bcreisler@gmail.com
Some recent and not so recent items about China, with free pdfs:
Zixiao Yang, Shengyu Wang, Qingyi Tian, Bo Wang, Manja Hethke, Maria E. McNamara, Michael J.Benton, Xing Xu & Baoyu Jiang (2018)
Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and biostratinomic analysis of the Jurassic Yanliao LagerstÃtte in northeastern China.
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology (advance online publication)
Free pdf:
Highlights
Frequent volcanic eruptions generated extensive volcaniclastic apron and lake(s).
Mass mortality of land animals occurred during volcanic eruptions.
Terrestrial animal remains were transported into lake(s) and rapidly buried.
Yanliao ecosystem was frequently disturbed by active volcanism.
Abstract
The Middle-Upper Jurassic Yanliao LagerstÃtte contains numerous exceptionally preserved fossils of aquatic and land organisms, including insects, salamanders, dinosaurs, pterosaurs and mammaliaforms. Despite extensive study of the diversity and evolutionary implications of the biota, the palaeoenvironmental setting and taphonomy of the fossils remain poorly understood. We reconstruct both the palaeoenvironment of the Daohugou area (one of the most famous Yanliao fossil areas), and the biostratinomy of the fossils. We use high-resolution stratigraphic data from field investigation and excavations to document in detail the stratigraphic succession, lithofacies, facies associations, and biostratinomic features of the LagerstÃtte. Our results show that frequent volcanic eruptions generated an extensive volcaniclastic apron and lake(s) in the studied area. The frequent alternation of thin lacustrine deposits and thick volcaniclastic apron deposits indicates either that the studied area was located in the marginal regions of a single lake, where the frequent influx of volcaniclastic apron material caused substantial fluctuations in lake area and thus the frequent lateral alternation of the two facies, or that many temporary lakes developed on the volcaniclastic apron. Most terrestrial insects were preserved in the laminated, normally graded siltstone, claystone and tuff facies that form many thin intervals with deposits of graded sandstone, siltstone and tuff in between. Within each interval the terrestrial insects occur in many laminae associated with abundant aquatic organisms, but are particularly abundant in some laminae that directly underlie tuff of fallout origin. Most of these terrestrial insects are interpreted to have been killed in the area adjacent to the studied palaeolake(s) during volcanic eruptions. Their carcasses were transported by influxes of fresh volcaniclastic material, primarily meteoric runoff and possibly minor distal pyroclastic flow into the palaeolake(s), and were buried in palaeolake deposits prior to extended decay probably due to a combination of rapid vertical settling, ash fall and water turbulence.
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This paper was posted in early form on the DML way back in April. It is now in final form and is posted with a free pdf on the Chinese website:
Bayannurosaurus perfectus gen. et sp. nov.
Xing Xu, Qingwei Tan, Yilong Gao, Zhiqiang Bao, Zhigang Yin, Bin Guo, Junyou Wang, Lin Tan, Yuguang Zhang & Hai Xing (2018)Â
A large-sized basal ankylopollexian from East Asia, shedding light on early biogeographic history of Iguanodontia,
Science Bulletin 63: 556-563
Free pdf at:
A presumably mostly quadrupedal ankylopollexian iguanodontian, Bayannurosaurus perfectus gen. et sp. nov., is reported here, and is represented by an excellently well-preserved skeleton from the Lower Cretaceous Bayingebi Formation of Inner Mongolia, China. The diagnosis of the taxon includes several autapomorphies, notably a dorsally directed, strap-like posterodorsal process of the jugal and a horizontally oriented preacetabular process of the ilium. The nearly complete caudal series retains eight posterior-most caudals with procoelous, trapezoidal centra in dorsal view, and the last three caudals are fully fused. The discovery of B. perfectus opens a critical new window on the early evolution and intercontinental dispersal of Iguanodontia. The skeleton displays a transitional morphology between non-hadrosauriform ankylopollexians and Hadrosauriformes. A phylogenetic analysis indicates that Bayannurosaurus is positioned higher on the tree than Hypselospinus, but below Ouranosaurus just outside of Hadrosauriformes. The tree topology of Iguanodontia with temporal and spatial constraints reveals a possible biogeographic scenario supported by the statistical dispersal-vicariance analysis: around the J/K boundary, non-hadrosauriform ankylopollexians experienced multiple dispersal events from Europe to Asia, accompanying the coeval fall of the global sea level.
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A couple of very short papers:
CHEN Yang, YIN Fuguang, LIU Zixuan, ZHANG Ruigang, LI Lianglin, CHENWei & CHEN Fei (2018)
Recent progress in the study of the sedimentary environment of Late Cretaceous dinosaur strata in Zhengyang area.
Geology in China 45(2): 414-415 (in Chinese)
doi: 10.12029/gc20180217
Free pdf:
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DONG Liyang & YI Jian (2018)
The discovery of clusters of buried fossil remains of pareiasaurs in Upper Permian Sunjiagou Formation in Baode, Shanxi Province.Â
Geology in China 45(4): 861-862 (in Chinese )
doi: 10.12029/gc20180426
Free pdf: