Breakthrough discovery of paleontology evolution by Chinese scientists

A scientific research team of Northwest University headquartered in Xi’an, Shaanxi province in Northwest China, recently found Qiangjiang River Biota from the Period of the Cambrian Epidemic in Changyang, Yichang, Hubei province in Central China.

Lin QiaoWorm, a kind of Qiangjiang River Biota. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

In the early morning of March 22, Science published the latest results achieved by Zhang Xingliang and Fu Dongjing, members of a research team of Northwest University investigating environmental innovation of early life forms in a soft body fossil bank known as the Qingjiang Biota, in the Early Cambrian Burgess Shale Fossil Reservoir in South China. The first-time discovery is a special Cambrian site buried some 518 million years ago near modern-day Changyang, Yichang, China. The discovery is a breakthrough in evolutionary paleontology.

Professor Zhang Xingliang (right) and Associate Professor Fu Dongjing study paleontological fossils [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The reason for the Cambrian explosion, together with other major issues such as the origin of life and intelligence, is one of the six most difficult problems in natural science. In order to solve the mystery of the Cambrian life explosion, the appropriate scientific observation window must be found.

From the beginning of the 20th century to the 1970s, the discovery and study of soft-body fossil biota in the Bourguis Shale Fossil Reservoir in Canada from 508 million years ago led the way in paleontology and evolutionary biology. Since the 1980s, the research results of Chengjiang Biota in Yunnan Province, from 518 million years ago, have surpassed the former.

The discovery of the Qingjiang biota and the Chengjiang biota sheds light on the peak of the explosive origin and evolution of Cambrian fauna, representing a new biota in different paleogeographic environments in the same period. Their scientific research values are highly complementary.

Since the discovery of the first soft body fossil at the confluence of the Qingjiang and Danjiang rivers in Changyang, Yichang, China, in 2007, the research team of Northwest University has persisted in field excavation and indoor research, revealing the outstanding characteristics of Qingjiang biology.

Firstly, the proportion of new genera and species is the highest at 53%, which is much higher than all other Burgess shale biota discovered in recent years. Secondly, the relative diversity of Metazoa is the largest. Of the 4351 fossil specimens studied, 109 genera have been classified and identified.

Shu Degan, paleontologist, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor of geology, Northwest University (second left front row) and Associate Professor Fu Dongjing (second right front row) with some of their students. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

At the same time, Science magazine published an expert review article entitled "Cambrian Fossil Treasure".

Allison C. Daley, an internationally renowned paleontologist, commented that the Qingjiang Biota is an astonishing scientific discovery. Its fossil abundance, diversity and fidelity are world-class and of great scientific value.

“Follow-up research will hopefully fill in our blank of understanding the Cambrian explosion and solve a series of scientific problems in the origin and evolution of the fauna,” Daley said in the article.