Zemes un vides zinātnes Earth and Environment Sciences - Latvijas ...

12 ADVANCES IN PALAEOICHTHYOLOGY
The oral and poster presentations were, already traditionally, focused on the early
vertebrates, mostly from the Silurian to Carboniferous, but some presentations touched
also the Ordovician, Permian, Mesozoic and Cenozoic fish study results. Emphasis
was put on morphology, aspects of evolution, biogeography and stratigraphic importance
of chondrichthyans, sarcopterygians and tetrapods, thelodonts, and placoderms. Some
presentations were focused on stratigraphic importance of the vertebrate assemblages,
as well as on biostratigraphic subdivision of the Silurian and Devonian. Several
workshops took place during the symposium, and researchers of sarcopterygians and
tetrapods established a new research group to coordinate studies of these organisms
particularly important in evolution of vertebrates, to find out fish-tetrapod relation links
and to promote studies of their palaeoecology and palaeogeography. 27 oral presentations
and 32 posters clearly showed that authority of W. Gross has not been decreased after
his passing away, but his highly put standards on description of the vertebrate microfossils
will have an effect on the micropalaeontology and palaeoichthyology for long time.
This volume of Acta Universitatis Latviensis comprises the papers submitted by
participants of the symposium. I hope that the reader will find the papers interesting
and important, because a part of them include descriptions of new taxa from insufficiently
studied groups, as well as include results of continuous studies carried out in the Baltic
States and their neighbouring countries.
Acknowledgements. – We are very grateful to the University of Latvia for financial support and
opportunity to publish these papers as a special volume of Acta Universitatis Latviensis. Large
financial support was provided also by contribution of IUGS IGCP Project no. 491 (leader Dr.
Zhu Min), Natural History Museum of Latvia, and meeting receipts. The meeting was made
possible through organizational support from members of the Organization Committee A. Ceriņa,
L. Lukševiča, E. Lukševičs, T. Märss, H.-P. Schultze, Ģ. Stinkulis, I. Upeniece, A. Zabele, I.
Zupiņš. The assembly of a volume takes a large amount of work and the Guest Editor of the
volume (E. L.) would like to thank the following individuals for reviewing the papers that are
published here: Alain Blieck, Henning Blom, Carole Burrow, Jennifer A. Clack, Edward Daeschler,
David K. Elliott, Alexander Ivanov, Phylipp Janvier, Valentina Karatajūte-Talimaa, Tiiu Märss,
Ģirts Stinkulis, Susan Turner, Mark V.H. Wilson, Gavin C. Young.
Literatura
Gross W. 1931. Asterolepis ornata Eichw. und das Antiarchi-Problem. Palaeontographica, Bd.
75: 1-62.
Gross W. 1933. Die Fische des Baltischen Devons. Palaeontographica, Bd. 79, A: 1-74.
Gross W. 1940. Acanthodier und Placodermen aus Heterostius-schichten Estlands und Lettlands.
Ann. Soc. Reb. Natur. Invest. Univer. Tartu, Bd. 46: 1-89.
Gross W. 1941. Die Bothriolepis-arten der Cellulosa-mergel Lettlands. Kungl. Svenska
Vetenskaps-akademiens Handlingar, 19 (5): 1-79.
Gross W. 1974. Kirchspiel un pastorat Roop in Südlivland 1907-1917. W. Gross, Tübingen. 61
S.
Lukševičs E. 2002. Valteram Grosam – 100. Dabas un Vēstures kalendārs 2003. Rīga, Zinātne.
212.-219. lpp.
Schultze H.-P. 1996. Walter R. Gross, a palaeontologist in the turmoil of 20th century Europe.
Modern Geology, 20: 209-233.
Turner S. 1988. International Palaeozoic microvertebrate correlation programme. Ichthyolith
Issues, 1: 2.