Discussion of “Permian—Triassic vertebrate footprints from South Africa: Ichnotaxonomy,producers and biostratigraphy through two major faunal crises” by Marchetti,L., Klein,H., Buchwitz,M., Ronchi,A., Smith,R.M.H., DeKlerk,W.J., Sciscio,L., and Groenewald,G.H. (2019)

A newly devised tripartite subdivision of the Karoo Basin, South Africa, is based on a number of vertebrate-trackways spanning the Middle Permian (Wordian/Capitanian) to Lower Triassic (reportedly Induan) rocks of the Beaufort Formation. The youngest Footprint Assemblage (FA III) is reported to occur in the lowermost Triassic rocks of the Palingkloof Member. One collection site from which seven trackways are reported, Bethel farm, is a classic South African locality where some authors place the end-Permian extinction event and, coincidentally, the vertebrate-based terrestrial Permian—Triassic Boundary. Published GPS coordinates for the Bethel farm site, though, indicate that these trackways originate from exposures of the Burgersdorp Formation near the town of Aliwal North. Outcrops here are assigned to the Cynognathus Assemblage Zone, and indicate a Middle Triassic age assignment. In addition, we caution the use of any small temporally or spatially restricted dataset, which is of severely limited utility, in making broad generalizations about paleoenvironmental or paleoecological interpretations.     

USArray及其近期科学发现

美国台阵(USArray)是EarthScope计划的主要内容之一。旨在探测北美大陆变形、结构及其演化。USArray主要由平移/滚动台阵和机动台阵两部分构成。滚动台阵由400个宽频带地震台站组成,以向前滚动的方式扫过美国本土和阿拉斯加。利用来自该台阵的数据,科学家能获得地球内部精细图像,藉此考察地震和火山的过程。作为滚动台阵的补充,机动台阵被用于对关键目标进行详细观测和短期测量。美国台阵计划启动5年来,采集的数据已经提供了足以令科学界考虑重新审视地震物理、火山过程、核幔结构、活动变形构造、大陆结构及其演化、地球动力学和地壳流体等基本科学问题的基础资料。     

双河洞中大熊猫-剑齿象动物群化石的发现

对贵州省境内的双河洞历次科考中发现的第四纪动物群化石进行初步研究和总结,认为目前对双河洞第四纪动物群研究尚处于起步阶段,化石的发现者都是洞穴科考专家,古生物知识相对欠缺且重视不够是洞穴化石研究进展缓慢的原因。为了加快双河洞第四纪动物群的研究进程,以今年中法联合科考过程中发现的大熊猫-剑齿象动物群化石为样本,采用ICP-MS铀系定年方法对这批大熊猫骨骼化石碳酸盐岩包裹物的年龄进行测试,结果表明该化石群化石距今6.75万年,初步判定此动物群可能生存于中更新世-晚更新世早期。这批哺乳动物化石及其地层信息将为贵州（尤其是黔北）第四纪的研究提供重要资料。