This year the annual meeting of the Palaeontological Association moved to the Mediterranean City of Valencia, organised by Dr. Carlos Martinez-Perez and his colleagues.
Three days of talks and posters were preceded by an excursion to the Palaeozoic rocks of the Iberian chains and followed by a day trip to the Miocene rocks of the Alicante region. The first day was devoted to a workshop on analytical techniques for the investigation of fossils and Maria McNamara (University College Cork) presented the annual address on taphonomy.
There was a strong presence of members of IGCP 653 throughout the conference, and on the first night some 25 project members met at a local restaurant to discuss aspects of the programme and enjoy some good food and wine from the region. Many young, early-career researchers attended together with a number of stalwarts of Lower Palaeozoic research. And later in the final, plenary session of the conference, two project leaders, Harper and Servais together with Cascales-Minana presented their own take on Early Palaeozoic diversity.
It was a wonderful setting for the annual conference, and a great opportunity to present some of our results from IGCP 653.
-synopsis by D.A.T. Harper, photos by Juan Carlos Gutiérrez Marco
