The euphyllophyte Pauthecophyton sp. from the Lower Devonian Yangling Psephyte, Chongyi, Jiangxi Province, China The South China Plate, being situated at the periphery of the Gondwana supercontinent in the Paleozoic, was formed by the Neoproterozoic (ca. 850-820 Ma) amalgamation of the Yangtze and Cathaysia blocks, both of which belonged to a unified continental terrane and between which there was an epicontinental sea during the Paleozoic. A major geological event in the South China Plate was recognized by angular unconformities or disconformities between the Devonian and the Lower Paleozoic (early Silurian and pre-Silurian) strata. The corresponding unconformity separates the Lower and Upper Paleozoic strata and represents the surface of the tectonic event known as the Kwangsian Orogeny, which was thought to be the Caledonian Orogeny occurring in the South China Plate.The process of the Kwangsian Orogeny, especially its uplift movement pattern during the tectonic events across the Cathaysia Block, was analyzed based on Ordovician biofacies and lithofacies and revealed that the Kwangsian Orogeny originated along the southeast coast of China in the Ordovician and developed stepwise in a northwest direction. However, the deposition process after the Kwangsian Orogeny is still poorly understood for the reason of rare fossil records or poor horizons recognized overlying the Kwangsian Orogeny deposits. As a result, when and how did the Devonian transgression and deposition occur are not known yet. The study on Devonian plants and near-shore depositions is required to solve the problem. Recently, the Devonian work group of Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontoloy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, led by Prof. Xu Hong-He, including Prof. Wang Yi, Dr. Tang Peng, Dr. Fu Qiang and PhD student Wang Yao, for the first time, discovered the typical Lower Devonian plants from the Yangling Psephyte, Chongyi, southern Jiangxi Province, China, which palaeogeographically belongs to the Cathaysia Block of the South China Plate. As a result, the Yangling Psephyte is dated as Pragian (Early Devonian). Additionally, combined with 23 horizons and 52 Devonian plant fossil localities in southern China reported in previous studies, the stepwise pattern of Devonian transgression and deposition after the Kwangsian Orogeny is recognized. It is indicated that the transgression and deposition started no later than the Pragian Stage, continued until at least the Late Devonian and gradually strengthened northeastwards from the Early Devonian to the Late Devonian. Mr. Lei Han-Sheng and Chongyi Geology and Mineral Bureau, Jiangxi Province are grateful for help in fieldwork in the Yangling National Geopark. The study used Devonian plant fossil records to discuss the reginal geology and related palaeogeographical issues and is online published in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, as below. Article information: Xu H-H, Wang Y, Tang P, Fu Q, Wang Y. 2018. Discovery of Lower Devonian plants from Jiangxi, South China and the pattern of Devonian transgression after the Kwangsian Orogeny in the Cathaysia Block. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.11.007
Archaea, bacteria and eukaryotes constitute the cellular life on our planet, but all complex life on Earth are eukaryotes with nuclei inside cells. Therefore, the origin and early evolution of eukaryotes is one of the most puzzling evolutionary events in the history of life on Earth, and has been a hot topic in evolutionary biology and paleobiology. Available fossil evidences demonstrate that eukaryotes already appeared during the late Paleoproterozoic around 1,700 million years ago. However, convincing eukaryotic fossil records are scarce, so little is known about early diversity and cellular development of eukaryotes during the Paleoproterozoic. Recently, an international research group led by Prof. ZHU Maoyan from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, discovered diverse eukaryotic microfossils from the late Paleoproterozoic sedimentary rocks (1,700 Ma) in the Yanshan Range, North China. The new eukaryotic fossil assemblage represents the earliest diverse eukaryotes on Earth so far, providing new insights into the origin and early evolution of the eukaryotic life. The reported fossils were recovered by techniques of palynological maceration from the black shales of the late Paleoproterozoic Changzhougou and Chuanlinggou formations (1.67-1.64 Ga) in the Yanshan area. The fossil assemblage is composed of beautifully preserved organic-walled tiny microfossils which are predominated by spheroidal unicellular fossils with less abundant process-bearing, colonial and filamentous forms, and are attributed to 14 genera and 15 species with 2 newly described taxa. Among them, 10 species are interpreted as eukaryotic species (including 6 convincing and 4 ambiguous species) based on a combination of large cell dimensions and complex morphological characteristics, such as reticulate sculpture, concentric striations, tubular extensions, equatorial flanges and large internal bodies. The complex morphology and diversity revealed by these unicellular eukaryotes suggests a complexity of eukaryotic cellular development (e.g. cytoskeleton, endomembrane system) and a moderate diversification of eukaryotic life by the late Paleoproterozoic, comparable to that during the Mesoproterozoic. The new finding is recently published by the international geological journal Precambrian Research. This study was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program (B) of CAS, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Swedish Research Council.Reference：Miao L, Moczydlowsk M, Zhu S, Zhu M, 2019. New record of organic-walled, morphologically distinct microfossils from the late Paleoproterozoic ChangchengGroup in the Yanshan Range, North China. Precambrian Research, 321: 172-198. DOI: 10.1016/j.precamres.2018.11.019. Organic-walled microfossils from the c. 1.7 Ga Changzhougou and Chuanlinggou Formations The diversity, relative abundance and stratigraphic ranges of microfossils in the study
New integrative stratigraphy and timescales for 13 geological periods in China from the Ediacaran to the Quaternary have recently been published in a special issue of SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences. New integrative stratigraphy and timescales for 13 geological periods in China from the Ediacaran to the Quaternary have recently been published in a special issue of SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences. The research summarizes the latest advances in stratigraphy and timescale as well as discusses the correlation among different blocks in China and with international timescales. The issue was edited by Prof. SHEN Shuzhong and Prof. RONG Jiayu of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The stratigraphic record represents a massive archive for illuminating the structure and dynamics of various biological and environmental events in deep time. Consequently, establishing timescales provides a means for precisely calibrating various major geologic and biological events. Such timescales also serve as an important reference for geological mapping in China and for intercontinental and regional correlations, which benefit all geologic disciplines and the exploration of natural resources. Over the last decade, new technologies and more high-resolution biostratigraphic work have helped improving the formulation of stratigraphic frameworks and timescales in China. This special issue highlights these advances. The issue also suggests that further refinement of chronostratigraphy and timescales in China should focus on high-quality systematic taxonomic studies of different fossil groups, using technologies including: high-resolution biostratigraphy; multidisciplinary approaches including high-precision geochronology, isotope chemostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy, and astronomical cyclostratigraphy etc.; and quantitative stratigraphy and temporal and spatial distrbutions of natural resources based on big data. The International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) was founded in 1965. Its initial priority was to establish a precisely defined chronostratigraphic system globally applicable to all geoscientific fields. According to this system, 11 of 72 defined Global Stratotype Section and Points (GSSPs) are in China. This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Strategic Priority Research Program (B) and the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Reference: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-018-9280-6
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.
