On March 12, the Chinese Paleontological Society released the results of the "Top Ten Advances in Chinese Paleontology in 2020". These achievements are the study of the mysteries left by the ancient earth tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of years ago, in an attempt to explore the origin and development of plants, animals and humans on the earth today.
The selected results were led by scientific research institutes and universities from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Northwest University, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Sun Yat-sen University and other research institutes and universities, which reflect the high-level innovative research results with international influence achieved in various branches of paleontology in China. So, in 2020, what mysteries left by ancient earths have been solved by Chinese scientists? The reporter made an analysis.
1. Modular evolutionary separation node of basal mammals hearing and chewing organs
The research team led by Mao Fangyuan, associate researcher of the Institute of Paleovertebrate and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and researcher Wang Yuanqing, based on multiple specimens of the Based Mammal lishiyuan predator of the Rehe biota, established for the first time the three-dimensional morphology of intact auditory bones in Mesozoic mammals, and established the phenotypic characteristics of the separation nodes of hearing and chewing organs in mammalian evolution.
Solving the puzzle: The separation and high differentiation of the auditory bone and the tooth bone is an important difference between mammals and reptiles, but the separation process of the two sensory organs has always lacked convincing fossil evidence. The study bridges a key gap in the evolution of the middle ear.
Ecological restoration map of Li's source predator (painted by Zhao Chuang)
2. The paleogenesis reveals the migration and mixing history of populations in the north and south of China
Fu Qiaomei's research group at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted the first largest, large-scale and systematic paleogenetic study of paleo-populations in northern and southern China for the first time, revealing the history of north-south differentiation, subject continuity and migration integration of Chinese groups since 9500.
Solving the puzzle: In the field of international paleogenetics, there is a lack of research on the genetic evolution of east Asian, especially early Chinese populations. The nuclear genome of the southern Chinese population obtained for the first time in this study fills the relevant regional gaps and clarifies that the Austronesian language population, which is now widely distributed in Taiwan islands and Pacific islands, originated in southern China.
An important human sample from southern China - an excavation of an individual in Qihedong 2 in Fujian Province about 8400 years ago
3. The discovery of the Chengjiang fauna "Zhang's Unicorn Shrimp" reveals the origin of arthropods
The "Cambrian Explosion" research team led by Zhu Maoyan, a researcher at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, found a key transitional fossil that solves the "mystery of the origin of arthropods" in the Cambrian Chengjiang fauna about 518 million years ago in Yunnan - the Zhang's Unicorn shrimp. The Unicorn shrimp chimerates the morphological characteristics of various arthropod ancestral types such as true arthropods and odd shrimp.
Solving the puzzle: Arthropods such as shrimp are the animal phyla with the highest diversity of species and number of individuals on the planet. This discovery fills in the core missing links in the origin process of arthropods and provides an important reference point for the origin of major evolutionary innovations in arthropods. The study also solves the problem of homology and evolutionary path of the first pair of appendages in arthropods, and provides important information for analyzing the evolutionary relationships between early arthropods.
Specimen of Zhang's Unicorn shrimp (courtesy of Zeng Han)
Restoration of Zhang's Unicorn Shrimp (Sun Jie's painting)
4. Subtropical "Shangri-La" ecosystem in the humid Eocene lowlands of the Central Eocene of the Central Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
Researchers Su Tao and Zhou Zhekun of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Wu Feixiang, associate researcher of the Institute of Paleoanthropology and Vertebrate Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and experts from home and abroad conducted in-depth research on the subtropical ecosystems of the Eocene humid lowlands of the Middle Eocene in the central Tibetan Plateau. The study revealed the existence of subtropical forests in the central part of the plateau 47 million years ago, which proved that the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau had close flora exchanges with other parts of the northern hemisphere at that time, and made important contributions to the distribution pattern of modern plant diversity in the northern hemisphere. In addition, paleontological evidence combined with model simulations shows that there is a warm and humid monsoon climate in the central Eocene Tibetan Plateau, with an east-west central valley with an altitude of no more than 1500 meters, and it was not until the Miocene that the current plateau was gradually formed.
Solving the puzzle: The research results found the most abundant Cenozoic fossil flora on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau so far, which opened a window for understanding the biodiversity of the main body of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in the early stage of formation and its contribution to global flora exchange, and also provided an important paleontological basis for discussing the formation process of the plateau.
Rich Eocene fossil plant taxa in Banor County, central Tibetan Plateau (partial)
Restoration map of the central Tibetan Plateau (47 million years ago)
5. Effects of Permian-Triassic mass extinction events on biogeographic patterns
Song Haijun, Dai Xu and others of China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) have carried out in-depth exploration on the response of biochrorography to mass extinction events. The study found that the Permian-Triassic mass extinction led to the disappearance of significant biodiversity peaks in the tropics, and a flattened diversity latitude gradient appeared. At the same time, it was also found that after the mass extinction, ammonites became extremely similar.
Solving the puzzle: The impact of major geological events on biogeographic patterns is an important scientific issue in the field of biological evolution. The relevant findings of this study suggest that warming and associated environmental events have a greater impact on species in the tropics and endemic species.
Changes in the latitude gradient of biodiversity from the Late Permian to the Middle Triassic (Courtesy of Song Haijun)
6. Climate change and forest fire events at the turn of the Triassic-Jurassic Period: fossil evidence from southern China
The international cooperation team led by Wang Yongdong, a researcher at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Professor Xie Shucheng of the University of Geosciences (Wuhan) has achieved innovative results in the study of climate change and forest fire events at the turn of the Continental Triassic-Jurassic Period. According to a variety of methods, such as pollen fossils, molecular fossils and stomatal parameters of ginkgo biloba plants, important evidence such as paleograve vegetation replacement and climate change, cleavage polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and paleofire events, and paleo-atmospheric CO2 changes and greenhouse climates in the late Triassic to early Jurassic regions of eastern Sichuan were obtained for the first time.
Solving the Puzzle: This series of achievements is not only the most informative high-resolution record of vegetation, paleoclimate, paleofire events and paleo-atmospheric CO2 concentrations at the turn of the Triassic-Jurassic period in the Eastern Tethys region, but also reveals for the first time in East Asia the link between terrestrial vegetation, climate change and fire events during this period. This marks that China has entered the international academic frontier in terms of major geological events at the turn of the Triassic-Jurassic period.
7. Cretaceous amber reveals the early evolution of insects and mesozoans
The research team led by Wang Bo, a researcher at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, analyzed the three-dimensional anatomical morphological characteristics of the long-mouthpiece of insects in the Family Anucorpus based on specimens in Kachin amber in Myanmar, and found that at least 5 families of long-mouth pollinators had appeared in the middle of the Cretaceous Period, indicating the diversity and complexity of Cretaceous pollinators; confirming the predation mechanism of Black Emperor ant specialization, and determining the evolutionary history of early ants; reconstructing the soft body structure of Kachin amber mediators (including giant sperm). Advance the animal sperm fossil record by at least 50 million years.
Solving the Puzzle: This achievement provides new insights into the origin of fleas, pollination and the early evolution of social insects, as well as mesozoans.
Mesozoite restoration in Kachin amber
8. Evolution of sedimentary environment in the coastal zone around the South China Sea and prehistoric expansion of rice agriculture
The research team, led by Professor Zheng Zhuo of Sun Yat-sen University, conducted an in-depth exploration of the relationship between the evolution of coastal sedimentary environments and the development of prehistoric rice agriculture in the South China Sea. The research results use the historical development of rice agriculture integrated with pollen records, combined with the expansion process of coastal plains in South China and Southeast Asia reconstructed by drilling paleoenvironment data, revealing that 3-2 thousand years ago is a key stage of rapid accumulation and expansion of coastal plains, and showing synchronous changes with the rapid expansion of rice agriculture indicated by pollen records. The beginning of the 2.5 millennium is the main transitional stage for the rapid development of rice agriculture in South China and its spread to Southeast Asia.
Solving the Puzzle: The study confirms that the key processes of sedimentary evolution in the coastal plains surrounding the South China Sea are closely related to the explosive expansion of rice agriculture in southeast Asia, demonstrating the irreplaceable role of micro-paleontology and pollenology in excavating major scientific issues such as human-land relations in historical periods.
9. The core values of the Chengjiang fauna: the formation of the animal kingdom and the birth of human basic organs
Synthesizing the "big data" discovered by early life, Academician Shu Degan of Northwest University and Professor Han Jian proposed in-depth research: 1) The Chengjiang fauna not only continued and expanded the prosperity of many categories of the previous basic animal and proto-mouth animal sub-niches, but also gave birth to all the taxa of the post-estuarin sub-realm, marking the formation of the three-point animal tree; 2) the three-act Cambrian explosion and the birth of the three sub-niches of animals were synchronously coupled in turn; 3) The first fish, Kunming Fish, pioneered the mind and vertebrae of human distant ancestors, and the archaeoptera phylum was very close to the ancestors." First gill cleft".
Solving the Puzzle: Darwin Left a Major Century Puzzle: When Will the Earth's Three-Point Animal Tree Take Shape? How to form? Which animals during the formative period were closest to the immediate ancestors of humans? This study initially solves the above problems.
Ecological restoration map of the Chengjiang fauna in the early Cambrian Period: The explosive appearance of the sub-community of houkou animals (Courtesy of Shu Degan and Han Jian)
10. During the Cambrian outbreak, the earliest fossils of cladding and stealing boarding relations were found
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. Previous paleontologists have recorded that the Cambrian or earlier fossil record is based on only a few fossils or imprints, proposing that stealing parasitism is the earliest parasitic phenomenon on earth; swarms of mineralized insect tubes are found attached to the shells of brachiopods living in situ in layers, representing the earliest encrustation of the earth's shell records, and the shell ecology is followed to the early Cambrian period, advancing at least 30 million years.
Solving the puzzle: In the biological world of The Earth, parasites are everywhere, but it is not easy to trace the earliest parasitic phenomena on the earth. Based on the statistics of a large number of fossils, this study demonstrates the earliest obligate parasitic relationship on Earth from the perspective of host individual pathology.
Restoration diagram of the morphology of the new round cargo shell of the Guanshan fauna and the host relationship of the stealing parasite
Guanshan fauna Oolong hoop new round cargo shell layer, spinal tube parasite and soft body preservation (photo courtesy of Zhang Zhifei)
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Founded in 1929, the Chinese Paleontological Society has a history of 90 years and is one of the earliest natural science academic societies established in China. The Chinese Paleontological Society has achieved fruitful results in the fields of uniting and serving the vast number of paleontological science and technology workers, carrying out academic activities, international exchanges and cooperation, popular science education and talent training, which has effectively promoted the development of paleontological disciplines and become a dynamic academic community with continuous cohesion. (Guangming Daily all-media reporter Zhan Yuan)