Behavior of lophophorates during the end-Permian mass extinction and recovery

The end-Permian mass extinction devastated most marine communities and the recovery was a protracted event lasting several million years into the Early Triassic. Environmental and biological processes undoubtedly controlled patterns of recovery for marine invertebrates in the aftermath of the extinction, but are often difficult to single-out. The global diversity and distribution of marine lophophorates during the aftermath of the end-Permian mass extinction indicates that stenolaemate bryozoans, rhynchonelliform brachiopods, and lingulid brachiopods displayed distinct recovery patterns.Bryozoans were the most susceptible of the lophophorates, experiencing relatively high rates of extinction at the end of the Permian, and becoming restricted to the Boreal region during the Early Triassic. The recovery of bryozoans was also delayed until the Late Triassic and characterized by very low diversity and abundance. Following the final disappearance of Permian rhynchonelliform brachiopod survivors, Early Triassic rhynchonelliform brachiopod abundance remained suppressed despite a successful re-diversification and a global distribution, suggesting a decoupling between global taxonomic and ecological processes likely driven by lingering environmental stress.In contrast with bryozoans and rhynchonelliforms, lingulid brachiopods rebounded rapidly, colonizing shallow marine settings left vacant by the extinction. Lingulid dominance, characterized by low diversity but high numerical abundance, was short-lived and they were once again displaced back into marginal settings as environmental stress changed through the marine recovery. The presence in lingulid brachiopods of the respiratory pigment hemerythrin, known to increase the efficacy of oxygen storage and transport, when coupled with other morphological and physiological adaptations, may have given lingulids a survival advantage in environmentally stressed Early Triassic settings.     

Facies and evolution of the carbonate factory during the Permian–Triassic crisis in South Tibet,China

The nature of Phanerozoic carbonate factories is strongly controlled by the composition of carbonate‐producing faunas. During the Permian–Triassic mass extinction interval there was a major change in tropical shallow platform facies: Upper Permian bioclastic limestones are characterized by benthic communities with significant richness, for example, calcareous algae, fusulinids, brachiopods, corals, molluscs and sponges, while lowermost Triassic carbonates shift to dolomicrite‐dominated and bacteria‐dominated microbialites in the immediate aftermath of the Permian–Triassic mass extinction. However, the spatial–temporal pattern of carbonates distribution in high latitude regions in response to the Permian–Triassic mass extinction has received little attention. Facies and evolutionary patterns of a carbonate factory from the northern margin of peri‐Gondwana (palaeolatitude ca 40°S) are presented here based on four Permian–Triassic boundary sections that span proximal, inner to distal, and outer ramp settings from South Tibet. The results show that a cool‐water bryozoan‐dominated and echinoderm‐dominated carbonate ramp developed in the Late Permian in South Tibet. This was replaced abruptly, immediately after the Permian–Triassic mass extinction, by a benthic automicrite factory with minor amounts of calcifying metazoans developed in an inner/middle ramp setting, accompanied by transient subaerial exposure. Subsequently, an extensive homoclinal carbonate ramp developed in South Tibet in the Early Triassic, which mainly consists of homogenous dolomitic lime mudstone/wackestone that lacks evidence of metazoan frame‐builders. The sudden transition from a cool‐water, heterozoan dominated carbonate ramp to a warm‐water, metazoan‐free, homoclinal carbonate ramp following the Permian–Triassic mass extinction was the result of the combination of the loss of metazoan reef/mound builders, rapid sea‐level changes across Permian–Triassic mass extinction and profound global warming during the Early Triassic.     

Current perspectives on the Permian–Triassic boundary and end-Permian mass extinction: Preface

The end-Permian mass extinction is now robustly dated at 252.6 ± 0.2 Ma (U–Pb) and the Permian–Triassic (P–T) GSSP level is dated by interpolation at 252.5 Ma. An isotopic geochronological timescale for the Late Permian–Early Triassic, based on recent accurate high-precision U–Pb single zircon dating of volcanic ashes, together with calibrated conodont zonation schemes, is presented. The duration of the Early Triassic (Induan + Olenekian stages) is estimated at only 5.5 million years. The duration of the Induan Stage (Griesbachian + Dienerian sub-stages) is estimated at ca. one million years and the early Olenekian (Smithian sub-stage) at 0.7 million years duration. Considering this timescale, the “delayed” recovery following the end-Permian mass extinction may not in fact have been particularly protracted, in the light of the severity of the extinction. Conodonts evolved rapidly in the first 1 million years following the mass extinction leading to recognition of high-resolution conodont zones. Continued episodic global environmental and climatic stress following the extinction is recognized by multiple carbon isotope excursions, further faunal turnover and peculiar sedimentary and biotic facies (e.g. microbialites). The end-Permian mass extinction is interpreted to be synchronous globally and between marine and non-marine environments. The nature of the double-phased Late Permian extinction (at the Guadalupian–Lopingian boundary and the P–T boundary), linked to large igneous provinces, suggests a primary role for superplume activity that involved geomagnetic polarity change and massive volcanism.     

西藏北部永珠地区石炭系永珠组岩石地层和古生物特征

永珠地区位于申扎古生代盆地,区内发育连续的早奥陶世—中二叠世海相沉积序列。石炭系永珠组岩石组合特征为细粒石英砂岩、页岩、粉砂岩,夹多层生物碎屑灰岩,含丰富的生物化石,主要有腕足类、双壳类、牙形刺、珊瑚、苔藓虫、菊石、三叶虫。牙形刺Gnathodusgirtyi—Gnathodustexanus为早石炭世晚期组合;腕足类Productus—Rhipidomellatibetena为早石炭世晚期组合,Choristites—Spirigerella为晚石炭世早期下部组合,Trigonatretacf.paucicostulata—Elivellabaschkirica为晚石炭世早期上部组合。Uncinunellina是典型的冷水习性腕足类,Cyathaxonia是典型的冷水习性珊瑚,表明了全球石炭纪冰期已影响到本区。确定了永珠组的时代为早石炭世晚期—晚石炭世早期,且早石炭世与晚石炭世分界线在第11层与第12层之间。     

Composition and similarity of global anomodont-bearing tetrapod faunas

Anomodont synapsids represent the dominant herbivores of Permian and Triassic terrestrial vertebrate ecosystems. Their taxonomic diversity and morphological disparity in combination with their cosmopolitan distribution makes them an ideal study object for macroevolutionary patterns across the most devastating extinction event in earth history. This study provides a thorough review of anomodont-bearing tetrapod faunas to form the basis for a faunal similarity analysis and future studies of anomodont diversity. The stratigraphic correlation and composition of all known anomodont assemblages is revisited, including a discussion of the validity of the globally distributed anomodont species. The similarity analysis of anomodont faunas is performed on the basis of presence–absence data of anomodont taxa, using explorative methods such as cluster analysis (UPGMA) and non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS). The recovered faunal groupings indicate a common biostratigraphic age and furthermore reflect biogeographic patterns. Even though endemism and faunal provinciality was a constant element in anomodont faunas of the Permian and Triassic, the available evidence indicates that the end-Permian extinction resulted in a distinct uniformity that was unique to Early Triassic anomodont faunas. This is in particular characterized by the global distribution and overwhelming abundance of the disaster taxon Lystrosaurus. In contrast, cosmopolitan anomodonts also existed in the Late Permian (e.g., Diictodon) and Middle Triassic (e.g., Shansiodon), but those taxa coexisted with endemic faunal elements rather than dominated the fauna as Lystrosaurus did.     

Controls on carbonate platform architecture and reef recovery across the Palaeozoic to Mesozoic transition: A high-resolution analysis of the Great Bank of Guizhou

Carbonate platforms spanning intervals of global change provide an opportunity to identify causal links between the evolution of marine environment and depositional architecture. This study investigates the controls on platform geometry across the Palaeozoic to Mesozoic transition and yields new stratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental constraints on the Great Bank of Guizhou, a latest Permian to earliest Late Triassic isolated carbonate platform in the Nanpanjiang Basin of south China. Reconstruction of platform architecture was achieved by integrating field mapping, petrography, biostratigraphy, satellite imagery analysis and δ¹³C chemostratigraphy. In contrast to previous interpretations, this study indicates that: (i) the Great Bank of Guizhou transitioned during Early Triassic time from a low-relief bank to a platform with high relief above the basin floor (up to 600 m) and steep slope angles (preserved up to 50°); and (ii) the oldest-known platform-margin reef of the Mesozoic Era grew along steep, prograding clinoforms in an outer-margin to lower-slope environment. Increasing platform relief during Early Triassic time was caused by limited sediment delivery to the basin margin and a high rate of accommodation creation driven by Indosinian convergence. The steep upper Olenekian (upper Lower Triassic) slope is dominated by well-cemented grainstone, suggesting that high carbonate saturation states led to syndepositional or rapid post-depositional sediment stabilization. Latest Spathian reef initiation coincided with global cooling following Early Triassic global warmth. The first Triassic framework-building metazoans on the Great Bank of Guizhou were small calcareous sponges restricted to deeper water settings, but early Mesozoic reef builders were volumetrically dominated by Tubiphytes, a fossil genus of uncertain taxonomic affinity. In aggregate, the stratigraphic architecture of the Great Bank of Guizhou records sedimentary response to long-term environmental and biological recovery from the end-Permian mass extinction, highlighting the close connections among marine chemistry, marine ecosystems and carbonate depositional systems.     

罗平生物群的发现与研究进展——据云南1:5万罗平县等四幅区调和专题调查成果

成都地质调查中心云南区调项目组2007年在罗平县中三叠统关岭组二段中发现了罗平生物群。罗平生物群是三叠纪的化石宝库,化石包含了脊椎动物和无脊椎动物。脊椎动物以海生爬行类和鱼类为主。无脊椎动物以节肢动物为主,伴生有双壳类、腹足类、菊石、棘皮动物、腕足类、牙形石、有孔虫和植物类化石。牙形石研究显示罗平生物群处于Nicoraella kockeli牙形石带,时代上属于中三叠世安尼期Pelsonian亚期。罗平生物群保存在一个局限的台盆环境中。其化石的特异保存很可能与底层水缺氧和微生物席的密封作用有关。罗平生物群目前是研究三叠纪海洋生态系统复苏的最好的一扇窗口,也是三叠纪海生鱼类和节肢动物化石保存最好的产地之一,为研究二叠纪末大绝灭后海洋生态系统复苏以及中生代海洋生态系统的演化历史提供了新材料。     

贵州罗甸二叠纪末生物大灭绝事件后沉积的微生物岩时代和沉积学特征

二叠纪末期发生的显生宙以来最大的生物绝灭事件,使海洋生态系统和陆地生态系统均受到重创之后,微生物岩广泛分布于全球正常浅海地区。研究认为,扬子地台在二叠纪末期存在一次海平面降低的事件,造成研究区二叠纪地层与早三叠世微生物岩之间存在沉积间断或剥蚀,并使三叠纪牙形石混入二叠纪末期的沉积物中。二叠-三叠系界线位于微生物岩层的底界;微生物岩形成于早三叠世最早期,相当于Hindeodus parvus带,是早三叠世最早期开始的海侵事件为其提供生长所需的可容纳空间。在Isarcicella staeschei带-I. isarcica带早期再次发生相对海平面降低事件,之后海平面开始快速上升。研究区早三叠世早期的微生物岩以凝块构造发育为特征,具有斑状、层状、枝状和网状凝块构造4种典型中型构造。结合前人的工作,认为微生物群落通过生物沉积和物理沉积作用形成球状体,球状体汇聚形成不同的中型凝块构造。研究扬子地台早三叠世凝块石的确切时代和结构、构造类型特征,为准确恢复生物大灭绝事件前后的环境变迁以及生物演化事件与环境变化的相互作用关系提供重要的证据。     

Intensifying aeolian activity following the end-Permian mass extinction: Evidence from the Late Permian–Early Triassic terrestrial sedimentary record of the Ordos Basin,North China

Sedimentary successions provide direct evidence of climate and tectonics, and these give clues about the causes of the mass extinction around the Permian–Triassic boundary. Terrestrial Permian–Triassic boundary strata in the eastern Ordos Basin, North China, include the Late Permian Sunjiagou, Early Triassic Liujiagou and late Early Triassic Heshanggou formations in ascending order. The Sunjiagou Formation comprises cross-bedded sandstones overlaid by mudstones, indicating meandering rivers with channel, point bar and floodplain deposits. The Liujiagou Formation was formed in braided rivers of arid sand bars interacting with some aeolian dune deposits, distinguished by abundant sandstones where diverse trough and planar cross-bedding and aeolian structures (for example, inverse climbing-ripple, translatent-ripple lamination, grainfall and grainflow laminations) interchange vertically and laterally. The Heshanggou Formation is a rhythmic succession of mudstones interbedded with thin medium-grained sandstones mainly deposited in a shallow lacustrine environment. Overall, the sharp meandering to braided to shallow lake sedimentary transition documents palaeoenvironmental changes from semi-arid to arid and then to semi-humid conditions across the Permian–Triassic boundary. The die-off of tetrapods and plants, decreased bioturbation levels in the uppermost Sunjiagou Formation, and the bloom of microbially-induced sedimentary structures in the Liujiagou Formation marks the mass extinction around the Permian–Triassic boundary. The disappearance of microbially-induced sedimentary structures, increasingly intense bioturbation from bottom to top and the reoccurrence of reptile footprints in the Heshanggou Formation reveal gradual recovery of the ecosystem after the Permian–Triassic boundary extinction. This study is the first to identify the intensification of aeolian activity following the end-Permian mass extinction in North China. Moreover, while northern North China continued to be uplifted tectonically from the Late Palaeozoic to Late Mesozoic, the switch of sedimentary patterns across the Permian–Triassic boundary in Shanxi is largely linked to the development of an arid and subsequently semi-humid climate condition, which probably directly affected the collapse and delayed recovery in palaeoecosystems.     

东秦岭陕西聂家沟剖面二叠纪—三叠纪之交沉积特征及其古环境意义*

东秦岭陕西镇安聂家沟地区二叠纪—三叠纪之交发育一套海相碳酸盐岩沉积序列,较完整地记录了二叠纪末生物大灭绝事件前后浅海碳酸盐岩台地相生物群落演替及环境变化等信息,是研究二叠纪末生物大灭绝事件前后生态环境变化与沉积响应的理想区域。通过碳酸盐岩微相分析方法,对陕西镇安聂家沟剖面二叠系—三叠系界线附近的碳酸盐岩生物组合和微相类型进行了详细分析,共识别出11个微相类型: 斑点状凝块石、叠层石灰岩、鲕粒—纹层状叠层石灰岩、有孔虫颗粒灰岩、藻—海百合泥粒灰岩、含有被包壳和被磨蚀骨屑颗粒的粒泥灰岩、鲕粒颗粒灰岩、集合颗粒灰岩、含鲕粒的粒泥灰岩、泥晶灰岩和泥岩。根据碳酸盐岩微相特征及沉积相标志,在二叠系—三叠系界限附近划分出台地边缘、开阔台地和局限台地3种沉积相,其反映了二叠纪—三叠纪之交频繁的沉积相带变更的特点。该剖面碳酸盐岩微相反映的古生态和生物群落演替特征与中国华南同时期其他剖面具有较好的一致性,即二叠纪末生物大灭绝事件之后,早三叠世正常浅水碳酸盐岩台地生物类型和丰度极低,仅含有少量的双壳类、海百合等,灭绝事件界线附近以微生物碳酸盐岩等特殊微生物沉积构造占主导,之后微生物岩等消失,又出现了以双壳类为首的生物碎屑石灰岩。研究结果为了解二叠纪末生物大灭绝事件中生物和环境的协同演化提供了新的材料和认识。     

东秦岭陕西聂家沟剖面二叠纪—三叠纪之交沉积特征及其古环境意义*

东秦岭陕西镇安聂家沟地区二叠纪—三叠纪之交发育一套海相碳酸盐岩沉积序列,较完整地记录了二叠纪末生物大灭绝事件前后浅海碳酸盐岩台地相生物群落演替及环境变化等信息,是研究二叠纪末生物大灭绝事件前后生态环境变化与沉积响应的理想区域。通过碳酸盐岩微相分析方法,对陕西镇安聂家沟剖面二叠系—三叠系界线附近的碳酸盐岩生物组合和微相类型进行了详细分析,共识别出11个微相类型: 斑点状凝块石、叠层石灰岩、鲕粒—纹层状叠层石灰岩、有孔虫颗粒灰岩、藻—海百合泥粒灰岩、含有被包壳和被磨蚀骨屑颗粒的粒泥灰岩、鲕粒颗粒灰岩、集合颗粒灰岩、含鲕粒的粒泥灰岩、泥晶灰岩和泥岩。根据碳酸盐岩微相特征及沉积相标志,在二叠系—三叠系界限附近划分出台地边缘、开阔台地和局限台地3种沉积相,其反映了二叠纪—三叠纪之交频繁的沉积相带变更的特点。该剖面碳酸盐岩微相反映的古生态和生物群落演替特征与中国华南同时期其他剖面具有较好的一致性,即二叠纪末生物大灭绝事件之后,早三叠世正常浅水碳酸盐岩台地生物类型和丰度极低,仅含有少量的双壳类、海百合等,灭绝事件界线附近以微生物碳酸盐岩等特殊微生物沉积构造占主导,之后微生物岩等消失,又出现了以双壳类为首的生物碎屑石灰岩。研究结果为了解二叠纪末生物大灭绝事件中生物和环境的协同演化提供了新的材料和认识。     

二叠纪-三叠纪之交双壳类的灭绝与复苏过程

为了建立早-中三叠世双壳类的残存-复苏模式及深入探讨双壳类迟缓复苏的原因,对全球范围内该时期双壳类属的 时限分布进行了统计.总体来看,3个亚纲(Pteriomorphia、Palaeotaxodont和Heteroconchia亚纲)和5种生活方式(外栖活动 类、外栖固着类、半内栖类、内栖浅掘穴类和内栖深掘穴类)的双壳类均展示出了一致的规律,属级分异度直到中三叠世Anisian 期才恢复到晚二叠世末生物大灭绝之前的水平.二叠纪残存类型在早-中三叠世双壳类中所占的比例逐步降低,从占过 渡层的77.3%降低到了中三叠世Anisian期的33.7%,指示双壳类的缓慢复苏过程.而在整个早三叠世的漫长复苏期中,双壳 类仅遭受背景灭绝,表明双壳类的迟缓复苏受限于长时期的高压环境,随着海洋环境的逐步好转,才逐渐出现新的类型.      

Unusual intraclastic limestones in Lower Triassic carbonates and their bearing on the aftermath of the end-Permian mass extinction

Flat pebble conglomerates were a common carbonate facies in Cambrian to Early Ordovician open marine settings, but they become extremely rare in these environments after this time. However, the Early Triassic witnessed an anachronistic reappearance of flat pebbles, together with other intraclast types, in a range of carbonate depositional settings. In south China, flat pebble conglomerates are encountered in storm-dominated, platform carbonates to deep basinal settings, while prefossilized bivalve intraclasts and flat pebbles are common in mid-ramp facies of northern Italy. The emplacement mechanisms of the intraclast-bearing beds appear to have been diverse and to have included basinal turbidity flows and storm-generated hyperconcentrated flows: true storm beds, deposited under combined flow conditions, are rare. The cause of the widespread early lithification implied by the Early Triassic intraclasts appears to have been twofold: suppression of bioturbation, allowing the preservation of thin beds, and rapid submarine lithification. Both features appear to be a response to the widespread development of benthic dysoxia/anoxia during and following the end-Permian mass extinction. This event appears to have temporarily recreated the conditions that pertained in Cambro-Ordovician shelf seas. Flat pebble conglomerates may, therefore, constitute a proxy indicator of stressed environmental conditions associated with global anoxic/dysoxic events.     

Neotethys seawater chemistry and temperature at the dawn of the end Permian mass extinction

The end of the Permian was a time of great death and massive upheaval in the biosphere, atmosphere and hydrosphere. Over the last decades, many causes have been suggested to be responsible for that catastrophe such as global warming, anoxia and acidification. The Gyanyima limestone block was an open ocean seamount in the southern Neotethys at subtropical latitude, and it affords us insight into open-ocean oceanographic changes during the end of the Permian. After careful screening using multiple tests, we reconstructed carbonate/seawater curves from the geochemical data stored in pristine brachiopod shell archives from the shallow water limestone of the Changhsingian Gyanyima Formation of Tibet. The reconstructed strontium isotope curve and data for the late Changhsingian are relatively invariant about 0.707013, but in the upper part of the succession the values become more radiogenic climaxing at about 0.707244. The ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr curve and trend are similar to those observed for the Upper Permian succession in northern Italy, but dissimilar (less radiogenic) to whole rock results from Austria, Iran, China and Spitsbergen. The Ce/Ce* anomaly results ranging from 0.310 to 0.577 for the brachiopods and from 0.237 to 0.655 for the coeval whole rock before the event, and of 0.276 for whole rock during the extinction event, suggest normal redox conditions. These Ce* values are typical of normal open-ocean oxic water quality conditions observed in modern and other ancient counterparts. The biota and Ce* information clearly discounts global anoxia as a primary cause for the end-Permian biotic crisis. Carbon isotopes from brachiopod shells and whole rock are relatively invariant for most of the latest Permian interval, which is in stark contrast to the distinct negative carbon isotope excursion observed near and about the event. Estimates of seawater temperature at shallow depth fluctuated from 22.2 to 29.0 °C up to unit 8–2, and then gradually rise from 29.7 °C in unit 8–13 to values exceeding 35 °C at a stratigraphic level about 120 ky before the Permian–Triassic boundary, and just before the onset of the extinction interval. This dramatic increase in seawater temperature has been observed in global successions from tropical to mid latitude and from restricted to open ocean localities (e.g., northern Italy, Iran). The brachiopod archive and its geochemical proxies from Tibet support the paradigm that global warming must have been an important factor of the biotic crisis for the terrestrial and marine faunas and floras of the late Paleozoic world.     

Permian biospheric events in Northeast Asia

An analysis of the dynamics of diversity of bivalve species in Northeast Asia in the Permian period allowed us to reveal a number of events when it significantly increased or decreased. Four major mass extinction events were established for bivalves: at the end of the Early Permian, in the Early Capitanian age, at the the Capitanian-Wuchiapingian boundary and at the end of the Late Permian. Along with extinction events, five events of taxonomic radiation/innovation were distinguished: Early Asselian, Middle Kungurian, Early Roadian, Late Wordian, and Early Changhsingian. Revealing of these biotic events has been confirmed by the dynamics of biodiversity in other major groups of Permian fauna (foraminifers, brachiopods, ammonoids). Moreover, they are evidenced in different basins by changes in the character of sedimentation, isotope parameters, eustatic variations and other environmental factors. Most of the events can be traced far beyond Northeast Asia. Their manifestation is associated with general reasons (variations in endogenous regime of the Earth and associated stress effects on the biota). According to this, results of studying these events can be used for global correlations.     

藏南吉隆地区二叠纪生物地层

藏南吉隆地区二叠系主要为一套中厚层状碳酸盐岩、石英砂岩夹泥质岩岩性组合,产丰富的腕足类、珊瑚、苔藓虫、菊石及海百合茎、遗迹化石等多门类化石,包括5个腕足动物组合、1个菊石带、2个珊瑚组合、1个海百合化石层、1个遗迹化石层。根据岩性二叠系划分为基龙组和曲布日嘎组。基龙组时代相当于早二叠世阿丁斯克期—萨克马尔期。曲布日嘎组时代以栖霞期—茅口期为主,顶部可能包括部分吴家坪期。     

四川广安谢家槽剖面早三叠世地层中的时错相沉积及其古生态意义——一个传统地层剖面的重新解读

四川广安谢家槽剖面下三叠统夜郎组和嘉陵江组中含有扁平砾石灰岩、蠕虫状灰岩、叠层石、层纹状灰岩、薄层泥晶灰岩、条带状灰岩和水平分布的遗迹化石等类型丰富的时错相沉积,由下至上时错相沉积呈现出逐渐减弱的总趋势。早三叠世晚期,时错相沉积从正常海洋环境沉积中退出,只是出现在高压力环境的沉积物中。时错相沉积的这种时空分布和发育程度的变化,反映二叠纪末生物大灭绝事件后,早三叠世海洋生态系复苏的历程。     

Xinjiangoxylon Gen.Nov., a New Gymnosperm from the Latest Permian of China

Following the greatest known end-Permian mass extinction plants have low diversity. Lycopsids and conifers dominated on land. A new gymnosperm Xinjiangoxylon gen. nov. is proposed based on a woody stem specimen collected from the Upper Permian （latest, Changhsingian） Upper Guodikeng Formation of the Taoshuyuan section, Turpan, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Northwest China. The decorticated stem is characterized by a complex pith, endarch primary xylem and a thick secondary xylem cylinder. Numerous petrified woods were found in the Changhsingian at this section. However, there are rare wood fossils in the Early Triassic. The abrupt decrease of fossil woods worldwide relates to the crisis at the end of the Permian. Xinjiangoxylon turpanense gen et. sp. nov. appears to represents one gymnosperm that existed in the latest Permian.     

三叠纪年代地层与生物复苏

二叠纪末大灭绝之后，三叠纪初残存期和复苏期生态系研究成为当今热点。这也是2005年5月在安徽巢湖召开的“三叠纪年代地层与生物复苏国际学术会议”上的主导论题。逐一介绍了会议学术报告的主题内容，以期提炼相关领域的学术关键和学科发展趋向。学术主题之一是早三叠世年代地层格架，尤其是印度阶―奥伦尼克阶界线层型；第二是二叠纪―三叠纪之交灭绝和环境事件的表现形式和过程；第三是二叠纪―三叠纪之交及早三叠世微生物岩及其代表的特殊生态系；第四是灭绝事件后三叠纪初一些关键生物类别的演变历程；第五是中生代初生态系复苏过程和型式；第六是早三叠世生物迟滞复苏的原因。