The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau represents the youngest plateau with complex tectonic evolution. In recent years, many models have been proposed based on those new advances on lithology, tectonics as well as geochemistry data. However, many models do not take into account the Upper Palaeozoic strata and palaeobiogeography. Dr. ZHANG Yichun from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and his colleagues recently made a review on the Permian stratigraphy, biostratigraphy and palaeobiogeography based on the previous studies and the authors’ fieldwork in Tibet for many years. This review reveals the following important aspects: ① The Qamdo Block, in palaeobiogeography, belongs to the Cathaysian Province during the whole Permian period whereas the Lhasa Block and the Qiangtang Block are ascribed to the South Transitional Zone during the Cisuralian, the Cimmerian Province during the Guadalupian and the Cathaysian Province during the Lopingian. This transition is considered to be triggered by both the northward drift of the Cimmerian continents and the background climatic amelioration after the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age. ② In palaeogeography, the Longmu Co-Shuanghu-Lancangjiang suture zone represents the main Palaeotethys suture with the Qamdo Block in the north lacking Late Carboniferous to Early Permian glacimarine deposits. ③ Three continental slices are recognized based on the depositional sequence and the faunal characteristics. They are the Lhasa-Tengchong-Sibumasu slice, the Qiangtang-Baoshan-Central Pamir slice and the South Pamir-Karakorum-South Afghanistan-Central Iran-Turkey slice respectively. The Lhasa-Tengchong-Sibumasu slice, lacking the Cisuralian rift-related magma, is considered to have close relationship with the Western Australia. The Qiangtang-Baoshan-Central Pamir slice and the South Pamir-Karakorum-South Afghanistan-Central Iran-Turkey slice are both considered to be separated actively from Gondwana diachronously. This paper will be published in Gondwana Research as the Focus Review style (Yi-chun Zhang, G.R.Shi, Shu-zhong Shen, 2012. A review of Permian stratigraphy, palaeobiogeography and palaeogeography of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Gondwana Research, in press, doi: 10.1016/j.gr.2012.06.01)
Schematic Permian palaeogeographic reconstruction maps of northern Perigondwana and Palaeotethys with a focus on Tibetan blocks
Correlations of Permian sequences among the different blocks of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and adjacent blocks/areas
Cambrian Konservat Lagerst？tten such as the Chengjiang Biota and the Burgess Shale preserve far more biological and ecological information than do ordinary fossil deposits containing biomineralized organisms only. Yet in spite of the critical importance of Konservat Lagerst？tten for understanding the origin and development of modern-style ecosystems following the “Cambrian explosion”, the degree to which species diversity and composition vary between localities, and the environmental, taphonomic, ecological and evolutionary factors controlling this variation, are still poorly understood. Dr. ZHAO Fangchen from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and his colleagues recently make an important progress in paleoecology of Cambrian Chengjiang Lagerst？tten. They intensively studied the fossil strata hosting the Lower Cambrian (Series 2, Stage 3) Chengjiang Biota (Maotianshan Shale Member, Yu'anshan Formation) occur throughout the eastern part of Yunnan Province, Southwest China. In their study, literature-based faunal inventories from 10 areas (representing 34 localities), together with 22,038 new specimens collected at three localities from three of the 10 areas, were analyzed quantitatively to assess large-scale spatial variation in taxonomic diversity and composition. These analyses show substantial covariation between local paleoenvironmental settings and species diversity, and suggest the presence of three general taphofacies in the Maotianshan Shale Member. Their study shows that the Chengjiang Biota lends itself very well to high resolution characterization of spatial variation in taxonomic diversity, faunal composition and fossil preservation. Furthermore, the Chengjiang Biota may provide a unique opportunity to assess the roles of environmental factors, taphonomy and ecological controls on species diversity at local to regional spatial scales. This work has been recently published in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology (Fangchen Zhao, Shixue Hu, Jean-Bernard Caron, Maoyan Zhu, Zongjun Yin, Miao Lu, 2012. Spatial variation in the diversity and composition of the Lower Cambrian (Series 2, Stage 3) Chengjiang Biota, Southwest China, Palaeogeography. Palaeoclimatology. Palaeoecology, Volumes 346-347, 54-65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2012.05.021).
Representative fossils from the lower Cambrian Yu'anshan Formation, Maotianshan Member, showing the preservational characteristics of the three general taphofacies present in Eastern Yunnan.
Polished slabs and schematic diagrams of typical sedimentary facies.
Simplified storm event model showing the relative positions of different taphofacies and ecological spaces of the Chengjiang Biota.
Mass extinction can severely disturb not only the global ecosystem and its ecological foundation, but also the palaeobiogeographical framework severely. Research on palaeobiogeography of the survival and recovery intervals is significant in understanding macro-evolutionary processes after mass extinction. Dr. HUANG Bing and Prof. RONG Jiayu from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS), with Prof. Robin Cocks (Natural History Museum, UK), have recently published a study in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. The paper summarized and revised published information on the recovery of early and late Rhuddanian brachiopod faunas. The global dataset consists of 137 occurrences, 72 genera, and 13 localities of Early Rhuddanian (survival interval), and 271 occurrences, 91 genera, and 26 localities of the late Rhuddanian (early recovery interval). The data are analyzed using cluster analysis, nonmetric multidimensional scaling, and minimum spanning tree. The results display palaeolatitudinal distribution patterns for brachiopods during their survival and recovery. Frequency analysis of the data indicates that cosmopolitan taxa before the mass extinction decreased in their post-extinction distribution. The survivors were mostly confined to one palaeoplate or even one locality in the survival interval, but expanded progressively in the subsequent recovery period. Paper reference: Huang Bing; Rong Jiayu; Cocks L. Robin M. 2012. Global palaeobiogeographical patterns in brachiopods from survival to recovery after the end-Ordovician mass extinction. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, Volume 317, 196-205.
Giant fleas from the Middle Jurassic of Daohugou, China Professor HUANG Diying from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and his colleagues make an important progress in Palaeoentomology recently. A paper entitled “Diverse transitional giant fleas from the Mesozoic era of China”has been published online in Nature on the 29th, February. Fleas, including circa 2500 recent species or subspecies, are one of the dramatically specialized group of insect lineages, with reduction of wings, laterally-flattened body, and small size (usually 1-3 mm long). Fleas are ectoparasiticinsects specialized for feeding on the blood of mammals (including human beings) or birds. Fleas are difficult preserved as fossils like other ectoparasitic insects. Definitive fossil evidence of fleas has been largely confined to Cenozoic amber, and they are of extant forms. Therefore, the evidence suggesting the origin and early evolution of fleas has been lacking.Hitherto, only one record of fossil flea Tarwinia has been described from the Late Cretaceous of Australia (ca. 120 Ma). However, its affinity remains highly controversy. In recent years, HUANG Diying has found several giant flea from the Middle Jurassic Daohugou biota (ca. 165 Ma) at Ningcheng Couty, Inner Mongolia and and the Early Cretaceous Jehol biota (ca. 125 Ma) at Beipiao City, Liaoning Province of China, which provides new insights into the origin and early evolution of fleas and the adaption of hosts. This find traced back the earliest occurrence of fleas (Order Siphonaptera) at least for 40 million years. These Mesozoic fleas are of great body sizes, approximately15 mm in length, and some longer than 20 mm. As the extant fleas, the ancient females are larger than males. For example, a flea species from Daohougou is 14 mm for female and only 8 mm for male. They are wingless insects, but more or less dorso-ventrally flattened, their antennae are short and compact with more antennal segments (16-19 segments) than extant ones (11 segments); they have a very long piercing siphonate mouthparts, elongate legs armed with various ctenidia, but its hind legs are not jumping type as in Recent fleas, abdomen covered numerous posteriorly-directed setae; male genitalia large and exposed. New Mesozoic fleas with very long piercing mouthparts suggest a resemblance to some Mesozoic siphonate mecopteran, which supports the hypothesis that fleas are derived from Mecoptera. By contrast the Tarwinia, the new Middle Jurassic and Early Cretaceous fleas armed with various ctenidia on legs and numerous posteriorly-directed setae on abdomen, indicating an adaption to hosts with hairs or furs. From the same period, a number of mammals have been described, but they are normally of small body size. If they are hosts for ancient fleas, the fleas should have been hidden in their nests. Nevertheless, the long siphon of fleas is obviously able to pierce the skin of feathered dinosaurs, so this is also a possibility. In addition, a peculiar insect from the Early Cretaceous of Russia, Saurophthirus, was suggested as an ectoparasitic insect for pterosaur. We suggest it is also a specialized flea. The above evidence indicates Mesozoic fleas have already display obvious specialization for adapting to different hosts. This research was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, Ministry of Science and Technology of PRC, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy. References: Huang, D., Engel, M. S., Cai, C., Wu, H. & Nel, A. Nature http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature10839 (2012).
Reconstruction of actual site 3 of a peat-forming forest of earliest Permian age that was preserved by a volcanic ash-fall near Wuda, Inner Mongolia, China. An ancient forest preserved in volcanic ash from Inner Mongolia, China provides us a fantastic window to see the vegetational community 298 million years ago. The study by WANG Jun from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and colleagues discovered an Early Permian forest buried in volcanic ash and preserved in a way much like the Roman city of Pompeii. The researchers were able to use the actual location of individual plants to reconstruct 1137 m2 of the forest, which is large enough for an investigation of the floral ecology. Six plant groups consist of the flora, with tree ferns forming a lower canopy and either Cordaites, a conifer, or Sigillaria, a lycopsid, appear as taller trees. Landscape heterogenity is apparent, including one site where Noeggerathiales, an extinct spore-bearing group of small trees, are dominant. The researchers also discovered significant differences in the distribution and ecology of ancient plants from what is now China and East Asia and those from what is now Europe and North America. The preserved forest is from a period marked by oscillating climatic variations, and it is suggested that studying it would help researchers understand not just ancient ecosystems but also changes to modern global vegetation. This work has been recently published in PNAS (Jun Wang, Hermann W. Pfefferkorn, Yi Zhang, and Zhuo Feng, Permian vegetational Pompeii from Inner Mongolia and its implications for landscape paleoecology and paleobiogeography of Cathaysia. PNAS 2012 ; published ahead of print February 21, 2012, doi:10.1073/pnas.1115076109) .
Reconstruction of the peat-forming forest of earliest Permian age preserved by a volcanic ash-fall that buried stems, broke off twigs, toppled trees, and preserved the forest at site 1 near Wuda, Inner Mongolia, China
The Late Palaeozoic research group led by SHEN Shuzhong from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in collaboration with the scientists of USA and Canada intensively studied the fossil record around the Permian-Triassic boundary, they report on the 9th, December in Science that the biggest mass extinction caused the extinction of more than 95% marine and 75% terrestrial life happened within only 200,000 years 252.28 million years ago. They examined more than 20 different sections across South China and Tibet, collected tens of volcanic ashes and dated 29 ash beds in MIT, and established a composite extinction pattern of diversity and carbon isotope excursions based on a large fossil data set from both marine and terrestrial sections. The new dating limits the biggest extinction to no more than 200,000 years both on land and in the sea, just like overnight to the society of human being. The study also intensively examined the extinction on land, apparently driven by extreme global drying and warming with frequent wildfires, happened simultaneously with the marine extinction derived from massive release of greenhouse gases and acid-generating sulfur triggered by volcanic eruptions. SHEN Shuzhong et al., 2011. Calibrating the End-Permian Mass Extinction. Science, Vol. 334: 1367-1372
Permian-Triassic beds at the Meishan section in South China
A composite mass extinction pattern based on geochrologic age, biodiversity pattern and carbon isotope excursion across the Permian-Triassic boundary
Amber is not rich in China, and only some spare records have been reported. Fushun, a city in Liaoning Province of northeastern China, comprises six coal-mining districts, of which the West Opencast Coalmine (Xilutian Opencast Coalmine) yields lots of ambers. The West Opencast Coalmine, the largest opencast coalmine in Asia, was ever the largest amber deposit in China, but it is exhausted nowadays. The family Psychodidae (Diptera: Nematocera) are small true flies with short, hairy bodies and wings giving them a moth-like appearance. Trichomyiinae is a subfamily of short-legged psychodids, having the radial sector with only one vein between radial and medial forks. Dr. WANG Bo from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and other scientists recently described a new species belonging to Trichomyiinae based on a well-preserved specimen from the Lower Eocene Fushun amber of China. This fossil shares some similarities with some extant and fossil Trichomyiinae, but retains some archaic features, such as non-excentric flagellomeres and long legs. This discovery representsthe first Trichomyiinae (Psychodidae) from the Fushun amber, and adds more evidence on the very high palaeodiversity of the psychodids since at least the Lower Cretaceous. Paper reference: Wang Bo, Zhang Haichun, Azar Dany. (2011) The first Psychodidae (Insecta: Diptera) from the Lower Eocene Fushun amber of China. Journal of Paleontology, 85(6):1154-1159
In a paper published recently on Acta Geologica Sinica, professor WANG Xin from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology , Chinese Academy of Science and associate professor HAN Gang from Bohai University report a fossil angiosperm named Liaoningfructus ascidiatus, which is to this date the earliest one bearing ascidiate carpel and basal placentation. Angiosperms are also called flowering plants. Due to their extreme ecological importance and close relationship to the well-being of mammals (including human being), the origin and early evolution of angiosperms have been the foci of palaeobotanical research for long time. Scientists have uncovered several early angiosperms, including Chaoyangia liangii, Archaefructus liaoningensis, A. sinensis, A. eoflora, Sinocarpus decussates, and Callianthus dilae, from the Early Cretaceous strata of the Yixian Formation of Chaoyang, Liaoning previously. Like the preceding early angiosperms Chaoyangia liangii, Archaefructus liaoningensis, and Callianthus dilae, the new fossil Liaoningfructus ascidiatus is also uncovered from the same locality at Huangbanjigou, Beipiao, Chaoyang, Liaoning. This new fossil is preserved as a fruit, however, scientists can infer that the carpel giving rise to the fruit was ascidiate. The strata yielding these fossils are termed the Yixian Formation, of the Early Cretaceous (about 125 million years ago) in geology. The sudden-appearing co-occurrence of so many different early angiosperms in the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation implies that the origin of angiosperms should be pre-Cretaceous. Carpel is an evolutionary product unique of angiosperms. In the traditional doctrine, follicle-like conduplicate carpel and its marginal placentation are taken as primitive. Despite recent studies of angiosperm systematics suggest that ascidiate carpel and basal placentation should occur in the primitive early angiosperms, this point of view is still lacking fossil support. The ascidiate carpel and basal placentation of Liaoningfructus ascidiatus from the Early Cretaceous provide the first robust fossil evidence favoring this new proposal. Paper reference: Wang Xin, Han Gang, 2011, The Earliest Ascidiate Carpel and Its Implications for Angiosperm Evolution. ACTA GEOLOGICA SINICA-ENGLISH EDITION. 85(5)998-1002
Exceptionally-preserved fossil deposits are unevenly distributed through the fossil record. There are many examples known from the Cambrian Period, but few from the succeeding Ordovician, which was a time of spectacular changes in marine ecosystems, including the evolution of new groups of animals and the appearance of new ecologies, such as the first coral reefs. Our current understanding of the Great Ordovician Bodiversification Event (GOBE) is based almost entirely on fossils of animals with preservable skeletons, such as corals and brachiopods, so that any new fauna that preserves soft tissue offers an important new perspective on Ordovician evolution. Joseph P. Botting, Young International Scientist from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS), and Lucy A. Muir, postdoctor from NIGPAS, with colleagues from London and Cambridge (UK), have recently announced in the journal Geology a new exceptionally preserved fauna from Ordovician rocks in Wales, UK. The fossils are preserved by iron pyrite (“fools’ gold”), and were formed when the dead animals were decayed by sulphate-reducing bacteria. As a result, the fossils are spectacular to look at, and can also be studied by X-radiography and micro-CT while still buried in the rock. The fauna recovered so far is dominated by sponges and solitary hydrozoans, the latter with preserved tentacles. There are also a range of rarer fossils, including arthropods, priapulid worms, and various animals that only lived attached to the surface of nautiloid shells. The community is unique among Ordovician ecosystems, but resembles some deep-sea communities living today. These initial findings suggest that the GOBE was surprisingly advanced in muddy offshore environments by the earliest Late Ordovician, and that this type of ecology has a long unknown history. Paper reference: Joseph P. Botting, Lucy A. Muir, Mark D. Sutton, and Talfan Barnie. 2011. Welsh gold: A new exceptionally preserved pyritized Ordovician biota. Geology 39(9) :879–882
The Executive Bureau of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) has voted through the proposal submitted by the International Commission on Stratigraphy on establishing a Global Standard Stratotype-section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Cambrian Jianghsanian Stage (named previously as provisional Cambrian Stage 9). The ratification of IUGS, issued recently by Prof. A. C, Riccardi, the President of IUGS, indicates the GSSP is formally set up in Duibian Village, Jiangshan County, Zhejiang Province, China. The GSSP is the 10th “Golden Spike” set up in China, and makes China the country holding the most numerous GSSPs. Previously, China, UK, and Italy each has nine GSSPs. The Jiangshanian GSSP is the 3rd GSSP defined by the research group leaded by Prof. PENG Shanchi from Nanjing Intstitute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS) in succession of establishing the Cambrian Paibian and Guzhangian GSSPs, and is the 7th one defined by NIGPAS as well. Besides the Jiangshanian GSSP, the other 6 GSSPs defined by the NIGPAS are the GSSP of Ordovician Darriwilian Stage, the GSSP of Cambrian Furongian Series (contaminant with the Paibian Stage), the GSSP of Permian Lopingian Series (contaminant with the Wuchiapingian Stage), the GSSP of Permian Changhsingian Stage, the GSSP of Ordovician Hirnantian Stage, and the GSSP of Cambrian Guzhangian Stage. The Jiangshanian Stage is named after the Jiangshan County, western Zhejiang Province, where the GSSP is located. It is a formal chronostratigraphical unit appeared in the "International Stratigraphic Chart" in succession of some other units (stages and Series) termed by the Chinese Scientists. All these units are embraced within the "International Stratigraphic Chart".
