From June to July, Prof. Jin Jisuo from Western University and Prof. André Desrochers from the University of Ottawa, Canada paid a visit to NIGPAS. During their visit, they were invited to give lectures about “the post-extinction radiation of marine shelly benthos in the Silurian: Rising from ashes” and “the omission surfaces of palaeotropic carbonates from the Silurian Anticosti Island, Canada”. They also went to Guizhou and Hubei to study the Ordvician-Silurian carbonates in the field.  

• Prof. Ishtiaq Jadoon and Dr. Muhammad Qasim from COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), Pakistan visited NIGPAS 

　　　　Prof. Ishtiaq Jadoon and Dr. Muhammad Qasim from COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), Pakistan, along with 7 researchers from the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, CAS led by Prof. DING Lin, were invited to visit NIGPAS in September 2017. During the visit, Prof. Ishtiaq Jadoon introduced the history and current development of the CIIT, gave academic lectures on seismic data and stratigraphy of Pakistan, and made a preliminary plan about a joint field excursion between Pakistan and China in early 2018.  

• Dr. Markus Aretz has assumed his CAS Visiting Scholarship 

　　　　In November, Dr. Markus Aretz, an Associate Professor of Paul Sabatier University, France, has assumed his CAS Visiting Scholarship in NIGPAS. Director YANG Qun presented him the certificate of the scholarship. Dr. Aretz also gave a series of lectures on the biostratigraphy, reefs and mounds, foraminifers and rugose corals from Upper Devonian to Carboniferous. He paid this visit also to the collaborations with the NIGPAS Late Palaeozoic Group for the study of Carboniferous reefs in East Tethys, based on the Carboniferous sections in South China.  

　　.....CONTENTS OF PALAEONEWS NO.6.....