AASP Primary Records Program

Note that questions from JBR are in italics and the replies from BO are in Roman font. A list of Bernard's publications is given as an Appendix.

1 ORAL HISTORY/STATEMENT
BO: It's difficult to know exactly where to start, so I suppose all this begins a little bit further to the north in the metropolis of Darlington way back in, I suppose in 1955, when I seriously started studying geology at the local grammar school. I didn't realise the strong heritage that I was just about to enter into, because from that illustrious establishment had already gone forward some very big names. John Richardson and George Hart went to the grammar school and was followed, of course, by Rex Harland, and all four of us came out of there during a period of about 10 years. We all came under the influence of two people, a chap called Jack Waltham, and George Chapman who strangely enough advised us all to go to the University of Sheffield. He strongly favoured everyone going to Sheffield to study geology, which at the time was a good choice because it was a strongly emerging department and there we immediately fell under the influence of Leslie Moore. He had a very strong influence on all our careers. He was a magnificent teacher and inspired people, particularly in stratigraphy and palaeontology.

I just did a normal undergraduate course and it wasn't really until 1958 when we all had a compulsory mapping project that my first entanglement with palynology came about. I carried out my project on late Visean-early Namurian sediments in North Yorkshire and looked at some coals in the early Namurian and made my first contact with Roger Neves and I got some spores out of the samples so when I graduated in 1960. Roger was looking for a student and, sure enough, I got a grant and became, Roger's first PhD student, looking at Namurian and Westphalian spores in northern England. I didn't realise at the time, but it was part of a bigger project that involved several other people; I'll come onto that in a minute, Roger had already worked in the southern Pennines and this was the first excursion into the northern Pennines. It was a good project because of the people that were to be come involved. At the time I went into a little laboratory where Bill Sarjeant was just finishing his PhD. We all suffered for that, trying to encourage him to clean up his photographs , but he didn't, and he kept producing a bigger and bigger thesis which I suppose in a way stimulated all of us. There were other people there as well; George Hart was there. He'd gone off to Russia but left his PhD to be written, finished off and submitted and there was a whole host of new people. David Wall was already there, he was a year ahead of us. Ted Spinner and I were contemporaries and there was also a newcomer from outside Shefffield, and that was Graham Williams somebody who influenced our lives forever. We were the first people who had to suffer the strange humour of Williams. It was a weird influence and affected our lives. It was however a great time because we were a group of six people all in one laboratory. We all worked very closely together and I suppose in some respects that influenced my thinking in palynology all the way through my career. If there's a big group then you get a lot of interaction and we did have a lot of interaction. We virtually lived together for a long time. Shortly afterwards, in 1961, we had another influx of new people; Tony Jenkins, Dave Mishell and Alan Marshall (who sadly died in about 1972) arrived, and the spirit was fantastic. It was a place where practical jokes reigned supreme, I'm afraid. We were encouraged and orchestrated by Graham Williams; some of those jokes just shouldn't be repeated anywhere, but they left a long-term effect on all of us.

At that time, in about 1962 I think, most of us became involved in CIMP, particularly the Palaeozoic people. CIMP meetings were being held on a regular basis at that time and Sheffield had its fair share of them. We all came in contact with some really great names. People like L. R. Wilson, Venkatachala, Artuz, Potonié, Alpern, all these people came into this environment in Sheffield and had a great stimulating effect. I think the thing about them was that they were all friendly. They all gave you the opportunity to feel that you were equal, you weren't talking to some great figure that was unapproachable. They were all fantastic people and it was, of course, for me the start of something that has lasted to this day, that's 40-odd years now of contact with CIMP. But all good things have to come to an end and in late 1963 I finished my PhD and went off to Ottawa to work with Colin McGregor. Again, it was a major culture shock for all sorts of reasons: a different place, a different type of professional environment and one that had massive resources. I've never been in a place since where there was such a wealth of resources.

Canada was then just on the verge of massive exploration in the Arctic. Tremendous activity. It was just a great place to be and Colin McGregor was, of course, one of the stimulants of my career, but it also gave me the opportunity to maintain contact with other people in the Carboniferous. Peter Hacquebard and Sedley Barss were there and, again, it was almost like home from home. It was a very conducive place to work. As 1963 wore on I realised I would have to get a job because all good things have to come to an end. There wasn't very much happening in North America in 1963, it was just before the boom in job opportunities came along. I'd already applied for the Geological Survey in Britain on a couple of occasions and quite out of the blue they made me an offer. Did I want to go back? It was a heart-searching offer in a way because I would have liked to have stayed in Canada, but you've got to have bread and we had a young family at the time so back we came to Britain in early 1965 to be the first palynologist in the Survey. Another great opportunity and again I was fortunate because there were some very stimulating people there, particularly Bill Ramsbottom and Mike Calver, and it turned out to be a golden opportunity because no sooner had I come back than the North Sea began to explode as an exploration area. I can make a very big claim: I was the first palynologist in the North Sea in the summer of 1965 when Amoseas drilled 38/19-1. Sure enough, they got lost in red beds and those red beds fortunately contained the now infamous lepidophyta assemblage. Nobody would believe it was the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary. They all wanted it to be Triassic, but Bill Chaloner agreed with me and that was very reassuring and from that point on I suppose palynology in the Survey began to grow and expand at a rate that I'd never really anticipated.

The first people that came along were Dick Lister and Geoff Warrington. Dick didn't stay that long, he was the butt of many of my practical jokes which had hung on from the Sheffield and Ottawa experiences and there are quite a few stories about that, particularly getting telephone calls that he was conned into believing were from Australia, even though they came from next door to his office, and he gave me long press interviews about his proposed life that he was about to embark on in Australia. It was a good place to work. Dick didn't stay very long but he was followed by a succession of people who are now part of BGS's history. Rex Harland came in about 1970. Roger Davey, and then a flood: Bob Turner, Stewart Molyneux, Jim Riding, Ron Woollam, Joanna Thomas, Nick Turner and Aideen McNestry and, of course, more recently Mike Stephenson. I think the thing about the BGS at that time was that it was a bit like Sheffield, there was a community of people and they interacted together and it grew, and it grew not only in internal status, but it grew externally and developed a reputation for good publications. I don't know how many papers actually came out of there but it must be in excess of 150, which is a pretty major contribution to the science, no matter how you look at it. All the time the North Sea was expanding and the Survey was playing a really significant role in providing the Department of Energy with an independent voice, a voice against the consultants service, something that can be measured without being judged purely in financial terms. Towards the beginning of the 1980's I began to realise that we did actually sit on some pretty major information resources and when Ron Woollam and Jim Riding came along, the opportunity was there to exploit that and we began in 1982 to put together the first of the Masterpacks of Stratigraphic Data and again I think those have had quite a significant impact in sustaining palynology, both within the Survey and as a science as well.

All the time that I was involved in CIMP, from the 1960's, I'd played a relatively minor role. I suppose, looking back, I'd been involved in various working groups and I'd got involved very closely with Maurice Streel on a number of projects. Maurice was another very big influence on my career. He's the person who really 'dropped me in it', I suppose as far as CIMP goes. He persuaded me in 1972, I think, originally to be his Assistant Secretary, and then in 1975, when he became the President, I started what was to become 25 years of involvement with CIMP as either its Secretary or its President, and its been a great experience. A lot of hard work but one of the big things about it is that it puts you in direct contact with virtually every palynologist in the Palaeozoic around the world. At the time we needed to expand beyond the constraints of Europe and North America and in the late 1970's, we were fortunate - we got a foothold in Russia and suddenly we found that we had about 10% of our membership coming from there. With this expansion into Russia, CIMP was beginning to become truly an international commission, on a world-wide basis. We were also fortunate to also be able to gain access into China. China was at that time essentially a closed shop; we didn't have any contacts in China, but initiatives that had been taken by the science community in Britain offered us just the first chance to actually make some contact and suddenly we found that there were literally dozens of palynologists isolated in China who were very desirous of gaining contact with the west. Suddenly CIMP had moved on from being this local regional group of about 100 members. to about 300 members worldwide. This exposure, I think, was important because it gave other people in the world an insight into what we were doing and very soon after that we started what was to become an integral part of CIMP where we became involved in large regional studies. The first one was in Libya, which produced eventually two quite significant volues of stratigraphic data from mainly the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic. I think those were in some ways landmarks that have influenced the development of the Commission ever since. After we finished in Libya, which we hope to restart again in the future, we were approached by Saudi Aramco in 1990 and, of course, have had a long-running association with the Saudi Arabians ever since which has produced some superb publications.

CIMP is obviously a very important part of my career and I look forward to its 50th birthday that will be celebrated at the next IPC in Bonn in 2008. It's something that I'd like to see take place and recorded in a very significant way as it's a very important landmark palynologically because CIMP, despite what other people might say, is the oldest palynological society in the world and it should mark its Jubilee in a very special way. It hasn't existed on its own, CIMP, I've got to say that. It's had some very important links with other societies and particularly with AASP. We held our first joint meeting with AASP in Halifax in 1977, and then several years later (1982) in Dublin. That relationship has remained good every since, but it's become, more difficult to sustain recently because finance for travel is harder to obtain and the links, although they exist, are not really being substantiated in big meetings which perhaps we should try to arrange more often. We've also had, of course, stratigraphic relationships with the Devonian through to Permian stratigraphic subcommissions and we worked very closely with those and it continues to grow. CIMP is in very good hands at the moment and I'm delighted not to be involved. I've got a lot more time of my own now and Thomas Servais and Mike Stephenson are doing a great job in running it and it's developed a modern image. In the 1970's and 1980's it survived by duplicated handouts; a laborious time-consuming process. Now Mike Stephenson produces a brilliant newsletter on a regular basis; it's almost of the status of a publication at times. It's a superb achievement I think, and I really applaud them for the work they've done. But CIMP wasn't my only society involvement, of course. The British Micropalaeontological Society was running parallel to CIMP. That started in, well for me it started in 1968 when Leslie Moore asked me if I would act as his secretary for two meetings and I eventually escaped in 1980 after being its Secretary/Treasurer/Chairman, jus about everything else for 12 years. It was important to develop a micropalaeontological society in Britain and give the palynologists a chance to interact with other disciplines and I'm pleased that that's been a success. I am particularly pleased that the society now has a very prestigious journal that can stands alongside Palynology. It is an excellent publication. A lot of people put a lot of time and effort into bringing it about, but it's now self-sustaining. It would be wrong to ignore the efforts of Ray Bate and Alan Higgins in that process; they were major players and ensured its success.

During the daytime, of course, I had another job. I used to work at BGS and that I enjoyed. They were a great bunch of people, but again, all things have to come to an end and in 1998 I retired. Well, I didn't really retire, just changed jobs. Fortunately I was given the chance to go back to Sheffield and I jumped at it. I'd never really left Sheffield, it's very much a part of me, it's played a major influence through my life all the way through and there was a great chance to be able to go back and do something for them and put back something to the science that has given me such a great career. It was a difficult time to go back because at that time it was becoming obvious that palynology was a discipline beginning to go out of favour. The end of the 1990's was the time when all the major oil companies offloaded their staff, or virtually all their staff. The consultancies survived for a little while and recruited some people but progressively it's become a much harder environment and Sheffield depended on placing people. It has generated 250-300 post graduates, most of whom have at some stage gone into the industry and done very well, but towards the end of the 1990's it was becoming very much more difficult to make those placements and particularly make them in key areas. The best we were able to do was often as relatively junior staff in consultancies. There were virtually no opportunities in the oil industry as a whole. So we had to think through where that strategy could develop and the only real opportunities were overseas and we had to make a major play for overseas students to come to Sheffield. That might have worked but unfortunately I think the decline in the science had become obvious and when the MSc course, the Masters course, which Sheffield was world famous for, came up for renewal in 2001 it became very difficult to ensure that we would succeed with another round of grant awards. That's a tragedy in a way because so many people had put a lot into Sheffield. It goes back to the days of Charles Downie, Herbert Sullivan and Roger Neves, and especially in the latter two decades in particular, to Ted Spinner. Ted Spinner, one of the few serious megaspores workers in Europe, devoted much of his professional career to training students. His legacy was a major influence on the way that Sheffield had developed. It was particularly important in the way that students felt about Sheffield I think, particularly the younger generation of students. In 2001 the MSc course had to close because grants were denied to us. The only grants that might have been available would have been from industry and there was virtually no industry at that time and so we had to face up to a bad time. We had a year of considerable insecurity where we were pushed from one department to another but eventually we were very fortunate to find what is a satisfactory home in Animal and Plant Sciences, away from Geology. There are however a number of benefits in that as it will allow us to develop things other than palynostratigraphy and I think that's probably where our future lies, although we clearly still have a significant palynostratigraphic input from the people who are still on the staff there.

And so that's pretty well my career up to date. Where do we go from here? Well, I particularly want to try and continue putting something back into the science. There are a lot of things that worry me about the way it is today. I'm particularly concerned about where everything has gone. There are hundreds of palynologists who have disappeared from the surface of the Earth. Where did they send their collections?. Where is their literature? Where are all their resources? It seems to me that in many cases they just disappeared and that's a tragedy. We've got to do something about that situation. We've got to sustain those collections. We've got to ensure that the literature resource is available for the future generations. I'm totally convinced that there will be a future. I believe that what is happening is a cyclic event; it's happened before. We've had troughs and peaks and there will be another peak but we need to make sure that those collections are there when we need them. It's not just the palynologists that should be concerned about this. Museum curators should be concerned. I'm not convinced that the collections that are deposited in many of the major museums are getting the attention that they should get. If you ask where something is, more often than not you are put off with an excuse that it can't be found or they haven't got the staff. If that's the case then many of these resources are probably not being looked at, and that's a worry. We're all worried about the state of holotypes, or we should be. My worry is that if you're anxious to find the holotype of something described in the 1960's you might find the slide but because it's had zero curation over many years its condition will not be very good. This would be a disaster. We lose the resource and I would dearly like to see a programme instituted where all holotypes should be photographed digitally. The backlog should be photographed digitally now while its there because that will be available for circulation. There will b no more laborious journeys to distant museums to look at a holotype only to find it's gone. We will just be able to call up a CD version of it. Every holotype could be photographed in multiple focus and stored somewhere. It could be stored anywhere, everybody could have it. The need for the museum to look after it and curate it could almost disappear completely I think it's very, very important that we do something about that. I also think, we need to try and do more about circulating more reference material so that representative collections are available on a worldwide basis. It's virtually impossible to obtain material from some parts of the world but there are organisations such as AASP, CIMP and others that could co-ordinate an international programme of exchange of such material to be made available to memberships worldwide.

What about the growth of palynology? Well, the problem at the moment to me appears to be that there's no obvious major centre. In the 1960's when there were major concentrations in Lille, Paris, Sheffield, and commercial concentrations in Amoco, BP and Shell.etc. Those don't exist today. So the only way we're going to grow now is by co-operation, international co-operation in particular. We have a responsibility to highlight what we can achieve. I think we can do that by improving our international relations and ensuring that palynological publication on an international basis has a high profile and that's one of the things that's important to me. That is one of the reasons why I'm remaining involved in CIMP's activity in Saudi Arabia. That's the sort of thing I think we should be doing. I think with that sort of evidence, then foreign governments, foreign oil companies will say "We should be doing this ourselves". That will provide the stimulus to ensure that at least some centres survive. Those centres, though, are going to have to learn to co-operate. They are going to have to be almost national centres. Currently Sheffield is numerically small. If we were to embark on a major retraining programme I think we would have to look at collaborating with other organisations in order to have a viable staff core.

So, what am I going to do in the future? Well, stay involved. At the moment I'm working on the Saudi Arabian project and shortly hope to start something in Libya. I am working in Iran and I've got some American involvements with Walt Manger in the University of Arkansas. I plan to ensure that all of my collections go to Sheffield and be freely accessable. Sheffield's literature resource is now something like 18,000 papers. I'll do my bit to ensure that that grows in order to put something back for future students. That's the least I can do to repay the enormous debt that I owe to the science.

2 QUESTIONS:
JBR: So Leslie Moore started the Sheffield Palynology Group and it expanded very quickly. Now I know that from reading one of Bill Sarjeant's historical papers that Bill Evitt visited in the very early 1960's, he visited Sarjeant and Downie. The reputation of Sheffield must have grown really quickly. Do you remember, for example, Alfred Eisenack or Georges Deflandre coming over to Sheffield because they must have been very active at that time.

BO: I can remember Eisenack coming to see Charles Downie and there was just such a passage of people that as a novice just starting out, these were just names at the time, but some of those names stick in my mind because of their extremely friendly attitudes. Venkatachala and L. R. Wilson particularly just treated you as if you were one of them or they were one of you. If you went out for a drink after work, they were there. We had a strange work timetable at that time. Very few of us were early risers, but we did work until 10 o'clock most nights and then went round to the Hallamshire for a couple of pints.

JBR: So you definitely remember, you talk about meeting Bill Chaloner and 'Doc' Wilson. You obviously interfaced with those people quite a lot. Did Deflandre ever come over to Sheffield?

BO: I can't honestly say. Because of the status of Charles, I would be surprised if he didn't. I don't remember him coming over to see David Wall.

JBR: Could you briefly talk about the facilities you had at Sheffield. What were the microscopes like, what were the laboratories like; in broad terms.

BO: Well, at the time they were brilliant. The preparation facilities were good. I think we had 3 fume cupboards, we might have had 4. Health and Safety; well I suppose there was a Health and Safety regime, but it wasn't as rigorous as it is currently. I think we'd have been closed down if we'd had the current regime in those days! Microscopes; I seem to think that we had relatively new microscopes at the time.. They did have an external light source and I've got a feeling that when we started we were all using monoculars. I can confirm that they were electric and we didn't rely on reflected sunlight. They didn't have attached cameras. All of the photography was done on one camera and we did all our own developing and printing. That was all part of it; we learned how to do it ourselves ,we learned how to do our own preparation and our own photography. The things that were there that were major resources were the Sheffield catalogues. They've fallen into disuse, I suppose, from the 1980's onwards, but they were a major resource. I think the thing that was important to us then was that it was very easy for us to obtain reprint material. Anybody would send you a reprint and it's more difficult now. The library was good, but it didn't have the foreign journals that you would need now. Journals that the Geological Survey has, for example, and that the Canadian Survey had at the time. That was one of the major impacts to me of going to Canada, this vast literature resource that was available and for the first time translated Russian instantly accessible and that was a brilliant resource to have access to.

I remember the BGS laboratory facilities. I arrived in 1965 and was told they had got everything I needed. They did actually buy a new microscope. They paid a phenomenal amount of money for a microscope at that time. In actual fact it's still quite a good microscope and I've got one of its offspring in my possession at the moment. It had a built-in camera and it was good, and I've used one ever since, exactly the same. But the laboratory was a bit of a nightmare. When I arrived they said we've got you some acid; 500ml of HF and we're not sure about Nitric Acid, whether we can use it, and I said, well I need about 10 litres of HF to start with, to get me going and I need X, Y and Z. The fume cupboard was in the room where I was working. There was virtually no extraction, and this was a redundant wartime hospital which, as everyone knows who was there, was a excellent place but was not exactly a front-line scientific building by any means. I lived in that room for 2 years. Eventually we did get a laboratory with 3 fume hoods and a walk-in shower, a real novelty at the time, and we all used it. Progressively things got very much more disciplined and, you know, I applaud that because I think it's very important that this Health and Safety regime takes place. One of my biggest worries throughout my career was that someone would get burnt as part of a chemical accident, and I'm delighted to say that after 40 years I can now relax; I haven't had that problem, but in those days it was pouring HF without rubber gloves and no visors, no nothing else, just a rather holey lab coat. That was a bit hazardous when you look back, but that's the way we did it. We didn't have a brake on the centrifuge, you just put your finger down a hole in the middle and it stopped it. You knew how to do it, so why worry. But, yes, things have developed quite a lot and I'm just delighted that I was able to see a number of really great technicians go to BGS and Sheffield without any significant problems, people that have gone o and made careers in their own right and I think particularly Barrie Dale. He was a model for all technicians to follow. He has done a brilliant job and was part of this team in Sheffield, but there were people in BGS who made very valuable contributions over a long period: Janet Marshall, Shirley Greenwood, Jane Kyffin-Hughes and Kerry Johnson and then in Sheffield Hisham Bakri, Steve Ellin and Paul Higham. They all made very valuable and important contributions, not just in their own right, but also to our work, and I think that's important. It's part of this team work that's so imperative for palynology to survive. Without that, we're working on our own and you're in dead trouble.

JBR: You alluded to CIMP being 50 years old very soon and obviously CIMP filled a virtual vacuum. I do recall you telling me snippets about the early history of TMS, the British Micropalaeontology Group at the time, in the early 1970's. Do you want to talk a bit more about some of the tensions and problems in those early days of TMS.

BO: TMS came about because the Geological Society of London was establishing working groups just about everywhere and micropalaeontology was an obvious gap in their coverage. They approached Leslie Moore to ask if he would examine the possibilities of a micropalaeontological working group within the Society. That was in 1968 and a number of meetings took place. I was very naïve, I didn't know what I was walking into. There were meetings with the Palaeontological Association, the Geological Society, the Palaeontographical Society, who all wanted to retain micropalaeontology within their circumscription, and I think Leslie Moore was very wise at the time and he decided that if everybody wants this, it must be pretty important. Why don't we go on our own? Against the flow of opinion amongst quite a number of senior micropalaeontologists within Britain, Moore decided not going to join either of these major organisations who were wanting us, and instead recommended that we establish our own working group. It was only a "group" originally, it wasn't even a society, and we had about 200 members. For 50p or $1 per year, you got about 3 newsletters run off on the inevitable BGS duplicating machine, and if you didn't pay it didn't matter. Some people paid and some people never, ever, paid but we survived and gradually we held meetings on a regular basis and we got to the stage where we could stand on our own feet. We didn't have any money but we were viable and Bob Cummings at Robertson Research was very, very supportive. He became its second President and he gave us financial support to ensure that we did survive. It is now, 35 years old, and I'm delighted I played a part in bringing that about. I had no idea at the time that it would grow into something as international highly acclaimed as it is today. I thought we were going to be nothing really much more than an little national working group, but its very important and I'm delighted to still be a member, albeit honorary now, but its well worth anybody's subscription.

JBR: So, CIMP and BMS started at pretty much the same time as AASP. Quite a few Sheffield people were at the inaugural meeting of AASP because Bill Sarjeant certainly was, and Graham Williams was. You were at IGS (The Institute of Geological Sciences - now the British Geological Survey - ed.) at the time. Do you have any lasting memories of that early time of AASP formation. Were you involved?

BO: I wasn't involved. I remember thinking, "is this a rival?." I was beginning to get involved in CIMP in a serious way at this time. However it never really struck me as being a direct rival since compared to CIMP it has a parallel status. We exist with good international relationships, with all the other major groups: the French speaking palynological societies, the Spanish ones. We have good relations with all of them and we have had joint meetings with all of them. I saw AASP as an opportunity to expand our own activities. It provided us with a vehicle to get our information into North America almost free of charge and it was very beneficial. We picked up a lot of members. Picking up members isn't about making money, it's about proliferating information and that's what is important. I think all societies now face problems but CIMP is fortunate in that it perhaps has the smallest problem. It doesn't have to carry the burden of a journal. There have been many calls that we should actually publish, but for us it's much easier to publish on an ad hoc basis by generating one-off publications to go as a special issue of a journal. There have been some landmark CIMP publications: Clayton et al. (1977) must be probably the most quoted Palaeozoic paper ever. That's a corporate effort. It's about collaboration and co-operation. That's probably the best route for us because we don't have this burden of carrying a journal on our backs, and that journal could be our downfall. We've done it this way for 47 years now and one of my hopes is that in Bonn some of the original members will be able to turn up. As far as I can recall I think Geoff Playford might be one of the few active original members. Ted Spinner and Jean Pierre Laveine were also at the early meetings. I think Ted's first one was 1961 or 1962. My first one was 1963 in Paris. Harold Smith must also be one of the original members. I would hope that some of those of the older generation like Boris Alpern, Serge Jardiné and Maurice Streel, who were all very important early players would be able to attend in Bonn.

JBR: That's very interesting. I realise there wasn't a tension between CIMP and AASP but I didn't know there was tension when TMS started. You mentioned your influence with Roger Neves and Colin McGregor etc. Could I just ask you briefly about Leslie Moore on one or two aspects. What was his style of leadership like? Did he interface with the post-graduate students, did you see a lot of him, was he outfacing to the wider palynological world. What were his relationships with people such as Bill Chaloner like?

BO: Well, he was a brilliant teacher, that was the first thing about him. He had the ability to not only to inspire but also make contact with people. He wasn't remote, and one of the objectives of Leslie Moore was to try to make you experience living geology. I think a lot of people would back that. As a post graduate, he was there, and he would give you sound advice. If he was your supervisor, he was a very attentive supervisor, ensuring that you didn't waste your time and he gave you a lot of very good advice. My contact with him as a post-graduate was largely administrative. He edited and refereed my first publications. He taught me an immense amount of common sense and the fickleness of my own ways. The relationships externally, well we thought we were better than anyone else, that goes without saying, and I'm pretty sure that Bill (Chaloner) is the sort who would have identified us as a rival. We were competitors. Bill had a small school with people like Robbie Clark, and Margaret Mortimer. We respected them but we competed with them. Yes, I believe there was an element of competition, but I, (and I think certainly most other people) had a lot of respect for Bill, and I still do. I'd just like to be able to contribute a quarter of what Bill has contributed. That would be fantastic.

I don't think there's been any competition/conflict ch anywhere. It wasn't just with Bill that we had this competitive respect. There was also a group in Lille in the 1960's. They were a pretty strong group with Loboziak, Coquel, Laveine and other people from Turkey. It was a very viable group in Lille and I suppose they were rivals as well. But when the chips were down and we all sat round the table in a CIMP meeting we were one, and that evolved into the working group concepts that CIMP has always fostered. I think that's one of its strengths, that it brings together 6 workers who are interested in monolete spores and they generate something. The sad thing where we are now is that we don't have enough people to generate enough working groups to have an impact. Some are still ticking over, but they don't have the same strength numerically as they did in the past and because of the way the science is, the individuals don't get enough financial support and I think that's why we've got to look overseas to stimulate that financial support. The Saudi Aramco arrangement has been very, very supportive as far as CIMP activity was concerned. Without them we'd never have achieved what we've managed to do in the last 14 years.

JBR: You actually answered a lot of the questions in your first uninterrupted commentary, so perhaps that's it. Thank you very much.

APPENDIX - BERNARD OWENS: LIST OF PUBLICATIONS

1. Refereed journal publications
   
   
   1. Neves, R. & Owens, B., 1966: Some Namurian camerate miospores from the English Pennines. Pollen et Spores, 8, 337-360.
      
      
   2. Burgess, I.C. & Owens, B., 1967: Report of Field meeting, Stainmore and Kirkby Stephen. Proceedings Yorkshire Geological Society, 36, 25 - 28.
      
      
   3. Owens, B. & Streel, M., 1967; Hymenozonotriletes lepidophytus Kedo, its distribution and significance in relation to the Devonian - Carboniferous boundary, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 1, 141 - 150.
      
      
   4. Wadge, A.J., Owens, B. & Downie, C., 1967; Microfossils from the Skiddaw Goup, Geological Magazine,104,506 - 507.
      
      
   5. McQuillan, R., Wright, J.E., Owens, B. & Lister, T.R., 1969;Recent geological investigations in the Irish Sea,Nature222, No. 5191,365 - 366.
      
      
   6. Owens, B., 1970;A review of palynological methods employed in the correlation of Palaeozoic sediments in Colloque sur la Stratigraphie du Carbonifere,Les Congres et Colloques de l'Universite de Liege,55,99 - 112.
      
      
   7. Owens, B., 1970;Recognition of the Devonian - Carboniferousboundaryby palynological methods inColloque sur la Stratigraphie du Carbonifere.Les Congres et Colloques de l'Universite de Liege,55, 349 - 364.
      
      
   8. Owens, B. & Streel, M., 1970; Palynology of the Devonian - Carboniferous boundary (Report on Project B of the3rd CIMP meeting on Palaeozoic Stratigraphy) in Colloque sur la Stratigraphie du Carbonifere.Les Congres et Colloques de l'Universite de Liege, 55,113 - 120.
      
      
   9. Owens, B., 1974; The Permian - Triassic Symposium- an appraisal.Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology,17, 3 - 4.
      
      
   10. Owens, B., 1974; News Report for Great Britain,Micropaleontology,20, 120 - 128.
       
       
   11. Owens, B., Mishell, D.R.F. & Marshall, J., 1976Kraeuselisporites from the Namurian of northern England, Pollen et Spores,18, 145 - 156.
       
       
   12. Calver, M.A. & Owens, B., 1977;Proposed sections for the Westphalian stage boundary stratotypes in Symposium on Carboniferous Stratigraphy. Report on Subcommission on carboniferous Stratigraphy, ( Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1973) 65 - 68.
       
       
   13. Clayton, G., Coquel, R., Doubinger, J,Gueinn, K.J., Loboziak, S., Owens, B.& Streel, M., 1977; Carboniferous miospores of Western Europe - illustration and zonation.Meddelingen Rijks Geologische Dienst, 29,1 - 77.
       
       
   14. Owens, B., Gueinn, K.J. & Cameron, I., 1977;tournaisian miospore assemblage from the Altagoan formation (Upper Calciferous Sandstone) Draperstown, Northern Ireland,Pollen et Spores 19, 313 - 324.
       
       
   15. Owens, B., Neves, R,Gueinn, K.J., Mishell, D.R.F., Sabry, H.S.M.Z. & Williams, J.E., 1977; Palynologicaldivision of the Namurian of northern England and Scotland,Proceedings YorkshireGeological Society,41,381 - 398.
       
       
   16. Owens, B., Loboziak, S. & Teteriuk, V.K., 1978;Palynological subdivision of Dinantian to Westphalian deposits of Northwest Europe and the Donetz Basin of the U.S.S.R.,Palynology, 2,69 - 91
       
       
   17. Holliday, D.W.,Neves, R. & Owens, B., 1979; Stratigraphy and palynology of early Dinantian strata in shallow boreholes near Ravenstonedale, Cumbria. Proceedings Yorkshire Geological Society,42,343 - 356.
       
       
   18. Teteriuk, V.K., Coquel, R., Loboziak, S., Neves, R., Owens, B. & Jachowicz, A., 1979; The international correlation by miospores of the Namurian - Westphalian boundary deposits of the Carboniferous period in Europe.Izvestiya Akadamia Nauk S.S.S.R.1979, No. 5, 58 - 60.
       
       
   19. Turner, R.E.,Taylor, R., Goode, A. & Owens, B., 1980; Palynological evidence for the age of the Mylor Slates. Proceedings of the Ussher Society, 4, 274 - 283
       
       
   20. Owens, B., 1981;Palynology, its biostratigraphic and environmental potential in Illing, L.V.& Hobson, G.D." The Petroleum Geology of the Continental Shelf of Northwest Europe"London,162 - 168.
       
       
   21. Owens, B., 1981; Micropalaeontology, the IGS approach. British Geologist, 6, 4, 111 - 113.
       
       
   22. Welsh, A. & Owens, B., 1983;Early Dinantian miospore assemblages from the Caldon Low Borehole, Staffordshire, England,Pollen et Spores, 25,253 - 264
       
       
   23. Molyneux, S.G., Manger, W.L. & Owens, B., 1984;Preliminary account of late Devonian palynomorph assemblages from the Bedford Shale and Berea Sandstone Formations of central Ohio, U.S.A.. Journal of Micropalaeontology, 3,41 - 51.
       
       
   24. Loboziak, S., Clayton, G. & Owens, B., 1986;Aratrisporites saharaensissp. nov., a characteristic Lower Carboniferous miospore species of North Africa.Geobios, 19,497 - 503.
       
       
   25. Riley, N.J., Varker, W.J., Owens, B., Higgins, A.C. & Ramsbottom, W.H.C., 1987; Stonehead Beck, Cowling, north Yorkshire, England; a British proposal for the Mid-Carboniferous boundary stratotype.Courier Forschung Institut Senckenberg, 98, 159 - 177.
       
       
   26. Foster, D., Holliday, D.W., Jones, C.M., Owens, B. & Welsh, A., 1989;The concealed Upper Palaeozoic rocks of Berkshire and South Oxfordshire. Proceedings of the Geologists Association,100, 395 - 407.
       
       
   27. Varker, W.J., Owens, B. & Riley, N.J., 1990;Integrated biostratigraphy for the proposed Mid-Carboniferous boundary stratotype, Stonehead Beck, Cowling, North Yorkshire, England; Courier Forschung Institut Senckenberg,130, 221 - 235..
       
       
   28. Owens, B., Varker, W.J. & Hughes, R.A., 1990; Lateral biostratigraphical consistency across the Mid-Carboniferous boundary in northern England.Courier Forschung Institut Senckenberg,130,237 - 244.
       
       
   29. Mitchell, W.I. & Owens, B., 1990;The geology of the western part of the Fintona Block, Northern Ireland: evolution ofCarboniferous basins.Geological Magazine, 127, 407 - 426.
       
       
   30. Turner, N. & Owens, B., 1993;Palynological evidence for an early Namurian age of the Cornbrook Sandstone Formation, Clee Hill, Shropshire.Proceedings Yorkshire Geological Society , 49,189 - 196.
       
       
   31. Turnau, E., Avchimovitch, V.I., Byvscheva, T.V.,Clayton, G., Higgs, K.T.& Owens, B., 1994;Taxonomy and stratigraphical distribution ofVerrucosisporites nitidus Playford, 1964 and related species.Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 81, 289 -295
       
       
   32. Turner, N. & Owens, B., 1995; Late Westphalian palynomorphs from northern SaudiArabia.Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology,89, 125 - 137.
       
       
   33. Podgainaya, N.N., Loboziak,S. & Owens, b., 1996;Assemblages of Middle and Upper Carboniferous zonal miospores from the south-western Precaspian Depression. Bulletin des Centres de Recherches Exploration-Production Elf Aquitaine,20, No.1, 91 - 129.
       
       
   34. Owens, B., 1996; The scientific work of Maurice Streel,Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology,93,3 - 8.
       
       
   35. Riley, N.J., Owens, B. & Winlow, A, 1996;The Mansfield Marine Band: A case study in scientific conservation and industrial co-operation in Stow. D.A.V. & McCall, G.J.H. (eds) "Geoscience Education and Training in Schools and universities, for industry and public awareness" Association of Geoscientists for International Development, AGID Special Publication Series No.19,707 - 714.
       
       
   36. Owens, B., 1996; Paleozoic Spores and Pollen18D - Upper Carboniferous Spores and PolleninJansonius, J. & McGregor, D.C. "Palynology - Principles and applications"American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists Foundation, 2, 597 - 606.
       
       
   37. Clayton, G., Manger, W.L. & Owens, B., 1998;Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous) miospores from the Cuyahoga and Logan Formations of northeastern Ohio, USA. Journal of Micropalaeontology, 17,183 - 191.
       
       
   38. Al-Hajri, S. & Owens, B. (eds) Stratigraphic Palynology of the Palaeozoic of Saudi Arabia, GeoArabia Special Publication No. 1, 231 pp
       
       
   39. Al-Hajri, S. & Owens, B., 2000;Subsurface Palynostratigraphy of the Palaeozoic of Saudi ArabiainAl-Hajri, S. & Owens (eds.) " Stratigraphic Palynology of the Palaeozoic of Saudi Arabia"Special GeoArabia Publication No. 1,10 - 17.
       
       
   40. Clayton, G., Owens, B., Al-Hajri, S. & Filatoff, J., 2000; Latest Devonianand early Carboniferous Miospore Assemblages from Saudi Arabiain " Al-Hajri, S. & Owens, B. (eds.) "Stratigraphic Palynology of the Palaeozoic of Saudi Arabia" SpecialGeoArabia Publication No.1,146 - 153.
       
       
   41. Owens, B., Filatoff, J., Clayton, G. & Al-Hajri, S., 2000; Evidenceof Mid- CarboniferousMiospore Assemblages from central Saudi Arabia inAl-Hajri, S. & Owens, B. (eds.)"Stratigraphic Palynology of the Palaeozoic of Saudi Arabia" Special GeoArabia PublicationNo. 1, 154 - 167
       
       
   42. Frederick, C.D., Buckland, P.C, Bateman, M.D. & Owens, B., 2001. South Ferriby Cliff and Eastfield FarminThe Quaternary of East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire (Bateman, M.D., Buckland, P.C., Federick, C.D. & Whitehouse, N.J. (eds). Quaternary Research Association,103 -112.
       
       
   43. Owens, B., Zhu Huaicheng & Turner, N., 2002; Comparative Palynostratigraphy of the Pendleian - Arnsbergian (Namurian) boundary betweeen Great Britain and China. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. 118, 227 - 238
       
       
   44. El-Nakhal, H.A., Stephenson, M.A. & Owens, B., 2002. New Late Carboniferous - Early Permian palynological data from glacial sediments in the Kooli Formation, Republic of Yemen.Micropaleontology,48, 222 - 228.
       
       
   45. Spinner, E.G., Owens, B. & Lunn, P.L. 2004. Professor Leslie Rowsell Moore Annual Report of the Geological Society, 1, 40 -41.
       
       
   46. Spinner, E.G., Owens, B. & Lunn, P.L., 2004. Obituary: Professor Leslie Rowsell Moore, 1912 - 2003.Journal of Micropalaeontology
       
       
   47. Owens, B., McLean, D. & Bodman, D., 2004. A revised palynozonation of the British Namurian deposits and comparison with eastern Europe.Micropaleontology, 50, 89 - 103.
       
       
   48. McLean, D., Owens,B. & Neves, R.,., (in press)Miospore biostratigraphy of the North Sea Carboniferous.Proceedings of Yorkshire Geological Society
       
       
   49. McLean, D., Owens, B. & Bodman, D. (in press) Correlation of palynostratigraphy in the British Westphalian. Geological Society of London Special Publication
       
       
   50. McLean, D., Owens, B.& Bodman, D. (2004)Palynostratigraphy of the Upper Carboniferous Langsettian - Duckmantian Stage boundary in Britain. in Beaudoin, A.B.& Head, M.J. (eds.) The palynology and Micropalaeontology of Boundaries Geological Society of London Special Publication 230,123 - 135
       
       
   51. Owens, B., Shell, P.M.J., McLean, D., Robinson, R. &Simpson, K.R.M. ., (in press) Re-appraisal of the Dinantian palynostratigraphy of the East Fife coast, Scotland. Palynology
       
       
   52. McLean, D., Bek, J., Owens, B. & Oliwkiewicz-Miklasinska, M., (in prep.) Pteroretis Felix & Burbridge emend: reinterpretation of an enigmatic Pennsylvanian miospore, Micropaleontology
       
       
   53. Bek, J., Libertin, M., McLean, D., Owens, B. & Oliwkiewicz-Miklasinska, M., (in prep). Sphenophyllum weissi sp. nov. and its spores from the Intra Sudetic (Duckmantian) and Kladno-Rakovnik (Bolsovian) basins, Pennsylvanian of the Czech Republic.Vestnik Ceskeho geologickeho ustravu
   
   
   
2. Refereed Conference, International Commission and Geological Survey Publications
   
   
   1. Owens, B., 1965; Recognition of the Devonian - Carboniferous boundary by palynological methods.Compte Rendu de la Commission Internationale de Microflore du Paleozoique (Sheffield, 1965)10 p
      
      
   2. Owens, B. & Burgess, I.C., 1965; The stratigraphy and palynology of the Upper Carboniferous Outlier of Stainmore, westmoreland. BulletinGeological Survey of Great Britain,23,17 - 44.
      
      
   3. McGregor, D.C. & Owens, B., 1966;Illustrations of Canadian fossils;Devonian spores from eastern and northern Canada. Geological Survey of Canada Paper, 66-30,1 - 66.
      
      
   4. Owens, B., 1967; Report of the C.I.M.P. Committee to discuss the problems of the Classificationof Fossil Spores and Pollen,Cmpte Rendude la Commission Internationale de Microflore du Paleozoique(Paris, 1967) 7 pp.
      
      
   5. Owens, B., inEvans, W.B., Wilson, A.A., Taylor, B.J. & Price, D.,1968; Geology of the country around Macclesfield, Congleton, Crewe and Middlewich,Memoir Geological survey of Great Britain(Sheet 110), p.14.
      
      
   6. Owens, B., in Greig, D.C.,Wright, J.E., Hains, B.A. & Mitchell, G.H. 1969; Geology of the country around Church Stretton, Craven Arms, Wenlock Edge and Brown Clee,Memoir Geological Survey of Great Britain ( Sheet 166)p.225.
      
      
   7. Owens, B. inMcQuillan, R. et al., 1969;Cruise Report, Irish Sea Investigations June -September 1968,Report Institute of Geological Sciences 20pp.
      
      
   8. Owens, B., 1971; Miospores from the Middle and early Upper Devonian rocks of the Western Queen Elizabeth Islands. Arctic Archipelago.Geological Survey of Canada Paper70 -38,1 - 157.
      
      
   9. Owens, B., 1971; A derived Lower Tournaisian miospore assemblage from the Permo-Triassic deposits of South Devon.Compte Rendu 7th International Congress ofCarboniferousStratigraphy and Geology (Krefeld, 1971), 1, 359 - 365.
      
      
   10. Owens,B. & Richardson, J.B., 1971; Some recent advancesin Devonian palynology - areview, Report of C.I.M.P. Working Group 13B.Compte Rendu 7th International Congress of Carboniferous Stratigraphy and Geology (Krefeld, 1971) , 1, 325 - 343.
       
       
   11. Owens, B. in Bless, M.J.M., Calver, M.A. & Josten, C.H., 1971; Report of the Working Group on the Westphalian C in N.W. Europe. Compte Rendu 7th International Congress of Carboniferous Stratigraphy and Geology (Krefeld, 1971) 1, 223 - 230.
       
       
   12. Owens, B., 1974; Micropalaeontology in the Institute of Geological Sciences, News Journal of Natural Environment Research Council, No. 10,4 -6.
       
       
   13. Owens, B. inSmith, E.G. & Goossens, R., 1974; The Geology of the country around East Retford. Memoir of Geological Survey of Great Britain(Sheet 101)25 -28.
       
       
   14. Owens, B. inWilliams, B.J. & Whittaker, A.J., 1974; The Geology of the country around Stratford upon Avon and Evesham. Memoir of Geological Survey of Great Britain (Sheet200),94 - 95
       
       
   15. Owens, B. in Mills, D.A.C. & Hull, J.H., 1976; The Geology of the country around Barnard Castle.Memoir of Geological Survey of Great Britain ( Sheet 32), 58 - 59.
       
       
   16. Owens, B., Downie, C. & Reynolds, M.J. 1977;Micropalaeontologicalevidence for the age of Devonian sediments in the Steeple Aston Borehole, Oxfordshire. Bulletin Geological Survey of Great Britain, No. 57,28 - 40
       
       
   17. Owens, B. inRose, W.C. & Dunham, K.C., 1977; Geology and haematite deposits of South Cumbria.Memoir of Geological Survey of Great Britain (Sheet 48), p.33.
       
       
   18. Warrington, G. & Owens, B., 1977; Synopsis of micropalaeontological biostratigraphic data from the English Channel, S.W. Aproachesand Southern Celtic Sea. Reoprt of Institute of Geological SciencesNo. 77/7,1 - 49.
       
       
   19. Owens, B.inBarclay, W.J. & Jones, D.G., 1978;Recent boreholes in the attenuated Carboniferous strata of the Blaenavon - Pontypool area of Gwent. Bulletin of Geological Survey of Great Britain,No. 67,p.13.
       
       
   20. Owens, B. in McLean, A.C. & Deegan, C.E., 1978; The solid geology of the Clyde Sheet ( 55°N/6°W) Report of Institute of Geological Sciences No. 78/9,72 - 73.
       
       
   21. Owens, B.in Poole, E.G., 1978;Stratigraphy of the Withycombe Farm borehole near Banbury,Oxfordshire. Bulletin of Geological Survey of Great Britain, No. 68,p.18.
       
       
   22. Owens, B. inThomson, M., 1978;IGS studies of the geology of the Firth of Forth and its Approaches.Report of Institute of Geological Sciences No 77/17,50 - 52
       
       
   23. Calver, M.A. & Owens, B.,1978; The W.H.Wilcockson Nature Reserve, DuckmantonRailway Cutting Geological Trail,Derbyshire Naturalist Trust, 17pp.
       
       
   24. Byvscheva, T.V., Owens, B. & Teteriuk, V.K. 1979; Stratigraphical palynology of the Tournaisian to Stephanian deposits of the U.S.S.R. and Western Europe.Compte Rendu 8th International Congress of Carboniferous Stratigraphy and Geology (Moscow, 1975), 1, 209 - 215.
       
       
   25. Ramsbottom, W.H.C., Owens, B. & Higgins, A.C., 1979; British Namurian biostratigraphy - Report to Commission on Carboniferous stratigraphy.Compte Rendu 8th International Congress on Carboniferous Stratigraphy and Geology (Moscow, 1975) 3, 85 - 99
       
       
   26. Owens, B. in Burgess, I.C. & Holliday, D.W., 1979; The geology of the country around Brough-under-Stainmore.Memoir of Geological Survey of Great Britain (Sheet 31).
       
       
   27. Owens, B. & Marshall, J., 1979; Micropalaeontological biostratigraphy of samples from around the coasts of Scotland.Report Institute of Geological SciencesNo. 78/20,1 - 35.
       
       
   28. Owens, B.inWilkinson, I.P. & Halliwell, G.P., 1980; Offshore micropalaeontologicalbiostratigraphy of southern and western Britain.Report Institute of Geological SciencesNo.79/9,1 - 65.
       
       
   29. Owens, B., Loboziak, S. & Coquel, R., 1980; Late Mississippian - early Pennsylvanian miospore assemblages from northern Arkansas, Oklahoma Geology Notes, 40, No. 1, p 36.
       
       
   30. Owens, B. inRamsbottom, W.H.C. et al., 1981, Field guide to the boundary stratotypes of the Carboniferous stages in Britain, Subcommission on Carboniferous Stratigraphy (Leeds, 1981)1 - 101.
       
       
   31. Owens, B., 1982; Palynological zonation of Mid-Namurian strata in Northern England in Ramsbottom, W.H.C., Saunders, W.B. & Owens, B.(eds.) "Biostratigraphic Data for a Mid-Carboniferous Boundary"Subcommission on Stratigraphy (Leeds, 1981), 22 - 26.
       
       
   32. Mitchell, M., Reynolds, M.J., Laloux, M. & Owens, B., 1982; Biostratigraphy of the Knap Farm borehole at Cannington Park, Somerset.ReportInstitute of Geological SciencesNo. 82/5,8 - 17.
       
       
   33. Mykura, W. & Owens, B., 1983; The Old Red Sandstone of the Mealfuarvonie Outlier, west of Loch Ness, Inverness-shire. Report Institute of Geological SciencesNo. 83/7,1 - 17.
       
       
   34. Owens, B., 1983; Bascaudasporagen. nov., a reticulate miospore genus from the Namurian of northern England.ReportInstitute of Geological SciencesNo. 83/10, 45 - 49
       
       
   35. Smith, A.H.V. & Owens, B., 1983; The Caergwale Bowl, its composition geological source and archaeological significance - an addendum.ReportInstitute of Geological SciencesNo 83/1,24 - 27.
       
       
   36. Coquel, R., Loboziak, S., Owens, B. & Teteriuk, V.K., 1984;Comparison entre la distribution des principales microspores - guides du Namurien et du Westphalien en Europe occidentale et dans le bassin du Donetz (U.R.S.S.).Compte Rendu 9th International Congress of Carboniferous Stratigraphy and Geology (Urbana, 1979) 2,443 - 446.
       
       
   37. Loboziak, S., Coquel, R. & Owens, B., 1984; Les microspores des formations Hale etBloyd du nord de l'Arkansas.Compte Rendu 9th International Congress of Carboniferous Stratigraphy and Geology (Urbana, 1979)2, 385 - 390.
       
       
   38. Owens, B., 1984; Report of activities of the Commission Internationale de Microflore du Paleozoique. Compte Rendu 9th International Congress of Carboniferous Stratigraphy and Geology(Urbana, 1979),1, 79 - 80.
       
       
   39. Owens,B.,1984; Miospore zonation of the Carboniferous, Compte Rendu 9th International Congress of Carboniferous Stratigraphy and Geology (Urbana, 1979) 2,90 - 102.
       
       
   40. Owens, B., Loboziak, S. & Coquel, R., 1984; Late Mississippian - early Pennsylvanian miospore assemblages from northern Arkansas.Compte Rendu 9th International Congress of Carboniferous Stratigraphy and Geology (Urbana, 1979) , 2,377 - 384.
       
       
   41. Owens, B., 1985; Report of Activities of the Commission Internationale de Microflore du Paleozoique, Compte Rendu 10th International Congress of Carboniferous Stratigraphy and Geology (Madrid, 1983),1, 43 - 45.
       
       
   42. Riley, N.J., Razzo, M.J. & Owens, B.,1985; A new boundary stratotype section for the Bolsovian (Westphalian C) in northern England.Compte Rendu 10th International Congress of Carboniferous Stratigraphy and Geology (Madrid, 1983), 1,35 - 44.
       
       
   43. Lane, R.H., Bouckaert, J., Brenckle, P., Einor, O.L.,Havlena, V., Higgins, A.C., Yang, J.Z., Manger, W.L., Nassichuk, W., Nemirovskaya, T., Owens, B., Ramsbottom, W.H.C.,Reitlinger, E.A. & Weyant, M., 1985; Proposal for an international Mid - Carboniferous boundary.Compte Rendu 10th International Congress of Carboniferous Stratigraphy and Geology (Madrid,1983), 4, 323 - 339.
       
       
   44. Owens, B., Riley, N.J. & Calver, M.A., 1985;Boundary stratotypes and new stage names for the early and middle Westphalian sequences in Britain.Compte Rendu 10th International Congress of Carboniferous Stratigraphy and Geology (Madrid, 1983), 4,461 - 472.
       
       
   45. Owens, B., Clayton, G., Gao Lianda & Loboziak, S., 1989; Miospore correlation of the Carboniferous deposits of Europe and China. Compte Rendu 11th International Congress of Carboniferous Stratigraphy and Geology (Beijing, 1987) 3, 189 - 210
       
       
   46. Owens, B.,1989; Report of activities of the Commission Internationale de Microflore du Paleozoique. Compte Rendu 11th International Congress of Carboniferous Stratigraphy and Geology (Beijing, 1987),1,
       
       
   47. Owens, B. in Barclay, W. J., 1989.Geology of the South Wales Coalfield, Part II, the country around Abergavenny.Memoir Geological Survey of Great Britain (Sheet 232), p. 63.
       
       
   48. Owens, B., 1992;Carboniferous Palynostratigraphy: The Arctic to North Africa - an integrated guide to zonations and zonal taxa. British Geological Survey, Stratigraphic Masterpack 3,7 volumes.
       
       
   49. Owens, B. in Gaunt, G.D., 1994: Geology of the country around Goole, Doncaster and the Isle of Axholme. MemoirGeological Survey of Great Britain (Sheets 79 & 88), 11 - 13.
       
       
   50. Owens, B. inKellaway, G.A. & Welch, F.B.A.,1993;Geology of the Bristol district.Memoir Geological Survey of Great Britain,64 - 65.
       
       
   51. Clayton, G. & Owens, B., 1997;Report on the International Commission on the Palaeozoic Microflora(CIMP). Proceedings 13th International Congress on the Carboniferous and Permian(Krakow, 1995), 1,p.65.
       
       
   52. Turnau, E., Avchimovitch, V.I., Byvscheva, T.V., Carson, B., Clayton, G. & Owens, B. 1997; The first appearance in Europe of Lycospora pusilla (Ibrahim) Somers and its relationship to the Tournaisian - Viséan boundary.Proceedings 13th International Congress of the Carboniferous and Permian (Krakow, 1995),1,289 - 293.
       
       
   53. Owens, BinHamblin, R.J.O. & Coppack, B.C., 1995;Geology of Telford and the Coalbrookdale Coalfield. Memoir Geological Survey of Great Britain(Sheets 152 and 153),29 - 38.
       
       
   54. Owens, B. in Brandon, A., Aitkenhead, N., Crofts, R.G., Ellison, R.A. Evans, D.J. & Riley, N.J. 1998;Geology of the country around Lancaster.Memoir Geological Survey of Great Britain (Sheet 59), p. 95.
       
       
   55. Owens, B.in Rees, J.G. & Wilson, A.A., 1998; Geology of the country around Stoke -on-Trent. Memoir GeologicalSurvey of Great Britain(Sheet 123) ,13 - 14.
       
       
   56. Owens, B. & Lines, J.,1997;Palaeozoic Palynostratigraphy of North Africa,the Middle East and the Gulf Region.Part 1,Devonian and Carboniferous. British Geological Survey, Stratigraphical Masterpack 4,9 vols.
       
       
   57. Owens, B. in Holliday, D.W. & Richardson, G., 1998;Geology of the country around Newcastle upon Tyne. Memoir Geological Survey of Great Britain. (Sheet 20).
       
       
   58. Manger, W.L., Kollar, A.D., Clayton, G & Owens, B. 2002, Late Kinderhookian (Mississippian - Lower Carboniferous) age assignment for Upper Cuyahoa - Lower Logan ammonoid assemblages from Ohio based on integrated brachiopod and miospore biostratigraphy, 14th International Congress on Carboniferous and Permian(Calgary, Canada, 1999).
       
       
   59. Stephenson, M.H. &Owens, B. (in press)The Bernard Owens Collection of single grain mount palynological slides: Carboniferous spores, part 1. British Geological Survey Research Report04/xx/xx
   
   
   
3. Edited Volumes and Special Journal Issues
   
   
   1. Owens, B. & Visscher, H., (eds.) 1981; Acritarchs, Chitinozoa and Scolecodonts - Recent Advances. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 34, 2, 137 - 267
      
      
   2. Owens, B. & Visscher, H. (eds.) 1981;Late Palaeozoic and Early Mesozoic Stratigraphic Palynology. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 34, 1, 1 - 135.
      
      
   3. Ramsbottom, W.H.C., Saunders, W.B. & Owens, B. (eds.) 1982;Biostratigraphic Data for a Mid-Carboniferous Boundary. Subcommission on Carboniferous Stratigraphy (Leeds, 1981) 156pp.
      
      
   4. Thusu, B. & Owens, B. (eds.) 1985; Palynostratigraphy of North-East Libya,Journal of Micropalaeontology, 4, 1, 1 - 182.
      
      
   5. El-Arnauti, A., Owens,B & Thusu, B.(eds.) 1988;Subsurface Palynostratigraphy of Northeast Libya. Garyounis University Publications,Benghazi, Libya,1 - 276.
      
      
   6. Owens, B. & Visscher,H. (eds.) 1990;Circum-Mediterranean Palynology.Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology,66,167 - 380.
      
      
   7. Le Herisse, A,Owens, B. & Paris, F. (eds.) 1995;Paleozoic palynomorphs of the Gondwana - Euramerican interface.Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 86, 1 - 173.
      
      
   8. Owens, B., Al-Tayyar, H., Van der Eem, J.G.L.A. & Al-Hajri, S. (eds.) 1995; Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 89,1 - 150.
      
      
   9. Al-Hajri, S. & Owens, B. (eds.)2000;Stratigraphic Palynology of Saudi Arabia. Special GeoArabiaPublicationNo.1,1 - 230.
   
   
   
4. Additional Published Abstracts and Miscellanea
   
   
   1. Owens, B., 1975; Microfossils aid UK Oil and mineral Exploration. Overseas News Release, Central Office of Information5pp.
      
      
   2. Owens, B., Loboziak, S. & Teteriuk, V.K., 1977; Palynological subdivision of the Dinantian to Westphalian deposits of N.W. Europe and the Donetz Basin(Abst.) Colloqio Internationale Palynologia, Leon, Spain,27 - 28.
      
      
   3. Owens, B., Downie, C. & Reynolds, M.J., 1978; Micropalaeontology of Devonian sediments from a borehole in Oxfordshire, England(Abst.)Palynology, 2, 227.
      
      
   4. Owens , B., Loboziak, S. & Teteriuk, V.K., 1978; Palynological subdivision of Dinantian to Westphalian deposits of northwest Europe and the Donetz Basin of the U.S.S.R.(Abst.) Palynology, 2, 227 - 228.
      
      
   5. Owens, B., Riley,N.J. & Varker, W.J., 1986; Palynological evidence from a proposed Mid-Carboniferous boundary stratotype section in northern England. Abst. 19th Annual Meeting American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists (New York, 1986) p. 30.
      
      
   6. Turner, N. & Owens, B., 1992; Late Carboniferous palynostratigraphy of Saudi Arabia(Abst.) 8th International Palynological Congress, Aix en Provence, 1992, p.148.
      
      
   7. Owens, B., Turner, N. & Zhu Huaicheng, 1995; Palynostratigraphy of the Pendleian - Arnsbergian boundary in Mirk Fell Gill, north Yorkshire, England (Abst.)13th International Congress on Carboniferous - Permian (Krakow, Poland ) p. 109.
      
      
   8. Turnau,E., Avchimovitch, V.I., Byvscheva, T.V., Carson, B., Clayton, G. & Owens,B. 1995. The first appearance in Europe of Lycospora pusilla (Ibrahim) Somers and its relationship to theTournaisian / Visean boundary. Abstr. 13th International Congress on Carboniferous and Permian (Krakow, Poland )p. 142
      
      
   9. Clayton, G., Owens, B., Spinner, E.G. & Manger, W.L., 1995; Mississippian palynofloras from the Cuyahoga and Logan Formations of northeastern Ohio, U.S.A. (Abst.) 13th International Congress on Carboniferous - Permian (Krakow, Poland)p. 24.
      
      
   10. Owens, B. & Lines, J., 1998; A comprehensive palynozonation of the Devonian - Carboniferous of the Gulf Region, Middle East and North Africa(Abst.) "Geo'98", GeoArabia,3,p.138.
       
       
   11. Owens, B., Filatoff, J., Clayton, G. & Al-Hajri, S., 1998; Evidence of Mid Carboniferous miospore assemblages from Saudi Arabia (Abst.) CIMP Symposium, University of Pisa, 21 - 22.
       
       
   12. Owens, B., 1998;A comprehensive palynozonation of the Devonian - Carboniferous of the Gulf Region, Middle East and North Africa(Abst.)12th Simposia de Palinologia, Asociacion de palinologos de Lengua Espanola (Leon, Spain),p. 31.
       
       
   13. Owens, B. & Lines, J., 1998. A comprehensive palynozonation of the Devonian- Carboniferous of the Gulf Region, Middle East and North Africa. Abstract GeoArabia 3, 138.
       
       
   14. Manger, W.L., Kollar, A.D. Clayton, G. & Owens B., 1999. Late Kinderhookian ( Mississippian Lower Carboniferous) age assignment for Upper Cuyahoga - Lower Logan ammonoid assemblages from Ohio, based on integrated brachiopod and miospore biostratigraphy.Abstr. 14th Internation Congress of the Carboniferous and Permian(Calgary, 1999) p. 89
       
       
   15. Peterson, L., Loboziak, S. & Lines, J., 1999. Assemblages of Carboniferous zonal miospores from Middle Siberia. Abstr. 14th International Congress of the Carbniferous and Permian (Calgary, 1999)p. 113.
       
       
   16. Owens, B. & Clayton, G., 1999Visean Palynostratigraphy in northwest Europe; A review of achievements and future potential.Abstr. 14th International Congress on the Carboniferous and Permian.p. 108
       
       
   17. Owens, B. & Clayton, G., 1999;Viséanpalynostratigraphy in northwest Europe; a review of achievements and future potential (Abst.)14th International Congress on Carboniferous and Permian (Calgary, Canada)p. 108.
       
       
   18. Peterson, L., Owens, B.,Loboziak,S. & Lines, J., 1999; Assemblages of Carboniferous zonal spores from Middle Siberia (Abst.)14th International Congress on Carboniferous andPermian (Calgary, Canada)p. 113.
       
       
   19. Clayton, G. & Owens, B., 2000; Palynological correlation of latest Devonian and Carboniferous miospore assemblages from saudi Arabia: some geological implications (Abst.)"Geo' 2000"GeoArabia, 5, p.67.
       
       
   20. Owens, B., Al-Hajri, S. & Lines, J., 2000;Palynological event stratigraphy in the Palaeozoic of Saudi Arabia(Abst.)"Geo'2000", GeoArabia, 5,p.154.
       
       
   21. Owens, B., Zhu Huaicheng & Turner, N., 2000; Comparative palynostratigraphy of the Pendleian - Arnsbergian (Namurian) boundary between Great Britain and China (Abst). 10th International Palynological Congress(Nanjing, China)p. 130
       
       
   22. Owens, B., Al-Hajri, S. & Ruwaili, M., 2000;Palynological event stratigraphy in the Palaeozoic of Saudi Arabia (Abst.)10th International Palynological Congress (Nanjing, China)p. 130.
       
       
   23. Owens, B., Lines, J. & Al-Hajri S. 2000.Palynological event stratigraphy in the Palaeozoic of Saudi Arabia. Abstract GeoArabia,5, 154
       
       
   24. Owens, B. & Osterloff, P., 2001.Palynology of the MisfarFormation, Oman and its correlation with sequences in Saudi Arabia.Abstract GeoArabia, 6, 319 - 320
       
       
   25. Clayton,G., McLean, D & Owens, b., 2003. Carboniferous palynostratigraphy: recent developments inEurope,Abstr. 15th International Congress of Carboniferous & Permian Geology (Utrecht 2003)p. 103.
       
       
   26. McLean, D., Owens, B. & Bodman, D., 2003. Correlation of palynostratigraphy and marine bands in the British Westphalian.Abstr.15th International Congress of Carboniferous & Permian Geology(Utrecht 2003),p. 13.
       
       
   27. Owens, B., McLean, D & Simpson RMK, 2003.Dinantian palynostratigraphy and the importance of the Fife coast sections.Midland Valley of Scotland Permo - Carboniferous Workshop,Edinburgh April 2003p. 12
       
       
   28. Stephenson M.H. & Owens, B., 2004. Taxonomy online; internet palynological database linked to curated specimens. Abstr. 11th International Palynological Congress (Granada, Spain)Polen,14, 144.
       
       
   29. Di Paquo, M., Stephenson, M.H., Filatoff, J. & Owens,B., 2004.Vallatisporites and related cingulizonate genera from the Late Carboniferous and Permian ofSaudi Arabia and SouthAmerica.Abstr. 11th International Palynological Congress (Granada, Spain) Polen, 14, 168.