The picture shows the scene of the meeting. Courtesy of Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Chengjiang, China, November 12 (Reporter Hu Yuanhang) The 2019 Cambrian Outbreak International Symposium was held in Chengjiang, Yunnan On the 12th, more than 130 experts and scholars from home and abroad exchanged the latest research results on the Cambrian outbreak and commemorated the 35th anniversary of the discovery of the Chengjiang biota.
In the early Cambrian period, about 530 million years ago, almost all animal shapes (phylum first-class taxonomies), including vertebrates, appeared rapidly in just a few million years, and this rapid evolutionary event of life is known as the "Cambrian Explosion". The Cambrian explosion is one of the fastest growing multidisciplinary interdisciplinary frontier fields in paleontology, evolutionary biology and earth sciences, and it is also one of the fields where China's basic scientific research has had a significant impact on the international academic community and enjoys a high reputation.
The Chengjiang biota discovered in Chengjiang, where the conference was held, is located in the core area of the Cambrian explosion, which is a rare fossil treasure house in the world, vividly reproducing the true appearance of marine life 520 million years ago, fully showing the diversity of early Cambrian organisms, tracing the evolutionary history of most living animal phylum to the beginning of the Cambrian, providing extremely valuable evidence for revealing the mystery of the Cambrian explosion, and is known as "one of the most astonishing scientific discoveries of the twentieth century". On July 1, 2012, the Chengjiang Animal Fossil Site was listed as a World Natural Heritage Site.
The picture shows the ecological restoration map of the Chengjiang biota. Courtesy of Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zhao Fangchen, a researcher at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that so far, more than 260 species, including primitive vertebrates, have been found in the Chengjiang fauna, which belong to more than 20 phylum-level animal types. The Chengjiang fauna not only shows the complex diversity of animal body structure, but also reflects the differentiation and diversity of animal ecological functions, such as the discovery of odd shrimp fossils, indicating that a complex ecosystem composed of "pyramid" food chains has been established in the early Cambrian ocean, and giant carnivores dominate the Cambrian ocean. The Chengjiang biota as a whole shows us that a modern marine ecosystem dominated by prozoans has formed.
Zhu Maoyan, a researcher at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, disclosed that the latest research shows that oxygen content is the most critical factor controlling the cambrian outbreak process. Through high-precision geochemical research data, the Chinese, British and Russian teams found that the number and magnitude of synchronous fluctuations in the isotope values of carbon and sulfur in seawater during the peak of the Cambrian explosion were highly consistent with the number and magnitude of changes in animal fossil diversity. For about 2 million years, 514 million years later, the changes between carbon and sulfur isotopes are out of sync, with carbon isotopes remaining distinctly negatively abnormal and sulfur isotopes fluctuating frequently. Coincidentally, during this time, the global Cambrian fauna went extinct.
Chen Junyuan, one of the main researchers of the Chengjiang biota and a researcher at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, gave a report entitled "Evolution is more complex than Darwin thought: A Brief Explanation of the Cambrian Explosion and the Great Explosion of Human Evolution". He argues that human evolution is advancing as rapidly as the Cambrian explosions. Among them, culture drive is the main reason. As cultural genes become more complex, the driving force will become stronger and stronger.
The conference was hosted by the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and co-organized by the People's Government of Chengjiang County. During the meeting, experts and scholars attending the meeting will also be organized to conduct field scientific investigations in important fossil production areas and profiles such as the Chengjiang biota of Maotian Mountain and the small shell biota of Meishu Village.
The picture shows the fossil wall of the Chengjiang Fossil Land Natural Museum. Photo by Hu Yuanhang
The reporter learned that in order to effectively protect the fossils of the Chengjiang biota, Yuxi City and Chengjiang County have completely closed the phosphate mines in the Cambrian Fossil Reserve, carried out strict protection of the fossil land, and compiled the "Yunnan Chengjiang Fauna Paleontological National Geopark Plan", "Chengjiang Fossil Land World Natural Heritage Protection Plan" and "Chengjiang Animal Fossil Group Provincial Nature Reserve Protection Plan", and the Yunnan Provincial Government has also issued the "Regulations on the Protection of the World Natural Heritage of chengjiang fossil land in Yunnan Province". At the same time, in order to further publicize the scientific value of chengjiang biota and carry out scientific dissemination, in 2014, Chengjiang County launched the construction of the Chengjiang Fossil Land Natural Museum, and the museum has basically met the conditions for opening, and is expected to open to the public at the end of 2019. (End)