Martin J. Head,^1,* Kenneth N. Mertens,^2,** Robert A. Fensome<sup>3,***

1</sup>Department of Earth Sciences, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, Canada
²Ifremer, LITTORAL, Concarneau, France
³Natural Resources Canada, Geological Survey of Canada (Atlantic), Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, NS, Canada

^*Martin J. Head is a professor of Earth sciences at Brock University. His interests are in late Cenozoic marine palynology, and particularly the late Neogene–Quaternary record of dinoflagellate cysts and acritarchs and their application to palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. He is also involved in formal chronostratigraphy including that of the Quaternary Period, including efforts to formalize the Anthropocene as a new epoch. He is a former president of AASP – The Palynological Society and of the Canadian Association of Palynologists.
^**Kenneth Neil Mertens is a researcher at Ifremer, LER BO, Concarneau, France. He received his PhD in 2009 from Ghent University. His research interests are the taxonomy, evolution, phylogeny and biogeography of dinoflagellates, and the palaeoceanographical application of dinoflagellate cysts, particularly in the Quaternary and Neogene.
^***Robert A. Fensome is a research scientist with the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC), part of the federal department of Natural Resources Canada, in their Atlantic Division at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. During his 39-year tenure at the GSC, Rob has focussed mainly on Mesozoic and Cenozoic dinoflagellate cysts from offshore eastern Canada, but recently ventured into projects involving assemblages from north-western and Arctic Canada. While his mandate has involved primarily biostratigraphical and palaeoenvironmental studies, he also has a strong interest in dinoflagellate taxonomy and evolution, miospore taxonomy and geological outreach, having co-authored and co-edited two books for a general audience, one on the geology of Canada and one on the geology of Canada's Maritime Provinces.