Planned projects/ current studies of the Ulm team

1) Odds and ends (isolated arthropod legs, strange arthropod fragments, non-arthropods, incl. sponges, putative echinoderm larvae, and cyanobacteria) from the Swedish, Siberian and Australian 'Orsten'-type lagerstaetten

The large material contains numerous specimen of unclear affinities to known forms, isolated limbs surely belonging to animals not described yet, but completely uncertain. They shall be documented step by step to demonstrate the variation in the material, plasticity of life forms and the species abundance in the 'Orsten' meiofaunas. At present we estimate that the upper Middle Cambrian to Furongian 'Orsten' of Sweden comprised more than 60 different species, the finds alltogether outranging the 80, so that 'Orsten' occurrences, although "just representing a window into the meiofauna", will have a species record as high as the other Cambrian lagerstätten.

At least part of this is currently investigated by Christopher Castellani for his dissertation, which is scheduled for early next year. First papers are being prepared. Andreas M. is currently writing a chapter on the nemathelminth fossil record for a German textbook. Another paper currently under revision is on a putative marrellomorph from Australia, thus possibly linking Murgess Shale and Orsten a bit more.

3) Prospection for new occurrences of 'Orsten'-type faunas

Further growth of our C.O.R.E. group in order to stabilize our Center’s unique abitily to carry out thorough, detailed and well based biological analysis of 'Orsten'-type fossils. Exploration was thought to become the task of Andreas B. and Martin Stein, who, with respect to their geological and palaeontological background, have much expertise in field work and laboratory processing, aiming at finding new 'Orsten'-type occurrences worldwide. Since things have changed rapidly in the meantime, we rely more on our other C.O.R.E. members are doing further exploration, particularly our Chinese and UK colleagues.

Andreas M., Dieter W. and Joachim H. mainly will continue with the description and analysis of the fossil content of the Swedish Orsten, in collaboration with Carolin H., Christopher C. and Yu Liu, and, of course, with our international C.O.R.E. partners.

4) Further work

A further project, just started, will discuss the nature of the hypostome and labrum. It will be the dissertation of Hans-Peter Katzmann, a new member in our team.

There are still several interesting arthropods or crustaceans left to be studied in more details, such as two forms with epipodites on their trunk limbs, a form with a furca, but which is not separated off, and larval stages that have a long dorsocaudal spine like extant cirripede larvae (barnacles and allied).

We also still hope to continue our work on Yicaris dianensis together with Xiguang Zhang in due course. The material contains several successful stages so we are looking forward to investigate the ontogeny in detail.

A planned, but not clearly discussed project is work on arthropod fossils in the Devonian Rhynie Chert on invitation by Hans Kerp and Hagen Hass from Münster, Germany, in collaboration with Carolin and Joachim Haug, currently at Yale University.

The discussion of the two hypotheses about the arthropod affinities – Ecdysozoa against Articulata – considering the various pro's and con's for the one or other of the theories led to the view that none of the two hypotheses can be clearly favoured, each having its own flaws. The paper was however rejected by anonymous reviewers who apparently do not wish to have this out disregarding the argumentation on the basis of Phylogenetic Systematics after Hennig. He was even accusing me (a cancer patient) not to go on conferences so not upcatching to the new data! This is not only extremely ignorant and disgusting, but also violating good scientific or human practice. Very offending, but the editor took this for granted.....

5) Genesis, taphonomy and preservation of 'Orsten' Lagerstätten

The project, initiated by Andreas Braun, aims at further research on the origin of the Orsten fossils. Analysis of sedimentary, petrographical as well as micropalaeontological data shall lead to a new sedimentary and taphonomic model of the Orsten Lagerstaette(n), which fits well into the existing published data on the genesis and sedimentary environment of the Swedish Alum shale sequence, in which the Orsten concretions occur. The model is aimed at explaining the observations and peculiarities of the differential fossil distribution and fossil documentation.

Longer term aim of such projects is not only a well founded explanation of the Orsten-Lagerstaetten, but to be able to carry out further prospective search of 'Orsten'-type fossils on strata other than the upper Cambrian Alum Shale by using the data and experiences collected. This goal will surely turn into a joint venture of the whole CORE group.