1 Centre for Palynology Newsletter 2 December 2012 Editorial There was a very positive response to the first Centre for Palynology newsletter that was distributed at the end of 2011. Consequently we will continue with this venture and a second edition has been prepared for 2012. We hope you find it informative and an enjoyable read. Several alumni suggested we initiate a ‘where are they now?’ feature. So if you would like to let colleagues know where you now are and what you are doing, please send me a short paragraph that I can incorporate into the next edition. Furthermore, we still need to track down various alumni. So if you know of someone who is not on the distribution list please ask them to e-mail Charles Wellman with their details ([email protected]). In this issue we also have details of the upcoming Sheffield Geology reunion that will take place in September (details on p.8). It is hoped that there will be a strong contingent of palynologists at this event. Current Sheffield palynologists. From left to right: Sam Slater, Simon Wallace, Steph Wood, Steve Ellin and Charles Wellman (Faisal Abuhmida, Jenny Morris and Bernard Owens were not available for the photo shoot)
10
Embed
Centre for Palynology Newsletter 2 - University of Sheffield/file/... · 2013. 2. 11. · Bernard Owens was internal examiner and Stewart Molyneux (British Geological Survey) the
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
1
Centre for Palynology Newsletter 2
December 2012
Editorial
There was a very positive response to the first Centre for Palynology newsletter that was distributed
at the end of 2011. Consequently we will continue with this venture and a second edition has been
prepared for 2012. We hope you find it informative and an enjoyable read. Several alumni suggested
we initiate a ‘where are they now?’ feature. So if you would like to let colleagues know where you
now are and what you are doing, please send me a short paragraph that I can incorporate into the
next edition. Furthermore, we still need to track down various alumni. So if you know of someone
who is not on the distribution list please ask them to e-mail Charles Wellman with their details
([email protected]). In this issue we also have details of the upcoming Sheffield Geology
reunion that will take place in September (details on p.8). It is hoped that there will be a strong
contingent of palynologists at this event.
Current Sheffield palynologists. From left to right: Sam Slater, Simon Wallace, Steph Wood, Steve Ellin and Charles
Wellman (Faisal Abuhmida, Jenny Morris and Bernard Owens were not available for the photo shoot)
Doreen Mkuu was awarded a M.Phil. following her viva voce exam in October. Doreen’s thesis was
entitled “The palynology of Paleogene sediments from southern coastal Tanzania”. Doreen’s
research was funded by the Tanzanian Petroleum Development Corporation and she was supervised
by Charles Wellman. Bernard Owens was internal examiner and Guy Harringtom (University of
Birmingham) the external examiner. Doreen has returned to Tanzania and continues her work with
the Tanzanian Petroleum Development Corporation.
Brian Pedder was awarded a Ph.D. following his viva voce exam in December. Brian’s thesis was entitled “The Palynology of the Cambrian Nolichucky Shale at Thorn Hill, Tennessee, USA”. Brian’s research was funded by a NERC Open CASE award with the Natural History Museum, London. He was jointly supervised by Charles Wellman and Suzanne Feist-Burkhardt and Tim Potter at the NHM, London. Bernard Owens was internal examiner and Stewart Molyneux (British Geological Survey) the external examiner. Brian is now at Cambridge University working with Nick Butterfield and Thomas Harvey.
Janine Pendleton was awarded a Ph.D. following her viva voce exam in October. Janine’s thesis was
entitled “Palynological and palaeobotanical investigation of the Carboniferous deposits of the Bristol
Coalfield, UK: biostratigraphy, systematics and palaeoecology”. Janine’s research was funded by a
NERC CASE award with the National Museum Wales, Cardiff. She was jointly supervised by Charles
Wellman and Chris Cleal of the National Museum Wales. Bernard Owens was internal examiner and
Geoff Clayton (Trinity College Dublin) the external examiner. Janine is now working with Petrostrat.
Brian cutting his graduation cake
…a cake with a giant chocolate trilobite on top!
3
Current Ph.D.s
Ph.D. students in palynology as of 2012. From left to right: Steph Wood, Sam Slater, Simon Wallace (Faisal Abuhmida
was not available for the photo shoot)
Faisal Abuhmida is in the fourth and final year of his Ph.D. working on the palynology of the
Ordovician-Silurian of the Murzuk Basin, Libya. Faisal’s research is funded by the Libyan Petroleum
Institute and is supervised by Charles Wellman.
Simon Wallace is in the fourth and final year of his Ph.D. research working on the molecular genetics
of spore wall formation in the extant model plant (moss) Physcomitrella. He is jointly supervised by
Andy Fleming, Charles Wellman and David Beerling (all of the Dept. of Animal & Plant Sciences of the
University of Sheffield). Simon’s research forms an exciting collaboration between the palynological
and molecular research in the department.
Sam Slater is in the second year of his Ph.D. research project. Sam is working on Middle Jurassic
terrestrial palynology based on a mixture of classic UK sites, offshore North Sea Basin material and
comparative material from the Southern Hemisphere. Sam’s Ph.D. is a NERC CASE award with Shell
and is jointly supervised by Charles Wellman and Iain Prince and Kat Burgess of Shell.
Steph Wood commenced her Ph.D. research in October. She is working on Jurassic-Cretaceous
palynology of the Gulf of Mexico. Steph’s Ph.D. is a NERC Open CASE award with Shell and is jointly
supervised by Charles Wellman and Iain Prince and Kat Burgess of Shell.
4
Undergraduate teaching
This year six undergraduate students selected palaeontology for their Level 3 project topic. They
were given four extremely rare examples of tiny dispersed seeds recovered from coals from the
Forest of Dean coalfield. Ted Spinner discovered the seeds during his many hours of megaspore
picking from the Forest of Dean coals. The students examined them using light and scanning electron
microscopy before sectioning them for light microscope analysis of their gross structure and
transmission electron microscope analysis of their wall ultrastructure. This detailed analysis
confirmed the seed status of the fossils but the biological affinities of these tiny seeds remain
elusive.
There is a single Level 4 masters student studying palaeontology this year. Georgia Mills is
investigating the palynology of the fish ‘scales’ that occasionally turn up in palynological
preparations. She has taken complete thelodont fish, from the Silurian inliers of the Midland Valley
of Scotland, and gently dissolved them. Sure enough the organic lining of the denticles survive the
process intact and she is in the process of picking these and examining them using light, scanning
and transmission electron microscopy. The denticles are of variable morphology within the fish and
can be mapped onto denticle patterns documented by fish workers. Interestingly different fish taxa
can be identified based on their denticles and consequently they make a useful palaeobiological
tool. Furthermore, denticles are used in biostratigraphy, and thus their palynology may be of some
biostratigraphical value (although they tend to be fairly rare in standard palynological preparations).
The 2012 Palaeontological Association undergraduate prize was awarded to Kimberley Mullins.
Kimberley performed well in all of her undergraduate palaeontology modules. She performed
particularly well in her Level 3 project which involved a study of dispersed plant cuticles from
Permian deposits from Nottingham.
Kimberley Mullins, winner of the 2012 Palaeontological Association undergraduate prize, photographed next to the
Titanites giganteus specimen collected by P. C. Sylvester Bradley in 1947
5
New Arrivals
Welcome to Dr Jenny Morris who has joined us on a three-year post. doc. Jenny is working on a
NERC standard grant “Evolutionary rise of deep-rooting forests and enhanced chemical weathering:
quantitative investigations into the current paradigm”. Jenny joins us from Cardiff University where
she undertook a Ph.D. and post. doc. working on Lower Devonian Lower Old Red Sandstone
palynology, palaeobotany and sedimentology. Jenny was supervised by Dianne Edwards and John
Richardson.
Jenny Morris getting to know the microscopes in the new collections room
Laboratory News
There have been no major changes on the lab front with Steve Ellin continuing to run the lab and
train the incoming Ph.D. students.
Collections News
Following the clearance of Dainton Building the collections have been relocated to the Alfred Denny
Building. We are fortunate to have been given the large laboratory directly opposite Charles
Wellman’s office on C-floor. The room now houses all of the slide collections, the microscopes and
all of the theses. It is ideal for students and visitors who can peruse the theses in comfort and
examine and photograph relevant slides. We continue with the time consuming task of assembling
an electronic catalogue of all the stored materials.
Library news
The library has also been relocated to the Alfred Denny Building. It continues to grow and this year
saw a significant donation of reprints, books and theses from Rex Harland.
6
Congratulations to:-
Professor Charles Wellman who was promoted to a personal chair in January. Charles was also
elected as the new president of the International Federation of Palynological Societies (IFPS) and
commenced this 4-year role at the International Palynological Congress in Tokyo, Japan in August.
Publications 2012
Falcon-Lang, H. J., Cleal, C. J., Pendleton, J. L. & Wellman, C. H. 2012. Pennsylvanian (mid/late Bolsovian-Asturian ) permineralised plant assemblages of the Pennant Sandstone Formation of southern Britain: Systematics and palaeoecology. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 173, 23-45.
Kenrick, P., Wellman, C. H., Schneider, H. & Edgecombe, G. D. 2012. A timeline for Terrestrialization: consequences for the Carbon Cycle in the Palaeozoic. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 367, 519-536.
Pendleton, J. L., Cleal, C. J., Falcon-Lang, H. J., Wagner, R. H. & Wellman, C. H. 2012. Palaeobotany of the Pennsylvanian (mid-Bolsovian – Cantabrian; Moscovian) Warwickshire Group of the Bristol Coalfield, UK: Biostratigraphy and palaeoecology. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 179, 17-43.
Potter, T. L., Pedder, B. E. & Feist-Burkhardt, S. 2012. Cambrian Furongian Series acritarchs from the Comley area, Shropshire, England. Journal of Micropalaeontology 31, 1-28.
Wellman, C. H., Zhu, H., Marshall, J. E. A., Wang, Y., Berry, C. M. & Xu, H. 2012. Spore assemblages from the Lower Devonian Xujiachong Formation from Qujing, Yunnan, China. Palaeontology 55, 583-611.
Xu, H.-H., Marshall, J. E. A., Berry, C. M., Wang, Y., Zhu, H.-C. & Wellman, C. H. 2012. Mid Devonian megaspores from Yunnan and North Xinjiang, China: Their palaeogeographical and palaeoenvironmental significances. Palaeoworld 21, 11-19.
Meetings attended 2012
Members of the Centre for Palynology have attended a number of meetings this year and presented
a variety of talks and posters (many of you will have witnessed these). These are listed below:-
AASP-The Palynological Society 45th
Annual Meeting (Kentucky, USA) [Wellman]
International Palynological Congress/International Organization of Palaeobotany Congress (Tokyo, Japan)
[Abuhmida, Pendleton, Slater, Wellman]
Linnean Society Palaeobotany Specialist Group Annual Meeting (London, UK) [Slater, Wellman]
Linnean Society Palynology Specialist Group Annual Meeting (London, UK) [Slater, Wellman]