Report of the 3rd European Ostracodologists Meeting, Bierville (Paris, France), July 8-12, 1996

After the Frankfurt (1989) and Glasgow (1993) meetings, France welcomed the third edition of this meeting, organized by the team of the Pierre and Marie Curie University (Paris). The 3rd EOM took place in Bierville (Essone) from 8th to 12th July, 1996. Not less than 99 ostracodologists from 22 countries attended (Australia-1, Austria-2, Belgium-3, Canada-1, France-21, Germany-14, Hungary-1, Israel-1, Italy-12, Luxembourg-1, Madagascar-1, The Netherlands-1, New Zealand-1, Poland-4, Portugal-2, Russia-5, Slovenia-1, Spain-6, Switzerland-1, Tunisia-1, Turkey-2, United Kingdom-16).

The meeting started on Monday, July 8th in the afternoon, with a workshop on Recent and Fossil Timiriaseviinae, organized by Dan Danielopol (Mondsee), Pierre Carbonel (Bordeaux), and Koen Martens (Brussels). The next day there was a field trip to the Paris Basin. The following sites were visited: Vigny (Campanian and Danian), Limay (Sparnacian), Villiers-Saint-Frederic (Lutetian), and Auvers St. Georges (Stampian). This visit allowed participants to sample certain stratigraphical levels, well known for their rich ostracod diversity.

On Tuesday evening, the annual meeting of the French-speaking and German-speaking ostracodologists took place.

The scientific sessions started on Wednesday, 10th, in the morning and lasted till July 12 noon. Most communications were of a high scientific standard and the subsequent discussions profitable for all who attended. It was noteworthy that during this meeting, many biologists were present. A special session (Wednesday afternoon) was devoted to the theme "Evolutionary Ecology of Reproductive Modes in Non-Marine Ostracods".

Of the 46 oral communications, 14 were on Recent ostracods, 7 on Quaternary, 6 on Tertiary, 5 on Cretaceous, 2 on Jurassic, 1 on Triassic, 7 on Paleozoic, and 4 on evolutionary topics. Two further workshops took place on Wednesday evening: "Mass extinction and ostracods" (organized by Francis, Lethiers, Paris) and "Homologizing Trachyleberidacean ornament (reticulation analyses, cell genealogies, etc.)" by A. Liebau, Germany. In addition, 35 posters were presented during the meeting and discussions around them were animated!

Thursday evening was reserved for an extensive banquet (we were, after all, in France), followed by a Jazz concert by Eric Braccini and his group. After their excellent and very professional performance, several other ostracod workers showed that musical talent and ostracod science are perfectly compatible: Mrs. Rosenfeld, Dave Horne, Jean-Francois Babinot, Nick Aladin, Claudio Belis (all closely supervised by Gioacchino Bonaduce!) gave excellent interpretations of old and new songs.

The closing session took place on Friday afternoon, and was preceded by the meeting of the European Ostracodologists Group. A report of topics discussed during this meeting is here added. The participants were afterwards received in the Pierre et Marie Curie University (Paris) for a cocktail and that really ended this meeting.

Report of the business meeting:

1. The new president and vice-president were selected (Sylvie Crasquin, Paris and Koen Martens, Brussels, resp.)

2. It was agreed that the next meeting (in 1999) will take place in the Cukurova University in Adana (Turkey). Sylvie has received the official invitation from the Dean of Cukurova University, at the beginning of September.

3. The problem of alternating European and International meetings was discussed and it was suggested that both meetings could be organized every four years, so that an alternation with 2 year gaps could be reached (much like the European and World Championships for Soccer--comment of the vice-president). A majority of the participants were in favour of this proposal, which will thus be submitted to the business meeting of IRGO at ISO 97 in Chatham.

4. Robin Whatley then communicated the concern of several non-European ostracodologists about the role and function of the European Ostracodologists Group (EOG) versus the International Research Group on Ostracoda (IRGO) and their respective meetings. It was thought useful to stres again that IRGO remains the sole international representative body of all ostracod workers and that at no time was the institution of EOG and the organization of the EO meetings intended as competition for IRGO. But, as there are about 100 ostracod workers in Europe and as funding for overseas trips to conferences is increasingly difficult to obtain, it was deemed useful to organize meetings so that European colleagues could meet regularly and relatively cheaply, even when the IRGO conference was organized in Japan, Australia, or the USA. One could thus see the organization of the EO meetings as primarily functional and for logistical reasons. It was stressed that EVERYBODY is most welcome to attend these EOM meetings, and that invitations for these meetings were sent world-wide, apart from being put on Ostracon. People who did not receive an invitation and who are interested to participate in the Turkey meeting are asked to communicate this to Sylvie Crasquin.

Filament complexes in Oocytes of Cypridopsis vidua

In earlier investigations on oocytes in the growing phase in Cypridopsis vidua, we found solid-appearing filaments of an overall diameter of about 25 cm (Zissler, 1993; Oocytes in Freshwater Ostracoda, Cypris 11). These filaments are always aggregated in specific complexes. These complexes are reminescent of the configurations of filaments found in the egg and pole cells as well as the spermatocytes of the midge Chironomas anthracimus (Zissler, D. and Sander, K., 1982, The cytoplasmic architecture of the insect cell, in Insect Ultrastructure, vol. 1, J.R. King and H. Akai, eds., Plenum Press, p. 189-221).

While the individual filaments in the Chironomid cells are located in between ER-cisternae, the filaments in Cypridopsis oocytes sometimes are separated from each other by thin lamellae resembling half unit membranes. In Cypridopsis ovaries, we now have identified cell bridges between the large oocytes and the small trophocytes. Parallel to the longitudinal axis these bridges are filled with filaments of the above described character. The filament complexes probably function as a cytoskeleton to maintain the transporting channels between both cell types.