Huang Diying

Geochemical characteristics of Jurassic coal and significance for the evolution of the environment, Yanqi Basin, China

Abstract Volcanic tuff deposits near Daohugou village, Ningcheng County of Inner Mongolia have yielded many well-preserved fossils. Here we briefly introduce our recent findings of invertebrates from the Daohugou fauna: mainly insects, conchostracans, anostracans, and spiders. The age of the Daohugou fauna is considered to be Middle Jurassic on the basis of an analysis of various invertebrates especially insects and conchostracans, showing strong similarities to the Yanliao fauna of north China and the Karatau fauna of Kazakhstan. Supported by the IGCP Project No. 506, National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40372008, 40572005), the State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology, Stratigraphy (Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, CAS, No. 053106, 023101), and The Leverhulme Trust and the Natural Environment Research Council to PAS. This is a contribution to UNESCO-IUGS IGCP 506 Project.

Palpimanoid spiders from the Jurassic of China

Abstract Only two specimens of spiders have been described from Jurassic strata, so the recovery of some 400 new specimens from rocks of middle Jurassic age from China signals a dramatic increase in information on fossil spiders of this period. Here, new spiders belonging to the superfamily Palpimanoidea sensu Forster & Platnick 1984, from the locality of Daohugou, Inner Mongolia, are described. Patarchaea muralis n. gen., n. sp. is a true archaeid, represented by both an adult male and female. Sinaranea metaxyostraca n. gen., n. sp., represented by an adult male and juveniles, is a palpimanoid similar to Palpimanidae and Huttoniidae, but is not placed in a modern family.

New ‘Grylloblattida’ related to the genus Prosepididontus Handlirsch, 1920 in the Middle Jurassic of China (Insect: Geinitziidae)

Huang, D.-Y. & Nel, A., December, 2008. New ‘Grylloblattida’ related to the genus Prosepididontus Handlirsch, 1920 in the Middle Jurassic of China (Insecta: Geinitziidae). Alcheringa 32, 395–403. ISSN 0311-5518. On the basis of well-preserved nearly complete specimens, two new genera and species Sinosepididontus chifengensis and Megasepididontus grandis, both closely related to the Early Jurassic geinitziid genus Prosepididontus, are described. The new material was collected from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation near the Daohugou Village, Ningcheng County, Inner Mongolia, northeast China. New body and leg structures are described for these Chinese taxa. They were previously unknown in other Geinitziidae. The new data indicate that the extinct ‘Grylloblattida’ contained heterogenous groups.Huang, D.-Y. & Nel, A., December, 2008. New ‘Grylloblattida’ related to the genus Prosepididontus Handlirsch, 1920 in the Middle Jurassic of China (Insecta: Geinitziidae). Alcheringa 32, 395–403. ISSN 0311-5518. On the basis of well-preserved nearly complete specimens, two new genera and species Sinosepididontus chifengensis and Megasepididontus grandis, both closely related to the Early Jurassic geinitziid genus Prosepididontus, are described. The new material was collected from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation near the Daohugou Village, Ningcheng County, Inner Mongolia, northeast China. New body and leg structures are described for these Chinese taxa. They were previously unknown in other Geinitziidae. The new data indicate that the extinct ‘Grylloblattida’ contained heterogenous groups.

Gill rays of primitive vertebrate Yunnanozoon from Early Cambrian: a first record

Yunnanozoans (including Yunnanozoon and Haikouella) are important representatives of the primitive vertebrates in the Early Cambrian Chengjiang fauna. For Yunnanozoans, we know less about Yunnanozoon than about Haikouella due to the poor preservation of Yunnanozoon. Up to now, there have been some reports that Haikouella had developed gill rays, while there have been no reports on Yunnanozoon. In this paper, we described our new findings of the distinct gill rays of Yunnanozoon lividum based on new well-preserved material collected from the Lower Cambrian Maotianshan Shale in Xiaolantian of Yunnan Province, China. This study provides new data on the evolutionary relationship of the primitive vertebrates and their early evolution.