[Explanation] On June 15, the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced that the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is one of the key research areas of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In recent years, the State Key Laboratory of Modern Paleontology and Stratigraphy A stratigraphic paleontology research team mainly composed of young and middle-aged scientists discovered the fossils of the Ediacaran biota during the second Qinghai-Tibet scientific expedition.
[Explanation] The Ediacaran biota lived in the late Ediacaran period, about 575 to 549 million years ago. It was the most widely distributed complex biota in the world on the eve of the Cambrian explosion of life.
This time, the early life research team of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences cooperated with researchers from Peking University and Chengdu University of Technology to conduct a field scientific investigation in the Qaidam Basin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. A typical Ediacaran biota fossil was discovered for the first time in Jishan area.
[Concurrent] Pang Ke, Associate Researcher, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
In the Quanjishan area, it is located in the Olongbrook micro-continent on the northern margin of the Qaidam block. The Quanji Group is well-developed in this place. Its upper strata are Hongzaoshan Formation, Heitupo Formation, and Red Iron Formation from old to new. Gou Formation and Huujieshan Formation.
Among them, the Hongtiegou Formation is the kind of moraine that was deposited during the glacial development period. We found a large number of macrofossils in the Ruojieshan Formation, and named this fossil assemblage "Quanjishan Biota".
[Explanation] The newly discovered Ediacaran fossils in the Wujieshan Formation are represented by Chaanis.
[Concurrent] Pang Ke, Associate Researcher, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Chaani is a frond organism that grows fixedly on the seabed in the late Ediacaran period. It is one of the most typical fossils in the Ediacaran biota. It first appeared about 575 to 560 million years ago. The Avalon combination appeared at the latest in the Namar combination that was about 550 million to 540 million years ago.
Although the genetic relationship of the Ediacaran biota is still controversial, recent research evidence shows that at least some of them may be the ancestors of metazoans and are related to living animal phyla, including the Chaney discovered this time. At the same time, we also found abundant Shaanxi trace fossils in the Hujieshan Formation.
[Explanation] Panke told reporters that the co-occurrence of Chaaniworms and Shaanxi traces in the Hujieshan Formation indicates that the depositional age of the Hujieshan Formation is likely to be between 550 million and 549 million years ago.
It is reported that this scientific research result is the second Ediacaran biota fossil source found in China after the Hubei Three Gorges area, and it is also the oldest fossil biota found on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau so far.
The comprehensive analysis and comparison of the Proterozoic stratigraphic sequence in the Quanjishan area by the scientific research team provided important evidence for exploring the palaeogeographic relationship between the Qaida and North China plates at the end of the Precambrian and the global palaeogeographic pattern at that time.
Editor in charge: [Li Yuxin]