Yet more on the museum & the meeting.

As I mentioned recently, in conjunction with the Flugsaurier meeting we have recently opened a new small exhibition on pterosaurs here at the PSPG. I look forward to 60 pterosaur researchers coming here to criticise what Oliver Rauhut and I created. A few photos from it are presented here in this post. I would like to thank Luis Rey, Dino Frey, Helmut Tischliner, John Sibbick, Dave Unwin and Luis Chiappe for kindly donating photos for us to use.

While I have a few people's attention I thought I should promote a couple of websites here. For those that do not know it, I am running a science education website called Ask A Biologist. Oli & his wife Adriana have also recently set up a new website for the research group here at the BSPG and can be seen at Mesozoic Vertebrates. I expect it will be of interest to many of you as it covers ongoing research projects, lists papers and covers the background of the researchers.

Since several people have asked me, I have posted a list of all of the titles of the talks and posters for the meeting. Hopefully it will not put anyone off! It is in the order of the name of the first author.

Talks
Andres B – Pterosaur systematics.

Bennett SC - Reconstruction of forelimb musculature of pterosaurs: implications for evolution of the pterosaur wing.

Browning L, Palmer C, Rayfield E, Wilkinson M, & Benton MJ - Modeling the flexible wings of a large pterosaur.

Buffetaut E - Pterosaur wing bones from the Early and Late Cretaceous of France.

Claessens L, O’Connor P & Unwin DM - Lung ventilation in pterosaurs.

Cunningham J & Conway J – Potential for quadrupedal launch in Azhdarchoid pterosaurs

Deeming DC & Unwin DM – Eggshell structure and its implications for pterosaur reproductive biology and physiology

Elgin RA, Palmer C, Hone DWE, Frey E & Greenwell D - Areodynamic function of the pterosaur cranial crest

Fastnacht M - Why did they do it THAT way? A study of the pterosaur skull construction and their evolutionary pathways

Habib M - Structural characteristics of the humerus of Bennettazhia oregonensis and their implications for specimen diagnosis and azhdarchoid biomechanics.

Hone DWE – Mutual sexual selection in pterosaurs.

Kellner AWA – New information on Thalassodromeus and Tupuxuara (Tapejaridae, Pterodactyloidea) from the Santana Formation, Brazil.

Lockley M – Formal growth dynamics may trump functionalism as an explanation for limb proportions in pterosaurs and other higher vertebrate clades.

Lockley M, Mitchell L, Brehaupt B & Harris J - A global overview of pterosaur ichnology: tracksite distribution in space and time.

Lü JC, Xu L & Ji Q - On the phylogeny and diversity of Chinese pterosaurs

Martill D - Evidence for catastrophic trauma in azhdarchoid and ornithocheirid skulls from the Santana Formation (Cretaceous, ?Albian) of Brazil

Marugan-Lobon J & Unwin DM - The geometry of the pterosaur skull

Meijer HJM, Van der Meij MME, van Waveren I & Veldmeijer AJ - Linking skull morphology to feeding in Tapejaridae: adaptations to frugivory in Tapejara wellnhoferi.

Naish D - Lower Cretaceous pterosaur diversity in Europe: a new look.

O’Conner P, Claessens L, & Unwin DM – Postcranial pneumaticity in pterosaurs: perspectives on pulmonary structure and the evolution of body size.

Peters D - The origin and radiation of the Pterosauria.

Rodrigues T - Comments on the taxonomy of the genera Coloborhynchus and Anhanguera (Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea, Anhangueridae).

Sayão J - New Data on the pterosaur fauna from the Crato Member, Santana Formation, Araripe Basin, Northeast Brazil.

Stecher R – A new pterosaur find from the late Triassic of Switzerland.

Unwin DM - When pterosaurs came down from the trees: terrestrial locomotor styles and their implications for pterosaur ecology and evolutionary history.

Witton M – Pterosaur heavyweights: a new approach to investigating pterosaur mass and its implications for pterosaur flight.

Wellnhofer P – A short history of pterosaur research.

Posters
Apesteguia S, Ősi A & Haluza A - New pterosaur remains (Archosauria, Ornithodira) from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina and an evaluation of the Late Cretaceous South American record.

Barrett PM, Butler RJ, Edwards N, Milner AR & Steel L - Pterosaur distribution: a global database.

Company J - First record of toothed pterosaurs (Pterodactyloidea, Ornithocheiridae) from Albian deposits of the Iberian Peninsula (Utrillas Formation, Southeastern Iberian Range, Spain).

Conway J - The forelimb musculature of Anhanguera.

Fletcher T, Salisbury SW & Cook AG – New pterosaur fossils from the Early Cretaceous (Aptian-Albian) of western Queensland, Australia.

Frey E & Tischlinger H - “Solnhofen” pterosaurs with soft-tissue preservation:
details of wing membranes, sole pads and webbing of the pes.

Göhlich UB, Chiappe LM & Tischlinger H - Soft tissue preservation in the skeleton of Juravenator (Theropoda, Coelurosauria) from Schamhaupten.

Hone DWE, Dyke GJ & Ibrahim N – Germanodactylus cristatus reunited.

Hone DWE & Naish D - Perceptions of pterosaurs through time – a brief history.

Kellner AWA - Comments on the monophyly of the Tapejaridae and new information on Thalassodromeus and Tupuxuara (Pterodactyloidea) from the Aptian-Albian Santana formation (Brazil).

Martill DM, Gale A & Witton M - First Coniacian (Late Cretaceous) pterosaur from the Chalk Formation of England.

Martill DM, Witton M & Campos HBN - What is Tupuxuara? A review of an enigmatic pterosaur

Piñuela Suárez L - Evidence of pterosaur tracks in the Late Jurassic of Asturias (Northern Spain).

Pereda-Suberbiola X, Company J & Ruiz-Omeñaca JI - Azhdarchid pterosaurs from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian-Maastrichtian) of the Iberian Peninsula: an update.

Prondvai E, Frey E, Hone DWE & Tanács T - Body volume, mass and weight estimation in Rhamphorhynchus and other pterosaurs: a new method.

Signore M, Santaniello V, Veldmeijer AJ & Campos HBN - Preliminary phylogenetic analysis of a new specimen of pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Cretaceous of Brazil.

Steel L - The palaeohistology of pterosaur bone: an overview.

Tischlinger H & Frey E - “Solnhofen” pterosaurs with soft-part preservation: soft-tissue crests and occipital cones, preservation of muscles and hairy structures.

Witton M – A large, enigmatic azhdarchoid from the Crato Formation (Early Cretaceous, Aptian) of Brazil.

Directions to the Museum:

I thought it was worth bringing this post back to the top to make life easier! Lists of hotels and hostels are still on the blog but much futher down! Do e-mail me if you are having problems.



From the Airport:
Exiting either terminal (1 or 2) follow the signs for the S-bahn (suburban lines). This is a large white ‘S’ in a green square.

The S bahn lines 1 and 8 both run from the airport to the centre of the city (central station: Hauptbahnhof), but in opposite directs. The S1 takes around 55 minutes the S8 around 45 minutes. Both leave the station every and 20 minutes.

Tickets can be bought from counters or ticket machines (generally accepting both Euros and credit cards). A single into the centre is currently 8.80E (zones 1-4). Once you have bought you ticket do not forget to have it stamped or it is not valid!

Get off the train at hauptbahnhof. The station announcements on these lines is in German and English so it should be easy to find.

There is also an express coach running directly from the airport to Hauptbahnhof run by Lufthansa. It goes every 20 mintes and should be slightly cheaper than the train. Sadly I do not know where to get tickets (I think they are bought from the coach driver), or where it leaves from. However, the airport is pretty small so it should be easy to find. You do not have to be a Lufthansa passenger to use the service.


From the Hauptbahnhof (main train station):
There are two choices from here.

U-bahn:
One can switch to the U-bahn (urban lines, effectively a metro service) which is a white U in a blue circle. Take the U2 line (red) heading north (towards station Feldmoching) one stop to Konigsplatz. Trains run about ever 5 minutes. At some times of day and additional service (the U8) runs on the same lies as the U2 and this can also be taken.

Get off the train and take the exit at the front of the train on the left hand side (Brienner Str/ LuisenStr exit). This will bring you into Konigsplatz. On your right will be a large Greek-style gateway with Brienner Strasse running left to right in front of you. Cross Brienner Str and turn left. Almost immediately on your right is the entrance to Richard-Wanger Str. The museum is the building facing down the street as you turn into R-W Str.


On foot:
Follow the exit signs for Bahnhof-platz, Walk north away from thestation up Banh-hof platz. This road will turn into Luisenstrasse bending around to the right (it goes past an enormous modern art structure of a red iron circle). Walk up Luisenstrasse until you hit Brienner Strasse and Konigsplatz, then follow the directions above to the museum (left up Brienner Str. and then right into Richard-Wagner-Strasse).

As a useful hint all U-bahn and S-bahn stops and most bus stops have a large-scale map of the local area so if you are lost these can be of great help.

FLUGSAURIER 2007 - final notes


Dear All,

Following a late flurry on interest we should have a total of just over 55 delegates at the Munich meeting. There will be a total of 28 talks plus 20 posters covering the full range of pterosaur biology and evolution.

Obviously we are now fully closed for abstracts etc. but people are still welcome to attend. There are a few minor things that should be brought up to try and make the whole process as smooth as possible, so do please bear with me.

First of all, as far as I am aware, Peter Wellnhofer still does not know of his importance in this event. Oliver Rauhut and I spoke to his wife recently and he does not seem to realise that it is in his honour. I assume he will find out before the Tuesday morning, but please do not spoil the surprise! I should add that for those who cannot attend the meeting, if you wish to convey a message to him (to be read out, or given to him personally) then please send it to me by e-mail or post and I can take care of this.

Registration is possible on the Monday (10th) from 16:00 to 18:00 in the main hall of the museum, and then again from 09:00 till 10:00 on Tuesday. It should be possible to register before then on the Monday if you happen to be in the museum, but please be aware that we will be very busy on your behalf! Payment should be in Euros and having the correct change will help up immensely.

Directions to the museum from the airport and train station and maps are online at the website flugsaurier.blogspot.com but I can send them by e-mail if you require further help. You can contact me on the phone number below, or on my cell phone at 01702989342 if you are lost and we will try to help you get here.

Oral presentations will be made on electronic projectors. We are power point capable and the base unit will be a PC. However we also expect to have a Mac available. Nevertheless, please try and make sure your presentations are PC compatible. Traditional slide projects and an OHP are available on request. Talks are 20 minutes in duration *including* time for questions, so please aim to speak for 15-18 minutes.

We will provide tea, coffee, juice and biscuits during the breaks but you will have to arrange you own lunches. There are many cheap restaurants nearby and we have also arranged for you to use the university cafateria.

For the conference dinner as stated drinks are not paid for and will have to be taken care of on the night, so do remember to bring some money. Dress is not formal - I would like a relatively relaxed atmosphere so do not feel obliged to come in a suit (although a Hawaiian shirt and shorts might not be appropriate either!).

I have had much interest in the viewing of our specimens, both those in our collections and also those 'guest' specimens that will be here for the meeting. Although Thursday afternoon is reserved for this there are obviously a lot of delegates and a lot of specimens and only limited space and microscopes. Do please be patient with us and we will try to get everyone to see everything. We will try to arrange extra access during lunchtimes and early evenings, but we are at the mercy of numbers and closing times.

There is a slight update on the fieldtrip with good and bad news. The bad news is that the Solnhofen museum intend to charge us their normal entrance fee, so I will have to ask delegates to pay the additional 2 Euros on arrival. My apologies, but as you have surely noticed we are running this meeting as cheaply as possible and had nut budgeted for this. However, far better new, the Jura museum have very kindly dipped into their own pockets and will provide a free lunch for all the delegates!

Those wishing to submit manuscripts to the special volume of Zitteliana are still welcome to do so. If possible I would like to have these manuscripts at the meeting. However, a formal submission date has been set as the 19th of October thus giving you all 4 weeks from the end of the meeting. These should be submitted electronically to both myself and Eric Buffetaut. We will then review papers (in conjunction with other reviewers where necessary) and then make our decisions. We hope to have room for everything we receive (provided it is of sufficient quality), but me may yet have to turn down manuscripts.

I have only 2 people registered for vegetarian meals (Tamara Fletcher & Edina Prondvai). If there are others and I have missed you out, then please let me know.

Although the meeting takes place a full week before the Munich Oktoberfest begins, hotels are filling up and I suggest delegates make plans for their accommodation as soon as possible if they have not done so already. There is a list available on the Flugsaurier website, but there are plenty more if you search online, almost all of which are in the centre of town and thus close to the museum.

Finally, do please bring reprints, books, data, PDFs, models, casts and anything else that may be of interest to your fellow delegates. We have a great opportunity to exchange information and sadly many papers (especially those not published in English, or only in meeting handbooks) are not always accessible to others and here we can ensure that many of these are passed on.

We are still open to other people attending the meeting should anyone raise a very later interest, so do please pass on any enquiries to me.

I look forward to seeing you all very shortly,

Dave

FLUGSAURIER 3rd CIRCULAR

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

The official closing date for submissions to the meeting has now closed, but somewhat inevitably I am still waiting for a small number of abstracts. Some people are on fieldwork / holiday so I will of course wait for their replies, but I would ask that those who have promised abstracts to send them in as soon as possible.

There is still room for poster presentations, so those wishing to submit abstracts for posters may do so. However, we intend to have the meeting handbook prepared shortly so the end of this month so the most I can offer is a 2 week extension (until Friday the 21st of June) for poster abstracts. Posters may be submitted after this date, but we cannot guarantee that abstracts will make it into the handbook after this date.

we do now have confirmation of the costs of the meeting. These are a little more than I had hoped, but still are far cheaper than most comparable meetings and so should not prove a barrier to anyone attending.

The fees are:
Euro 45 for researchers and 'the public' (anyone not affiliated to a research institute) and
Euro 25 for students (BSc, MSc, PhD or other associated degrees, currently registered to a research institute, museum, university etc.).
There is a further fee of 10 Euros per person wishing to go on the field trip.
Payments can be made electronically (e-mail me for the bank details) or in cash at the meeting. Reciepts are available to those who require them (written or by e-mail). NOTE: space for the filed trip MAY be limited (we do expect to be able to accommodate everyone, but cannot guarantee it - preference will be given to those who register first).

These fees cover the basic costs of the meeting etc. AND the meeting dinner on the 12th (drinks are separate howevcer). A discount can be arranged for those who cannot make the dinner, but we would encourage everyone to do so if possible which is why this is included in the basic price. For those who cannot attend the meeting and wish to send Peter a message of some form, cards, e-mail, letters etc. can be sent to me to be passed on at the meeting. These can be read out to the audience if requested.

I can now confirm that we will be joined by a number of additional pterosaurian specimens from other European collections at the meeting, with specimens from Vienna, Karlsruhe, the Solnhoffen and Basel making it to the meeting (if all goes according to plan!).

We are still interested in taking submission for the special volume of Zitteliana that will come out from this meeting. This volume will be devoted to pterosaurs and all submissions will be formally reviewed. However space may be limited so we cannot guarantee that all submissions (after review) will be included. Based on current numbers though, this is unlikely to be a problem. We WILL accept manuscripts submitted by people not attending the meeting, but understandably priority will be given to those who do.

I now have over 55 people who have confirmed that they will attend in September, however a large number have also expressed an open interest without following it up with a formal letter of intent. In order to plan fully for the conference dinner (12th) and the fieldtrip (14th) we do need to obtain some relatively 'hard' numbers for attendees. For ANYONE attending the conference (regardless if you have contacted me or not at any time) i would like the following information as soon as possible:

- What date do you plan to arrive / register at the museum (the 10th or 11th).
- If you are attending the conference dinner (12th).
- If so, do you have any special requirements (vegetarian, nut allergy etc.)?
- Are you coming on the field trip?
- If you are looking to share a hotel room to reduce costs (I will put people in contact who would like to do this).
I would also like your full name, title, institutional address and e-mail address for the meeting handbook.

These are all important as we cannot confirm either the transport for the fieldtrip or the dinner without knowing how may people will be attending so do please send them on. Again, people registering later than the 15th will still be welcome to the conference but I cannot guarantee space at the dinner or field trip.

If you are planning on attending the meeting even if you do not wish to present a poster or talk then do please contact me.

Thanks again and i look forward to seeing you all in September.

Update:

This update is nothing formal, I just wanted to add a few more notes about the meeting. First off, my apologies that we have still not confirmed the costs of the meeting. Alas we are *still* waiting for the costs of the conference dinner and the transport for the field trip. I will post an update here as soon as I have the figures and this will go out with the 3rd circular at the end of May.

Following my call for titles and abstracts we are rapidly filling up our available spaces for presentations. The deadline is the end of May (31st) and I am operating on a first-come, first-served basis. There is still lots of room for posters however, and you are welcome to bring as many of those as you wish. Among quite a few others, you can look forward to hearing from:

- Eric Buffetaut on pterosaur wrists
- Dave Unwin on eggs and reproduction
- Larry Witmer on skull CT scans
- Dave Martill on crushed skulls from the Santana
- Alex Kellner on Thalassodromeus
- Jim Cunningham on Quetzalcoatlus take-offs
- Leon Classens & Pat O'Conner on respiration and ventillation
- and finally Rico Stecher will show off his wonderful new pterosaur from Switzerland.

I am also starting to get some interest in contributions to the Special Volume of Zitteliana. For those who have missed out, or did not realise we will be putting together a special issue of Zitteliana (the museum's journal) as part of the meeting. This will be devoted to pterosaurs alone and edited by myself and Eric Buffetaut. We will operate a full peer-review system and are happy to accept volunteers to act as reviewers.

The intention is to publish this volume in mid-2008. As a result we need to have the manuscripts prepared in time for early 2008 (around March). This means that ideally we would like draft manuscripts to be completed in September or October this year to give time to the reviewers and authors to make changes. We do not yet have a confirmed maximum or minimum size for the volume (in page numbers) so manuscripts will be evaluated and accepted or rejected on their scientific merits, although ultimately we may have to restrict the size of the volume. Hopefully we will have space to publish everything we receive.

If you are considering contributing to the volume please let me know. I have a PDF available of 'Instructions for Authors' for formatting guidelines. We are capable of publishing colour images, although these may require a contribution from the author. All other costs we expect to be covered by a grant from the DFG.

Thank you for your ongoing interest and I look forward to seeing you all in September.

ABSTRACTS

I have had a few queries about abstracts so I though I should add a few qualifiers for you all.

Abstracts for the meeting do not require any special formatting. Please send us a short abstract of one page (A4) Word Document with the title, your name and affliliation (institution), and then the main text (and any references) in 12 point single spaced text in any common font (Times, Arial etc).

We will do the necessary formatting at this end when we prepare the handouts for the meeting. We will allow some extended abstracts for those that especially need it (where a figure is essential, or we feel the text could benefit from being given more space) so please contact me for requests.

Don't forget that the submission is single spaced so this does actually give you quite a lot of text to play with if the references are limited. Please keep the references in a 'standard format' of one of the major journals to make our lives easier (such as JVP, Palaeontology, Evolution etc.).

Don't forget that although the meeting will focus on pterosaurs, we are open to any submissions that reflect the research that Dr Wellnhofer has produced through his career. Only the special volume will be limited to pterosaurs. On that subject, I also now have the 'Instructions for authors' document available as a PDF for those wishing to submit a paper to the special volume of Zitteliana that will come from the meeting.

Second circular!

Dear Pterosaurologists,

My apologies for the delay in the second circular. I had intended that this go out a month ago, but various deadlines etc. have got in the way and held things up. This circular is designed to bring everyone up to date with the developments of the meeting and to invite those who have expressed an interest in confirming their attendance and to ask for more abstracts.

For those who missed the original announcement the meeting will be held in the Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie (Bavarian State Collection for Palaeontology and Geologie) in Munich, Germany. It will be held from the 10th to the 14th of September, 2007. This will include 2 days of talks (in English), a day of open discussions and a field trip to the famous Jura Museum in Eichstätt.

1. Exhibition. Each year the museum arranges a small special exhibition on some aspect of palaeontology. With the plans for our meeting in full swing, naturally the pterosaurs have been selected and thus there will be a small bonus to your attendance as you will have an opportunity to see the display. In practical terms this is of course a nightmare as I can expect 50 experts to come in and criticise what I have written!

2. Peter. I was able to catch Peter Wellnhofer at our Christmas party and he confirmed to me that he is coming to the meeting (which is good). He was delighted to hear that many of his old friends and colleagues will be coming and said he looks forward to seeing you all. As far as I can tell he is still not aware that it is being done in his honour. For those of you who know him, please feel free to contact him and mention that you hope to see him at the 'pterosaur meeting' but hopefully we can keep this a secret until he arrives!

3. Abstracts. Many of you have confirmed you will be speaking, but I have had few talk title or abstracts. Please do send them in as soon as possible. The closing date for submission is the 31st of May. This is a hard deadline and will not be extended. We are operating on first-come-first-served so if you wait until the end of May we are likely to have no more speaking slots left.
We are taking abstracts and title for both talks and posters. The latter is effectively unlimited (we have space for about 60 at a push) but we are limited in our numbers of talks.
Although the meeting is focused on pterosurs, the meeting is also to celebrate Peter's work so talks and posters on Archaeopteryx, the Solhnofen or other areas of his research are also welcome.

4. Special volume of Zitteliana. As stated, this is scheduled for mid 2008 and will be edited by Eric Buffetaut and myself. We are willing to entertain any papers on pterosaurs whether the authors attend the meeting or not, however, priority will be given to attendees. Please let us know if you wish to contribute to this volume. We expect to receive funding for its publication, meaning that we are able to keep the registration fees to a minimum (see below).

5. Meeting structure. The meeting will take place from the 10th to the 14th of September 2007. Monday (the 10th) will just be registration and an 'icebreaker' party. The 11th and 12th will be dedicated to talks with the conference dinner on the evening of the 12th. The 13th is dedicated to open forum discussions in the morning with the afternoon left for an extended poster session and a chance for people to examine many of the museum pterosaur collections and other specimens. The 14th is reserved for the optional 'field trip' to Eichstätt.

6. Registration fees. Sadly we are still waiting to hear the costs of the field trip transport and the conference diner so we are unable to fix the registration fees at this time. However, we *hope* that this will come to less than 50-60 Euros and this will include the field trip and dinner as well as registration. We will announce the price as soon as possible, though obviously we expect it to be cheap compared to many other meetings.

7. The website. http://flugsaurier.blogspot.com is still running. I shall put this circular on it today. All major announcements will come by e-mail but quick updates and various bits are on the site and is a good source of reference.

8. I will be away from the office on holiday and at a meeting from the 20th of February until the 19th of March. I will therefore be unable to respond to e-mails sent at that time. If you are desperate to contact me then I can be contacted on dwe_hone@yahoo.com but please be patient for replies as I am on holiday and away from the office.

9. Accommodation. Many of you have asked about accommodation. A large number of hotels and hostels are listed online. You can make significant savings my booking double rooms. For those who wish to share, please let me know and i can put your names and contact details on the website so that you can get together to make arrangements for yourselves.

Thanks again to those who have assisted in the preparation and planning of this meeting, I look forward to seeing you all in September.

A few early questions....

I have already received a number of questions about the meeting, and although I'm not really in a position to answer them properly yet, I thought that I should at least put this up so that the information is out there.

Registration fees
We hope to get a grant from the University and / or the museum to help to cover our costs for the meeting. However, negotiations are at a very early stage. We are also unsure of the costs of producing the special volume from the meeting and we also hope to make a presentation to Peter and are waiting to hear what this will cost.

As a result, we do not know the expected costs of the meetings, how much of this will have to be met by registration fees, and how many attendees we can spil the costs between. In short, we don't know. However, I would expect this to be in the same region as other similar international meetings (SVP, PalAss, SVPCA etc.) and so should be easily affordable for both professionals, students and interested amateurs etc.

Obviously when all of this has been finalised I will send out the likely costs so that you will all know well in advance.

Hotel costs
I will try and get some prices from some of the hotels and hostels listed. Depending on levels of interest and people's budgets we might be able to negotiate a discount if we can boo a large number of rooms in a single hotel. I will add more whan I have heard from the relevent places. In the meantime, here is the link to the Munich Tourist Office which provides some more options.

Specimen access
The Thusday (13th) of the meeting has the entire afternoon reserved for viewing the Munich specimens. Of course there should also be some opportunities to see them during lunches, breaks and at other times during the meeting. Those who are here on the Monday before registration, or on Friday (instead of taking the field trip) will also have time then.

Dino Frey has very kindly offered to bring a number of his specimens over from Karlsruhe as well so these will also be available during the meeting.

If you are staying in Munich for the week before of after the meeting, it should also be easy to arrange with Oliver Rauhut (the vertebrates curator) to see our pterosaurs and other specimens.

Meeting Format
The meeting will take place over 3 days (Tuesday 11th to Thursday 13th) September 2007. Registration will be possible on the Monday beforehand (10th) with an ice-breaker party for early arrivals. Registration will also be possible on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday and Wednesday will consist of 20 minute oral presentations. The Wednesday lunch will be extended to allow a brief poster vieweing session.

Thursday morning will have two open forum discussions for about 90 minutes each. Topics are TBC but will probably be on "Taxonomy and Phylogeny" and "Functional Morphology" in pterosaurs. Thursday afternoon will be open for an extended poster session and to allow participants to view the Munich museum collections.

Friday will be the field trip to Eichstaett (see below). People not travelling will be able to continue their observations on the Munich collections.

'Field trip'
The trip to Eichstaett (Friday 14th) will allow people to view the collections in the Jura museum. Dave Martill has suggested that it would be worth chartering a coach from the Jura museum to visit some of the Solnhoffen quarries and other local museums on the Saturday. Accommodation is available in Eichstaett both in the local hostel and the research institute there, so this is a strong possibility. As with all of the above, more information will be released when available. We need to examine possible numbers, transport costs etc. before we can give the likely costs of various field trip options.

However, the visit to the Jura museum on the Friday is a definite, and will go ahead. Transport will probably be by train and should cost only aroud 20 Euro return, so this option at least should be very cheap.