Syringoporoid tabulate corals are one of the most common benthic sessile organisms in the Upper Famennian Etoucun Formation at the Huilong section, Guilin, South China. A multivariate morphometric analysis based on five morphological characters was applied to 29 coralla from three intervals in the formation. Cluster analysis, principal coordinate analysis, non-metric multidimensional scaling and an examination of the qualitative morphological characteristics revealed the presence of four morphospecies representing Chia hunanensis Jia, 1977, Tetraporinus virgatus Tchudinova, 1986, Fuchungopora multispinosa Lin, 1963 and a new species designated as F. huilongensis. Interval A belongs to foraminifer biozones DFZ4 to DFZ6, and contains abundant C. hunanensis and scattered coralla of T. virgatus, whereas intervals B and C which are within foraminifer biozone DFZ7, contain abundant F. multispinosa, sporadic F. huilongensis, and rare fragmented corallites of C. hunanensis. The coralla are commonly tilted or overturned, which is especially obvious in interval B and C, indicating that most of them settled on a soft substrate and were subjected to periodic high-energy events. The species of Fuchungopora display flexible growth strategies, characterized by the fusion of their corallites. The high diversity of syringoporids recorded from South China indicates an obvious radiation of the tabulate corals in the uppermost Famennian. Syringoporids accounted for the majority of tabulate corals recorded in South China in the Upper Famennian and represented a relatively high level of palaeobiodiversity before the Hangenberg Crisis. Article informaion: Liang, K.*, Qie, W.K., Pan, L.Z., Yin, B.A. 2018. Morphometrics and palaeoecology of syringoporoid tabulate corals from the upper Famennian (Devonian) Etoucun Formation, Huilong, South China. Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-018-0363-y Principal coordinate analysis and nonmetric multidimensional scaling showing the presence of Chia hunanensis, Tetraporinus virgatus, Fuchungopora multispinosa, and Fuchungopora huilongensis from Etoucun Formation at Huilong Transverse sections showing shape of corallites in Chia hunanensis (a, b), Fuchungopora huilongensis (c, d), Fuchungopora multispinosa (e, f), and Tetraporinus virgatus (g, h)
The separation and northward drifting of the Indian plate from Gondwana to collide with Eurasia during the late Mesozoic and early Cenozoic was an important event in the Earth’s history, which has shaped the modern landform and environment of the Eurasian continent. Evidence of this plate motion has been largely derived from palaeomagnetism, with little from palaeontology. Recently, researchers at Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences restored this plate motion history in detail by using the pollen and spore fossils in southern Xizang, China. The researchers sampled a continuously deposited section of the Cretaceous in southern Xizang with high resolution. They first established a fine chronostratigraphic framework for the study profile through fossils of sporopollen and dinoflagellate cysts and then compared the terrestrial palynoflora of southern Xizang with that of Australia and Africa at different stages. The result shows that terrestrial floras of southern Xizang, which was situated at the northern margin of Indian plate, clearly changed from having connections with Gondwana during the Early Cretaceous to North Africa during the Late Cretaceous. The assemblages were initially similar to those from Australia in early Early Cretaceous but differed from the latter since Albian. Their differences are increasingly apparent through the Albian–Cenomanian transition. Since then, the palynomorph assemblage from southern Xizang was neither comparable to that of Australia nor Africa, showing the Indian Plate started its northward drifting as an isolate land block. The arrival of the Indian plate in equatorial regions allowed floral exchange between its northern part and North Africa during the Coniacian and Santonian. The rate of evolution of the Xizang palynoflora was about the same as that of Australia prior to the Albian, but faster from the Cenomanian onwards, implying that the tectonic movement of the Indian plate, with a connection to the break-up of Gondwana, was a fundamental driving force behind the palynofloristic changes in the Tethyan region for the Cretaceous Period. Article informaion: Li, Jianguo*, Wu, Yixiao, Peng, Jungang, Batten, D. J., 2019. Palynofloral evolution on the northern margin of the Indian Plate, southern Xizang, China during the Cretaceous Period and its phytogeographic significance. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2017.09.014 Restoration of the drifting history of the Indian plate based on the palynofloristic evolution of the Indian and adjacent plates from earliest to Late Cretaceous.
Selected representatives in the souterhn Xizang pollen and spore flora.
Comparison of the ratios of inceptions of new genera and species in southern Xizang and Australia at various times through the Cretaceous Period.
Fossils of Nanjinganthus Impact statement: The discovery in China of fossil specimens of a flower called Nanjinganthus from the Early Jurassic period suggests that flowers originated 50 million years earlier than previously thought. Scientists have discovered the first flower specimens dating back to the Early Jurassic epoch, more than 174 million years ago, a study in the open-access journal eLife reports. Before now, angiosperms (flowering plants) were thought to have a history of no more than 130 million years. The discovery of the novel flower species, which the study authors named Nanjinganthus dendrostyla, throws widely accepted theories of plant evolution into question, by suggesting that they existed around 50 million years earlier. Nanjinganthus also has a variety of ‘unexpected’ characteristics according to almost all of these theories. Angiosperms are an important member of the plant kingdom, and their origin has been the topic of long-standing debate among evolutionary biologists. Many previously thought angiosperms could be no more than 130 million years old. However, molecular clocks have indicated that they must be older than this. Until now, there has been no convincing fossil-based evidence to prove that they existed further back in time. “Researchers were not certain where and how flowers came into existence because it seems that many flowers just popped up in the Cretaceous period from nowhere,” explains lead author Qiang Fu, Associate Research Professor at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. “Studying fossil flowers, especially those from earlier geologic periods, is the only reliable way to get an answer to these questions.” The team studied 264 specimens of 198 individual flowers preserved on 34 rock slabs from the South Xiangshan Formation – an outcrop of rocks in the Nanjing region of China renowned for bearing fossils from the Early Jurassic epoch. The abundance of fossil samples used in the study allowed the researchers to dissect some of them and study them with sophisticated microscopy, providing high-resolution pictures of the flowers from different angles and magnifications. They then used this detailed information about the shape and structure of the different fossil flowers to reconstruct the features of Nanjinganthus dendrostyla. The key feature of an angiosperm is ‘angio-ovuly’ – the presence of fully enclosed ovules, which are precursors of seeds before pollination. In the current study, the reconstructed flower was found to have a cup-form receptacle and ovarian roof thought to enclose the seeds, and enclosed ovules. This was a crucial discovery, because the presence of these features confirmed the flower’s status as an angiosperm. Although there have been reports of angiosperms from the Middle-Late Jurassic epochs in northeastern China, there are structural features of Nanjinganthus that distinguish it from these other specimens and suggest that it is a new genus of angiosperm. Having made this discovery, the team now wants to understand whether angiosperms are either monophyletic – which would mean Nanjinganthus represents a stem group giving rise to all later species – or polyphyletic, whereby Nanjinganthus represents an evolutionary dead end and has little to do with many later species. “The origin of angiosperms has long been an academic ‘headache’ for many botanists,” concludes senior author Xin Wang, Research Professor at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology. “Our discovery has moved the botany field forward and will allow a better understanding of angiosperms, which in turn will enhance our ability to efficiently use and look after our planet’s plant-based resources.” Reference: The paper ‘An unexpected noncarpellate epigynous flower from the Jurassic of China’ can be freely accessed online at https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.38827. Contents, including text, figures and data, are free to reuse under a CC BY 4.0 license.
Lijinganthus revoluta embedded in a Myanmar amber (Image by NIGPAS) About 140 years ago, Charles Darwin seemed to be bothered by evidence suggesting the sudden occurrence of numerous angiosperms in the mid-Cretaceous. Since Darwin's theory of evolution implies that all organisms should increase gradually, the sudden appearance of angiosperms would have represented a headache in his theory. Therefore, the sudden occurrence of numerous angiosperms (if seen by Darwin as "the origin of angiosperms") would rightfully have been mysterious and abominable to him. Over more than a century of study, however, people have found many angiosperms dating to earlier periods, suggesting the origin of angiosperms was much earlier than the mid-Cretaceous. So what was the phenomenon that bothered Darwin so much? A group led by Prof. WANG Xin from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology (NIGPAS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences may have an answer. In the Nov. 13, 2018 online issue of Scientific Reports, the scientists describe a flower, Lijinganthus revoluta, embedded in Burmese amber dating to 99 million years ago (Ma). The fossil is exquisite and complete, including all parts of a perfect pentamerous flower, namely, the calyx, corolla, stamens, and gynoecium, and belongs to the Pentapetalae of Core Eudicots. Together with contemporaneous flowers and fruits, Lijinganthus indicates that Core Eudicots flourished on Earth about 100 Ma. Although this group can be dated back to the Barremian (about 125 Ma) by their characteristic tricolpate pollen grains, Eudicots did not dominate vegetation until about 20 million years later (mid-Cretaceous). Accompanying this Core Eudicot Boom, Gnetales and Bennettitales underwent rapid decline. Apparently, what bothered Darwin was not the assumed "origin of angiosperms" but a Core Eudicot Boom! According to current knowledge of the fossil record, angiosperms originated much earlier. The co-authors of the paper include Dr. LIU ZhongJian at Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University and Dr. HUANG Diying and CAI Chenyang at NIGPAS. This paper is freely available online at http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-35100-4.
Internal waves arise by perturbations that disturb the hydrostatic equilibrium between gravity and buoyancy at the pycnocline. In comparison to tempestites and turbidites, internal waves produce episodic high-turbulence events and remobilize the sediment at the depth where the pycnocline intersects the sea floor. Internal waves, internal tides and their associated currents have long been observed and measured on modern shelves and continental slopes, yet very little is known from the rock record for a long time. Over the past decade, more and more authors noticed the influence of internal waves on the development of heterotroph metazoan reefs through the Phanerozoic. Recently, Dr. LI Qijian from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted a research on the bryozoan reefs in the lower Hanchiatien Formation, which crop out in the lower part of this formation at the southern tip of Chongqing, Southwest China. These reefs occur as massive argillaceous limestones, varying in size from 1.6 to 2.8 m in thickness and 6 to 16 m in diameter. The reefs are surrounded by gray-green shales and silty shales (Fig. 1). Distinct vertical ecozonation is present, and four growth stages have been recognized, represented by four facies types from bottom to top: (1) auloporid coral-echinoderm-bryozoan packstone/floatstone, (2) fenestrate bryozoan-echinoderm bafflestone, (3) Fistulipora-Asperopora framestone, and (4) Fistulipora framestone (Fig. 2). Of note, no traces of algae or cyanobacteria (not even thin microbial crusts) have been observed in the Hanchiatien reefs, arguing that the bryozoan reefs developed below the photic zone but in nutrient-rich, agitated water. Such conditions are commonly observed in areas where a pycnocline arrives at a shelf, slope, or ramp. In the studied section, internal waves, probably initiated by tides, propagate landward, shoal, and eventually break at a depth where the pycnocline intersects the seafloor. In tropical mid- to outer-ramp settings, these bryozoan reefs showcase an unusual reef community in heterozoan carbonates, which were probably influenced by internal waves. This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Chinese Academy of Science. This study is a contribution to the IGCP-653‘The onset of the Great Ordovician Biodiversity Event’. Reference: Qijian Li, Andrej Ernst, Axel Munnecke, Shenyang Yu, Yue Li, Early Silurian (Telychian) bryozoan reefs in the epeiric sea of South China: Are heterotrophic metazoan buildups promoted by internal waves?. Sedimentary Geology (2018), doi:10.1016/j.sedgeo.2018.07.008 Photomicrographs of reef limestones of the lower reef horizon. (A) Fistulipora framestone. (B) Close-up of the box in A showing fistuliporid bryozoans. (C) Fistulipora-Asperopora framestone. (D–E) Close-ups of the boxes marked in D showing different bryozoans. Note that some Asperopora colonies developed on the top of fenestellid bryozoans (red arrows). A = Asperopora, F = Fistulipora.
Tiaomaphyton fui gen. et sp. nov. Xu, Fu et Wang from the Middle Devonian Tiaomachian Formation, Hunan, South China The Middle Devonian flora of South China constitutes a key component of Palaeozoic floras and is characterised as being dominant of endemic plants. However, the study of the Middle Devonian flora was mainly based on materials from the upper Yangtze region, such as the Xichong Flora from Yunnan Province, southwestern China (Yangtze Block). Central Hunan, especially the palaeogeographic Cathaysia Block, though develops non-marine Middle Devonian deposits, well-described plant fossils that can be compared with those from other coeval floras were rare. It is significant for understanding plants evolution, comparing floras and palaeogeography to study Middle Devonian flora from Hunan Province. Recently, a new protolepidodendrid lycopsid is described from the Middle Devonian Tiaomachian Formation of Changsha, Hunan, by the workgroup of prof. XU Honghe, Associate Prof. FU Qiang and graduate student WANG Yao from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The plant has slender stem and oval leaf base. Its leaf trifurcates into a lamina with three segments in one plane curving adaxially and a heel of small tip downwardly. The central segment is the longest, whilst all three segments are close and paralleling arranged. The sporangium attached adaxially to the sporophyll by a pad is ellipsoidal and oval in shape and with longitudinal dehiscence. The plant Tiaomaphyton fui was named after its locality Tiaomajian Town. The present plant Tiaomaphyton fui from the Middle Devonian of central Hunan, which palaeogeographically belongs to the Cathaysia Block, one of the two sub-regions of the whole South China Plate. The study gives a better understanding of the Middle Devonian flora of the Cathaysia Block and has palaeogeographic implications to the South China Plate. A floristic distinction between the Cathaysia and Yangtze blocks is suggested and it is probably caused by the special palaeogeographic pattern of the South China Plate. This paper will be published recently in the Journal “Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology”. Paper information: Xu H-H, Fu Q, Wang Y. 2018. A new protolepidodendrid lycopsid from the Middle Devonian of Hunan, South China and its palaeogeographic implications. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. 256, 63-69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.revpalbo.2018.06.003
Zosterophyllum sinense (Zosterophyllopsida) from the Lower Devonian Cangwu Formation of Guangxi, South China: the type specimen (PB6477, left) and the reconstruction (right) The zosterophyllopsid, an important group of the early land vascular plants, was widespread on a number of palaeocontinents of the Early Devonian and acts as a dominant plant member of the South China Early Devonian flora. Most previous studies were based on specimens from Yunnan, whilst few studies were given to Lower Devonian plants from Guangxi. Though, Zosterophyllum sinense was reported by Li and Cai in 1970s, more detailed information was obscure. It is significant for understanding plants evolution, comparing floars and palaeogeography to study zosterophyllosids from Guangxi Province. Recently, Professor XU Honghe and WANG Yi, Associate Professor FU Qiang and graduate student WANG Yao from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Scienses have re-observed the type specimens of Zosterophyllum sinense from Lower Devonian of Guangxi and collected new specimens from the same locality. This research carries a further study on the rooting system, terminal spikes and sporangial dehisce characteristics of Z. sinense, revises it diagnosis and reconstructs this plant. The plant with tufted habit consists of the below-ground part (rhizome area) and the above-ground part (axes and terminal spikes). The rhizome area is formed by dense masses of axes extending towards several directions and the axes above-ground are smooth and often branching K-shaped or anisotomous near-ground. Spike comprises the central fertile axis and loosely and helically arranged sporangia. The sporangium is pear-shaped or fan-shaped in face view and fusiform to oval in lateral view. The sporangium dehisces into two unequal sporangial valves and the abaxial valve is larger than the adaxial one. Palaeogeographically, Guangxi belonged to the Cathaysia Block, a sub-region of the South China Block, while previous Lower Devonian floristic records were mainly from Yunnan, which belonged to the Yangtze sub-region of the whole South China Block. Though, the Cathaysia and Yangtze blocks belonged to a continental terrane, there was an epicontinental sea between the two blocks during the Palaeozoic. Plant fossils in this study suggest a floristic distinction between the two blocks. This paper will be published recently in the Journal “Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology”, as below: Reference: Wang Y., Xu H-H, Wang Y, Fu Q, 2018. A further study of Zosterophyllum sinense Li and Cai (Zosterophyllopsida) based on the type and the new specimens from the Lower Devonian of Guangxi, southwestern China. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. 258, 112–122.
patial and temporal distribution of the Yichang Uplift Stratigraphic hiatuses of variable time intervals within the Rhuddanian to early Aeronian (Llandovery, Silurian) are identified in the area bordering East Chongqing, West Hubei and Northwest Hunan in central China. Their distribution suggested the existence of a local uplift, traditionally named the Yichang Uplift. The diachronous nature of the basal black shale of the Lungmachi Formation crossing different belts of this Uplift signifies the various developing stages during the uplifting process. The present paper by Prof. CHEN Xu from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and collegues define the temporal and spatial distribution pattern of the Yichang Uplift, which might be one of the important controlling factors for the preservation and distribution of the shale gas in this region. The present work is a sister study to the published paper, “Stage-progressive distribution pattern of the Lungmachian black graplolitic shales from Guizhou to Chongqing, Central China”. These two studies provide a complete Ordovician-Silurian black shale distribution pattern in the Middle and Upper Yangtze, a region with the major shale gas fields in China. This research was published in Science China Earth Sciences as a cover story, and it was supported by Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the National Science and Technology Major Project of China. Reference: Chen X, Chen Q, Zhen Y, Wang H, Zhang L, Zhang J, Wang W, Xiao Z. 2018. Circumjacent distribution pattern of the Lungmachian graptolitic black shale (early Silurian) on the Yichang Uplift and its peripheral region. Science China Earth Sciences, 61: 1195–1203.
Canada has an extensive record of Triassic marine sediments documenting abundant ammonoid faunas of mid and high palaeolatitudes, ranging from Griesbachian to late Rhaetian. Along with the material from Nevada (low palaeolatitude), British Columbia provides an excellent example for discussions on ammonoid palaeogeography and latitudinal gradient of taxonomic richness. Some Anisian ammonoids reported from British Columbia for the first time Recently, Dr. JI Cheng from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and colleague from Switzerland reported new material of Anisian (Middle Triassic) ammonoids from British Columbia based on populatioanl approach and recognized six species which were only found in Nevada before. The occurrence of low-palaeolatitude restricted species in BC indicates that exchanges between low- and mid-palaeolatitude regions were actually more significant than previously documented. Moderate levels of exchange existed not only during middle Anisian but also during the late Anisian. The new material largely improved the correlation of ammonoid unitary association zones between the two regions. These revised biochronological correlations indicate that BC biochronozones were not necessarily of larger duration than those from Nevada. Along with increasing sampling efforts, BC biochronozones tend either to be exact correlative of Nevada zones, or to intercalate between them. Therefore, the common view that geographically differentiated evolutionary rates originates from the latitudinal gradient of taxonomic richness does not hold for Anisian ammonoid faunas along the Palaeopacific margin of North America. The relative lower diversity of ammonoid in higher latitude is most likely due to the low carbonate content, instead of different origination and extinction rates. Middle and upper Anisian revised ammonoid zonation of north-eastern British Columbia This research has recently been online published in Papers in Palaeontology. Paper information: Cheng Ji and Hugo Bucher. 2018. Anisian (Middle Triassic) ammonoids from British Columbia (Canada): biochronological and palaeobiogeographical implications. Papers in Palaeontology.
Pedunculotheca diania Sun, Zhao et Zhu gen. et sp. nov. from the Chengjiang Biota, Yunnan Province, China Hyoliths are a taxonomically problematic group of Palaeozoic lophotrochozoans that are among the first shelly fossils to appear in the Cambrian period. On the basis of their distinctive exoskeleton, hyoliths have historically been classified as a separate phylum with possible affinities to the molluscs, sipunculans or lophophorates – but their precise phylogenetic position remains uncertain. Recently, Dr. SUN Haijing, Prof. ZHAO Fangchen and colleagues from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences with Dr. Martin Smith from the Durham University, describe a new orthothecide hyolith from the Chengjiang Lagerstatte (Cambrian Series 2 Stage 3), Pedunculotheca diania, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. Reconstruction of adult Pedunculotheca diania in feeding position The new taxon exhibits a non-mineralized attachment structure that strikingly resembles the brachiopod pedicle – the first report of a peduncular organ in hyoliths. This organ establishes a sessile, suspension feeding ecology for these orthothecides, and – together with other characteristics (e.g., bilaterally symmetrical bivalve shell enclosing a filtration chamber and the differentiation of cardinal areas) – identifies hyoliths as stem-group brachiopods. The phylogenetic analysis indicates that both hyoliths and crown brachiopods derived from a tommotiid grade, and that the pedicle has a single origin within the brachiopod total group. Shell microstructures, in particular, the ‘canaliculate’ microstructure and ‘punctae’, those have been afforded great importance– turn out to have multiple origins across the brachiozoans. Identifying hyoliths as stem-group brachiopods not only resolves character polarity within the group itself, that Pedunculotheca is more primitive than hyolithides and other orthothecides which are united by the secondary loss of a pedicle and the morphology of their metamorphic shell; but also indicates a profound adaptive strategy change at the end of the Cambrian, that the dramatic decline of stem brachiopods and linguliforms with a high metabolic overhead were supplanted by the radiation of lineages expert in economic living. Reference: Sun H, Smith MR*, Zeng H, Zhao F*, Li G, Zhu M. 2018 Hyoliths with pedicles illuminate the origin of the brachiopod body plan. Proc. R. Soc. B 20181780. DOI:10.1098/rspb.2018.1780
