Institution
Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology
Recent research
- Climate & EnvironmentOpen access
The Permian-Triassic mass extinction triggered a fundamental reorganization of marine ecosystems, yet the community-level functional dynamics of early marine reptile radiations remain understudied. Here we quantify ecospace dynamics of Triassic marine reptile faunas across an app...
- AI & ComputingOpen access
Deep learning reveals ecological decoupling and rate heterogeneity in Hymenoptera wing evolution
Quantifying biomorphological evolution and integrating phenotypic data into large-scale ecological and evolutionary studies are often limited by the scalability, subjectivity, and poor interpretability of existing methods. We introduce HAIKA (Hierarchical Attention-based Interpre...
- BiologyOpen access
Abstract Hexapoda comprises the hyperdiverse insects and three cryptic, early-diverging lineages, Protura, Collembola, and Diplura, that are key to understanding the hexapod body pattern but remain extremely rare as fossils. Here, we report the earliest dipluran, Sinojapyx gigant...
- AI & Computing
To examine the distinctive characteristics of Asian palaeontological research, we conducted a bibliometric and semantic comparison of global and Asia-tagged publications (1984–2023) from the Web of Science Core Collection, complemented by two programme data sets from the Asian an...
- BiologyOpen access
Liquidambar is a classic example of the eastern Asian–eastern North American biogeographic disjunction, and its fossil record is critical for understanding the evolutionary history and taxonomy of Altingiaceae. In particular, associated vegetative and reproductive fossils provide...
- Climate & EnvironmentOpen access
Complex reproduction reflects life-history trade-offs in early Cambrian multicellular algae
The Cambrian explosion diversified metazoan consumers and restructured marine food webs, yet how planktonic primary producers responded to this escalating ecological pressure remains poorly understood. Here we report Polyostiosphaera operculata gen. et sp. nov., an exceptionally...
- Climate & Environment
Abstract The Upper Permian Dalong Formation in the northeastern Sichuan Basin contains organic-rich siliceous shales deposited in the Kaijiang–Liangping Trough, but the relative roles of productivity, redox conditions, and nutrient supply in organic matter enrichment remain debat...
- Climate & EnvironmentOpen access
A Shallow‐Marine Ecosystem Before Initial Tibetan Plateau Uplift
Abstract The uplift of the Tibetan Plateau profoundly influences global atmospheric circulation, sediment transport, and biodiversity, but its pre‐uplift marine paleoenvironment remains poorly understood. Here we report the first discovery of an in situ benthic fossil assemblage...
- Climate & EnvironmentOpen access
Geographic bias in the fossil record: tests using Chinese early Paleozoic echinoderms
Abstract The greater diversity of fossils known from North America and Europe, plus the correlation between outcrop area and paleobiodiversity, introduce a potential bias in the fossil record. We develop tests to detect actual bias using recent discoveries of Chinese early Paleoz...
- Climate & EnvironmentOpen access
gen. and sp. nov. is described. It shows distinct carapace ornamentation patterns: (1) growth bands near the umbo ornamented with polygonal small-diameter reticulation; (2) growth bands in the middle part of the carapace ornamented with evenly distributed puncta; (3) growth bands...
- AI & ComputingOpen access
Total organic carbon (TOC) is a key parameter for source-rock evaluation, but laboratory measurements are sparse and do not resolve continuous vertical variation. Conventional well logs provide continuous physical responses, whereas X-ray fluorescence (XRF) data add geochemical i...
- Climate & EnvironmentOpen access
Abstract Lichens play an important role in rock alteration across diverse terrestrial environments, yet the relative contributions of biomechanical and biochemical processes under different climatic conditions are still poorly constrained. Here, we investigated interactions betwe...
- Climate & EnvironmentOpen access
Morpho-functional innovations in Shibantan fossils fuel Ediacaran frond debates
The Ediacara biota represents Earth’s earliest complex macroscopic organisms, but their biology and ecology remain poorly understood. Here we report Dengyingia pennata gen. et sp. nov., an exceptionally preserved frondose fossil from the late Ediacaran ( ~550–543 Ma) Shibantan li...
- Climate & EnvironmentOpen access
Ediacaran coupling of climate and biosphere dynamics
Climate change is demonstrably linked to radiations, extinctions, and turnovers in the biosphere throughout the Phanerozoic (538.8 Ma to present). Here, we suggest this connection existed as early as the late Ediacaran (ca. 579−538.8 Ma), the first interval in Earth’s history to...
- Climate & EnvironmentOpen access
The Baraul Banda Formation preserves an important Paleocene–Eocene sedimentary record within the western Kohistan–Ladakh Arc (KLA) and provides new constraints on sediment provenance and tectonic evolution during the final stages of Neo-Tethyan closure. This study integrates stra...
- BiologyOpen access
Abstract Environmental crises and mass extinction events on land are typically followed by ecological upheaval, during which opportunistic plants rapidly colonize devastated landscapes, forming transient ‘pioneer’ communities that precede the establishment of complex forest ecosy...