贵州台江中寒武世凯里生物群研究的新进展

综述了贵州凯里生物群的研究取得的重要进展:出现了新的门类叶足类;非三叶虫节肢动物大量增加;棘皮动物又添新类群海座星纲及海参纲;软躯体化石蠕形类大量增加,并出现具软躯体的节肢动物;藻类十分丰富.凯里生物群的组成及面貌已发生明显变化,动物化石超过100属,成为包括澄江、布尔吉斯页岩生物群在内的全球三大布尔吉斯页岩型生物群;生物群核心组成主要由棘皮动物、非三叶虫节肢动物、软躯体化石等门类组成,并以含大量棘皮动物为自身特色.认为新面貌的凯里生物群提供了寒武纪生物大爆发后生物多样化的证据,在寒武纪生物演化上起承前启后作用,对于古板块、古地理、古埋藏学的研究也具有重要意义.     

西北大学科研团队《科学》发文:发现寒武纪大爆发极盛时期“化石宝库”

<正>北京时间3月22日凌晨,《科学》(Science)发表西北大学早期生命与环境创新研究团队张兴亮、傅东静等人的最新研究成果《华南早寒武世布尔吉斯页岩型化石库——清江生物群》,在国际上首次公布了该团队在中国宜昌长阳地区发现了距今5. 18亿年的寒武纪特异埋藏软躯体化石库,命名为"清江生物群"。这是进化古生物学界又一突破性发现。寒武纪大爆发与生命起源、智能起源等重大里程碑事件一起被列为六大自然科学难题。而要破解     

Marrella(马尔三叶形虫)在中国台江的发现

近期凯里生物群的研究取得重要进展,一些澄江生物群及布尔吉斯页岩生物群的重要分子陆续被发现.其中外形奇特的Marrella就是一个原先仅产于加拿大哥伦比亚省中寒武世早中期布尔吉斯页岩生物群的一个重要的节肢动物化石.它的发现使Marrella的产地扩展至劳亚大陆之外,地层时代下延到中寒武世早早期,对于早期后生生物的演化、古地理环境的恢复研究有重要意义.随着凯里生物群中包括Marrella在内的布尔吉斯页岩生物群分子的增多,凯里生物群的意义更显重要并将取代布尔吉斯页岩生物群的一些演化作用.文中描述了Marrella---未定种.     

凯里动物群与我国早期后生动物演化的初步研究

作者所发现的中寒武世凯里动物群,属于带软躯体化石的布吉斯页岩型的动物群,是继云南澄江动物群之后我国发现的又一个早期后生动物群。它和新近发现的晚震旦世庙河生物群,分别填补了晚震旦世、中寒武世我国带软躯化石生(动)物群的空白,形成了我国多时期带软躯化石的生(动)物群体系。对于研究我国及世界早期后生动物演化并不断揭示其演化规律有重要意义。     

清江生物群:寒武纪化石新宝库

<正>来自中国西北大学的研究团队在中国宜昌长阳地区发现了一批"令人叹为观止"的化石。因为是在清江与丹江河的交汇处发现了第一块软躯体化石,故将该批化石中保存的生物群命名为"清江生物群"。论文已于2019年3月22发表在Science上。这些生物可以追溯到5.18亿年前。当时地球上的生命经历了一次大规模的物种多样性爆发事件,即寒     

贵州剑河八郎寒武系“清虚洞组”帐篷螺Scenella,的发现

贵州剑河八郎松山“清虚洞组”中上部布尔吉斯页岩型生物群共有50多属,其中含有刺细胞动物帐篷螺Scenella,1相似种:Scenella cf.radians。相似种较凯里组产出Scenella cf.radians放射线较粗,线间距稍大。“清虚洞组”Scenella的发现是继凯里组首次发现Scenella之后,本地区寒武系地层中Scenella又一次产出它的发现不但为剑河生物群刺胞动物增添了一个新的内容也为剑河地区寒武系Scenella的演化提供了宝贵的材料。     

多细胞生物起源和早期演化研究报告

该研究主要进展包括:(1)蓝田生物群与埃迪卡拉生物群的对比研究,对澳大利亚南部的埃迪卡拉生物群和我国华南的蓝田生物群以及庙河生物群中产出的相同或相似的化石进行了细致研究,通过比较古生物学和功能形态学的证据,证实了传统的水生埃迪卡拉理论。(2)新元古代大冰期前生物地层学研究取得新进展,利用改良的疑源类分析方法,在我国淮南地区新元古代刘老碑组页岩中获得了大量精美的有机质壁保存的微体化石,为我国胶辽徐淮地区前寒武纪地层的归属和对比,以及新元古代早期地层的全球层型研究提供了可靠的生物地层学资料。(3)新元古代冰期最直接的岩石学证据在贵州开阳地区南沱组冰碛岩中发现重晶石和含硫酸盐的自生孔雀石,硫酸盐具极低的δ180值,与现在极地冰川的氧同位素相似。该项研究为南沱组杂砾岩的冰川成因提供了最直接的证据。     

莱阳白垩纪化石生物群

莱阳古生物发现与研究具有辉煌的历史迄今为止,在莱阳地区已经发现3个著名的白垩纪生物群,即早白垩世热河生物群、晚白垩世莱阳恐龙动物群和莱阳恐龙蛋化石群,这在我国乃至世界上其他地方是绝无仅有的。这些化石生物群都集中分布在莱阳五龙河流域,许多重要化石遗址都分布在城郊四周,如金刚口和将军顶等。1923年,我国第一代地质学家谭锡畴在山东莱阳采集了恐     

中国扬子海盆——世界上罕见寒武纪生命大爆发和辐射进化的化石库

在简要论述我国扬子地块或扬子海盆,包括现今云南、贵州、湖南和湖北等地,寒武纪地层中相继发现的以澄江生物群、凯里生物群、牛蹄塘生物群和清江生物群等为代表的特异埋藏群及其与加拿大布尔吉斯页岩生物群的对比的同时,讨论了最近发现的湖北清江生物群的产出时代和层位、组合特征,并对上述生物群的生态和埋藏环境进行了分析与对比.认为大规模两侧对称动物门类的出现和多门类后生动物骨骼化是构成寒武纪动物大爆发的最主要特征.以上生物群的发现和研究,不仅展示寒武纪大爆发的客观存在,也说明在漫长地质历史时期,生物进化并非都是沿着达尔文渐进论的进化轨迹,从低级向高级发展;只要环境许可,生物在相对短暂时间内,采用一种爆发式和多样性辐射进化的模式,也可以出现大量门一级生物,而且这种进化模式在生物进化的历程中具有划时代的重要意义.前寒武纪罗迪尼亚(Rodinia)超大陆裂解和聚合而引发的、并波及我国南方的距今10亿～8亿年左右的晋宁造山事件,以及雪球事件后因气候变暖,大气和水中有机质和氧及二氧化碳含量的急剧变化,尤其是大气和水中氧气含量的增加,为我国扬子海盆寒武纪大爆发提供了必要的前提,也为动物的繁衍和骨骼化创造了极好的生态条件.但只有那些生活在海水相对较深,表层水柱充氧而底层缺氧、古地理位置处于扬子碳酸盐岩台地陆棚或陆棚边缘或台缘斜坡或凹陷中的岩家河、澄江、牛蹄塘、清江、凯里等生物群,才有可能在缺氧的海底被保存下来,并形成深色和黑色页岩或泥岩特异埋藏群或化石库.     

埃迪卡拉纪末期管状动物的“大辐射”

"寒武纪大爆发"是生物演化史上最重要的事件之一,现生动物的绝大多数门类在短短的两千万年的时间里"突然"出现,这一事件奠定了显生宙生物演化的基础。普遍认为以软躯体为代表的埃迪卡拉生物群是生命进化中"失败"的尝试,与显生宙生物之间没有明确的亲缘关系。文中通过对新元古代管状化石记录的系统梳理,基于对高家山生物群中大量管状动物化石类群如Cloudina,Sinotubulites,Conotubus,Gaojiashania,Shaanxilithes及可能的Anabarites等的较为系统的厘定和形态学复原,提出在埃迪卡拉纪,与典型埃迪卡拉软躯体生物群演化相对应,在新元古代末期,早期动物的进化史上存在着管状动物的大辐射,它们形态复杂,生物构型多样,个体大小差异悬殊,生活方式繁杂,代表了地球生命史上一次重大的生物革新事件,并且其中部分生物成为寒武演化生物群的先驱。该文将这一辐射演化事件称为管状动物的"大辐射",它开启了显生宙生命演化的序幕。     

A Chengjiang-type fossil assemblage from the Hongjingshao Formation （Cambrian Stage 3） at Chenggong,Kunming, Yunnan

A new Chengjiang-type fossil assemblage is reported herein from the lower part of the Hongjingshao Formation at Xiazhuang village of Chenggong,Kunming,Yunnan.The fossil assemblage,named as Xiazhuang fossil assemblage,yields predominantly soft-bodied fossils,including arthropods,brachiopods,priapulids,lobopods and some problematic taxa,with arthropods being the most dominant group.Preservation and composition of the fossil assemblage are very similar to the typical Chengjiang biota,which is preserved in the middle Yu’anshan Formation in the large area of eastern Yunnan.The associated trilobites demonstrate that the soft-bodied fossil assemblage belongs to the late Qiongzhusian in age(Stage 3,Cambrian),suggesting that the Hongjingshao Formation is probably a diachronous lithostratigraphic unit ranging from the upper Qiongzhusian to the lower Canglangpuan stages in eastern Yunnan.The fossil assemblage from the Xiazhuang area fills up the missing link between the typical older Chengjiang biota and the younger Malong and Guanshan biotas,making eastern Yunnan a unique area in the world to reveal the early evolutionary history of animals and palaeocommunity dynamics during the‘‘Cambrian explosion’’.     

Progress and significance in research on the early Middle Cambrian Kaili Biota, Guizhou Province,China

Important progress in research on the Kaili Biota has been made recently. Many interesting components from Chengjiang Biota and Burgess Shale Biota have been discovered, e.g. Microdictyon of lobopodia; Ottoia, Palaeoscolex of worms; Naraoia, Marrella of Trilobitioidea, Mollisonia, anamalocarids and other non-trilobite arthropods; and new sorts of echinoder-mas, macroalage fossils and so on. Recent work on the Kaili Biota has resulted in the following developments: (i) an increase in the number of animal genera, up to more than 100 genera in total, so that the Kaili Biota has become the third most diverse of the Burgess Shale-type Biota after the Burgess Shale and Chengjiang Biotas; and (ii) the most noteworthy fossils in the Kaili Biota are echinoderms, non-trilobite arthropods and soft-bodied medusiform fossils, especially the most diverse echinoderms. The progress provides envidence for the biodiversity of marine organisms presented after the "Cambrian Explosion" and serves as a link between the earlist Cambrian Chengjiang Biota and late early Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale Biota. It is of great significance in the reconstruction of the Cambrian palaeoplate, palaeongeography and in research on taphonomy.     

An Early Cambrian tunicate from China

Like the Burgess Shales of Canada, the Chengjiang Lagerst?tte from the Lower Cambrian of China is renowned for the detailed preservation as fossils of delicate, soft-bodied creatures, providing an insight into the Cambrian explosion. The fossils of possible hemichordate chordates and vertebrates have attracted particular attention. Tunicates, or urochordates, comprise the most basal chordate clade, and details of their evolution could be important in understanding the sequence of character acquisition that led to the emergence of chordates and vertebrates. However, definitive fossils of tunicates from the Cambrian are scarce or debatable. Here we report a probable tunicate Cheungkongella ancestralis from the Chengjiang fauna. It resembles the extant ascidian tunicate genus Styela whose morphology could be useful in understanding the origin of the vertebrates.     

A giant Ordovician anomalocaridid

Anomalocaridids, giant lightly sclerotized invertebrate predators, occur in a number of exceptionally preserved early and middle Cambrian (542-501?million years ago) biotas and have come to symbolize the unfamiliar morphologies displayed by stem organisms in faunas of the Burgess Shale type. They are characterized by a pair of anterior, segmented appendages, a circlet of plates around the mouth, and an elongate segmented trunk lacking true tergites with a pair of flexible lateral lobes per segment. Disarticulated body parts, such as the anterior appendages and oral circlet, had been assigned to a range of taxonomic groups--but the discovery of complete specimens from the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale showed that these disparate elements all belong to a single kind of animal. Phylogenetic analyses support a position of anomalocaridids in the arthropod stem, as a sister group to the euarthropods. The anomalocaridids were the largest animals in Cambrian communities. The youngest unequivocal examples occur in the middle Cambrian Marjum Formation of Utah but an arthropod retaining some anomalocaridid characteristics is present in the Devonian of Germany. Here we report the post-Cambrian occurrence of anomalocaridids, from the Early Ordovician (488-472?million years ago) Fezouata Biota in southeastern Morocco, including specimens larger than any in Cambrian biotas. These giant animals were an important element of some marine communities for about 30?million years longer than previously realized. The Moroccan specimens confirm the presence of a dorsal array of flexible blades attached to a transverse rachis on the trunk segments; these blades probably functioned as gills.     

Preliminary notes on softbodied fossil concentrations from the Early Cambrian Chengjiang deposits

The Chengjiang fauna has played a pivotal role in our understanding of the origin and diversification of metazoans since its discovery in 1984. To date, this fauna has been documented as consisting of 121 genera with 140 species belonging to 24 phyla[1-27]. The geo- graphic distribution of the Chengjiang fauna has been expanded from Chengjiang County to eastern Yunnan Province including Haikou, Malong, Yiliang, Anning and elsewhere[25-33], with about 20 localities in to- tal[25,33]. Succes…     

Primitive deuterostomes from the Chengjiang Lagerst?tte (Lower Cambrian, China).

Cambrian fossil-Lagerst?tten (sites of exceptional fossil preservation), such as those from Chengjiang (Lower Cambrian) and the Burgess Shale (Middle Cambrian), provide our best window into the Cambrian 'explosion'. Such faunas are known from about 40 localities, and have yielded a widely disparate series of taxa ranging from ctenophores to agnathan fish. Recent excavations of the Chengjiang fossil-Lagerst?tte, known from a series of sites near Kunming in Yunnan, south China, have resulted in the discovery of several new forms. In conjunction with material described earlier, these provide evidence for a new group of metazoans, the vetulicolians. Several features, notably a series of gill slits, suggest that this group can throw light on an early stage of deuterostome diversification.     

Eocrinoids from the Cambrian Mantou Formation of Dalian, Liaoning

Cambrian echinoderms,especially eocrinoids,have been reported recently from Guizhou and Yunnan provinces of China,such as the Kaili,Balang,and Guanshan faunas.The present paper reports abundant well-preserved eocrinoids from the Cambrian Mantou Formation of Dalian,Liaoning Province.This new discovery provides additional data on the early evolution of Echinodermata.It also gives us a clue as to where to seek the Cambrian soft-bodied fauna on the margin of the North China Platform.     

An armoured Cambrian lobopodian from China with arthropod-like appendages

Cambrian fossil Lagerst?tten preserving soft-bodied organisms have contributed much towards our understanding of metazoan origins. Lobopodians are a particularly interesting group that diversified and flourished in the Cambrian seas. Resembling 'worms with legs', they have long attracted much attention in that they may have given rise to both Onychophora (velvet worms) and Tardigrada (water bears), as well as to arthropods in general. Here we describe Diania cactiformis gen. et sp. nov. as an 'armoured' lobopodian from the Chengjiang fossil Lagerst?tte (Cambrian Stage 3), Yunnan, southwestern China. Although sharing features with other typical lobopodians, it is remarkable for possessing robust and probably sclerotized appendages, with what appear to be articulated elements. In terms of limb morphology it is therefore closer to the arthropod condition, to our knowledge, than any lobopodian recorded until now. Phylogenetic analysis recovers it in a derived position, close to Arthropoda; thus, it seems to belong to a grade of organization close to the point of becoming a true arthropod. Further, D. cactiformis could imply that arthropodization (sclerotization of the limbs) preceded arthrodization (sclerotization of the body). Comparing our fossils with other lobopodian appendage morphologies--see Kerygmachela, Jianshanopodia and Megadictyon--reinforces the hypothesis that the group as a whole is paraphyletic, with different taxa expressing different grades of arthropodization.