GEOLOGIJA 63/1, 167-169, Ljubljana 2020 The 7 th triennial Symposium on Mesozoic and Cenozoic Decapod Crustaceans was held in Lju- bljana (Slovenia) this time, a European capital with a long history. The aim of the symposium is to meet with other decapod researchers every three years to discuss their research and to pro- mote international collaborative work on fossil decapod crustaceans. The 44 attending palaeon- tologists and marine biologists from 17 countries exchanged new concepts and ideas in the fields of palaeobiology, with contributions on taxono- my, systematics, taphonomy, palaeobiogeography and macroevolution of decapods. Decapod crus- taceans are evolutionarily one of the most suc- cessful groups of multicellular organisms. They form a diverse group of arthropods that inhab- it various environments, ranging from shallow continental shelves to deep ocean floors, found in rivers, lakes and cave systems, with species even adapted to life on land. To advance and transform decapod palaeontology by sharing new findings and approaches, close scientific ex - change between scientists, students and enthusi- asts is necessary. Comprising 26 oral presentations and 20 post- ers presented in two days of scientific sessions and followed by four fieldtrips, the symposium was staged by a Slovenian organising commit- tee, consisting of Rok Gašparič (Oertijdmuseum, Boxtel), Luka Gale (Geological Survey of Slove- nia, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineer- ing, Ljubljana), Matija Križnar (Slovenian Muse- um of Natural History, Ljubljana), Boštjan Rožič (Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering, Ljubljana), Bogomir Celarc (Geological Survey of Slovenia, Ljubljana) and Matic Rifl (Charles University, Faculty of Science, Prague). The reception and ice breaker took place on the first day (17 th June 2019) at the Slovenian Mu- seum of Natural History, where attendees were greeted by museum director Breda Činč Juhant and had a chance to visit the temporary exhi- bition on Slovenian fossil decapod crustaceans. The scientific part of the symposium was hosted by the Geological Survey of Slovenia. The scien- tific session was opened by words of the organ- ising committee chairman, Rok Gašparič, and Geological Survey director, Miloš Bavec. Two days of scientific sessions (18 th and 19 th June 2019) were concluded in a spirit of good co-operation with relaxed informal discussions and plenty of opportunity for individual meetings in between the session breaks. We opened the first day with a keynote lecture by Adiël Klompmaker on “Evo- lutionary and ecological trends in decapods” and concluded with a poster session, whereas the second day was kick-started by keynote speaker Matúš Hyžný on the state-of-the-art and future directions in research on Paratethyan decapods. We concluded the scientific part of the sympo- sium with a final address, in which Zaragoza (Spain) was chosen as the next venue of the 8 th Symposium on Mesozoic and Cenozoic Decapod Crustaceans in 2022, followed by a dinner in one of Ljubljana’s authentic Slovenian restaurants. Weather throughout the symposium was won- derful, so there were no issues with conducting the final two days of the symposium (20 th and 21 st June), which were reserved for field trips to the four fossil decapod-bearing localities in Slo- venia. On Thursday (20 th June) we started our field trip at the Geological Survey in Ljubljana and travelled south to explore the decapod-rich, upper Eocene (Lutetian) deposits along the road Gračišče–Kubed, and visited a nearby 12 th cen- tury church of the Holy Trinity at Hrastovlje to admire the famous 15 th century frescoes of Dance of Death or Dance Macabre. In the afternoon, the virgin forests of Trnovo Plateu protected us from the heat and gave us the opportunity to observe the Upper Jurassic (Oxfordian) coral barrier reef preserved in situ. The reef complex is composed of sponges, corals and stromatoporids, but also diverse molluscs, echinoderms and frequent de- capods are found between stromatoporid and corals framework, which enabled preferential preservation of delicate carapaces. Report/Poro~ilo 7 th Symposium on Mesozoic and Cenozoic Decapod Crustaceans, 17 th –21 st June 2019, Ljubljana (Slovenia) Rok GAŠPARIČ 1 Oertijdmuseum, Bosscheweg 80, 5293 WB Boxtel, the Netherlands; e-mail: rok.gasparic@gmail.com 2 Novi trg 59, 1241 Kamnik, Slovenija 168 For the last day (Friday, 21 st June) the dele- gates were transported through the Miocene Pa- ratethys sea all the way back to the Middle Tri- assic Tethyan Ocean. The final excursion started with a visit to the active quarry of Lipovica in middle Miocene (Langhian) limestone, where we followed the safety regulations and explored the abundant outcrops for the remains of Miocene decapods and lucky finds of the charismatic Pa- ratethyan crab Tasadia carniolica. The final des- tination was a visit to one of the most picturesque European glacial alpine valleys, Logarska Valley, where we visited an exhibition on Middle Trias- Fig. 1. Opening address by Rok Gašparič to participants of the 7 th Symposium on Mesozoic and Cenozoic Decapod Crustaceans at the ice breaker evening in the Slovenian Museum of Natural History in Ljubljana (photo: Matija Križnar). Fig. 2. Scientific session at the Geological Survey of Slovenia in Ljubljana. Oral presentation by René H.B. Fraaije on new advances in paguroid evolution (photo: Rok Gašparič). sic fossil fauna at Solčava and hiked to a nearby outcrop of Middle Triassic (Anisian) bituminous, thin-bedded limestones with vertebrate remains and shrimp fossils. The field trip was concluded with an enjoyable dinner accompanied by many good-natured discussions and forgings of future collaborations. We cordially thank all participants for at- tending the 7 th Symposium on Mesozoic and Ce- nozoic Decapod Crustaceans in Ljubljana and for presenting their latest research in the excit- ing field of palaeocarcinology. The organisation of the symposium would not have been possible Fig. 3. Poster session at the Geological Survey of Slovenia. Explanation of poster by Antonio De Angeli on homolid crabs of Italy (photo: Matija Križnar). Fig. 4. Closing dinner on Wednesday 21 st June at Sokol re- staurant in Ljubljana. A toast to speedy recovery to Rodney Feldmann, who was not able to attend the symposium (photo: Barry van Bakel). 169 Fig. 5. Participants on the first-day field trip to Eocene exposures of Gračišče, led by Matija Križnar (photo: Rok Gašparič). Fig. 6. Luka Gale explaining the geology of Jurassic reefal limestones in Trnovo Plateau (photo: Rok Gašparič). Fig. 7. Željko Pogačnik explaining the geology and safety measures of collecting fossils from Miocene rocks at the Lipovica quarry (photo: Matija Križnar). Fig. 8. Field trip participants collecting decapods from Triassic laminated limestones in the Logarska Valley (pho- to: Rok Gašparič). without a lot of hard and selfless work from all the colleagues in the organising committee. In addition, we would like to express our thanks to the following organisations for their support: the Geological Survey of Slovenia, the Sloveni- an Museum of Natural History and the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering at the Uni- versity of Ljubljana. Our sincere thanks to all volunteers and people who helped in the prepa- ration of the symposium: Stanka Žibert, Valerija Majer and Matevž Novak (Geological Survey of Slovenia) for their organisational support, An- dreja Žibrat Gašparič (University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Department of Archaeology) for thorough proofreading and editorial work on the abstract book, Tomaž Hitij (Dental School, Fac- ulty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana) and Jure Žalohar (T-TECTO d.o.o.) for help on Trias - sic localities, Manca Hočevar (Slovenian Museum of Natural History) for support in preparation of the reception at the museum, Željko Pogačnik (Georudeko d.o.o.) for access to the Lipovica quarry, Alex Žagar for work on the symposium webpage design, as well as Anja Kocijančič, Kris - tina Peulič and Miha Marinšek for their logistic support during the symposium.