Future Meeting: IGCP735 regional meeting

We are delighted to invite you to a regional meeting of IGCP735 (Rocks and the Rise of Ordovician Life) in the beautiful Mid Wales spa town of Llandrindod Wells, on the edge of the Ordovician Builth–Llandrindod Inlier. The Inlier is a key area of historical geology that represents an ancient volcanic island system, and has been studied by Sir Roderick Murchison, John William Salter, Gertrude Elles, O.T. Jones, Alwyn Williams, Peter Sheldon, and many others. The first trilobites were described from this area by Edward Llwyd in 1699. In recent years, it has been shown to have several sites with exceptional preservation of organisms such as sponges, echinoderms and palaeoscolecid worms. These sites include Llandegley Rocks, Llanfawr and now the diverse Burgess Shale-type assemblage of Castle Bank. In keeping with the theme of IGCP735, we would like to focus on filling gaps in the fossil record: in this case, with an emphasis on exceptional preservation, total communities and neglected fossil groups. The meeting will have three days of talks interspersed with two days of field trips visiting local sites of exceptional preservation, and probably also an optional final day of workshops on important but poorly understood groups such as bivalved arthropods and sponges.