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Current Scientific Activities of the Ulm Team, March 01, 2010

• Christopher Castellani has received a DFG grant for a dissertation from March 2009 onward for three years funding. His duty is the investigation of the odds and ends in the 'Orsten' material, which has awaited studying for long now. Until June Christopher still finished up a longer ms on the new pentastomid material, which is now being revised by a native speaker for final submission. For the DFG project, a first ms is being prepared dealing with a strange stalked eye. This paper will be guided by another paper on the physical properties of this eye type and possible interpretations out of that.

• Carolin Haug is continuing her dissertation on shield structures in arthropods.

• Joachim Haug was in London in early 2009, together with Carolin and Gideon, to study specimens of the famous Devonian crustacean Lepidodaris rhyniensis. Subsequently, he defended his thesis in February very successfully (summa cum laude), and, due to this, Joachim received the Bernhard-Rensch Price of the GfBS (Gesellschaft für Biologische Systematik) in August. Between these dates he has been in Canada and the United States to investigate Burgess fossils as part of his postdoc project on ontogenies and participated in a conference in Cincinnati together with Andreas Maas. First drafts on this are being made. The ms on the stem crustacean Martinssonia elongata, part of Joachim's ontogeny stuff, is out since last fall.

• Yu Liu's contract within the EU-funded MolMorph project ended in spring 2009, so we supported him until he defended his dissertation on July 21 also successfully. After that he tried to catch a postdoc grant and, in parallel finishes his second paper on embryonic development of selected arthropods. In November he could start on a postdoc position in Munich in the lab of Professor Boyan to continue working on developmental stuff. Good luck, Yu! And all the best for the biirth of your first child!
  
  

• Dieter Waloszek and Andreas Maas are a little exhausted after this winter term, with lots of teaching, as usual. Andreas is trying to finalise his ms on the ground pattern of Arthropoda, while Dieter is preparing for his heart operation (leaking valove has to be exchanged).

• All Ulm team members: The epipodite story, a paper based on a keynote talk Dieter gave in Rostock last year, is out (see list of papers), and also the long expected Cambropachycope/Goticaris paper, published in the monograph journal Palaeontographica (same list). Andreas has submitted a ms together with Xiping Dong on Upper Cambrian phosphatocopines from China, and Dieter a ms together with ladies from Argentina on his old love, Zygochlamys patagonica, a nice scallop from Argentinian coastal waters. The latter is now in press.
  
  The second volume in honour of John Shergold, edited by John Laurie, Australia, apepared just on Christmas 2009, in which we had two articles. The material for these papers was collected by Dieter and a colleague way back in 1986 in the outback of Australia, many kilometers south of Mt. Isa. One paper deals with loricate larvae, the other is a description of a new species of Markuelia (see list).
  
  The Henningsmoenicaris paper is still in the pipe – accepted by TRSE, but this journal has problems with speed –. Our paper on the evolution of crustacean limbs could be returned to the editors and might appear still this year. One on the phylogeny of stomatopod malacostracans could also be returned. A ms under construction deals with a Recent cephalocarid (jointly with our Danish CORE member Jørgen Olesen), another is on a triopsid from the Cretaceous and one on a larva from the Windyfield cherts. Of course, Christopher's large paper on the new pentastomid material has to be finalised for submission. Lastly, there are 2-3 papers under construction on compound eyes from the Swedish Orsten, possibly related to stem-crustacean stuff.
  
  Another joint venture with our CORE members Xiguang Zhang and David Siveter is on a new larva from the Lower Cambrian of China. If Crrent Biology accepts it, it might even appear already this summer.