Pander Society Newsletter

Chief Panderer’s Remarks Welcome to the 2012 edition of the Pander Society Newsletter, my third attempt at providing news and a list of conodont publications for the past year! We have again enjoyed formal and informal meetings of the Society. Please let me know about even the smallest ‘get-togethers’. Also, do send me copies of any relevant documents and photographs for addition to the Archive (historical record) that continues to build up. Conodont research has continued to flourish but there were 88 non-responses to my request for brief reports on research activities. I hope this does not reflect a decline in active membership. All contributions were very welcome, but we would like to have information (even including reminiscences) from those who feel their achievement may have been minimal. I am aware that we are overwhelmed by increasing teaching commitments, and by pressing demands from other groups to which we belong. But we are also Panderers, and I hope proud to belong to our Society, becoming more active, communicative and ready to exchange information, using Con-nexus, and the Pander Society's mailing list as well as the newsletter. Even a small contribution may help many of the conodont community to be better informed and, above all, united. I am happy to report that Con-nexus seems to have taken on a new life. It is a wonderful medium for airing ideas. During the many years I have been a member of the Pander Society I have felt that, overall, our membership has been decreasing. There are doubtless many reasons for this. I remain enthusiastic and optimistic and hope you have similar feelings, even when financial support for palaeontological research may be declining. Enthusiasm and a sense of belonging to a group develop when you have the opportunity to meet up with colleagues. Because our average age has been increasing, we especially welcome new recruits. The appeal I sent earlier this year proved fruitful―it resulted in 20 new Pander Society colleagues. I thank those who have urged partners in work, as well as masters and PhD students to join. I also thank all those who sent changes of addresses and e-mails of colleagues I could not contact for a long time, but that I was reluctant to remove from the mailing list. Even such simple collaboration helps keep the group together. Computer hackers have continued to be very active during the past year and have caused many colleagues to change their e-mail addresses. Please inform me when this occurs. A major blow to conodontology was the passing of Charles Collinson on 25 November ― see Obituary by Gilbert Klapper. The prospect of an informal meeting of the Society in association with the International Geological Congress in Brisbane on 5–15 August 2012 faded away; there were too few starters. The only official Pander Society meeting was one held in Dayton, Ohio, in association with the Annual Meeting of the North-Central Section of the Geological Society of America in April 2012. Non-official meetings occurred in association with International Subcommissions on Stratigraphy, IGCP 591 and IGCP 596 projects, and the meeting organised in memory of Tim Tozer during the Canadian Paleontology Conference in Vancouver, last August. Large-scale scientific monographs continue becoming harder to get published; ‘salami’ publication is flourishing. Despite little notice being taken conference abstracts, do not hesitate to send citations for these ephemera for incorporation into our consolidated list of publications. Thank you for sending in your contributions; it is always a pleasure to interact with anyone enamoured of conodonts! Thanks also to Suzanna Garcia-Lopez, John Repetsky and Wang Cheng-Yuan for deliberating on nominations for the Society's medals. I am also very grateful to webmaster Mark Purnell (Leicester) who volunteered a few years ago to load the newsletter onto the web. I am always grateful to Myriam Matteucci, an old friend from university days and even earlier, and to Claudia Spalletta for helping Myriam and me get this newsletter down the ‘chute. Special thanks go to Myriam for enormous help in stitching together the entire bibliography and providing the version in EndNote of this year’s entries, now available on the Pander Society website. Thanks also to John Talent who ran his eye over the newsletter and, as he says, “eliminated a few lumpy areas”. I remind you that during ICOS-3 in Argentina in July 2013, where I hope to meet most of you, my term as Chief Panderer will expire. A new Chief Panderer will need to be appointed. Please reply when you are asked for nominations. Best wishes to all of you and, I hope, brilliant results from your research that I look forward to reporting in my final newsletter! Maria Cristina Perri, Chief Panderer