2005, London:

• The Blaschka Glass Models - The Conservation Issues. Bolton.
• Cleaning Natural History Material with Lasers. Lorraine Cornish.
• Preventive Conservation; barrier films, anoxia and fossils. Adrian Doyle.
• Lifesize Reconstruction of Longisquama insignis. Michaela Forthuber
• A Life of Grime: Excavating 20th Century Deposits. Nigel Larkin.
• And here's one I prepared earlier. Simon Moore
• A Pliosaur Travels: The Transport and Packaging of a Unique Cretaceous Marine Reptile from Northern South America. Leslie Noè.

Posters:

• Palaeoart exhibition. Luis Rey.
• Important plesiosaurs in the National Museum of Ireland (Natural History). Adam Smith.
• Analysis of spheniscid tarsometatarsus and humerus morphological variability using DAISY automated digital image recognition. Stig Walsh.
• Finding the Minimum Sample Richness (MSR) for multivariate analyses: implications for palaeoecology. Michael Bedward.
• A re-description of the postcranial skeleton of the primitive stegosaur Huayangosaurus taibai. Susie Maidment.
• Palaeoart exhibition. Bob Nicholls.
• Lured by the rings: growth structures in Leedsichthys. Jeff Liston.
• Skull evolution in the Rhynchocephalia (Diapsida: Lepidosauria). Jones.
• Kimmeridge fishes. Steve Etches.

And here's one I prepared earlier

Simon Moore

Japanese tissues are used widely by conservators, especially by those who work with paper. Until recently their use had not been applied to Natural Sciences. This article shows how they can be used to create tidy and effectively strong repairs and gap-fills for the repair of taxidermy specimens.

Lured By The Rings: Growing Pains of a Big Dead Fish.

Liston,J.J.¹, Steel,L.² and Challands,T.J.³

¹Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow < This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. >, ² Dinosaur Isle Museum, Isle of Wight & School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Portsmouth < This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.> and ³Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol < This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. >

The pachycormid fish Leedsichthys problematicus is known from the Callovian of England, France and Germany, as well as the Oxfordian of Chile. In February 2001, a series of apparent growth rings were discovered upon part of the holotype specimen of Leedsichthys problematicus (NHM P6921). Such rings have been known from contemporary fish since van Leeuwenhoek (1684), and have a role in estimating the age of fish populations in the fisheries industry, through analysis of otoliths, teeth and scales. In contrast, none of these three components have been identified in Leedsichthys, the rings occurring in the splanchnocranium and the appendicular skeleton. The structures observed here are easily discernible with the naked eye, at up to 1mm thick with striking colouration. Comparison with similar skeletal elements of the relatively complete Glasgow specimen (GLAHM V3363, ‘Big Meg’) confirmed that this was not an isolated occurrence, and the discovery, later in 2001, of a new specimen of this animal (PCM F174, 'Ariston') resulted in a plentiful supply of test material. Comparative analysis of material from all three of these specimens was undertaken, to investigate this phenomenon, in terms of the cyclicity of the colour patterns, the histology of the bone growth and the variations in geochemical signals within each line.

Institutional Abbreviations: NHM = Natural History Museum (London); GLAHM = Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow; PCM = Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery.