Dear Colleague,

The Antarctic Conference of Gondwanan Palaeontology will be held from 19-30 March 2009 onboard the Polar Pioneer as it sails around the Antarctic Peninsula. The conference will be hosted by Aurora Expeditions in association with The University of Queensland. Conference and participants will live onboard the ship for the two week duration of the conference. We will visit several important late Mesozoic, Paleocene and Eocene fossil localities, including Seymour Island, Snow Hill Island, James Ross Island, Vega Island and the Peninsula ‘mainland.’

Full details and registration procedures can be found the conference Web site:

www.uq.edu.au/dinosaurs/acgp

Purpose of the Conference
The conference is intended to be a scientific forum for researchers working on all aspects of Gondwanan palaeontology. The conference will also provide a unique opportunity to access and conduct collaborative research projects on several important fossil-bearing localities on the Antarctic Peninsula and surrounding islands in the James Ross Basin.

Call for Papers
Interested researchers are invited to participate in this international meeting and present relevant papers. All papers concerning any aspect of Gondwanan palaeontology will be welcome for submission.

Proposed Mini-Symposia and Discussion Sessions:
• Evolution and palaeobiogeography of Gondwanan vertebrates
• Early evolution and diversification of modern birds
• High-latitude vertebrate faunas
• Evolution of Gondwanan floras
• Antarctic biostratigraphy
• The K-T extinction across Gondwana

If you have an idea for a mini-symposium or discussion session, please contact the conference organizers.

Availability
Places are strictly limited to 50 people and preference will be given to active palaeontologists or other researchers from recognized institutions.

Registration
Positions on board will be reserved on a first come-first served basis. Offers to register for this conference and expedition will only be made to bona fide researchers and students until 30 June 2008. For commercial reasons, after 1 July 2008 any remaining berths onboard the Polar Pioneer will be offered to the general public and are expected to sell out very quickly. IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT INTENDING PARTICIPANTS REGISTER THEIR INTEREST AND RESERVE THEIR POSITION NO LATER THAN 30 June 2008.

Reservations can be made with an AUD$1,500 deposit with final payment no later than 90 days in advance of the commencement of the conference (i.e., no later than 19 December 2008). Registrations are through the conference Web site.

Conference costs and fees vary dependant on the standard of accommodation selected on board. Costs include all food, accommodation and transport for the duration of the conference, which will start and finish in Ushuaia, Argentina. Transport to and from Ushuaia, along with accommodation there before and after the conference, can be organized through Aurora Expeditions.

Further details are available on the conference Web site.

Please forward this announcement to any of your colleagues who you think may be interested in participating.

We look forward to having you aboard!

Cheers,

Paul Willis & Steve Salisbury
(Conference organizers)

Dr. Jeheskel (Hezy) Shoshani was tragically killed May 20, 2008 from massive trauma sustained during a terrorist attack on a public minibus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He was a vibrant 65 at the time of his death. To those who knew his gentle spirit, dedication to the preservation of wildlife, and depth of his respect and compassion for other peoples and interest in their cultures, it is unfathomable and incomprehensible that he should be taken from the community of those who search for knowledge, by such mindless, unnecessary violence. Hezy had been teaching biology at Addis Ababa University for a year and a half, and was working to establish a conservation rescue project to protect the elephants of Kafta-Shiraro National Park in northern Ethiopia. He had earlier held a similar position at the University of Asmara, Eritrea, since 1998, and had worked to document wildlife and encourage its conservation in that country, risking his life to elephant charges in the process. Prior to that, he lectured in biology at Wayne State University for nearly 25 years. Wherever he taught, he was a much beloved, enthusiastic and highly motivational mentor to scores of students. Though he was nominally an Israeli, and his home was in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, it was clear from the scope of his activities and outpouring of heartfelt sympathy from colleagues near and far that he was really a citizen of the world, and that his enthusiasm and effervescence could not be constrained by institutional affiliations or national borders.

Hezy’s great passion was understanding and protecting elephants, and his contributions to science include work on proboscidean anatomy, ecology, biogeography, evolution, systematics, genetics and conservation. Under the direction of Morris Goodman, Hezy completed his doctorate in 1986 at Wayne State University in Detroit, based on an investigation of the phylogenetic relationships of elephants and other paenungulates using a novel approach that utilized both molecular and morphological data. Influenced strongly by his advisor, his other great mentor Malcolm McKenna, and his colleague Pascal Tassy, the use of cladistic methods and incorporation of molecular evidence, including ancient DNA, became continuing central themes of his systematic work, which comprises the main corpus of his approximately 200 scientific articles and books. There can be no doubt that, along with Pascal Tassy, Hezy pioneered efforts to update the old Osbornian view of proboscidean relationships and taxonomy, in the process creating fertile research opportunities for future generations of students. A survey of his publications demonstrates the breadth of his expertise and interests, touching on subjects as diverse as mastodon hyoids, elephant trunks, ancient gomphotheres, fossil DNA sequencing of mastodons and differentiation of African savanna and forest elephants. In addition, he edited an extremely informative popular book on elephants (“Elephants,” 1992, Simon and Schuster), and, with Pascal Tassy, edited a more scholarly volume that remains the new standard on proboscideans, “The Proboscidea, Evolution and Palaeoecology of Elephants and Their Relatives” (1996, Oxford University Press). Ever the teacher, he spent enormous energy organizing symposia on proboscideans, including one in 1996 at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting in New York, and another in 2001 at the 8th International Theriological Congress in Sun City, South Africa. Attendees of that congress will likely fondly remember Hezy commandeering the game drive lecture during the tour of Pilansberg Park to provide more accurate details about the animals, and his impassioned closing to the proboscidean symposium, when he emotionally told us that “a world without elephants is not worth living in.” Those words were a living credo for Hezy: he worked hard to lobby for a continued CITES ban on the sale of elephant ivory, and tirelessly dedicated himself to identify solutions for ensuring the survival of endangered elephant populations.

His jolly presence at meetings, symposia, museums and field sites – he was bound to materialize anywhere – as well as his colorful e-mails of field observations, which often started with the phrase “much water has flowed in the Jordan River since I last made contact . . .” and usually ended with the encouraging admonition to “hold your trunk up high!” will be greatly missed, but, in the words of Ian Redmond, we will all carry fond memories of his “infectious laugh, thirst for knowledge and love of life.” He was a unique individual and irreplaceable, a friend and colleague to many, and will be well remembered.

Hezy is survived by his dear wife, Sandra Lee Shoshani, who was an important partner in his research and efforts to disseminate knowledge about elephant evolution, ecology and conservation, particularly in the establishment of the Elephant Research Foundation and its publication, “Elephant.” A memorial service will be held in honor of Hezy at the Cranbrook Institute of Science (Science Museum), 39221 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan on Saturday, August 23, 2008 at 7:00 pm. Undoubtedly, elephants everywhere will raise their trunks to commemorate him that day! For those who cannot make it, the best way to remember Hezy is to help continue his efforts to sustain wildlife, by whatever means possible, with your time, voice, expertise and financial support.

William J. Sanders, PhD
Museum of Paleontology
University of Michigan

Picture courtesy of Olga Potapova.

The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology is, once again, holding the SVP Annual Election of Officers online. The voting period is Thursday, June 5, at 12:00 am Central Time Zone (USA) through Friday, September 5, 2008, at 12:00 am Central Time Zone (USA).

All SVP members in good standing, with voting rights, were emailed UNIQUE election passcodes, and the link to the SVP election site, on Thursday, June 5. Please contact the SVP business office at: svp@vertpaleo.org, or 847/480-9095, if you did not receive this email.