NOW 25th Anniversary Meeting

Sabadell (Barcelona), 16–18 November 2022

Organized by the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP)

Introduction

The NOW database of fossil mammals started as a small joint initiative of a few researchers in 1996 but over three decades it has grown and evolved into a thriving community including mammal paleontologists from all over the world. NOW, initially set to include only data of Neogene mammals from the Old World, has turned global in scope and nowadays includes data for Cenozoic mammals worldwide. A lot has changed since 1996, yet the spirit, illusion, and ideals that promoted its creation are still there and have succeed in engaging new generations of paleontologists.

We have NOW for years to come, but 25 years is quite a respectable age for a database and this requires a celebration. Therefore, after one year delay because of the pandemic, it is our pleasure to invite you to the NOW 25^th anniversary meeting to be held in Sabadell (Barcelona, Spain) in November 16–18^th 2022. Please note this is not an event reserved to NOW contributors, everyone is invited!

Organizing committee:

• Isaac Casanovas-Vilar
• David M. Alba
• David Basanta
• Pere Figuerola

Scientific committee:

• David M. Alba (ICP)
• Júlia Arias-Martorell (ICP)
• Isaac Casanovas-Vilar (ICP)
• Marc Furió (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona & ICP)
• Christine M. Janis (University of Bristol, Brown University)
• Kari Lintulaakso (Finish Museum of Natural History LUOMUS)
• Àngel H. Luján (ICP)
• Raquel Moya-Costa (ICP)
• Pasquale Raia (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II)
• Juha Saarinen (University of Helsinki)
• Lars W. Van den Hoek Ostende (Naturalis Biodiversity Center)
• Indrė Žliobaitė (University of Helsinki)

Venue

The NOW 25^th Anniversary Meeting will be fully face-to-face and held at the Espai Cultura Fundació 1859 Caixa Sabadell, which is in the Sabadell city center, just a few meters away from the ICP museum. The Espai Cultura is an ancient modernist style building by renowned architect Jeroni Martorell surrounded by nice gardens. It is equipped with a large modern auditorium and several smaller meeting rooms. Catering for coffee-breaks and lunch is included.

Dates and deadlines

Registration, payment, and abstract submission deadline: September the 30^th.

Registration information and prices

• Regular: 120 €
• Student: 60 €

Registration price is 120 euros and includes attendance to the meeting, lunch and coffee breaks during the 16^th and the 17^th at Espai Cultura Fundació 1859 Caixa Sabadell. Field trip expenses, including celebration lunch and visit to the Finca Batllori cellar, are also included in the price.

Student price: Degree and master students, as well as PhD candidates and early postdocs (up to after 2 years of PhD completion) have a discount rate of 50% over the registration price thanks to sponsorship by Ajuntament de Subirats.

Click here to fill in the registration form: https://form.jotform.com/221942466411352

Presentations, abstract submission, and publication

For the NOW 25^th Anniversary Meeting contributions will be restricted to oral presentations only. Oral presentations are scheduled for 15 minutes duration including a few minutes for questions. Contributors should check the different thematic sessions (see below) and indicate in the registration form in which session they would prefer to feature their work. If you are unsure which session suits better your contribution, please contact us at Aquesta adreça de correu-e està protegida dels robots de spam.Necessites Javascript habilitat per veure-la.. If several presentations not fitting any symposium are received, an open theme session may be included in the program.

Extended abstracts will be peer-reviewed and published in a special issue of the journal Paleontologia i Evolució published by the ICP. Abstracts can be up to 500 words long and include 1 figure (color or grayscale) and up to 5 references. Abstract formatting template is available for download. Please use it! Abstracts not following the template style will be returned to the authors. Abstracts can be submitted through the registration form. The abstract volume, including the fieldtrip guide, will be available shortly before the meeting.

The extended abstracts for the NOW 25th Anniversary Meeting contributions are published in a special issue of the journal Paleontologia i Evolució. You can download the whole volume, which also features the fieldtrip guide, here.

How to arrive to Sabadell and suggestions for accommodation

Sabadell is one of the largest cities in Catalonia and is located just 20 km north of Barcelona. Historically an important industrial center it is well communicated by road and railway with Barcelona. To arrive to Sabadell from the Barcelona–El Prat Airport the best option is to take the Aerobus (A1 or A2; check departure times) to the center of Barcelona (Plaça Catalunya). Once at Plaça Catalunya go to central station to take the train to Sabadell. You may take Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (line S2; check departure times) or Rodalies de Catalunya (RENFE line R4; check departure times). Both companies have frequent trains (one each 15 or 30 minutes) that will take you directly to the Sabadell city center (Sabadell Plaça Major station). Travelling time from Plaça Catalunya to Sabadell ranges between 40 and 50 minutes depending on the company you use. The whole trip from the airport to Sabadell city center should take one and a half to two hours.

The city center and the area close to the meeting place and ICP museum is the commercial center of Sabadell and is full of restaurants, bars and shops. Furthermore, there is a good number of emblematic modernist style buildings here and there, including the Espai Cultura Fundació 1859 Caixa Sabadell, where the meeting sessions will be held.

Sabadell has a wide offer of accommodation options from hotels to touristic apartments. Find below a suggestion of hotels which are located close to the venue.

• HOTEL URPÍ

Address: Carrer de Sant Maties, 5, 08208 Sabadell, Barcelona

Phone: +34 937 24 40 00

Email: Aquesta adreça de correu-e està protegida dels robots de spam.Necessites Javascript habilitat per veure-la.

Web: https://hotelurpi.com/en/

• URBAN SABADELL

Address: Ronda de Zamenhof, 21, 08201 Sabadell, Barcelona

Phone: +34 689 04 32 79

Web: https://urbansabadell.com/en/

• HOTEL CATALONIA

Address: Plaça de Catalunya, 10-12, 08206, Sabadell

Phone: +34 93 727 92 00

Web: https://www.cataloniahotels.com/en/hotel/catalonia-sabadell

Map with hotels situation, ICP museum and Meeting Place: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1vdeP_4Y9hQ4GfkK9VEmPZOaGCbAP7Og&usp=sharing

Provisional program

The NOW 25^th Anniversary Meeting will include two days of talks and discussions plus a third day of fieldtrip. Additional activities, such as guided tour to the ICP museum, are also included. All talks will be held at Espai Cultura Fundació 1859 Caixa Sabadell. There will be five thematic sessions devoted to different topics ranging from systematics and biochronology to paleobiogeography, paleobiodiversity, and ecometrics. In addition, there will be two keynote lectures, the first one by Mikael Fortelius (U. Helsinki), the founder and driving force behind the NOW for many years; and the second one by Indrė Žliobaitė (U. Helsinki), the current NOW general coordinator.

Program at a glance:

Detailed program

INVITED KEYNOTES:

• Wednesday 16^th, 09:45–10:45. Mikael Fortelius, NOW co-founder and honorary member, University of Helsinki (Finland). NOW as it happened: The first decades
• Thursday 17^th, 09:00–10:00. Indrė Žliobaitė, NOW general coordinator, University of Helsinki (Finland). Teeth, limits and NOW: What can we expect from the Red Queens perspective

THEMATIC SESSIONS:

Oral communications, bold font indicates presenting author.

The times they are a changin’: Systematics and biochronology. Wednesday 16^th, 10:45-14:45

Chair: Manuela Aiglstorfer, Naturhistorisches Museum Mainz/Landessammlung für Naturkunde Rheinland-Pfalz (Mainz, Germany)

Data are not stationary. Our advancing insights on phylogenies and chronology have to keep database managers on their toes. What are the latest developments in the dating and correlation of localities? Which new systematics require attention? And how can the NOW database help in improving our understanding of both systematics and chronology?

10:45 Aiglstorfer, M., Lischewsky, B., Grimm, K., & Grimm, M. Eppelsheim—A key site for mammalian paleontology revisited

11:30 Bilgin, M., Joniak, P., Mayda, S., Peláez-Campomanes, P., Göktaş, F., & van den Hoek Ostende, L. W. Updated Early Miocene biochronology of Anatolia

11:45 Kordos, L., & Mészáros, I. Late Miocene habitat changes in the same section at Alsótelekes close to Rudabánya (NE Hungary)

12:00 Moya-Costa, R., Cuenca-Bescós, G., & Rofes, J. The soricids (Eulipotyphla, Mammalia) of Gran Dolina (Early– Middle Pleistocene, N Spain): Systematics and biochronological implications

12:15 Piñero, P., Martín-Perea, D. M., Sevilla, P., Agustí, J., Blain, H.-A., Furió, M., Laplana, C. La Piquera: A new early Ruscinian karstic site from central Spain

12:30 Sinitsa, M. V. Evolutionary history and dispersal of Holarctic ground squirrels (Rodentia, Xerinae, Marmotini)

12:45 Skandalos, P., Joniak, P., & van den Hoek Ostende, L. W. Enamel free areas, the key to unlock Arvicolinae taxonomy

14:00 Van Dam, J. A., Mein, P., Garcés, M., van Balen, R. T., Furió, M., & Alcalá, L. Between local zones and MN units: A new inter-basinal rodent zonation for the late Neogene of Spain

14:15 Van der Made, J. An updated range chart for the Oligocene to recent west Eurasian Suoidea. Variation in species richness

14:30 Pushkina, D. Biochronology of the Pleistocene localities in Northern Eurasia with the emphasis on large mammals of the former USSR territories

New avenues for incredibly old travelers: Modern-day paleobiogeography and paleobiodiversity research and future directions. Wednesday 16^th, 14:45–17:00

Chair: Pasquale Raia, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II (Naples, Italy)

Macroevolution is a classic topic in paleontological research. Although most macroevolution traditionally focused on diversity counts and patterns of phenotypic changes across clades, the advent of phylogenetic comparative methods revolutionized the field in the last few years, and the application of species distribution modeling techniques, the ever-increasing availability of detailed paleoclimatic data, and paleogenomics are all bringing about new whirls. This session's theme is about the state of the art of these new fields within the macroevolution discipline, and what is expected to come next.

14:45 Benevento, G. L., Meijer, N., Mulch, A., & Fritz, S. Middle Eocene aridification drove a drop in Asian mammal biodiversity that preceded the Eocene–Oligocene Transition

15:00 Bernor, R. L., Cirilli, O., & Kaya, F. Old World Equidae dispersals, evolutionary radiations, and biogeographic extensions since 11.1 Ma

15:15 Cailleux, F., van den Hoek Ostende, L. W., Mein, P., & Joniak, P. Paleopathologies and bite marks: The last stand of the Miocene gymnure Galerix stehlini (Mammalia, Eulipotyphla)

16:00 Flynn, L. J., & Morgan, M. E. Siwalik rodent relative abundances and recognition of metacommunities

16:15 Liu, L., Galbrun, E., Tang, H., Kaakinen, A., Zhang, Z., & Žliobaitė, I. Computational ecoregions in Asia in the present and the past

16:30 Mennecart, B. The earliest ruminants from Western Europe, two different stories, two different Asiatic origins

16:45 Madern, A., Braumuller, Y., Mavikurt, A. C., Berwerff, L., Janssen, N., Cantalapiedra, J., Casanovas-Vilar, I., van Welzen, P. & van den Hoek Ostende, L. W. Where’s dinner? Variation in carnivore distributional responses to Vallesian faunal turnover

Ecometric and paleoecological research based on the NOW database – Novel research questions, data and methods to unravel large-scale climate, paleoenvironments and biotic patterns. Thursday 17^th, 10:00–12:30

Chair: Juha Saarinen, University of Helsinki (Helsinki, Finland)

Research on the paleoecology and ecometrics of fossil mammals and their communities have developed vastly over the last few decades, with several new methodological developments and rapidly accumulating data. Ecometric and paleoecological data, such as dental ecometric traits and body mass estimates, are among the key elements being added to the NOW database. In this session, we will have a look at new and innovative ecometric and paleoecological research that has used NOW data or data to be added to the NOW-database to resolve important questions about climate, paleoenvironments and biotic interactions worldwide during the Cenozoic.

10:00 Foister, T. I. F., Fortelius, M., Talavaara, M., & Žliobaitė, I. An assessment of heterogeneity in hominin paleoecology through hypsodonty of mammalian communities

10:15 Janis, C. M. Asymmetry of evolutionary patterns between Old World and New World equids

10:30 Saarinen, J. Elephants and environments—new developments in understanding the evolution and ecometrics of Proboscidea during the Cenozoic

10:45 Samuels, J. X., & Schap, J. A. Climate and habitat changes drove mammal community evolution through the Cenozoic of Oregon: Comparing community structures to paleoclimate data

11:30 Sanisidro, Ó., Cantalapiedra, J. L., Zhang, H., Alberdi, M. T., Prado, J. L., Blanco, F. & Saarinen, J. The life history of proboscidean functional diversity

11:45 Wilson, O., Parker, A. & Saarinen, J. Community composition scoring using a pre-human baseline: Applications for conservation, taphonomy, climate reconstruction

12:00 Hopkins, S. B. The effects of Cenozoic ecosystem change on small mammal community ecology over three continents

12:15 Parker, A., Liu, L., Tallavaara, M., Kaakinen & Žliobaitė, I. A recommender systems approach to reconstructing mammal faunas across Pleistocene Eurasia

The Vallès-Penedès Basin: A high-resolution continental record of Miocene climatic and biotic dynamics.  Thursday 17^th, 12:30–14:30

Chair: Isaac Casanovas-Vilar, Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (Sabadell, Spain)

The Vallès-Penedès Basin (Catalonia, Spain) is one of the richest and more continuous continental Miocene records in Eurasia. After over 100 years of study hundreds of different fossil sites are known and most of these have been dated with high accuracy. This allows for detailed evolutionary paleoecology studies focusing on faunal turnovers to test the influence of biotic and abiotic factors on the evolution of terrestrial ecosystems. In this session we present recent studies on the Vallès-Penedès record and introduce a customized, specimen-level, database for paleobiodiversity dynamics analyses further discussing its connections with the NOW database.

12:30 Alba, D. M., Torres, J., DeMiguel, D., Casanovas-Vilar, I. The Vallès-Penedès Miocene Vertebrates Paleobiodiversity Database

12:45 Arranz, S. G., Casanovas-Vilar, I., Alba, D. M. Paleoenvironmental inferences on the Late Miocene hominoid-bearing site of Can Llobateres (NE Iberian Peninsula): An ecometric approach based on functional dental traits

14:00 McKenzie, S., Sorbelli, L., Cherin, M., Almécija, S., Pina, M., Abella, J., Luján, À. H., DeMiguel, D., Alba, D. M. Earliest Vallesian suid remains from Creu de Conill 20 (Vallès-Penedès Basin, NE Iberian Peninsula)

14:15 Navarro Cascalló, J., Abella, J., Luján, À. H., Sánchez, I. M., Casanovas-Vilar, I. Diet and habitat of Ampelomeryx ginsburgi (Artidactyla: Palaeomerycidae) of the Middle Miocene site of els Casots (Vallès-Penedès Basin, Catalonia)

Data Management, Development, and Expansions of NOW. Thursday 17^th, 14:30–16:30

Chair: Kari Lintulaakso, Finish Museum of Natural History LUOMUS (Helsinki, Finland)

The NOW database celebrates its 25th year as an online database for paleontological research. New data are constantly added to the database and new expansions are steadily added as well. In this session, we get our hands dirty, roll our sleeves up and go through the latest development of the NOW and discuss the future requirements, threats, and opportunities to keep NOW as a vital tool for paleontological research for at least another 25 years.

14:30 Aiglstorfer, M., Žliobaitė, I., Amson, E., Lintulaakso, K., & Heizmann, E. Going digital—The Elmar Heizmann Typenkatalog

14:45 Barry, J. C., Behrensmeyer, A. K., Morgan, M. E., & Pilbeam, D. R. The Harvard–Geological Survey of Pakistan Siwalik Database

15:00 Belmaker, M. The potential of intraspecies ecometrics in NOW: Microtus guentheri (Rodentia, Cricetidae) mesowear as an example

15:15 Sánchez López, L., Ruiz-Sánchez, F. J., & Fagoaga, A. New contributions to the knowledge of the paleobiogeographical context of the Late Miocene–Early Pliocene rodent fauna from the Iberian Peninsula

16:00 Tallavaara, M., Belmaker, M., Vepsäläinen, J., Lintulaakso, K., & Žliobaitė, I. Archaeology tab—A new feature in the NOW database

16:15 Lintulaakso, K., Žliobaitė, I. The future and current NOW

Field trip to the Vallès-Penedès Basin

The NOW 25^th Anniversary Meeting will include one-day field trip to the Vallès-Penedès Basin on Friday the 18^th. The Vallès-Penedès Basin stands out as one of the densest and more continuous Miocene terrestrial records in Eurasia, including hundreds of vertebrate fossil sites that have yielded tens of thousands of specimens. The basin is well known for being the type area for the Vallesian (Late Miocene) European mammal age as well as for several reference localities such as Can Llobateres. A bus will take all participants from Sabadell city center and bring them back there after the tour.

In this field trip we will get an overview of the basin structure and sedimentary record focusing in two well-represented critical intervals: the Miocene Climatic Optimum (MCO; ~17–15 Ma) and the Middle/Late Miocene transition (~12.5–11 Ma). The MCO is particularly well represented in the Penedès sector of the basin, near the town of Subirats, where we will visit els Casots site, which dates to 16 Ma and corresponds to an ancient wetland housing a remarkable diversity of vertebrate species. Nearby we will have a look at the Can Sala coral reef, which was formed at the height of the MCO, when the sea level rose to flood part of the basin. In the afternoon we will visit the Abocador de Can Mata set of sites, discovered during the building of a landfill at els Hostalets de Pierola. Since 2002 paleontologists have worked almost continuously in Can Mata surveilling the heavy machinery digging activity and thus allowing for a huge sampling effort. These has allowed for the recovery of tens of thousands of remains including rare faunal elements such as hominoid and pliopithecoid primates. The more than 200 localities known from the Can Mata composite sequence have been accurately dated and provide a unique opportunity to study climatic and faunal evolution during the Middle/Late Miocene transition.

The field trip will also include several social activities, including a celebration lunch and a visit to caves Finca Batllori in Subirats. Cava is a sparkling wine which is mostly produced in the Penedès area of Catalonia. Finca Batllori is a renowned cellar that has been producing high-quality wines and caves since the XVII^th century. The visit will show the modernist cellar, the traditional process to elaborate cava and will include a taste of their products.

Consult the ICP collections

The ICP collection stands out as one of the most important collections of fossil vertebrates in Spain. As far as mammals are concerned, it is well known for housing several types and the huge collection of the Vallès-Penedès Basin, which comprises over 100,000 specimens. However, there is material from other localities from all over Spain as well as from southern France and northern Africa. If you want to take the chance to consult the ICP collections please fill in the collection request form and sent it to our collection manager Josep M. Robles (Aquesta adreça de correu-e està protegida dels robots de spam.Necessites Javascript habilitat per veure-la.). ICP collection inquiry policies can be consulted here. Please note that locating and preparing the material for study requires some time so please send your request as soon as possible and be as specific as you can (i.e., indicating taxa, localities and, if possible, collection numbers).

Related documents:

• 1st Circular (PDF)
• 2nd Circular (PDF)
• 3d Circular (PDF)
• Final program
• Abstract book & Fieldtrip Guide

For more information please send a mail to Aquesta adreça de correu-e està protegida dels robots de spam.Necessites Javascript habilitat per veure-la.. We will also be glad to answer any questions you may have.

Organized by:		Part of R+D+I project PID2020-117289GBI00:
Sponsors: