Flugsaurier – The Wellnhofer pterosaur meeting, Munich 2007.

We are now taking abstracts for a meeting to be held in Munich’s famous Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie (Bavarian State Palaeontological Collection - BSPG) for September 10th-14th, 2007. The meeting will be focused on the pterosaurs and their world, in order to celebrate the work of Dr Peter Wellnhofer.

The foremost authority on pterosaurs for the last four decades Dr Wellnhofer spent much of his career in Munich as a curator at the BSPG, so it is appropriate that the meeting celebrating his work will be held in this world class collection. His research also encompassed numerous other aspects of vertebrate palaeontology, especially that of Archaeopteryx and other early birds. The BSPG collections in Munich are rightly considered one of the best pterosaur collections in the world and include the ‘Zittel wing’, Anurognathus, and the ‘Munich Pterodactylus’, among other fossil treasures such as the Munich Archaeopteryx and the holotypes of Compsognathus and Triceratops.

Many of the world’s foremost pterosaur researchers have confirmed their attendance and a full proceedings volume based upon this meeting is planned for the journal Zitteliana. This International meeting will consist of 2 days of talks (in English), a day of open discussions and poster sessions, and a field trip to the world famous Jura Museum in Eichstätt.

The Jura museum is home to numerous superb specimens (notably from the Solnhofen limestones) and include the Dark Winged Rhamphorhynchus, Dorygnathus, Germanodactylus and Juravenator and the Eichstätt Archaeopteryx. In addition to these collections, other specimens currently housed in Karlsruhe will be brought to Munich and attendees will also have the opportunity to examine these.

Munich is a very easy city to reach: many international carriers fly directly to the city including transcontinental routes (e.g. from Beijing, Tokyo, and New York) and connections are available from all major European cities. Trains run from the airport directly to the heart of Munich leaving every twenty minutes, and the museum is just 10 minutes walk from the central station.

Short abstracts (of 1 side, single spaced 12 point text) can be submitted to David Hone by e-mail or post (details below) with a closing date of 31st of May, 2007. Abstracts should be clearly marked as “Poster” or “Oral” presentations. Extended abstracts will be welcome in the future and will be compiled in time for the meeting, but for now a short abstract will suffice. The meeting will focus on pterosaurs, but associated topics are welcome for inclusion (e.g. Mesozoic ecology, issues surrounding flight, archosaurian phylogenies) especially in those areas that Dr Wellnhofer has worked on. Please also contact Dr Hone in order to register interest in this meeting and to be included on later e-mail circulars etc. Updates and circulars will appear on this website from time to time.

A special proceedings volume of Zitteliana is planned from the meeting for publication in mid-2008 to be edited by David Hone & Eric Buffetaut. Please indicate on your submitted abstract if you wish to be considered for inclusion in this volume. Authors may be expected to contribute to the costs of publication for colour images etc. We would expect contributors for this volume to have a draft manuscript ready for the new year of 2008. We would request that although the meeting is open to all relevant contributions, the volume will be dedicated to pterosaurs alone and therefore only manuscripts concerned at pterosaurs will be considered for publication.

Further details for the meeting are available from David Hone (details below).

Dr David W.E. Hone
Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie
Richard-Wagner-Straße 10
D-80333 München
Germany

d.hone (AT) lrz.uni-muenchen.de
Tel: +49 / (0)89 / 2180 6613
Fax: +49 / (0)89 / 2180 6601