[Aqualist] Australasian VP conference and Extinctions symposium

[Liz Reed]

10th Conference on Australasian Vertebrate Evolution Palaeontology and 
Systematics (CAVEPS)
and
Quaternary Extinctions Symposium

Naracoorte, South Australia, AUSTRALIA
March 29th to April 2nd 2005.

THIRD CIRCULAR AND CALL FOR PAPERS


BACKGROUND

The 10th CAVEPS will be held at the World Heritage listed Naracoorte Caves 
National Park and nearby Naracoorte township, approximately 340 km SE of 
Adelaide (capital city of South Australia), in the Limestone Coast region 
of South Australia.

CAVEPS is a biennial meeting of Australasian vertebrate palaeontologists. 
CAVEPS 2005 will consist of 3 days of general sessions including papers on 
all aspects of vertebrate palaeontology, followed by a 2 day symposium 
which will focus on Quaternary extinctions and dating applications. 
Included in the general sessions will be a special session on cave 
palaeontology which will be held in the historic Blanche Cave. In addition 
to the main sessions, a student forum will be held where students can 
present their project proposals or work in progress and benefit from 
professional input.

The conference will be held during the AVCC (Australian Vice Chancellors 
Commission) common vacation week and will begin on Tuesday 29th of March 
(Monday 28th is Easter Monday) and end on Saturday 2nd of April.

Organisational progress

The organisation of the 2005 CAVEPS and Quaternary Extinctions meeting is 
coming along very well with an overwhelming response to the second 
circular. To date there have been over 140 positive indications of 
attendance from Australasian and international scientists (representing the 
United Kingdom, France, The United States of America, Slovak Republic, 
Poland and Spain). We are particularly pleased to have received 
pre-registrations from several prominent international Quaternary 
extinction scientists and commitments from several eminent keynote 
speakers. This symposium will be a key gathering for those interested in 
the extinction 'debate'. The cave palaeontology session has also been 
extremely popular with noted researchers indicating attendance.

TENISON-WOODS Cave palaeontology session

The Naracoorte Caves National Park is a World Heritage listed fossil site, 
so it is appropriate that a session deals specifically with cave deposits. 
The final day of general sessions (Thursday 31st March) will be a special 
session focusing on cave palaeontology. It will explore the question - 
"What contribution have cave sites made to our understanding of vertebrate 
history". Convening this session will be Professor Ernest Lundelius, Dr 
Mike Augee, Dr Liz Reed and Mr Steven Bourne.

Contributions covering all aspects of cave palaeontology (eg. faunas, 
geology, site studies, taphonomy, dating) are invited.

The session will be dedicated to Reverend Julian Tenison-Woods who 
conducted the first palaeontological research at Naracoorte Caves during 
the mid 19th century. Tenison-Woods was an extraordinary scholar and 
scientist. He published widely on topics ranging from Tertiary 
invertebrates to Pleistocene cave deposits. In 1862, his book, Geological 
Observations in South Australia, Principally in the District Southeast of 
Adelaide was published in London. It contained the first published 
description of the Naracoorte Caves and the bone deposits contained within 
them. This session will be held in the spacious Blanche Cave, the site of 
Tenison-Wood's early investigations.

QUATERNARY EXTINCTIONS SYMPOSIUM

A two day thematic symposium exploring Quaternary extinctions will follow 
the general and cave sessions. Papers are invited for this symposium which 
will cover a wide range of relevant topics including: dating and extinction 
chronologies, causes and patterns of extinction, significant site studies, 
background and review studies, island extinctions and modern extinctions. 
Keynote speaker for the Extinction symposium will be Professor Anthony 
Barnosky from the University of California at Berkeley. Professor Barnosky 
and colleagues recently published a review of Late Pleistocene extinctions 
in Science (306: 70-75).

It has been nearly eight years since the last Extinction symposium in 
Australia and there has been a lot of new research since then. There has 
been a high level of interest in the 2005 symposium with many eminent 
international extinction scientists indicating they will attend. This 
symposium will offer an excellent opportunity for those interested in 
Quaternary extinctions to present their research and discuss issues with 
the leaders in the field. The proceedings volume will include a thematic 
series from the symposium providing a forum for delegates to publish papers 
covering a range of extinction topics in a single volume.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Papers are invited for CAVEPS 2005 and the Quaternary Extinctions 
Symposium. Papers on any aspect of vertebrate palaeontology are welcome for 
the general sessions eg. systematics and taxonomy, functional morphology, 
evolution, palaeoecology, palaeobiogeography, chronology, taphonomy, 
stratigraphy and sedimentology (of fossil sites), fossil preparation, 
fossil site studies. Papers are also invited for the Cave palaeontology 
session (see information elsewhere in this circular). The first session of 
the opening day will cover fossil-based tourism, education, fossil site 
management, preservation and interpretation; papers are invited for this 
session.

Papers are invited for the Quaternary Extinctions symposium. This symposium 
will cover a wide range of relevant topics including: dating and extinction 
chronologies, causes and patterns of extinction, significant site studies, 
background and reviews, island extinctions, modern extinctions.

Students are strongly encouraged to participate and make presentations. 
There will be student prizes for spoken papers and posters.

THIRD CIRCULAR

This posting provides only a brief summary of the latest circular. For full 
details regarding CAVEPS 2005 and the Extinctions Symposium please go to 
http://www.environment.sa.gov.au/parks/naracoorte/events.html where the 
complete third circular, registration form and other important documents 
are available for download. Due to the size of the files we have not 
attached them to this email, but if you are having trouble downloading them 
please contact the organisers.

Thank you


CAVEPS 2005, Naracoorte, South Australia.

Contact:
Liz Reed                     email:   liz.reed at flinders.edu.au
or Steven Bourne         email:   Bourne.Steven at saugov.sa.gov.au

Formal postal address: CAVEPS 2005
                         c/- Naracoorte Caves National Park, PO Box 134, 
Naracoorte South Australia 5271, AUSTRALIA

Phone: +61 (08) 8762 3412   Fax: +61 (08) 8762 1231