The main hall of the Conference Centre was splendidly decorated for the opening ceremony. On stage, behind the official table the organisers had hung a huge banner with the image of the little girl and the ammonite that has been so cleverly used on the conference web page over the last few months. The auditorium was full and there was a media contingent filming the event.

The President of the national oil company, Petrobras, Jose Eduardo de Barros Dutra, as the main sponsor of the meeting was also the Honorary President of the Congress. He conducted the official opening complete with a stirring rendition of the Nation Anthem (unlike Australia everyone seems to know the words). After a speech from Renata Netto the retiring President of the Sociedada Brasileira de Paleontologia we were treated to a presentation on the history of exploration for oil by Petrobras indicating how their efforts have been guided by improving the quality of their biostratigraphical analysis using microfossils (mainly foraminifera).

Once the official ceremonies were over the ebullient crowd congregated in the open area of the Bistro de Mar. Well, if I was ever in any doubt, tonight dispelled any notion that Brazilians are reserved people. They are natural party goers! And every good party needs to have live music. I wondered if they were singing songs about fossils, considering the music was loud and lively, I guess not.

For most of the night waiters bought trays full of cerveja to accompany the large table laden with meats, olives, cheeses, biscuits and a bewildering variety of tasty bits and pieces. Brazilians seem to be able to eat, drink, talk and dance all at the same time. As a jet lagged Australian who needs to focus just to accomplish one of these activities successfully, I was seriously out of my depth in this rowdy and enthusiastic company.

The next day the conference commenced at 7:00am, everyone seemed to have remarkably clear heads despite the previous evening. From 7:00 to 9:00am the conference was split into a number of mini seminars on various topics such as taphonomy (the study of the loss of information during the process of fossilisation), palaeobiogeograhy (the study of the geographic distribution of various groups of plants and animals through time) and biostratigraphy (the distribution of plants and animals through time).

At 10:00am the mini seminars join together for the main conference. The subject is Palaeontology and Education”. I am talking on the subject from an Australian perspective, outlining how the Macquarie University Centre for Ecostratigraphy and Palaeobiology (MUCEP) constructs it’s teaching program, the development of programs for high school teachers and students and an announcement of some new joint research (with Fernanda Torello de Mello) into how people become interested in palaeontology. I also encourage them as professional palaeontologists to reach out into the community to make connections with a wide group of different people.

There is considerable surprise at one of my statements about Palaeontology in Australia. I state that Macquarie University is the only university that maintains a study major at undergraduate level. I note there still are some palaeontologists working in Earth Science or Biology departments in our universities but these numbers have been declining sharply over the last decade. There seems to be a belief that because Australia is a wealthy nation each university should have a full contingent of palaeontology staff. I try to explain about the funding cuts, user pays principles and Brendan Nelson, but make little headway.

The other speaker in our session on palaeontology and education is Professor Neilo Bizzo. He runs the Science Teacher education program at the University of Sao Paulo. He has an interesting title for his presentation – “Earth is very old, what does this mean to young students who face fossils everyday?” This is actually a very interesting and challenging presentation. Neilo undertook a PhD at Cambridge on aspects of Charles Darwin’s life and work. He has also lead an expedition into the high Andes tracing the original route that Darwin and his colleagues followed. A documentary was produced on the expedition. There is a wonderful moment where Neilo and his companions discover the remains of a petrified forest that was recorded in Darwin’s note books. Neilo believes this had a profound impact on Darwin’s thinking about the antiquity of the Earth. His presentation continued to elaborate about the historic difficulties humanity has had in accepting deep time.

“Young people facing fossils everyday” refers to the impoverished local communities in the vicinity of the Santana Formation that has produced a spectacular abundance of fish, insects and other fossils over many years. So much so that the local community refer to the fossils by common names related to living creatures in the district such as “cod”, “cricket” and “beetle” etc. The area suffers from El Nino driven periods of drought. The people see dams and waterways dry out and creatures die in the remaining mud. They believe this is how the fossils form. The fossils are therefore constantly replenished as a result of drought and therefore represent an endless supply. As a result they are seen as of little significance and enthusiastically sold to anyone for a pittance. Neilo’s point is that given our struggle with understanding time we should not be surprised by the attitude of these communities.

Neilo Bizzo is also the current Chair of IOSTE, the International Organisation for Science and Technology Education. Over lunch he tells me of the groups work (this will make the basis of a longer article). He talks about the extremes of wealth and poverty in the world and how in some places starvation and disease among pupils can be a science teacher’s over riding challenge.

At 5:30 in the afternoon I’m back on stage for a round table, this time to talk about Macquarie’s Museum Studies program in a session on Museu e Curador (Museums and Curatorship). I share the platform with two Brazilian Museum Curators, Dr Oscar Rossler and Dr Castor Cartelle. Both have incredible stories to tell of the difficulties they have faced in attempting to gain resources for the preservation of Brazil’s fossil heritage. Castor, in particular, delivered a highly charged speech about how access to the fossil heritage of a nation is the right of every citizen. The crowd of delegates enthusiastically cheered in support of his sentiments.

There was sound knowledge among the audience that Australia has also had concerns about the struggle between science and commerce in terms of the trade in fossils. They were aware of the theft of dinosaur footprints from Dampier. I was able to outline attempts to repatriate the Kronosaurus from north Queensland that has been in the Harvard Museum of Comparative Anatomy for over 100 years to indicate that the problem has a long history in Australia as well.

It was an interesting experience to listen to my answers being instantly translated into Portuguese as I gave them. The opening of the conference is over, we have already considered many important issues and I’m exhausted. Hope I can survive for the rest of the week!

Conference delegates

A solo performance by one of the band members

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