LETHAIA NEWSLETTER PRESENTATIONS

LETHAIA 9 (1976) 376

PETER BENGTSON

Project MID-CRETACEOUS EVENTS

MCE News is the newsletter of the Project ‘Mid- Cretaceous Events’ (MCE) of the International Geo- logical Correlation Programme. Briefly, the purpose of this project is to establish a viable zonation scheme for the middle Cretaceous (Albian-Coniacian) of the world and, using this stratigraphic framework, to study the geological, geophysical, biological and climatic events which can be referred to this time interval in Earth history. The first issue appeared in January, 1974, under the name of Turonian Project - News- letter, following the submission of a project proposal to the IGCP Secretariat in Paris by R. A. Reyment, Sweden, and T. Matsumoto, Japan. The project was accepted by the IGCP Board in April, 1974, and its name changed to ‘Mid-Cretaceous Events’. Newsletters 6 to 22, issued during 1974 and 1975, were named Mid-Cretaceous Events - Newsletter. By the end of 1975, MCE had grown considerably, and there was an increasing need for a uniformly styled and regularly appearing newsletter. The outcome was MCE News, issued as a direct continuation of the former News- letters.

From the first Newsletters in 1974, which were sent out to some ten persons only, the number of sub- scribers to M C E News, most of them participants of ‘Mid-Cretaceous Events’, had increased to about 250 persons in 40 different countries by September, 1976. M C E News is now issued eight times a year a t regular intervals. It comprises 10-15 mimeographed pages in A4 size. There are three sections, viz. (1) the News- letter as such, (2) a list of recent publications relating to MCE, and (3) presentations of Project participants.

Section 1 of MCE News is printed on coloured paper, the colour being different for each year. It con- sists of (a) editorial notes, (b) reports of meetings held and information on coming meetings, (c) infor-

mation on activities of MCE subgroups and regional groups, (d) research notes, (e) information on activities within the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP), IUGS Subcommission on Cretaceous Stratigraphy, etc., (f) ‘wanted’ announcements, (8) contributions from par- ticipants, and (h) a list of new participants.

Section 2 lists all papers of interest to MCE that have come under the eyes of the editors since the last issue. This list normally comprises two pages. Section 3 was introduced when the Newsletter changed its name to M C E News in January, 1976. It aims at eventually presenting all participants of MCE, thus providing a basis and, hopefully, also a stimulus for research collaboration between participants. In each issue, data on 10-15 participants are given, to wit: name, age, academic degree or training, present position, main interests within the scope of MCE, present activities within MCE, and main research activities outside MCE.

For the French-speaking participants, MCE News is translated by P. Y . Berthou of the Paris Secretariat of MCE. The costs of producing the Newsletter are defrayed by grants from the Swedish Natural Science Research Council (NFR). There is, thus, no subscrip- tion fee. MCE News is edited jointly by R. A. Rey- ment, Project Leader, and P. Bengtson, Project Secre- tary. Besides Project participants, other active workers on the middle Cretaceous may obtain copies of MCE News by writing to the editors at: Paleontologiska institutionen, Box 558, S-751 22 Uppsala, Sweden. A limited stock of back numbers for 1976 is still avail- able.

The aim and scope of the Project ‘Mid-Cretaceous Events’ will be presented in a forthcoming issue of Lethaia.