The achievements of Xida University were selected as "Top Ten Advances of Chinese Paleontology in 2020"

A few days ago, the Chinese Paleontological Society released the selection results of "Top Ten Advances in Chinese Paleontology in 2020", and two scientific research achievements of Northwest University, "Core Values of Chengjiang Fauna: The Formation of the Animal Kingdom" and "The Birth of Human Basic Organs and the Discovery of the Earliest Fossils of The Shell Stealing Boarding Relationship During the Cambrian Outbreak".

When and how will the Earth's three-point animal tree take shape? Which animals during the formative period were closest to the immediate ancestors of humans? After in-depth research, Professor Han Jian, academician Shu Degan and Professor Han Jian of Northwest University, initially solved the above problems: First, the Chengjiang fauna not only continued and expanded the prosperity of many categories of the previous basic animals and proto-mouth animal sub-niches, but also gave birth to all the taxa of the post-estuarine sub-realm, marking the formation of the three-point animal tree; second, the three-act Cambrian explosion and the birth of the three sub-niches of animals were coupled in turn; the third was that the first fish Kunming fish order pioneered the mind and vertebra of the distant ancestors, and the archaea animal phylum was very close to the "first gill split" of the ancestors.

The research team led by Professor Zhang Zhifei of Northwest University conducted an in-depth study of the origin of parasitism in marine life during the Cambrian explosion. Previously, the Cambrian or earlier fossil record was based on only a few fossils or imprints, this study for the first time based on a large number of fossil statistics, from the perspective of host individual pathology to demonstrate the earliest obligate parasitic relationship on the earth, proposed that stealing parasitism is the earliest parasitic phenomenon on the earth; found that swarms of mineralized insect tubes attached to the shell of brachiopods living in situ in the formations, the cladding ecology followed to the early Cambrian period, advancing forward for at least 30 million years.

Since 2017, the selection and release of the "Annual Top Ten Advances in Chinese Paleontology" has been held for five sessions, each time receiving widespread attention from the academic community and all sectors of society, and has also greatly promoted the development of paleontology in China. The release of the "Top Ten Advances in Chinese Paleontology in 2020" is of great significance for further promoting the innovative development of disciplines, displaying the major discoveries and scientific research achievements made in the field of paleontology in China, and promoting scientific research, scientific dissemination and fossil protection. (Reporter Lu Yang)