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China News Agency, Guiyang, February 26. Question: How did crinoids witness prehistoric creatures from their peak to extinction?
——Interview with Luo Yongming, former deputy director of Guizhou Paleontological Expert Committee
Author Yang Qian Yuan Chao
Crinoids are one of the oldest animals on Earth, having survived five mass extinctions and still living in the ocean today.
How have crinoids survived to this day?
What is the value of crinoid fossils?
Luo Yongming, a member of the China National Paleontological Expert Committee and former deputy director of the Guizhou Provincial Paleontological Expert Committee, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency "Dongxi Wen" to interpret the secrets of crinoids.
Video: [Dongxiwen·The Treasure of the Town Hall] How does crinoid witness the peak of prehistoric creatures to extinction?
Source: China News Network
The interview transcript is summarized as follows:
Reporter from China News Agency: What is the preciousness of the crinoid fossil of Guanling Chuangkong exhibited in the preface hall of Guizhou Provincial Geological Museum?
Luo Yongming: This crinoid specimen is 12.5 meters long, 8.2 meters wide, covers an area of 102.5 square meters, and weighs about 25 tons. The most complete crinoid group fossil in an independent ecosystem.
It can be clearly seen on the fossil that hundreds of thousands of crinoid fossils surround a plant stem fossil with a length of 3.5 meters and a diameter of 0.4 to 0.5 meters, and are fixed on the plant stem with branch-like "roots". dry surface.
The crinoid fossil with the largest known natural production area currently exhibited in the Preface Hall of Guizhou Provincial Geological Museum-Guanling Chuangkong crinoid fossil.
Photo provided by the interviewee
The fossil shows an intact small crinoid biome of the genus 235 million years ago.
Unlike in most biomes, the longer and stronger the biological monomers are, the shorter the monomers in the crinoid biomes, the thicker their "stems" and the larger their "crowns", which better occupy the Food-rich ecological regions; weaker individuals grow long and thin "stalks" to expand the range of food intake.
After more than half a year of careful restoration by more than 10 fossil restorers, this fossil was presented to the public in its current appearance.
It is large in scale and majestic, with intact ecological communities, clearly visible internal structure, and beautiful flower shapes. It is a rare fossil treasure in the world and one of the treasures of the Guizhou Provincial Geological Museum.
Part of crinoid fossils in Chuangkong, Guanling.
Photo provided by the interviewee
Reporter from China News Agency: Crinoids are often mistaken for plants. How to determine whether they are animals?
Luo Yongming: Crinoids are named for their crowns that resemble lilies, and their body structure is divided into three parts: roots, stems, and crowns, so they are often mistaken for plants.
In fact, crinoids are ancient marine invertebrates, which belong to the same echinoderms as starfish, sea urchins, and sea cucumbers.
From the perspective of modern biological classification, plants and animals are significantly different in structure, metabolism, development, behavior, and adaptability. The biggest difference is the way of obtaining energy.
Different from plants, the roots and stems of crinoids mainly play the role of fixation and support, while the flower-like crown is the development part of its important tissues and organs.
The crinoid crown part is calyx and arm.
The upper part of the calyx has petal-like arms, which are the predatory organs of crinoids.
As a filter feeder, crinoids mainly feed on plankton.
When it is full of food and drink, its wrist branches are gently gathered and drooped, like a flower about to wither.
Crinoids are dioecious, without fixed gonads, and the germ cells come from the barbs near the wrist or the epithelial cells of the body cavity of the wrist.
Part of crinoid fossils in Chuangkong, Guanling.
Photo provided by the interviewee
China News Agency reporter: After five mass extinctions, why can crinoids still live in the ocean?
Luo Yongming: Crinoids first appeared in the early Ordovician period, and have been multiplying until now, with a history of more than 480 million years. They can be roughly divided into two stages of development: the Paleozoic and the post-Paleozoic.
Crinoids include 8 classes such as crinoids, sea buds, and keloids. Except for some genera and species of crinoids that continue to this day, the rest have all become extinct in the Paleozoic Era.
In the Paleozoic stage, there were more than 4,000 kinds of crinoids, which was the most prosperous stage.
The huge population and diverse lifestyles enabled the Paleozoic crinoids to survive the mass extinction events at the end of the Ordovician and the end of the Devonian, and flourished again in the Carboniferous and Permian periods. It accounts for more than one-third of the total number of echinoderms.
Although crinoids in the Paleozoic period were very prosperous, they did not escape the mass extinction event at the end of the Permian.
Since then, the evolution of crinoids has entered the post-Paleozoic stage.
The Guizhou Provincial Geological Museum displays paintings of crinoids' former living environment.
Photo provided by the interviewee
With the revival of life in the Triassic, people found crinoids in the early Triassic rock formations of the Mesozoic Era. A brand-new crinoid group-the subclass of crinoids, crinoids from the Triassic to the present all belong to this group. a large category.
Knuckle crinoids soon occupy every sea area from shallow to deep sea.
Most of the crinoids with stems retreated to the dark depths of the sea, and their colors became dull.
Most of them abandon the fixation organs at the root, and through the stretching and curling of the vines on the stem, they can stand up, assist crawling, and obtain higher mobility.
Some crinoids retain the fixator at the root, the driftwood fixed on the sea surface, etc.
The late Triassic crinoids in Guanling, Guizhou and the mid-Jurassic crinoids in Holzmaden, Germany belong to this type.
Some crinoids can change their color according to the seawater environment to avoid natural enemies; some are highly poisonous.
Injured crinoids will actively bite off the tentacles or "calyx", or cut off the wrist to protect vital parts from attack, and the injured parts will regenerate.
Strong survivability and strong adaptability enabled crinoids to successfully survive the biological extinction events at the end of the Triassic and the end of the Cretaceous and become the "flower of life" blooming in the modern ocean.
A screenshot of the living environment of crinoids restored by the animation of Guizhou Provincial Geological Museum.
Photo provided by the interviewee
Reporter from China News Agency: The fake planktonic crinoid fossils are mainly concentrated in the German Alps and Guizhou, China. Why do you say that the crinoid fossils unearthed in Guizhou, China are relatively systematic, and what is their value?
Luo Yongming: There are abundant crinoid fossils, but completely preserved crinoid fossils are very rare.
The preservation conditions of complete crinoid fossils are very harsh, or they are buried quickly after death, or submerged in anoxic sediments after death, so that they can be preserved intact.
In the late Triassic, Germany and Guizhou were located on the west and east sides of the Paleo-Tethys Sea, respectively.
In the Guanling, Zhenfeng, Xingyi and other areas in the southwest of Guizhou, relatively closed still water bays are formed.
In this bay, the upper seawater has sufficient oxygen and rich organisms. The crinoids and thin-shelled shells attached to the tree trunks on the sea surface drift with the waves. Cruising in the water.
In the deep lower seawater, the water body is generally anoxic and sulfur-rich, biologically deficient, and there are almost no benthic organisms.
The water body is quiet. When the scale of the crinoid community floating on the sea becomes larger and larger, the attached plants can no longer provide enough buoyancy, and the whole community will gradually sink into the calm, anoxic seabed. A series of geological processes such as solidification and petrification, and finally become a well-preserved crinoid fossil.
At the end of the Triassic, the Paleo-Tethys Sea gradually closed from east to west, and Guizhou rose to become land.
In the mid-Jurassic period, the Holzmeden area in Germany formed a marine environment similar to that of the Guanling area, and evolved a group of crinoids with the same lifestyle as the Guanling area, but they were destroyed by the Alps orogeny However, the crinoid fossils in the Holzmeden area of Germany cannot be compared with the crinoid fossils in Guanling, Guizhou in terms of distribution range, output quantity, or preservation integrity.
A crinoid fossil under restoration.
Photo provided by the interviewee
China News Agency reporter: Why do you say that the ecology of Chuangkong crinoids in Guanling, Guizhou is the key to solving many biota and ecological environment problems?
Luo Yongming: This giant crinoid fossil comes from Guanling, Guizhou. In the late Triassic rock formations in Guanling and Zhenfeng, Guizhou, a large number of complete and beautiful crinoid fossils are preserved, which is extremely rare in the world.
More importantly, the Guanling area not only has a large number of well-preserved crinoid fossils, but also preserves marine reptile fossils, marine amphibians and fish vertebrae fossils, as well as bivalves, ammonites and other fossils. Vertebrate fossils.
They compete with each other and maintain each other, constructing a complete late Triassic ecosystem, for the study of marine ecology, paleogeographical environment, classification and evolution of marine amphibians and reptiles in this period, and the evolution of crinoids. Ecological communities, etc., have provided rare physical materials.
The Guanling biota produced in the Late Triassic rock formations in Guanling, Zhenfeng, Xingyi and other areas in southwest Guizhou, its fossils are widely distributed, abundant in number, diverse in variety, complete in preservation, and exquisite in shape. It is rare in the world and can be called the unique treasure house of late Triassic fossils in the world.
(over)
Respondent profile:
Luo Yongming, senior engineer of Guizhou Provincial Geological Museum, member of China National Paleontological Expert Committee, deputy director of Guizhou Provincial Paleontological Expert Committee Office.
In 1991, he graduated from Chengdu Institute of Geology, majoring in geological and mineral exploration, and was assigned to work in Guizhou Regional Geological Survey Research Institute (now Guizhou Provincial Geological Survey Institute). In 2021, he was transferred to work in Guizhou Provincial Geological Museum.
He has long been engaged in the investigation and research of regional survey geology, remote sensing geology, tourism geology and stratigraphic paleontology.
"Special Plan for the Development of Hot Spring Tourism Products in Guizhou Province (2007-2020)", "Plan for the Protection of Paleontological Fossils in Guizhou Province (2013-2025)", "Planning for Concentrated Production Areas of National Key Protected Paleontological Fossils in Xingyi, Guizhou (2016-2025)", etc.