Abstract
Abstract. INTRODUCTION (F. JOHN GREGORY)To commemorate the publication of the 25th Volume of the Journal of Micropalaeontology, the first issue of which came out in 1982, this celebratory review article was commissioned. Officers of each TMS Group (Ostracod, Foraminifera, Palynology, Nannofossil, Microvertebrate and Silicofossil) were requested to reflect over the last 25 years and assess the major advances and innovations in each of their disciplines. It is obvious from the presentations that all Groups report that research has moved on from the basic, but essential descriptive phase, i.e. taxonomy and establishing biostratigraphies, to the utilization of new technologies and application to issues of the day such as climate change and global warming. However, we must not lose sight of the fact that the foundation of micropalaeontology is observation and the building block for all these new and exciting innovations and developments is still good taxonomy. Briefly, the most obvious conclusion that can be drawn from this review is that micropalaeontology as a science is in relatively good health, but we have to ensure that the reported advancements will sustain and progress our discipline. There is one issue that has not really been highlighted in these contributions – we need to make sure that there are enough people being trained in micropalaeontology to maintain development. The last 25 years has seen a dramatic decrease in the number of post-graduate MSc courses in micropalaeontology. For example, in the UK, in the 1980s and early 1990s there were five specific MSc courses to choose . . .
Highlights
Looking back over 25 years of foraminiferal research from a personal point of view is a daunting task
Actualistic understanding of foraminiferal ecology provided the justification for use of their shells for stable isotope and trace metal analyses and changed the field of foraminiferal research
Readers may be interested in the highest cited paper using foraminifers during the last 25 years. Some may think it unimportant, but for those of you who do consider it important – the winning paper, with 642 citations, is by Nick Shackleton and colleagues (1990) on the ‘Astronomical calibration of the Lower Pleistocene Timescale based on Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 677’
Summary
The Microvertebrate Group includes researchers interested in the Palaeozoic fossil record of vertebrates as revealed by their tiny scales, teeth and bone fragments extracted from rock samples. Stratigraphic work has already shown distinctive patterns of radiolarian response to mass-extinction events at both the KT (Hollis, 1997) and PT boundaries (Kamata et al, 2006) As tools such as databases and higher-level taxonomy improve, understanding the evolutionary mechanisms behind macroevolutionary patterns will be a major opportunity for new research in the decades. Diatom palaeoecology and isotope studies During the past 15 years, major progress has been made in the application of diatoms to estimate past marine and fresh-water environmental conditions. This includes demonstrating the utility of diatoms as indicators of environmental parameters, including temperature, salinity, productivity regimes, sea ice, water chemistry and water level, and developing extensive reference datasets supporting quantitative reconstructions via transfer functions techniques
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