Annual Report 2009 of the Calcareous Nannofossils Working Group

During this first year the Paleogene calcareous nannofossil working group has organized several meetings:
-November 2008 at the University College of London under the banner of INA and the ISPS hosted by Paul Bown. During the meeting, attended by around 20 participants, we have agreed on the general aims of the WG: the first one is to develop a taxonomic atlas and at the same time populate the Nannotax web resource and the second one is to address Paleogene nannofossil biostratigraphy. Furthermore, it has been discussed a list of objectives that should be implemented: 1.- A list of species for input into Nannotax (but also to be used as a basis for the IODP Paleogene expeditions). 2.- Once the species list is in Nannotax, we will then add information and images into Nannotax (initially focussing on the principal biostratigraphic marker species and dominant taxa). The information to include a short description, maximum and mininum age data, names of variants. 3.- A case study on the taxonomy of the reticulofenestrids (?+Prinsius and Toweius). 4.- A Paleogene calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy revisited. 5.- A PalNWG meeting/presentation at the Houston Microfossil Meeting March 2009.
-A meeting of the Paleogene Nannofossil Working Group was held in Padova (NE Italy) at the beginning of 2009, hosted by Claudia Agnini and attended by 9 members. This short session was mainly focused on the calcareous nannofossil Paleogene biostratigraphy and taxonomy. In particular, was generated a taxonomic list for the entire Cenozoic to be entered in the new IODP dataset system for the future IODP Expeditions (i.e. 320-321 Equatorial Pacific Expeditions). In addition, was extensively discussed about the present status of early Paleogene calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy, the available dataset and unpublished results and the possibility to improve the standard zonations (NP; Martini, 1971- Okada & Bukry, 1980). Finally, was produced a biostratigraphic and biochronologic scheme for the entire Cenozoic based on most recent and reliable data to be used as a common language for calcareous nannofossil specialist and also entered in the IODP dataset system.
– A workshop on Paleogene calcareous nannofossils has been organized at Houston in March 2009, hosted by Mike Styzen. The workshop was well attended and productive.  The participants examined the species list compiled by PalNWG and discussed issues at the generic and specific levels.

Report by Simonetta Monechi, Chairwoman.