Field photographs (a, b and c) and polished slab (d) of three different taphonomic types in Gigantoproductus shell beds Storm beds or tempestites are distinct facies criteria, which are generated by storm winds, such as cyclones and hurricanes in tropical latitudes and blizzards in middle and high latitudes. Storm shell beds, which are one common type of tempestites, were commonly formed in the tropical belt resulting from hurricane formation. According to the study on the relationships between taphonomy of shell beds and their palaeogeographical locations in the late Ordovician and its comparison with the modern hurricane distribution, it was found that non-amalgamated shell beds were located in hurricane-free zone within 10° of the palaeoequator, whereas, amalgamated shell beds occurred in hurricane zone between latitude 10° and 30°. The development of hurricanes is probably caused by the temperature difference between the high and low latitudes, induced by the occurrence of glacial deposits on the polar areas. At present, the South China Block is commonly believed to be located near the palaeoequator during the Mississippian, but its precise location is still unclear. In addition, the age of the glacial development on the Gondwana is also debated during this time. To better understand the palaeo-latitude location of the South China Block and the age of the Gondwana glaciation during the Mississippian, the brachiopod (Gigantoproductus) storm shell beds were detailly documented from the Yashui, Duanshan and Gandongzi sections in South China by Dr. YAO Le from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Prof. ARETZ Markus from the University of Toulouse Ⅲ. The shell beds are characterized by sharp and erosional base, internal accumulations of amalgamated shells with erosional structure, and parallel lamination and ripple bedding structures in the uppermost part, indicating obvious characteristics of tempestites. In the shell beds, three taphonomic and sedimentologic types have been distinguished, which are: (1) mostly articulated and convex-down shells in wackestone and packstone, which are developed in distal tempestites with weak water energy around the storm wave-base; (2) dominated disarticulated and convex-up shells in packstone that occur between distal and proximal tempestites in medium hydrodynamic force between the storm wave-base and fair-weather wave-base; and (3) highly fragmented shells in grainstone formed in proximal tempestites under strong hydrodynamic energy above the fair-weather wave-base. The occurrences of proximal and distal tempestites suggest that they were formed by winnowing and transporting under storm surges. During the late Viséan to Serpukhovian, the widely distributed storm shell beds in South China reflect that the South China Block was located in hurricane zone between latitude 10° and 30° during this time interval, when ice caps formed on the Gondwana continent. This paper was published in Geologica Belgica and financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Strategic Priority Research Program (B) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Science and Technology Foundation Project. Reference: Gigantoproductid brachiopod storm shell beds in the Mississippian of South China: implications for their palaeoenvironmental and palaeogeographical significances. Geologica Belgica, 19/1-2: 57-67.
(a) Modern frequency and intensity map of hurricane tracks; (b) Locations of amalgamated shell beds and non-amalgamated shell beds in South China and northern England respectively, hurricane and hurricanefree zones and palaeo-latitudes during the late Viséan to Serpukhovian
Rice is one of the most important crops used to feed our global population. In China, rice has a long history of cultivation. According to archaeobotanical studies in the last decade, the Middle and Lower Yangtze River regions have been proved as the areas where rice was domesticated first. However, the prehistory of the domestication of rice in the tropical areas of South China is yet poorly understood. Recently Dr. MAO Limi from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences together with the colleagues from Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, reported phytolith evidence recovered from a sediment core in the central-east coast of Hainan Island, China, which indicates that domesticated rice might grow on the Hainan Island in 5600 cal a BP. The early timing of rice domestication on Hainan Island supports the hypothesis of the spread of rice agriculture from its origins in the Middle and Lower Yangtze River and its tributaries. The new findings of phytolith evidence also highlights the practice of growing rice since 2000 years ago in the Lingnan region of the Nanyue Kingdom. The discovery of microfossil evidence such as phytoliths, starch and pollen grains should inspire more archaeological research focused on the origins and consequences of the spread of domestic rice agriculture to Hainan Island. This work was part of the Strategic Priority Research Program lead by Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and was jointly conducted by Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Institute of Archaeology, and partially supported by LPS. Reference: Yan Wu*, Limi Mao*, Can Wang, Jianping Zhang, Zhijun Zhao (2016) Phytolith evidence suggests early domesticated rice since 5600 cal a BP on Hainan Island of South China. Quaternary International 426：120–125 （* Corresponding author）
Calathium-microbial framestone (left: Thin section photomicrographs of the Calathium-microbial framestone; right: Reconstruction of the framestone) As an obconical macrofossil with porous double-wall, Calathium was commonly present in reefs of Early to early Middle Ordovician age. The Calathium-bearing reefs thrived globally during the Early Ordovician, but this ecosystem collapsed in Middle Ordovician. A rare case of Calathium-microbial reefs was found from the middle part of the Yijianfang Formation (Darriwilian, late Middle Ordovician) of the Bachu area, located in the northwestern margin of the Tarim Basin, northwestern China. Previous investigations mainly focused on the description of the principal reef builders and facies differentiation. The framework structures of these reefs have not been investigated in detail. Recently, Dr. LI Qijian from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences has provided the first description of the frameworks in typical Middle Ordovician Calathium-microbial reefs from the Tarim Basin. Three facies types are distinguished within the reef limestones: (1) Calathium-microbial framestone, (2) echinoderm-Calathium bafflestone, and (3) bryozoan-microbial bindstone. As a dominant type, the Calathium-microbial framestone shows a three-dimensional skeletal framework that is mainly constructed by Calathium and stabilized by microbialites. Although most specimens are toppled, Calathium displays well-developed lateral outgrowths, which connected individuals of the same species. Morphological characters of Calathium in thin sections show that calathids are hypercalcified sponges rather than receptaculitid algae. Unlike the Early Ordovician lithistid sponge-Calathium reefs, the Tarim reefs studied contain very few lithistid sponges. Instead, bryozoans are fairly common and act as the most important non-microbial encrusters, attaching to the walls of Calathium. The Tarim Calathium-microbial reefs exhibit a striking similarity to the Calathium-echinoderms communities in the Late Ordovician reefs from Tennessee, which provides valuable insights into the evolution of Calathium-bearing reefs and into the nature of the reef ecosystems at this Early Paleozoic turning period, i.e. before the most dramatic change of biotic composition in the late Darriwilian. This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41521061, 41290260, 41072002, and XDB10010503). The study entitled “Dissecting Calathium-microbial frameworks: The significance of calathids for the Middle Ordovician reefs in the Tarim Basin, northwestern China” has been published online in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2016.08.005.
New specimen of Eoconfuciusornis collected from the Early Cretaceous lake deposits in Hebei, northern China. Image by Wang Xiaoli. A team of international scientists led by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences reported recently the oldest fossil evidence of beta-keratin from feathers of a 130 million-year-old basal bird from the famous Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota. Feathers and feather-like epidermal structures are well documented in several groups of non-avian dinosaurs and basal birds. Round-to-elongated microbodies associated with these feathers and feather-like structures were first interpreted as microbes. But more recently, these bodies were reinterpreted as remnant melanosomes and, subsequently, hypotheses of dinosaurian color, behavior, habitat, and physiology were proposed based upon this reinterpretation. However, melanosomes and microbes overlap completely in size and shape, and thus these hypotheses are equally plausible. Palaeontologists from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology (NIGPAS), the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Linyi University and North Carolina State University, adopted multiple molecular and chemical methods in paleontological study to seek and determine the existence of melanosomes in bird feather fossils. Scientists applied immunogold to identify protein epitopes at high resolution, by localizing antibody-antigen complexes to specific fossil ultrastructures. Their study reported fossil evidence of feather structural protein (betakeratin). "Multiple independent analyses of both microbodies and associated matrix recovered from the fossil feathers confirm that these microbodies are indeed melanosomes," said Dr. PAN Yanhong from NIGPAS and corresponding author of the research paper. Their study showed that these bodies are found deep into a dense cortex in parts where it is preserved, consistent with modern feathers. Scientists also presented the first in-situ high resolution chemical evidence to distinguish melanosomes from bacteria in fossil feathers and show that the matrix in which they are embedded is keratinous. "This study represents a breakthrough in the study of ultrastructures of fossil feathers and has provided the methods to apply to the controversial issue of whether the microbodies in many feathered dinosaurs and early birds are really melanosomes, and sheds new light on molecular preservation within normally labile tissues preserved in ancient fossils," said Prof. ZHOU Zhonghe from IVPP, a co-author of the paper. The study was supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Natural Science Foundation and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. Yanhong Pan, Wenxia Zheng, Alison E. Moyer, Jingmai K. O'Connor, Min Wang, Xiaoting Zheng, Xiaoli Wang, Elena R. Schroeter, Zhonghe Zhou, and Mary H. Schweitzer, 2016, Molecular evidence of keratin and melanosomes in feathers of the Early Cretaceous birdEoconfuciusornis, http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1617168113.
PAN Yanhong Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences E-mail: yhpan@nigpas.ac.cn Related News:https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-11/caos-bdi111816.php https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-11/ncsu-kam111816.php http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3957800/Dinosaurs-finally-true-colours-Oldest-red-pigment-130-million-year-old-feather.html http://phys.org/news/2016-11-keratin-melanosomes-million-year-old-bird-fossil.html https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161121174452.htm https://www.sciencenews.org/article/cretaceous-bird-find-holds-new-color-clue http://scienmag.com/beta-keratin-discovery-in-bird-feather-fossil-may-help-identify-paleo-color/ http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2016/11/21/130-million-year-old-bird-fossil-yields-keratin-melanosomes/3341479762174/ http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2047947/chinese-feather-fossil-suggests-answer-130-million-year
U-Pb concordia diagrams, cathodoluminescent (CL) images of zircons and frequency histograms of detrital age populations from samples. Major advances in land plant evolution and diversification occurred in the Middle to Late Devonian. The fossil records contain tree-sized plants that comprised early forests of the Middle-Late Devonian at different continents. The appearance and the development of forest ecosystem imparted dramatic changes on the Earth system and furthermore caused a rapid decline of atmospheric carbon dioxide during the Devonian. However, isotopic dating for the Middle to Late Devonian floras was never carried out. Recently, Prof. XU Honghe from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontoloty, Chinese Academy of Sciences cooperates with the University of Hong Kong, having made a geochronological research for Middle Devonian Hujiersite Flora. The flora is preserved in the Hujiersite Formation, which is best represented at the 251 Hill section, which is composed of a normal fault, containing abundant mega-plant fossils and spores. In this study, the geological background of the 251 Hill section is investigated and two tuffaceous sandstone samples were collected from the normal fault near the plant fossil bearing beds. U-Pb ICP-MS analysis of detrital zircons from these samples gave a maximum depositional age of 385 Ma (late Givetian stage) for the hanging wall and 380 Ma (early Frasnian stage) for the footwall of the section. This study thus reports a novel Givetian–early Frasnian age constraint for Hujiersite Flora. Based on conchostrachans and plant fossils, previous studies suggested a late Middle Devonian age for the Hujierste Formation. However, some disagreements exist and radio-isotopic age determination for this fossil-bearing section is absent. The Hujiersite flora resembles the Givetian to Frasnian Campo Chico Flora of Venezuela. The geochronologic constraint is consistent with previous age interpretations from biostratigraphic correlations. Reference: Zheng, D.R., Xu, H.H., Wang, J., Feng, C.Q., Zhang H.C., Chang, S.C. 2016. Geochronologic age constraints on the Middle Devonian Hujiersite flora of Xinjiang, NW China. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 463: 230–237.
Cupules of Umkomasia mongolica of different size (probably aborted at different stages of development) The so-called “Mesozoic seed ferns”, a loose assemblage of extinct gymnosperms, are generally taken to comprise Caytonia, corystosperms and peltasperms. These three groups, together with the Permian glossopterids, have been considered of crucial importance for understanding the phylogeny of seed plants and the evolution of their key structural features, including especially the carpel and ovule of angiosperms. However, phylogenetic relationships among these groups, and their relationships to other lineages of living and fossil seed plants, remain uncertain, in large part because of incomplete knowledge and uncertain homologies among their reproductive organs. In a recent study, Dr. SHI Gongle from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and colleagues from the US, Mongolia, Japan and Germany described a new species of corystosperm seed-bearing organ, Umkomasia mongolica, based on abundant, three-dimensional lignified mesofossils from the Early Cretaceous of Mongolia. Individual seed-bearing units of U. mongolica consist of a bract subtending an axis that bifurcates, with each fork (cupule stalk) bearing a cupule near the tip. Each cupule is formed by the strongly reflexed cupule stalk and two lateral flaps that partially enclose an erect seed. The seed is borne at, or close to, the tip of the reflexed cupule stalk, with the micropyle oriented toward the stalk base.
Seed-bearing unit of Umkomasia mongolica from ventral and dorsal surfaces, showing the subtending bract (dark green), bifurcating axis (blue) and lateral flaps of cupules (light green) The corystosperm cupule is generally interpreted as a modified leaf that bears a seed on its abaxial surface. However, U. mongolica suggests that an earlier interpretation, in which the seed is borne directly on an axis (shoot), is equally likely. Current hypotheses of seed plant relationships place great weight on whether the seeds in different groups are borne “terminally on a shoot”, or adaxially or abaxially on modified leaves. For corystosperms, the axial interpretation suggested by U. mongolica, points to a possible relationship to Ginkgo, while the reflexed cupule may suggest a relationship to angiosperms. These two ideas may not be incompatible. If the fundamental phylogenetic division between angiosperms and all extant gymnosperms is correct, as suggested by analyses of molecular data, then corystosperms, Caytonia and perhaps other extinct groups, may be close to the point at which the two extant clades diverged. Reference: Shi G., Leslie A.B., Herendeen P.S., Herrera F., Ichinnorov N., Takahashi M., Knopf P., Crane P.R., 2016. Early Cretaceous Umkomasia from Mongolia: Implication for homology of corystosperm cupules. New Phytologist 210: 1418-1429.
Fungal hyphae in the fossil wood from the upper Permian of Xinjiang Fungi and oribatid mites are major decomposers of higher plants in modern ecosystem. The interactions among oribatid mites, fungi and plants in terrestrial ecosystems have been well documented during the late Paleozoic. However, previous records have been observed mainly from materials of Euramerican and Gondwanan floras, providing little information on the mid-latitude Angara Flora.
Decaying processes in the fossil wood Recently, Dr. WAN Mingli and Prof. WANG Jun from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences documented several lines of evidence of plant-arthropod and plant-fungus interactions from the Wuchiapingian in Turpan-Hami Basin, Xinjiang, northwestern China. Fossil wood, Septomedullopitys szei Wan, Yang et Wang, contains differentially-damaged areas. Spindle-shaped pockets in the fossil wood occur in the secondary xylem are commonly free of organic remains. They are comparable in appearance to modern white-pocket rot caused by fungi. The tracheid walls around the decomposed areas are degraded from the middle lamellae to outer layers. Abundant branching and septate fungal hyphae in the decayed areas, ray parenchyma and tracheid lumens indicate that fungi are responsible for the wood decay. These fungi are partially regarded as basidiomycetes because of the occurrence of clamp connections. According to the characteristic damages they caused to the host, ascomycetes are also viable candidates of the fungi because large parts of hyphae are without certain clamp connections. The other damaged excavations are the branched and maze-like borings and galleries, which are filled with abundant fungal hyphae, cellular debris and spheroidal to ovoidal, dark-colored coprolites. The size, shape, surface texture of these coprolites indicates that the coprolites are the feces of ancient oribatid mites. The fungal hyphae, coprolites, and degraded excavations in the pith of the late Permian wood suggest that wood-rotting and -boring were not limited to the xylem. Results of this study provide important information about the co-occurrence of plant-arthropod and plant-fungus interactions in the late Permian, and demonstrate the complexity of the terrestrial ecosystems at the east coast of mid-latitude northeastern Pangea.
Coprolites and borings in the fossil wood This work is supported by Chinese Academy of Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. Related information of this paper: Mingli Wan, Wan Yang, Lujun Liu, Jun Wang*, 2016. Plant-arthropod and plant-fungus interactions in late Permian gymnospermous woods from the Bogda Mountains, Xinjiang, northwestern China. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 235: 120-128. doi: 10.1016/j.revpalbo.2016.10.003.
Photomicrographs of the labechiid stromatoporoid Cystostroma Stromatoporoid-grade sponges are among the most prominent metazoan builders in mid-Palaeozoic reefs. There are several records of stromatoporoid-like skeletal fossils in the Cambrian. However, none of them appear to be stromatoporoids sensu stricto. Pulchrilamina, the earliest putative Ordovician stromatoporoid, appeared in late Tremadocian-Floian reefs, which is much earlier than the diversification of other stromatoporoids. Based on the updated studies of Pulchrilaminida, most authors regarded pulchrilaminids as a separate, independent group of hypercalcified sponges rather than true stromatoporoids. The earliest undoubted stromatoporoids are assigned to the order Labechiida, which were thought to have emerged in the late Middle Ordovician (mid-late Darriwilian) after which they underwent a rapid diversification. Recently, Dr. LI Qijian from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and his collegues reported the oldest known stromatoporoids (Cystostroma) and the cryptic keratose sponges in one of the lithistid sponge-Calathium reefs from the Lower Ordovician Hunghuayuan Formation at Zhangzhai (Guizhou, South China). This is also the first report of Ordovician labechiid stromatoporoids from South China.
Thin section micrographs of Calathium and associated biota These earliest stromatoporoids may have originated in reefs, which implies that the complex topography created by the hypercalcified sponge Calathium facilitated the emergence of stromatoporoids. Beyond Cystostroma, keratose sponges, Pulchrilamina (hypercalcified sponge) and bryozoans have also inhabited in the microhabitats (cavities and hard substrates) provided by Calathium. These findings suggest that ecosystem engineering by Calathium played an important role in the further diversification of reefs during the Ordovician. The study entitled “The oldest labechiid stromatoporoids from intraskeletal crypts in lithistid sponge-Calathium reefs” has been published online in Lethaia, doi: 10.1111/let.12182.
FLM and SEM images of Cereusisporites mirabilis Lu et Ouyang, 1978 The Middle Devonian represents an important period for the diversification and evolution of heterosporous plants. It has been shown that plants from this group evolved independently in several clades, as indicated by the diverse megaspore assemblages from this period, as well as by the Givetian occurrence of extreme forms of heterospory such as the seed megaspore. Lycopsid megaspores isolated from the Middle Devonian, Givetian, Shangshuanghe Formation at Qujing in Yunnan, Southwest China, were identified and illustrated by PENG Huiping, Dr. LIU Feng and Prof. ZHU Huaicheng from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Three species (Longhuashanispora reticuloides Lu et Ouyang, 1978, Ocksisporites maclarenii Chaloner, 1959, and Cereusisporites mirabilis Lu et Ouyang, 1978) are described. Comparisons with in situ spores produced by plant fossils recovered from coeval horizons in adjoining region suggest that Longhuashanispora reticuloides shares ultrastructural and morphological characteristics of the in situ spores yielded by both heterosporous and homosporous ligulate lycopsids. Its parent plant probably represents a transitional form from the homosporous ligulate to the heterosporous ligulate lycopsids. It supports the previous conclusion that the homosporous ligulate lycopsid lineage and the heterosporous ligulate lycopsid lineage have diverged in the late Middle Devonian. The parent plants of O. maclarenii and C. mirabilis may have been a type of herbaceous lycopsid, which is rarely preserved as a fossil. Furthermore, The presence of the genus Ocksisporites in South China, Arctic Canada, and northern Poland indicates that in the Middle Devonian a migration pathway for plants existed between South China and Laurasia. This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. Reference: Peng, H.P., Liu F.*, Zhu, H.C (2016): Morphology and ultrastructure of Middle Devonian dispersed megaspores from Qujing, Yunnan, Southwest China. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 234. 110-124.
Longitudinal (1–3) and transverse (4–9) thin sections of Catenipora Lamarck, 1816 from the Xiazhen Formation at Zhuzhai, South China Catenipora is one of the most common tabulate coral genera occurring in various lithofacies in the Upper Ordovician Xiazhen Formation at Zhuzhai in South China. A combination of traditional multivariate analysis and geometric morphometrics is applied to a large number of specimens to distinguish and identify species, by Dr. LIANG Kun from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and his colleagues. Based on three major principal components extracted from 11 morphological characters, three major groups as determined by the cluster-analysis dendrogram are considered to be morphospecies. Their validity and distinctiveness are confirmed by discriminant analysis, descriptive statistics, and bivariate plots. Tabularium area and common wall thickness are the most meaningful characters to distinguish the three morphospecies. Geometric morphometrics is adopted to compare the morphospecies with types and/or figured specimens of species previously reported from the vicinity of Zhuzhai. Despite discrepancies in corallite size, principal component analysis and discriminant analysis, as well as consideration of overall morphological characteristics, indicate that the morphospecies represent C. zhejiangensis Yu in Yu et al., 1963, C. shiyangensis Lin and Chow, 1977, and C. dianbiancunensis Lin and Chow, 1977. Catenipora occurs in seven stratigraphic intervals in the Xiazhen Formation at Zhuzhai, representing a variety of heterogeneous environments. The coralla preservation is variable due to differential compaction; coralla preserved in limestones are commonly intact and in growth position, whereas those in shales are mostly crushed or fragmentary. The size and shape of corallites are considered primarily to be species-specific characters, but are also related to the depositional environments. In all species, morphological characters including corallite size, septal development, and shape and size of lacunae show high variability in accordance with lithofacies and stratigraphic position. The intraspecific differences in corallite size at various localities in the Zhuzhai area may indicate responses to local environmental factors, but may also reflect genetic differences if there was limited connection among populations. The study has been published on Journal of Paleontology. Reference: Kun Liang, Robert J. Elias, Suk-Joo Choh, Dong-Chan Lee, Dong-Jin Lee, (in press). Morphometrics and paleoecology of Catenipora (Tabulata) from the Xiazhen Foramtion (Upper Ordovician), Zhuzhai, South China. Journal of Paleontology.
