青海共和盆地猛犸象化石的发现及意义

在青海共和盆地晚更新世河湖相沉积地层中发现了象类化石,对化石的基本特征进行了描述,依据牙片的釉质层、齿脊频率等特征初步鉴定为猛犸象类化石,并在同一层位发现了钙化树木化石.结合区域地质以及产出猛犸象属化石地层的沉积学特征、孢粉组合等的简要分析认为,共和盆地晚更新世晚期为干燥寒冷的气候环境.这一发现有助于认识中国猛犸象属动物的迁徙过程,以及青藏高原晚更新世的生物演化、气候变化和构造活动.同时,也为研究青藏高原第四纪以来生物进化、湖泊与河流演化、气候变化、古地理与古环境变迁等提供了新资料.

Discovery and significance of Manmuthus fossil in Gonghe basin, Qinghai Province

Recently elephant fossils have been for the first time discovered in Late Pleistocene in Gonghe basin, Qinghai Province. Their basic features are described. Primary identification suggests that the elephant fossils are the leg bones, ribs and teeth fossil, and a piece of calcifyed tree fossil has been collected in the same horizon. Based on the characteristics of the enamel layer, ridge frequency of the tooth piece, those fossils are mammuthus primigenius. On the basis of studies of the Mammuthus primigenius fossil, combined with the regional geology and primary analyses of the sedimentological features of the strata where the elephant fossils occur, the authors think that the climate was cold and aridity during late Late Pleistocene in Gonghe basin, Qinghai Province. The evolution and migration of mammuthus were thoughtfully noted in the Gonghe basin. This discovery may help us understand the migration of Mammuthus, the climate change and the tectonic movement in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The new data have been made for the biological evolution, the lake and river evolution, the climate change, the paleogeography and the paleoenvironment changes, and the stratigraphic division of the the Quaternary period.