IGCP 491 meeting 
"Middle Palaeozoic vertebrates of Laurussia: relationships with Siberia, Kazakhstan, Asia and Gondwana”
in conjunction with the 6th Baltic Stratigraphical Conference

St. Petersburg, Russia, August 22-25, 2005

SECOND CIRCULAR

The IGCP meeting and Baltic Stratigraphical Conference will be held in St. Petersburg, August 22-25, 2005: the IGCP meeting at the St. Petersburg University (Universitetskaya nab. 7/9 and 16 Liniya 29), the Baltic Stratigraphical Conference at A.P. Karpinsky All-Russian Geological Research Institute (VSEGEI, Sredniy prospect 74). Registration and evening ice-breaking party are planned for August 22, scientific sessions, workshops, and an IGCP 491 business meeting – for August 23-25. Two pre-conference field trips (A - Lower Palaeozoic and Quaternary; B - Carboniferous) would take place on August 19-21, post-conference field trip (Devonian) - on August 26-28.

Organisers
The IGCP meeting is organised by the Department of Palaeontology, St. Petersburg University, the Baltic Stratigraphical Conference and field trips – by the St. Petersburg University and A.P. Karpinsky All-Russian Geological Research Institute. 

Language
The official language of the conference is English.

Oral Presentations: It is planned that for each presentation will be allocated 20 minutes including discussion time. 
Poster Presentations: Posters will be presented on the separate session. Posters should be designed for a space not larger than 100 x 120 cm.

Abstracts 
Participants are invited to submit abstracts for both oral and poster presentations (details below). An abstract volume will be published as a Special Publication of Ichthyolith Issues.
Extended abstracts should be submitted before February 10th, 2005 and sent by e-mail as attachment files. The text in English should not exceed four A4 pages, including line drawing illustrations and references. Text should be written using 12p Times New Roman font, the margins should be 1.5 cm at top and bottom and 2.5 cm left and right, single-spaced and not justified. Please, send the text as RTF format, illustrations as TIFF or BMP format (preferably not exceeding 300 dpi). If you use special or national letters, please send a hard copy also. 
The abstract volume will be available at the meeting.

Abstract example:
NEW DATA ON OSTEOSTRACAN MICROREMAINS FROM THE SILURIAN
OF SEVERNAYA ZEMLYA, RUSSIA

afanassieva, Olga 1, marss, Tiiu 2
1 - Paleontological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya str. 123, Moscow, Russia; oafan@paleo.ru
2 - Institute of Geology at Tallinn Technical University, Estonia Ave. 7, Tallinn, Estonia; marss@gi.ee

The osteostracans from the Silurian deposits of the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago have not been adequately studied so far. Osteostracans here are represented by very rare shields or their parts, and by more abundant microfragments of the exoskeleton extracted from the rocks by acetic acid treatment. Only a single complete cephalothoracic shield of Tremataspis obruchevi Afanassieva & Karatajute-Talimaa (1998) from the Silurian Ust-Spokoinaya Formation was described. A few microfragments were preliminary identified as Tremataspis sp., Thyestes sp. and Oeselaspis sp. by Karatajute-Talimaa (Klubov, Kachanov & Karatajute-Talimaa, 1980; Karatajute-Talimaa et al., 1986).

References
Afanassieva, O. B. & Karatajute-Talimaa, V. N. 1997. New data on osteostracans from Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago. Ichthyolith Issues Special Publication 2: 10.
Afanassieva, O. B. & Karatajute-Talimaa, V. N. 1998. New osteostracans (Agnatha) from the Silurian and Lower Devonian of the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago (Russia). Paleontologicheskiy Zhurnal 6: 60-64 [in Russian].
Karatajute-Talimaa, V. N. 1978. Telodonty Silura i Devona SSSR i Shpitsbergena [Silurian and Devonian Thelodonts of the USSR and Spitsbergen]. “Mokslas”, Vilnius, 334 pp. [in Russian].

Visa requirements

If you need the official invitation for the Russian visa, please sent by e-mail the following data:
A.	Passport copy: the copy of two first pages of the passport containing personal data, photograph and information about the duration of the passport validity is required 
B.	Personal information:
1.	Surname
2.	First name (full)
3.	Middle name (if present in passport)
4.	Date of birth
5.	Sex
6.	Citizenship (in case you have more than one, please note)
7.	Country of birth
8.	Place of birth
9.	Country and region of constant living
10.	Country and city in which you will obtain visa
11.	Full name and address of the institution
12.	Position in the institution
13.	Passport number
14.	Data of issue/expire date

Registration fee

Payments in Euros:
Registration fee:                          110 EUR                                          130 EUR.
		(before February 10, 2005) 		(after February 10, 2005)
The registration fee will entitle you to the admittance to the conference, one copy of the abstract volume and program, ice-breaking party and coffee breaks. The registration fee also covers visa support expenses. It does not include daily meals, lodging or the conference dinner.
Methods of payment:
Payment should be transferred to the account № 42301840701009118140 of the Baltiyskiy Bank, St. Petersburg, Russia; SWIFT code: BABJ RU 2P, via correspondent account № 04-097-778; With Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, New York, USA, SWIFT code: BKTRUS33. 
Please, send by e-mail the confirmation of your payment.

Accommodation

The following hotels are located a short way of VSEGEI:

Hotel	Class 
of 
hotel	Price of single room per night	Price of double room per night	Break-
fast
	Booking	Visa regist-
ration	Phone/Telefax,
e-mail and site	
Morskaya	****	84 EUR	116 EUR	+	Free by telefax	About 1 EUR	+7-812-3226040
Fax: +7-812-3226055
mv@baltics.ru
www.morskaya.ru/
lenexpo.htm	
Rinaldi 
mini-hotels	***	60 EUR	80 EUR	+	Free	Free	+7-812-9735140
www.rinaldi.ru	
VSEGEI	***	-	73 EUR	-	Free	28 EUR 		
Hotel of Linguistic Centre	**	-	45 EUR	-	Free	About 1 EUR	+7-812-3522429	
Pribaltiyskaya	****	94 EUR	107 EUR	+	See the Internet site	Free	+7-812-3565001
Fax: +7-812-356-44-96
www.pribaltiyskaya.ru	

The medium cost of meals in St. Petersburg is ~ 5-10 EUR/per day.

Excursions 

Pre-conference field trip A:
Lower Paleozoic, August 19-20 and Quaternary, August 21 of Leningrad District
During the first and second days participants of the excursion will observe a complete succession of the Cambrian and Ordovician rocks exposed in the region. Aspects of paleontology, biostratigraphy, sequence stratigraphy, sedimentary environments and sea-level changes will be discussed in a range of facies from the cool water to tropical carbonates.  All sections are located along the Baltic – Ladoga Glint, in 50 to 170 km from St. Petersburg. On the third day the main features of the Quaternary history, climatic and sea-level changes of the eastern Baltics within 150 ka will be shown in several sites of the Neva Lowland. Participants will stay all nights in St. Petersburg. 
The field trip cost is 70 EUR for the Lower Paleozoic part and 30 EUR for the Quaternary part. It covers transportation, meals, and guidebook. 

Pre-conference field trip B  (August 19-21):
Lower Carboniferous of the north-western part of the Moscow Syneclise
Three-days geological excursion on the Carboniferous sections includes an examination of stratigraphy, sedimentology, and paleontology in the key sections of the Visean and Serpukhovian marine shallow-water deposits containing abundant brachiopods, corals, ostracodes, forams, conodonts, vertebrates, and plant remains. The sections to be visited are situated in 350-380 km to the south-east from St. Petersburg at the spurs of Valdai Hills. Also the Visean - Serpukhovian deposits will be shown in the vicinity of Borovichi town and in the middle stream of the Msta River, Novgorod District; the Lower Carboniferous bauxite formation - in the vicinity of Boksitogorsk town. Participants will stay all nights in Borovichi town.
The field trip cost is 140 EUR, it covers transportation, accommodation, meals, and guidebook. 

Post-conference field trip C  (August 26-28): 
Devonian of Leningrad and Pskov districts
Participants of the three-days excursion will visit the Middle and Upper Devonian outcrops of southern part of the Leningrad District and western part of the Pskov District. The field trip sections are situated in central part of Main Devonian Field, East European Platform. The Middle Devonian and Lower Frasnian sections will be shown in the Oredezh River Basin in 80-100 km to the south from St. Petersburg. The sections of Arukula, Burtnieki, Gauja and Amata terrigenous deposits contain abundant vertebrate and rare plant remains. The Lower and Middle Frasnian sections will be demonstrated in the Velikaya River Basin and in some quarries near Izborsk town, 300 km from St. Petersburg. The Plavinas, Dubniki and Daugava carbonate and silicaclastic deposits yield diverse fossils, such as brachiopods, ostracodes, gastropods, conodonts, crinoids, as well vertebrates. Participants will stay all nights in Pskov city. 
The field trip cost is 120 EUR, it covers transportation, accommodation, meals, and guidebook.

Deadlines
Early registration and field trip payment		February 10, 2005
Abstract submission 					March 1, 2005
Information for the official invitation		March 1, 2005
Confirmation of excursion participation 		April 1, 2005
Late registration and payment			August 22, 2005

Please send correspondence to:
Dr. Alexander Ivanov 
Department of Palaeontology
St. Petersburg University
16 Liniya 29
St. Petersburg 199178
Russia
E-mail: aoi@ai1205.spb.edu (or elasmo2004@yandex.ru for December and January)
Tel.: +07 812 430 61 03

Registration form
IGCP 491 meeting and 6th Baltic Stratigraphical Conference

First name: ………………………		Family Name:  …..…..……………….……..
Title: ……………………………		Sex: (M/F) ……….. ………………………..
Institution: ……………………………………………………………………………………
Address (street): ………………………….	City: ……………………………………..…..
Postal code: ………….	Country: ……………………
Phone: ………………	Fax:…………………..	E-mail: ……………………….

Conference contribution:

Oral        yes             no
Author(s)…………………………………………………...
and title: …………………………………………………………………………….……
Poster      yes             no
Author(s)…………………………………………………...
and title: …………………………………………………………………………….……

Abstract      yes            no

I intend to take part in the field trip:

-	Pre-conference field trip A	 yes             no 
-	Pre-conference field trip B 	 yes             no 
-	Post-conference field trip C 	 yes             no 

I need an official invitation for visa issue:
 		yes                      no     
I would like to stay in the hotel ……………..(please, add the hotel name) for ….. nights
			single room			double room 

	Date