Our paleontology research group is active in several areas. Several of us continue to work on Mio-Pliocene paleoenvironments and molluscan evolution in Lake Pannon. Colleagues Imre Magyar and Pál Müller and I published seven papers on various aspects of Lake Pannon this year. Imre Magyar was back for two visits in 1999, during which time he continued his cardiid morphometric work as well as the phylogenetic study of cardiids that he is doing with Weeks postdoc Jay Schneider. Hilary Sanders spent her final field/museum season in Hungary and is now collecting data and preparing to write up her thesis on the genus Congeria in Lake Pannon.
I decided to expand my lake research to North America, so this summer two of my students, Matt Kuchta (M.S.) and Eron Drew (senior thesis), joined up with Alan Carroll and two of his students for field work in the Green River lake deposits of Wyoming. Matt's thesis is on the bivalves and gastropods of the Green River, particularly their intraspecific morphological variability and paleoecological significance. Eron is doing taxonomic and paleoecological work with ostracodes.
Even closer to home, Norlene Emerson is doing an excellent job on her PhD research on Ordovician brachiopod species ranges, in spite of the fact that she has three advisors (Toni, Charlie, and Dana). Paul Mayer is pursuing his PhD research on Silurian paleoecology and biostratigraphy.
Finally, I still love those Neogene Caribbean molluscs. In collaboration with Warren Allmon (Paleontological Research Institute), Jonathan Hendricks did a senior research project on the genus Conus from the Pinecrest shell beds. New graduate student Jim Freiheit will study Strombus from the Dominican Republic and elsewhere in the Caribbean. I am happy to renew my research interests in this area, particularly because it will reopen my connections with former students Ross Nehm and Laurie Anderson.
With respect to teaching, I think I spent most of the spring semester in AB20, teaching Geology 110 and co-teaching Geology 100 with Charlie Byers. I co-taught Invertebrate Paleontology in the fall with Rex Hanger, who was hired in a temporary slot after Dave Clark's retirement. Having Rex around the department has been totally wonderful for me and for all the paleo students. Also in the fall, Alan Carroll and I co-taught a seminar on lakes.
In June, we held a retirement banquet for Dave Clark at Olbrich Gardens. The party was very nice, with many colleagues and even a couple of former students in town for the occasion. We certainly miss Dave around the department.
In late October, I went to GSA in Denver, accompanied by Sarah and Molly. With Peter Harries (University of South Florida), I organized a symposium entitled High Resolution Stratigraphic Approaches in Paleontology. Our motivation was to honor one of the pioneers of this field, Erle Kauffman, who also serves as mentor, advisor, and friend to us (and many others). We were very pleased with the symposium, which included excellent papers on geochemical, quantitative, and taphonomic approaches to high-resolution stratigraphy, as well as more classic, field-based approaches.
On the home front, Sarah and Molly are doing just great. Sarah entered kindergarten in the fall, while Molly started at Montessori. They are growing fast, of course, and just as wonderful as ever!
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