First report of Devonian corals from the Bitlis-Pötürge Massif (SE Turkey): a rare occurrence of corals on the northern margin of Gondwana

The Bitlis-Pötürge Massif of SE Turkey is a metamorphic belt separating the Arabian Plate from the Taurides. It includes a non-metamorphic Palaeozoic sequence that contains locally fossiliferous strata. Here is reported for the first time an assemblage of Upper Devonian rugose and tabulate corals from the Meydan Formation, composed of the rugose Frechastraea schafferi (PENECKE), Peneckiella cf. teicherti HILL, Pseudopexiphyllum supradevonicum (PENECKE), and Macgeea desioi VON SCHOUPPÉ, and the tabulate Thamnopora reticulata (DE BLAINVILLE), Alveolites ex. gr. suborbicularis and Scoliopora sp. The rugose corals suggest a Late Frasnian age. The palaeobiogeographic affinities of corals are discussed. The species F. schafferi and the genus Pseudopexiphyllum –so far only reported from Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan– are probably limited to the northern margin of Gondwana and therefore diagnostic for this palaeogeographic area. Until now, the northern margin of Gondwana yielded very few Upper Devonian corals so this occurrence in SE Turkey is particularly important to estimate the relationship between these corals and the ones from the northern margin of the Palaeotethys Ocean

Euro zone crisis and climate change: Addressing two targets with one instrument

Germany should invest to convert industry and the energy sector, argue Heiner Flassbeck and Will Denaye

Concertation sociale et transformations socio-économiques en Belgique, de 1944 à nos jours

The socioeconomic development of most European countries has been largely shaped by social dialogue, by negotiations between employers and workers representatives. To that respect, Belgium has played a pivotal role. The Belgian post-WW2 institutions, aimed at fostering social dialogue, are often alluded to as a reference. In sixty years, these institutions have changed, along with the transformations of the economic, social and political context. We study here the dynamical movement that simultaneously transforms the social dialogue, on the one hand, and the historical context in which it is anchored, on the other. We contrast two thirty-year periods: the golden age, followed by an age of upheaval. The former is characterized by the setting up and the extension of a coherent model while the latter rather appears as a defensive withdrawal in a context of crisis and of socioeconomic upheaval. In the midst of the turmoil, the social partners uneasily seek for meaningful responses.

Proceedings of the XIth International Symposium on Fossil Cnidaria and Porifera, Liège, Belgium, August 19-29, 2011: Preface

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