and T. Namiotko (Gdansk).

 

Luis C. Sanchez de Posada

I continue working on Devonian and Carboniferous ostracods.

 

Julio Rodríguez-Lázaro, Blanca Martínez García

  • Quaternary paleoceanography and paleoclimatology of the Southern Bay of Biscay: microfauna and geochemistry
  • Geochemical indicators in biogenic carbonates from laboratory for the paleoenvironmental reconstruction of lacustrine sequences. With Pere Anadon and colleagues from the CSIC (Institut Jaume Almera, Barcelona)
  • Abrupt hydrological changes in the Iberian Peninsula during Interglacial Climatic instabilities: A combined speleotherm and marine approach (HIDROPAST). With Heather Stoll (Univ., Oviedo) and colleagues from the University of Barcelona, Gif sur Yvette (France) and University of Nevada (USA)

 

 


SWITZERLAND

 

Laurent Decrouy

  • Laurent Decrouy has finished his PhD in October 2009 and is working as a postdoc at the University of Lausanne. His thesis can be downloaded as a pdf file at http://my.unil.ch/serval/document/BIB_32983D894668.pdf.
  • Several publications issued from his work on the biological and environmental controls on ostracode valve geochemistry are in press or under review.
  • He is working on a long core taken in Lake Geneva with the aim of reconstructing the environmental conditions prevailing in western Switzerland during the Holocene and the last thousand years on the basis of ostracode fossil assemblages and ostracode shell chemistry.

 

Claudius Pirkenseer

  • In August 2010, I finished my 2-year post-doc grant on marine microfossils from the Ypresian of the Corbieres (SW France) in Belgium. Publications are in preparation, amongst others, one concerning the ostracods.
  • I have returned to Switzerland.
  • A project dealing with the biodiversity and biogeography of Recent Indo-Pacific ostracods from poorly known localities has been submitted, pending decision. Hence, I am determined to continue my ostracod-related research, if the project is granted.

 

 

TURKEY

Okan Kulkoyluoglu

Activities for 2008 and 2009:

  • In the field, we have been working on ecology, habitat preferences and estimating tolerance levels of inland water Ostracoda in Turkey. Our sampling covers more than half of the country.
  • In the lab, we also have a couple of ongoing studies. One of my students, Ceren Altinbag, conducted lab work on determining the lethal dose (LD50) of Heterocypris incongruens in solutions mixed with nicotine gained from cigarettes. The population all died out after about 12 hours within 80-100% of solutions. This study with additional work will be prepared for publication after a couple of tests are done.

Meetings:

  • I was able to present two posters and one oral presentation at the ISO 16th meeting in Brazil, July 26-30, 2009.
  • We will be doing three oral presentations in a national symposium in October 2009, Nevsehir, Turkey.

Students:

  • I have two PhD students, Necmettin Sari and Derya Akdemir. Necmettin is working on the effect of climatic changes on ostracods in a small natural lake in Bolu. Derya is already done with the field work and writing her dissertation. She was done with an extensive field work in the inland waters of eastern parts of Anatolia along with collecting ostracods and others.
  • We have two new Masters students, Ceren Altinbag and Mehmet Yavuzatmaca, who will be part of the science of ostracodology.
  • I will be able to support one international student (MS or PhD) to work with me. For details, please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

Atike Nazik

  • Continues to work on Tertiary and Quaternary shelf ostracods from the Mediterranean and Aegean Sea. I am also studying Devonian ostracods in Turkey.
  • Current supervision of Emine Seker, MSc student. She is working on Late Devonian ostracods of Istanbul (NW Turkey).

 

 

UNITED KINGDOM

John Athersuch

  • Director of StrataData Ltd. and working on Version 2 of our biostratigraphic data management system, Stratabugs, which is due for release in 2011.
  • I am still active at the microscope and use Recent marine and nonmarine ostracods (as well as other microfauna) for environmental interpretation of archeological sites.
  • I am involved in geohazard studies in various offshore locations (Nile Delta, Congo Delta, Caspian Sea) using various biostratigraphic and dating techniques and I collect ostracod specimens when I am lucky enough to find them.
  • I occasionally get work with Pleistocene to Recent ostracods from the Caspian Sea.

 

Carys Bennett

  • Writing papers from my PhD project: Lower Carboniferous ostracods and isotopes from the Midland Valley of Scotland: testing for the ecological shift into non-marine environments that I finished in 2010.
  • Working as a part-time geology Teaching Fellow for the geology and interdisciplinary science departments.

 

Ian Boomer

  • Late Quaternary and Holocene of the Caspian and Black Sea
  • Late Glacial and Holocene climate change, NE England
  • Early and Middle Jurassic projects in the UK
  • Miocene lacustrine ostracods from early Hominine site, eastern Kenya

 

Graham Coles

Currently working on:

·Cretaceous and Tertiary ostracods from North Africa, especially Libya

·Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary ostracods from offshore UK and Norway

·Deep-sea faunas when time allows.

 

Jonathan Holmes

  • Trace-element and stable-isotope composition of ostracod shells: methodological developments and applications to past climate and environment
  • Lacustrine and marginal-marine ostracods as indicators of Holocene climate change
  • I have ongoing and developing research projects in China (with Dr. Andy Henderson, University of Glasgow and Dr. Jiawu Zhang, Lanzhou University); the West Indies (with Dr. Mike Burn, UWI); Europe (many collaborators, including Dr. Dave Horne at QMW, Dr. John Whittaker at the Natural History Museum, Dr. Bill Austin at St. Andrews).
  • Dave Horne and I continue to teach annually a very successful one-week course on ostracods and climate change.

 

Dave J. Horne

My research interests encompass marine and nonmarine, fossil and living ostracods, with a particular emphasis on British Quaternary ostracods.

  • Continued development of my Mutual Ostracod Temperature Range (MOTR) method, applying nonmarine ostracods to Quaternary paleoclimate estimation, has led to collaboration with specialists who use other proxies for the same purpose (Steve Brooks on chironomids and Russell Coope on beetles) within the AHOB project (Ancient Human Occupation of Britain), of which I am an associate member.
  • I presented preliminary results of our work at the April 2010 AHOB3 meeting at the British Museum and again at the November 2010 AGM of The Micropalaeontological Society at University College London.
  • Steve Brooks (The Natural History Museum) and I are co-supervising a PhD student, Ginny Benardout, who started work on ostracods and chironomids in October 2010. Her project title is: Quantifying Quaternary climate change: testing micropalaeontological proxy methods for palaeotemperature estimation.
  • I continue to work with Alison Smith and others on a metadatabase to link regional nonmarine ostracod databases and facilitate improved species calibrations for paleoclimate and other applications. We will be convening a workshop (possibly two) at the European Ostracodologists meeting in Graz, Austria, in July 2011.
  • I have a period of sabbatical leave in 2011 and will spend February-May in Ottawa studying the Delorme ostracod collection at the Canadian Museum of Nature.

 

Giles Miller

  • I continue to curate the ostracod collections at the Natural History Museum. We are in the process of digitizing our registers and will gradually release details of our specimens to the web over the next few years.
  • Last year I finished a paper started back in 1997 on Silurian palaeocope ostracods from the Canadian Arctic. I shall be working with Mark Williams and David Siveter to publish the non-palaeocopes from the same collection.

 

David Siveter

  • My research continues to focus on early Paleozoic ostracods (especially myodocopes and palaeocopes) and Cambrian (e.g., Chengjiang, China) and Silurian (Herefordshire, UK) lagerstatten. My recent publications include a paper on the third exceptionally preserved ostracod species to be described from the Herefordshire Lagerstatte, and a paper on bradorids with soft-parts from the Chengjiang Lagerstatte.
  • Since the last Cypris was published, Carys Bennett and Ma Xioaya have completed their PhD’s on early Carboniferous ostracods and vermiform fossils of the Cambrian Chengjiang biota respectively.
  • PhD students: David Riley is about to complete his thesis on the taphonomy of the Herefordshire Lagerstatte; Alison Takser is using microfossils to provenance tesserae from Roman Mosaics; and Mohibullah Kakar is researching the Ordovician ostracods of Scotland. The latter two studentships are co-supervised by my colleague Mark Willliams.

 

Robin Whatley

  • Still working on Indian Intertrappean and Lameta Formation non-marine Maastrichtian ostracods.
  • Preparing a large manuscript on English Callovian/Oxfordian ostracods.
  • Still working with colleagues in Argentina and Brazil on Recent marine and Mesozoic marine and non-marine ostracods.
  • Several papers in the pipeline on Indo-Pacific ostracods.
  • Working with an Australian colleague on projects of mutual interest.
  • Very sad about the untimely death of Eduardo Musacchio, who helped me a great deal when I was in Argentina.

 

 

UNITED STATES

Anne Cohen

I am working with Jim Morin on myodocopes.

 

Tom Cronin

Ongoing research:

  • Paleo-sea-ice reconstruction in the Arctic using Acetabulastoma (with W.M. Briggs Jr., E. Brouwers, A. Stepanova, and others).
  • Arctic Ocean Quaternary ostracod assemblages and deep circulation (with W.M. Briggs Jr., R. Poirier (student), L. Polyak (Ohio State University), and others.
  • Mg/Ca Krithe paleothermometry in shallow western Arctic (with G. Dwyer, J. Farmer) and deep Arctic (with G. Dwyer, W.M. Briggs Jr., and others)
  • Glacial lake drainage during Younger Dryas through St. Lawrence using benthic forams and Candona assemblages and stable isotopes (with J. Rayburn, D. Franzi, R. Thunell, P. Manley)
  • Holocene paleo-temperature and sea-level reconstruction using Loxoconcha Mg/Ca-based sea-surface temperature (with G. Dwyer, J. Farmer)
  • Bering Sea ostracod assemblages 1970 to present (with L. Gemery, L. Cooper, MEES Program University of Maryland)
  • Biscayne Bay, Florida ostracod stable isotopes and Mg/Ca ratios for late Holocene paleoclimate reconstruction
  • Update of Modern Arctic Ostracode Database (multiple contributors)

 

Ken Finger

  • Dawn Peterson assumed all of the ostracod work that came my way over the past eight years while I focused on the foraminifera, but her untimely passing in 2010 left me with her unfinished tasks on three studies that we shared:
    • Miocene of south-central coastal Chile
    • Late Pleistocene terraces in the Galapagos Islands
    • Polluted tidal lagoon in urban California.
  • Dawn had also been involved in research on the Frasassi Caves, Sulphur Springs, and Sentino River of Italy. All of her work was at some point of documentation for publication, so I intend to salvage her contributions. I am collaborating with Tadek Namiotko and others on finishing the Italian study.

 

George Hecht

  • I am a part-time research associate in the divisions of Invertebrate Paleontology and Zoology. Collections’ building is the priority, focusing on Florida fossils and Gulf Coast and Caribbean Eocene for Invertebrate Paleontology and South Florida and Florida for Invertebrate Zoology.
  • Projects include the fauna of Moorea, French Polynesia and a biodiversity survey of both marine and non-marine ostracods of Florida.

 

Gene Hunt

  • I continue to focus on body size evolution in relation to climate, and on exploring the evolution of epidermal cell arrangement as inferred from fossae distributions.

 

Louis Kornicker

  • Describing some cave myodocopids collected by Tom Iliffe.

 

Ajna S. Rivera

  • Assistant Professor, University of the Pacific
  • Research activities involve examining the developmental genetics and evolution of eye dimorphism in sarsielloid myodocopids.

 

Alison Smith

  • I am currently working on the North American Non-Marine Ostracode Database “NANODe” (www.kent.edu/NANODe) and preparing to upload much of it to the NEOTOMA database (Pliocene through recent nonmarine multi-proxy database for records of ostracodes, pollen, diatoms, and vertebrates, see www.neotomadb.org).
  • I will be running a workshop at EOM-7 in Graz, Austria this year with colleagues Dave Horne and Martin Gross on research initiatives in Quaternary and Recent nonmarine Ostracoda in the Northern Hemisphere.
  • My current projects include a study of the modern nonmarine species from the Florida Keys, groundwater taxa from Appalachian springs and aquifers, Beringian nonmarine ostracods of Lateglacial and early Holocene age, and Plio-Pleistocene records of paleolacustrine sites in western North America.
  • I had the pleasure to co-author last year with Denis Delorme on the ostracod chapter in Thorp and Coivich’s 3rd Edition of Ecology and Classification of North American Freshwater Invertebrates.

 

Carlos Andres Alvarez Zarikian

  • Continues planning and implementing scientific expeditions with the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). He recently came back from a 65 day expedition to the South Pacific Gyre that aimed to study the gyre’s subseafloor life and habitability. In the process, Carlos collected deep sea core samples for biostratigraphic and paleoceanographic work which he will carry out at selected sites that yielded carbonate sequences.
  • Continues to study deep sea ostracods from IODP Sites U1313 and U1314 in the North Atlantic, and benthic foraminifers and ostracods from IODP Sites U1339 and U1344 in the Bering Sea to reconstruct Pliocene-Pleistocene paleoceanographic changes in intermediate and deep water circulation.
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