LETHAIA NEWSLETTER PRESENTATIONS
LETHAIA 9 (1976) 376
PETER BENGTSON
Project MID-CRETACEOUS EVENTS
MCE News is the newsletter of the Project ‘MidCretaceous Events’ (MCE) of the International Geological Correlation Programme. Briefly, the purpose
of this project is to establish a viable zonation scheme
for the middle Cretaceous (Albian-Coniacian) of the
world and, using this stratigraphic framework, to study
the geological, geophysical, biological and climatic
events which can be referred t o this time interval in
Earth history. The first issue appeared in January,
1974, under the name of Turonian Project - Newsletter, following the submission of a project proposal
to the IGCP Secretariat in Paris by R. A. Reyment,
Sweden, and T. Matsumoto, Japan. The project was
accepted by the IGCP Board in April, 1974, and its
name changed to ‘Mid-Cretaceous Events’. Newsletters
6 to 22, issued during 1974 and 1975, were named
Mid-Cretaceous Events - Newsletter. By the end of
1975, MCE had grown considerably, and there was an
increasing need for a uniformly styled and regularly
appearing newsletter. The outcome was MCE News,
issued as a direct continuation of the former Newsletters.
From the first Newsletters in 1974, which were sent
out to some ten persons only, the number of subscribers to M C E News, most of them participants of
‘Mid-Cretaceous Events’, had increased to about 250
persons in 40 different countries by September, 1976.
M C E News is now issued eight times a year a t regular
intervals. It comprises 10-15 mimeographed pages in
A4 size. There are three sections, viz. (1) the Newsletter as such, (2) a list of recent publications relating
to MCE, and (3) presentations of Project participants.
Section 1 of MCE News is printed on coloured
paper, the colour being different for each year. It consists of (a) editorial notes, (b) reports of meetings
held and information on coming meetings, (c) infor-
mation on activities of MCE subgroups and regional
groups, (d) research notes, (e) information on activities
within the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP), IUGS
Subcommission on Cretaceous Stratigraphy, etc., (f)
‘wanted’ announcements, (8) contributions from participants, and (h) a list of new participants.
Section 2 lists all papers of interest t o MCE that
have come under the eyes of the editors since the last
issue. This list normally comprises two pages. Section 3
was introduced when the Newsletter changed its name
to M C E News in January, 1976. It aims a t eventually
presenting all participants of MCE, thus providing a
basis and, hopefully, also a stimulus for research
collaboration between participants. In each issue, data
on 10-15 participants are given, t o wit: name, age,
academic degree or training, present position, main
interests within the scope of MCE, present activities
within MCE, and main research activities outside
MCE.
For the French-speaking participants, M C E News is
translated by P. Y . Berthou of the Paris Secretariat
of MCE. T h e costs of producing the Newsletter are
defrayed by grants from the Swedish Natural Science
Research Council (NFR). There is, thus, n o subscription fee. M C E News is edited jointly by R. A. Reyment, Project Leader, and P. Bengtson, Project Secretary. Besides Project participants, other active workers
on the middle Cretaceous may obtain copies of M C E
News by writing to the editors at: Paleontologiska
institutionen, Box 558, S-751 22 Uppsala, Sweden. A
limited stock of back numbers for 1976 is still available.
T h e aim and scope of the Project ‘Mid-Cretaceous
Events’ will be presented in a forthcoming issue of
Lethaia.