Paleontological Schedule for the 2008 Geological Society of America Meeting

October 4-9th, 2008 in Houston, Texas

Centennial Celebration of the Paleontological Society 

The following schedule lists only the technical sessions and events sponsored by the Paleontological Society.

A full meeting schedule will be available soon on the meeting website: https://www.acsmeetings.org/.

Please note that all technical sessions will be held in the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston. 

paleontological events begin on Saturday October 4th and end on Thursday October 9th.

Poster sessions will be posted all day, with presenters available from 4-6pm.  

Saturday

All day (8-5pm)

• Short course—From Evolution to Geobiology: Research Questions Driving Paleontology at the Start of a New Century

Organized by Patricia H. Kelley (University of North Carolina, Wilmington) and Richard K. Bambach (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History)

At the centennial of the Paleontological Society, our program surveys the broad range of research topics that hold promise for the future in our profession. Rather than asking "the usual suspects" to pontificate on what we already know interests them, we have invited a group of young to mid-career leaders to address the spectrum of research questions that are motivating their research. New approaches to issues ranging across all of paleontology, each with new results, are on the program. Geobiology, evolution, vertebrate paleontology, systematics, isotope studies, paleobiogeography, paleoecology, paleobotany and more are represented. This will be a day to connect with the "new" multidisciplinary paleontology. Join us and expand your horizons. Speakers include: Abigail Allwood, Kevin Boyce, Christopher Brochu, Andrew Bush, Gregory Dietl, Gene Hunt, Hope Jahren, Rowan Lockwood, Gordon Love, Ryosuke Motani, Shanan Peters, Kevin Peterson, David Sepkoski, Alycia Stigall, Colin Sumrall, Leif Tapanila, Peter Wilf, and Shuhai Xiao.     

6:30pm: Paleontological Society Centennial Celebration Reception (6:30pm) and Dinner (7:30pm) at Houston Museum of Natural Science (tickets available on GSA website)

 
Sunday

Morning

Oral sessions

• T44 - Deep Time Earth Life Observatories (DETELOs): Focusing on Critical Transitions in the History of Life
• T49 - What Good Are (Fossil) Plants Anyway? New Methods for Investigating Old Problems
• T51 - Neontological Solutions to Paleontological Problems: Actualistic Studies of the Morphology, Behavior, and Ecology of Modern Analogs for Ancient Organisms

 

Afternoon

Oral sessions

• T10 - Ancient Polar Ecosystems and Environments: Proxies for Understanding Climate Change and Global Warming
• T52 - Paleontological and Sedimentological Consequences of Calcite and Aragonite Sea Dynamics
• T55 - Phylogenetic Perspectives on Assembling the Tree of Life in Deep Time

 

Poster sessions (all day, presenters available 4-6pm)

• T49 - What Good Are (Fossil) Plants Anyway? New Methods for Investigating Old Problems
• Paleontology (Posters) I - Diversity, Evolution, and Biogeography

 

Monday

Morning

Oral sessions

• Pardee - Breakthroughs in Paleontology: Paleontological Society Centennial Symposium

Organized by Jere H. Lipps (University of California, Berkeley) and J. William Schopf (University of California, Los Angeles)

This session celebrates the Paleontological Society's Centennial by highlighting the signal advances made in paleontology over the past 100 years. The presentations fall into three major themes: 1. Unveiling the Record of Life’s History; 2. Paradigm-changing Breakthroughs; and 3. Paleontology’s Contributions to Society and the World.

• T46 - Leaving Traces—Making Marks: In Honor of H. Allen Curran I
• Paleontology I - Macroevolution, Diversity, and Biogeography

 

Afternoon

Oral sessions

• T9 - Crises on the Reefs? Anticipating the Effects of Global Warming on Reefs by Reference to the Fossil Record—Is the Past Really the Key to the Present in the New Field of Conservation Paleobiology?
• T46 - Leaving Traces—Making Marks: In Honor of H. Allen Curran II

 

4-6pm: Paleontological Society Awards Reception (location TBA) 

Tuesday

Morning

Oral sessions

• T40 - After the Last Ammonite and before the First Horse: Patterns of Ecological and Climatic Change during the Paleocene
• T42 - Breaking the Curve: Historical Development, Current State, and Future Prospects for Understanding Local and Regional Processes Governing Global Diversity I
• GC2 - Applied Micropaleontology: Tools and Techniques for the 21st Century

 

Afternoon

Oral sessions

• T42 - Breaking the Curve: Historical Development, Current State, and Future Prospects for Understanding Local and Regional Processes Governing Global Diversity II
• T170 - From San Salvador and Beyond: A Tribute to Don and Kathy Gerace and the Development of the Gerace Research Centre
• GC15 - Gulf of Mexico Coastal Plain Paleontology
• Paleontology II - Organismal and Morphological Paleontology

 

Poster sessions (all day, presenters available 4-6pm)

• T37 - The Western Interior Seaway
• Paleontology (Posters) II - Paleoecology, Taphonomy, and Traces

 

Understanding Evolution: A Public Forum (time and location TBA) 

Wednesday

Morning

Oral sessions

• T41 - Recoveries from Mass Extinction: Patterns, Processes, and Comparisons I
• T47 - Sclerochronological Archives from Rivers to the Sea: Documentation, Interpretation, and Utility
• T48 - Exploring the Role of Endobenthic Organisms in Enhancing Porosity and Permeability of Sedimentary Aquifers and Reservoirs
• Paleontology III - Paleoecology, Geochronology, and Education

Afternoon

Oral sessions

• T41 - Recoveries from Mass Extinction: Patterns, Processes, and Comparisons II
• T50 - Quantifying the Early Evolution of Life: Numerical Approaches to the Evaluation of Precambrian-Cambrian Animals and Ecosystems
• T144 - Geochemical and Geoarchaeological Analysis of Shell Middens: Climate, Ecology, and Culture
• Paleontology IV - Exceptional Preservation and Taphonomy

Poster sessions (all day, presenters available 4-6pm)

• Paleontology (Posters) III - Sclerochronology: Geoarchaeology, Climate and Environment
• Paleontology (Posters) IV - Stratigraphy and Morphology

 

Thursday

Morning

Oral sessions

• T28 - Permian and Triassic Terrestrial Biotic Responses to Global Perturbations
• T43 - Field and Quantitative Paleontology, Micropaleontology, and Taxonomy: A Memorial to Roger L. Kaesler
• T54 - Integrative Systematic Paleontology for a New Century: Advancing Evolutionary, Phylogenetic, Biogeographic, and Ecologic Theory with Specimen-Based Studies