Past Chairs: Hanspeter Luterbacher, Graham D. Jenkins (+), Isabella Premoli Silva, Charles Pomerol (+).

20 Voting Members: Mikhail Akhmetiev, Marie Pierre Aubry, Rodolfo Coccioni, Vlasta Cosovic, Richard H. Fluegeman, Jean Pierre Gely, Philip D. Gingerich, Yuri B. Gladenkov, Jan Hardenbol, Christopher J. Hollis, Jerry J. Hooker, Kenneth G. Miller, Eustoquio Molina, Simonetta Monechi, Carolina Nañez, Heiko Palike, Birger Schmitz, Ellen Thomas, Noël Vandenberghe and Dalila Zaghbib-Turki.

Voting and Corresponding Members are selected regionally to provide representative expertise in the Paleogene stratigraphy of each major area and according to their speciality in order to cover the main fields of stratigraphic tools used in the Paleogene.

a) to agree on an international set of stages and series for the Paleogene

b) to establish boundary stratotypes of the Paleogene stages and series

c) to encourage research into the Paleogene by setting up Working Groups and Regional Committees to study and report on specific problems.

A set of Paleogene stages has been voted and agreed on by the ISPS in 1989. Subsequently, Working Groups have been set up to find a Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the lower boundary of each of these stages.

At present, the GSSPs of the base of the Danian (= Cretaceous/Paleogene Boundary), the base of the Selandian, the base of the Thanetian, the base of the Ypresian (= Paleocene/Eocene Boundary ), the base of the Rupelian (= Eocene/Oligocene Boundary) and the base of the Aquitanian (= Paleogene/Neogene Boundary) have been established and ratified by the International Union of Geological Sciences.


The search for the remaining GSSPs has been continued in 2008. Good progress has been made in the Lutetian, Bartonian, Priabonian and Chattian. We hope to present all of the proposals for these remaining GSSPs prior to the next International Geological Congress in 2012.