1

Centre for Palynology Newsletter 4

December 2014

Editorial

Welcome to the fourth Centre for Palynology Newsletter coming at the end of another busy year.

The main news this year is that Professor Geoff Clayton joins us as ‘Visiting Professor of Palynology’,

Steve Ellin retires and is officially replaced by Rob Keen, and we have a new Ph.D. student Alexander

Askew. We hope you enjoy the newsletter and find it informative.

In April 2015 it will be the 25th

anniversary of the ‘North Sea ‘90’ conference that was held at the BGS in Keyworth “to

celebrate 25 years of palynology in the North Sea Basin”. During the conference the Centre for Palynology 5-a-side

football team famously won ‘The CIMP Trophy’ that now sits proudly in the trophy cabinet in the Palynology Library.

Who was in the team? What happened during the competition? Does anybody have any photographs or would like to

write a report for the next newsletter to remind us of how this famous victory was achieved?

2

Current Ph.D. students

Allocation: The way in which Ph.D. funding is distributed by NERC has changed. In the dim and

distant past potential supervisors put forward projects that were assessed by NERC and either given

the go ahead or not. This system was then changed to one in which each individual department was

awarded a quota of studentships based on various metrics (NERC research grant income etc.). There

was then individual competition within departments to distribute these studentships. The new

system is based on consortia that apply for studentships every five years-or-so (so-called DTPs –

Doctoral Training Partnerships). The University of Sheffield combined with Liverpool University, York

University and the NERC’s Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) in a DTP named ACCE (Adapting

to the Challenges of a Changing Environment). This was successful and we have 22 studentships per

year to distribute over the next five years. Distribution of studentships between the different

institutions and departments that comprise the consortia is through internal competition (basically

the best students that apply get the project of their choice). Fortunately this year Alexander Askew

was successful in this venture and we have a new palynology Ph.D. student. We are currently

advertising a Ph.D. studying the Evo-Devo of spore wall formation in the modern lycopsid Selaginella

(following on from the Evo-Devo work of Simon Wallace).

Sam Slater and Steph Wood during a visit by one of their external supervisors Katrin Ruckweid

Sam Slater enters the final six months of his Ph.D. research project. Sam is working on Middle

Jurassic terrestrial palynology based on a mixture of classic UK sites and offshore North Sea Basin

material. Sam’s Ph.D. is a NERC CASE award with Shell and is jointly supervised by Charles Wellman

and Iain Prince, Katrin Ruckwied, Peter Osterloff and Manuel Vieira of Shell in Houston and

Aberdeen. We hope that next year we will be reporting on Sam’s viva! Sam already has two papers

in the pipeline: a quantitative comparison of spores/pollen and plant megafossils from the Hasty

Bank locality in Paleobiology and one on Jurassic megaspores in Review of Palaeobotany and

Palynology.

3

Steph Wood is in the third year of her Ph.D. research project. She is working on Jurassic-Cretaceous

palynology of the Gulf of Mexico. Steph’s Ph.D. is a NERC Open CASE award with Shell and is jointly

supervised by Charles Wellman and Iain Prince, Katrin Ruckwied, Peter Osterloff and Manuel Vieira

of Shell in Houston and Aberdeen.

David Carpenter is in the second year of his Ph.D. research project. David is working on a project

entitled “Charcoal, forests and Earth’s Palaeozoic geochemical oxygen-cycle”. David is based at the

University of Southampton where he is supervised by John Marshall, but is a regular visitor to

Sheffield where his co-supervisors are David Beerling and Charles Wellman.

David Carpenter

Alexander Askew commenced his Ph.D. research in September. He is studying the palynology of the

Middle Devonian Huergas Formation of the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain. This includes

the marine elements as well as terrestrial spores. The project is a 4-year ACCE studentship funded by

NERC. Alexander is supervised by Charles Wellman.

Alexander Askew

Current post docs

Dr Jenny Morris is in the final year of a three-year post. doc. Jenny is working on a NERC standard

grant “Evolutionary rise of deep-rooting forests and enhanced chemical weathering: quantitative

investigations into the current paradigm”. Jenny’s work continues to progress well as she continues

analysis of boreholes drilled through Middle Devonian palaeosols from New York State and outcrop

sampled palaeosols from Gaspé, Quebec.

4

A new ‘Visiting Professor of Palynology’

We are extremely pleased to announce that Geoff Clayton has joined us as ‘Visiting Professor of

Palynology’. Geoff recently retired from Trinity College Dublin although he is still involved in some

teaching and other activities. He now divides his time between Dublin and Yorkshire. Geoff’s role in

Sheffield is to continue his research and help supervise the students. More importantly Geoff is to

help prepare a palynology Impact Case Study for the next national research assessment (in

approximately 5-years time). In the last Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) departments were

judged on research outputs (publications) research funding, esteem indicators and Impact Case

Studies. The latter were new to the system. They consist of detailed reporting of how research

within your department was used by industry. We intend to prepare such a Case Study for the next

research assessment that highlights how our palynological research is used in the hydrocarbon

exploration industry.

Geoff Clayton

Undergraduate teaching

This year four undergraduate students selected palaeontology for their Level 3 project topic. They

have been undertaking a palaeoecological investigation comparing the palynology of a coal, soil

horizon and adjacent siltstones from the Ravenscar Group of the Yorkshire Jurassic coast.

The undergraduate Level 3 project students studying Jurassic spores and pollen

5

An additional Level 3 project student is Bryony Page who is combining her degree studies with

training as an international trampolinist. This year Bryony fended off two Olympic gold medalists and

World Champions to win gold at the World Championships! Bryony is studying the palynology of

sediments encasing an ichthyosaur specimen collected from St Mary’s Well Bay in Glamorganshire.

We believe that the ichthyosaur was collected during an undergraduate field class in the 1950s, but

if anyone can shed further light on this matter the information would be most welcome.

Bryony in action whilst not staring down a microscope(photograph courtesy of Simon Wright)

There are two Level 4 masters students studying palaeontology this year: Martha Gibson is analysing

wall ultrastructure in chitinozoans using Transmission Electron Microscopy; Chloe Walker-Trivett is

comparing the structure of extant colonial cyanobacteria with the enigmatic Devonian plant

Pachytheca.

Chloe (left) and Martha (right)

6

The 2014 Palaeontological Association undergraduate prize was awarded to Alexander Askew (who

has now commenced a Ph.D. studentship with us—see above). Alexander performed well in all of his

undergraduate palaeontology taught courses. Alexander’s 3rd-year B.Sc. project involved the study of

some small seeds from the Coal Measures of the Forest of Dean. These rare fossils were discovered

by Ted Spinner whilst picking megaspores. Alexander’s 4th-year M.Biol.Sci. project involved the study

of the classic Permian section from Kimberley railway cutting in Nottingham. He undertook a

quantitative analysis of the spore/pollen assemblage and a taxonomic analysis of the abundant

dispersed cuticle. This included the first UK report of several species previously known only in

continental Europe.

Outreach

This year’s outreach activities focussed on the Yorkshire Fossil Festival that was held in Scarborough

over the weekend 12th-14th September 2014. The inaugural festival was a huge success attracting

thousands of visitors, and included dedicated sessions for children of junior school age, pupils at

secondary schools, 6th formers, and open sessions for the general public. Centred around the World

famous Rotunda Museum, that is situated alongside the ‘Yorkshire Jurassic Dinosaur Coast’, the

festival included all things palaeontological: demonstrations, lectures, fossil collecting walks along

the coastline. This included a lecture from our very own Dr Mike Romano on dinosaur footprints.

Children using microscopes to examine Jurassic spores/pollen at the Yorkshire Fossil Festival in Scarborough. There is

that dinosaur suit again!

7

The Centre for Palynology stand showcased our expertise in the study of the palynology of the

‘Yorkshire Jurassic Dinosaur Coast’. Visitors had the opportunity to examine plants of ‘living fossils’

(Ginkgo, horsetails, cyads, tree ferns) alongside slides of beautiful palynomorphs (from the teaching

collections) using child-friendly microscopes purchased using funds from the university Widening

Participation fund. A new audience was introduced to this (sadly) little known aspect of

palaeontological research and we hope to have demonstrated its scientific and industrial

importance. It is anticipated that the stand will be re-used at future fossil festivals such as the annual

event held in Lyme Regis. It was ably manned by Sam, Steph and Charles and two lucky young

children won an ammonite for their artistic efforts in the ‘colour in a palynomorph’ competition.

In the last newsletter we reported that the university had commissioned a film consultancy to make

a series of films highlighting research undertaken at the university that was relevant to NERC

strategy. The short film has now been released and may be viewed at

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdecLb9pxNE]. An accompanying booklet “Showcasing our

NERC research” has also been published.

Laboratory, Collections and Library News

Steve Ellin retired this year after more than 40 years service. Steve joined the Department of

Geology in 1971 and was immediately set to work in the Palynology Lab. Many of you will have been

trained and given paly prep advice by Steve over the years and I am sure you all wish him well in his

future retirement. Steve was presented with a brass sieve as a leaving momento to remind him of all

those hours spent sieving! Rob Keen has now taken over permanently from Steve.

We continue with the long term project of assembling an electronic catalogue of all the stored

materials (slides, residues and rocks). This year we have concentrated on the rather dusty task of

ordering the rocks stored in the rock storage room beneath the palynology lab. All of the

palynological and palaeobotanical collections have been concentrated in the rock store below the

palynology lab whilst the main store has been emptied. Rob Ashurst has done an excellent job in

saving anything in the collections of importance and disposing of other useful material to other

universities.

Publications 2014

Graham, L. E., Knack, J. J., Piotrowski, M., Wilcox, L. W., Cook, M. E., Wellman, C. H., Taylor, W. A., Lewis, L. A. &

Arancibia-Avila, P. 2014. Lacustrine Nostoc (Nostocales) and associated microbiome generate a new type of modern

clotted microbialite. Journal of Phycology 50, 280-291.

Graham, L., Lewis, L., Taylor, W., Wellman, C. H. & Cook, M. 2014. Early terrestrialization: transition from algal to

bryophyte grade. 9-28. In: Hanson & Rice (eds) Photosynthesis of bryophytes and early land plants. Springer Science.

8

Paris, F., Verniers, J., Miller, M. A., Al-Hajri, S., Melvin, J. and Wellman, C. H. 2015. Late Ordovician – earliest Silurian

chitinozoans from the Qusaiba-1 core hole (North Central Saudi Arabia) and their relation to the Hirnantian Glaciation.

Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 212, 60-84.

Wellman, C. H. 2014. The nature and evolutionary relationships of the earliest land plants. New Phytologist 202, 1-3.

Wellman, C. H., Breuer, P., Miller, M. A., Owens, B. & Al-Hajri, S. 2015. Editorial: Palaeozoic palynostratigraphy of the

Arabian plate [a joint project between Saudi Aramco and the Commission Internationale de Microflore du Paleozoique

(CIMP)]. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 212, 1-2

Wellman, C. H., Steemans, P. & Miller, M. A. 2015. Spore assemblages from Upper Ordovician and lowermost Silurian

sediments recovered from the Qusaiba-1 shallow core hole, Qasim region, central Saudi Arabia. Review of Palaeobotany

and Palynology 212, 111-126.

Xu, H. H., Marshall, J.E.A., Wang, Y., Zhu, H.-C., Berry, C. M. & Wellman, C. H. 2014. Devonian spores from an intra-

oceanic volcanic arc, West Junggar (Xinjiang, China) and the palaeogeographical significance of the associated fossil plant

beds. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 206, 10-22.

Meetings attended 2014

Members of the Centre for Palynology have attended a number of meetings this year and presented

a variety of talks and posters (many of you will have witnessed these). These are listed below:-

European Palaeobotany and Palynology Congress, Padua, Italy [Clayton, Slater, Wellman]

International Palaeontological Congress (+AASP), Mendoza, Argentina [Clayton, Slater, Wellman, Wood]

Linnean Society Palaeobotany Specialist Group, London [Askew, Morris, Slater, Wellman]

Linnean Society Palynology Specialist Group, London [Askew, Slater, Wellman]

Palaeontological Association Annual Meeting, Leeds [Askew, Morris, Slater, Wellman, Wood]

TMS AGM Oxford [Slater, Wood]

TMS Palynology Group Meeting, University of Birmingham [Slater, Wellman, Wood]

Fieldwork 2014

Dave Carpenter, Sam Slater and Steph Wood continued their Ph.D. fieldwork. Dave undertook a

detailed examination of the Devonian sequences of the Catskill Mountains of New York State (with

Jenny Morris) to collect more charcoal samples. Sam undertook a number of excursions to the

Yorkshire coast to tie up loose ends as his project draws to a close. During the New York State

fieldwork Jenny Morris sampled more Silurian-Devonian soil profiles for geochemical analysis.

Charles Wellman undertook his usual May visit to Scotland where he worked on the Old Red

Sandstone of the Northern Highlands.

9

Jenny contemplating a Devonian palaeosol in New York State

Visitors

Numerous visitors passed through the Centre for Palynology this year. A visit by Rex Harland

coincided with one by Awad Ibrahim (see photograph below). Rex came to photograph some type

specimens. Ph.D. student Pieter Gurdebeke (Ghent University) came to examine the Ph.D. thesis

material of Reid collection. We also had a Summer Work Experience student from High Storrs

School. This year it was Callum McLean (name sound familiar?). After a week in the basement

crushing rocks for palynological processing we are wondering if he will ever want to work in the

family business?

Rex and Awad on their visit to Sheffield examining theses and slides in the microscope room.

10

Alumni Fund

We are very grateful to the Alumni Fund established by Alison Hunter based on profits from the

sales of her book “Sorby’s Legacy: Geology at the University of Sheffield”. This year we called on

some of the Alumni Fund to finance fieldwork undertaken by the Level 4 students. Alison has also

produced a magnificent website on the history of geological studies at the University of Sheffield. It

is crammed full of information including wonderful old photographs and other historical archives. I

thoroughly recommend a visit to the website that continues to be updated at regular intervals

[http://www.geologyatsheffield.co.uk].

“Sorby’s Legacy: Geology at the University of Sheffield” by R. Alison Hunter

11

Christmas party

The 2014 Christmas party was held on Saturday 6th December. This year we moved festivities back to

the Red Deer where we hired out the upstairs room for a traditional Christmas dinner. Fifteen

palynologists attended including current Sheffield palynologists, MB Stratigraphy, and various alumni

including Paul Dodsworth, Rex Harland, Barry Lomax, Brian Pedder and Janine Pendleton.

The Christmas party 2014

A plea for information and to keep in touch…

Please keep in touch (e-mail c.wellman@sheffield.ac.uk) and keep us updated with respect to your

contact details. And most importantly--please send in your alumni news for the next newsletter.