A joint meeting of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland, the Nederlandse Anatomen Vereniging and the Anatomical Society of Southern Africa was held from 15 to 17 April 1998 at Rolduc, Limburg, The Netherlands. It included symposia on ‘Recent advances in human evolution research’ on Wednesday 15 April and on ‘Adaptation of cells and tissues to mechanical stimuli’ on Thursday 16 April. The first EFEM Lecture was given by Professor J. Voogd of Erasmus University Rotterdam on ‘Transformations and interactions of cerebellar maps’ on Friday 17 April. The following are abstracts of communications and demonstrations presented at the meeting.