Review of Triassic insects in China

2021 ◽  
pp. SP521-2021-121
Author(s):  
Qianqi Zhang ◽  
Daran Zheng ◽  
Bo Wang ◽  
Haichun Zhang

AbstractStudies of Triassic insects in China began in 1956, and so far, a total of 89 genera and 109 species have been found from the Triassic of China. The fossil records are from 17 provinces (or regions) in China are assigned to 11 orders except for two genera and species considered incertae sedis in Insecta. These Chinese Triassic insects including one Early Triassic, 53 Middle Triassic and 55 Late Triassic species are briefly reviewed in taxonomy and distribution, and listed here with detailed taxonomic and stratigraphic information. The Middle Triassic Tongchuan Entomofauna and Late Triassic Toksun Entomofauna are introduced much detailed from the perspectives of composition and taxonomy. Existing data indicate that the Chinese Triassic entomofauna is dominated by Hemiptera, Mecoptera and Coleoptera; the Chinese Early Triassic insects are only known from Fuyuan in Yunnan Province, Middle Triassic ones mainly known from northern China and sporadically from Guizhou Province, southern China, and Late Triassic ones widely seen in both northern and southern China; and the Middle and Late Triassic entomofaunas are similar in abundance but show a pattern of “more in northern China than in southern China”.

2017 ◽  
Vol 91 (6) ◽  
pp. 1306-1312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chun Li ◽  
Nicholas C. Fraser ◽  
Olivier Rieppel ◽  
Li-Jun Zhao ◽  
Li-Ting Wang

AbstractThe Middle and early Late Triassic of southern China is well known for a remarkable diversity of marine vertebrates, particularly reptiles, including an abundance of intriguing new forms (e.g., Jiang et al., 2005; Hu et al., 2011; Li et al., 2016). Here we describe a new diapsid from Yunnan Province. It possesses an elongate neck that exhibits a remarkable similarity to that of many Protorosauria, yet in other respects the skull and postcranium are much less derived.The new taxon is part of the so-called Panxian-Luoping Fauna and the deposits correspond to the Upper Member of the Guanling Formation, comprising thin to medium bedded, gray to dark-gray laminated marly limestone and limestone, with several layers of bentonite intercalated in the fossil level at Panxian (Wan, 2002; Motani et al., 2008; Jiang et al., 2009). Their age is Pelsonian (middle Anisian, Middle Triassic) as is indicated by the conodont Nicoraella kockeli Zone (Sun et al., 2006; Zhang et al., 2009). A recent U-Pb study indicates the absolute age of these middle Anisian beds to be close to 244 Ma (Wang et al., 2014).


Paleobiology ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen K. Schaal ◽  
Matthew E. Clapham ◽  
Brianna L. Rego ◽  
Steve C. Wang ◽  
Jonathan L. Payne

AbstractThe small size of Early Triassic marine organisms has important implications for the ecological and environmental pressures operating during and after the end-Permian mass extinction. However, this “Lilliput Effect” has only been documented quantitatively in a few invertebrate clades. Moreover, the discovery of Early Triassic gastropod specimens larger than any previously known has called the extent and duration of the Early Triassic size reduction into question. Here, we document and compare Permian-Triassic body size trends globally in eight marine clades (gastropods, bivalves, calcitic and phosphatic brachiopods, ammonoids, ostracods, conodonts, and foraminiferans). Our database contains maximum size measurements for 11,224 specimens and 2,743 species spanning the Late Permian through the Middle to Late Triassic. The Permian/Triassic boundary (PTB) shows more size reduction among species than any other interval. For most higher taxa, maximum and median size among species decreased dramatically from the latest Permian (Changhsingian) to the earliest Triassic (Induan), and then increased during Olenekian (late Early Triassic) and Anisian (early Middle Triassic) time. During the Induan, the only higher taxon much larger than its long-term mean size was the ammonoids; they increased significantly in median size across the PTB, a response perhaps related to their comparatively rapid diversity recovery after the end-Permian extinction. The loss of large species in multiple clades across the PTB resulted from both selective extinction of larger species and evolution of surviving lineages toward smaller sizes. The within-lineage component of size decrease suggests that only part of the size decrease can be related to the end-Permian kill mechanism; in addition, Early Triassic environmental conditions or ecological pressures must have continued to favor small body size as well. After the end-Permian extinction, size decrease occurred across ecologically and physiologically disparate clades, but this size reduction was limited to the first part of the Early Triassic (Induan). Nektonic habitat or physiological buffering capacity may explain the contrast of Early Triassic size increase and diversification in ammonoids versus size reduction and slow recovery in benthic clades.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle R. Stocker ◽  
Li-Jun Zhao ◽  
Sterling J. Nesbitt ◽  
Xiao-Chun Wu ◽  
Chun Li

Abstract Following the end-Permian extinction, terrestrial vertebrate diversity recovered by the Middle Triassic, and that diversity was now dominated by reptiles. However, those reptilian clades, including archosaurs and their closest relatives, are not commonly found until ~30 million years post-extinction in Late Triassic deposits despite time-calibrated phylogenetic analyses predicting an Early Triassic divergence for those clades. One of these groups from the Late Triassic, Phytosauria, is well known from a near-Pangean distribution, and this easily recognized clade bears an elongated rostrum with posteriorly retracted nares and numerous postcranial synapomorphies that are unique compared with all other contemporary reptiles. Here, we recognize the exquisitely preserved, nearly complete skeleton of Diandongosuchus fuyuanensis from the Middle Triassic of China as the oldest and basalmost phytosaur. The Middle Triassic age and lack of the characteristically-elongated rostrum fill a critical morphological and temporal gap in phytosaur evolution, indicating that the characteristic elongated rostrum of phytosaurs appeared subsequent to cranial and postcranial modifications associated with enhanced prey capture, predating that general trend of morphological evolution observed within Crocodyliformes. Additionally, Diandongosuchus supports that the clade was present across Pangea, suggesting early ecosystem exploration for Archosauriformes through nearshore environments and leading to ease of dispersal across the Tethys.


1997 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 340-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Brian Harland ◽  
Isobel Geddes

The Triassic Period of about 40 million years dutation spanned about a third of that of the Carboniferous and Permian interval. The Triassic rocks of Svalbard are easily distinguished from the underlying Permian strata because of a distinct desconformity between them and a marked contrast in facies from the resistant. pale coloured, cherls and siliciclastics of the Kapp Starostin Formation to the softer, darker areno-argillaceous Vardebukta and equivalent formations. Figure 18.1 shows the distribution of Triassic strata in Svalbard.The minor angular unconformity represents a hiatus mainly in the Permian rather than the Triassic record. The dominantly argillaceous facies constitute the Early Triassic to Late Middle Triassic Sassendalen Group. The rocks can be well dated from ammonoids, typically within calcareous concretions in the shales.The succeding Kapp Toscana Group is distinguished by a dominatly sandy deltaic facies in which age determinations are difficult. It spans both Late Triassic and Early Jurassic spoehs (roughly mid-Ladinian to mid-Bathonian). The Triassic-Jurassic boundary is not easy to estimate. Nevertheless towards the end of Triassic time (e.g. Rhaetian) the overall scene changed. Thus of the three formations of the Kapp Toscana Group the lower two (Tschermakfjellet and De Geerdalen) belong to the Triassic story. The overlying Wilhelmøya Formation may possibly range from Latest Triassic through Liassic time, and due to its complexity it is also discussed in the Jurassic-Crataceous chapter (19).The facies of the two groups reflect two distinct environmental configurations. The Sassendalen Group was deposited on a distal marine muddy shelf with a


1998 ◽  
Vol 353 (1368) ◽  
pp. 501-541 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Dilkes

Restudy of the unique diapsid reptile Mesosuchus browni Watson, from the Cynognathus Assemblage Zone (late Early Triassic to early Middle Triassic) of the Burgersdorp Formation (Tarkastad Subgroup; Beaufort Group) of South Africa, confirms that it is the most plesiomorphic known member of the Rhynchosauria. A new phylogenetic analysis of basal taxa of Archosauromorpha indicates that Choristodera falls outside of the Sauria, Prolacertiformes is a paraphyletic taxon with Prolacerta sharing a more recent common ancestor with Archosauriformes than with any other clade, Megalancosaurus and Drepanosaurus are sister taxa in the clade Drepanosauridae within Archosauromorpha, and are the sister group to the clade Tanystropheidae composed of Tanystropheus , Macrocnemus , and Langobardisaurus . Combination of the phylogenetic relationships of basal archosauromorphs and their known stratigraphic ranges reveals significant gaps in the fossil records of Late Permian and Triassic diapsids. Extensions of the temporal ranges of several lineages of diapsids into the Late Permian suggests that more groups of terrestrial reptiles survived the end-Permian mass extinction than thought previously.


1985 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. A. Brugman ◽  
J. W. Eggink ◽  
H. Visscher

Abstract. Initial results of the palynostratigraphical research in the Triassic of northeast Libya indicate the presence of Middle Triassic in several deep-wells. There is some evidence that the uppermost part of the Early Triassic (Late Scythian) as well as the early part of the Late Triassic (Karnian) may also be present. Additional palynological samples will need to be studied to confirm this view.Most Triassic assemblages in northeast Libya show a striking dominance of the monolete lycopodiophytic miospore Aratrisporites; this genus is represented by a large number of species (A. centratus, A. parvispinosus, A. strigosus, A. saturni, A. paenulatus, A. tenuispinosus, A. ovatus). A similar development is known to occur in the Middle Triassic of Australia and Pakistan. Bisaccate pollen is commonly present in the assemblages. Representatives of Triadispora and Lunatisporites are also frequently recorded.On the basis of a few additional forms, two palynologically distinctive intervals may be recognized within the Middle Triassic:Anisian interval. On the basis of Stellapollenites thiergartii, Strotersporites n. sp. of Visscher and Brugman 1981 (not illustrated) and Angustisulcites grandis, an Anisian age for the lower interval is indicated. The latter two species suggest the Early Anisian. The assemblages can be compared with similar assemblages from the Alpine Anisian in Europe (Visscher & Brugman, 1981; Brugman, in prep) and the Salt Range, Pakistan (Brugman & Baud, in prep).Ladinian interval. The upper part of the Libyan Middle Triassic is characterised by the absence of characteristic Anisian elements, and the incoming of rare representatives of the Circumpolles-group . . .


2013 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 27-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryosuke Saito ◽  
Masahiro Oba ◽  
Kunio Kaiho ◽  
Chikako Maruo ◽  
Megumu Fujibayashi ◽  
...  

2008 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 362-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine M. Powers ◽  
Joseph F. Pachut

Seventy-three species of stenolaemate bryozoans are documented worldwide from the Triassic. Stage-level diversity and paleogeographical analyses reveal that the recovery of bryozoans following the end-Permian mass extinction was delayed until the Middle Triassic. Early Triassic bryozoans faunas, dominated by members of the Order Trepostomida, were depauperate and geographically restricted. Bryozoan diversity increased during the Middle Triassic and diversity peaked in the Carnian (early Late Triassic). High extinction rates throughout the Late Triassic led to the extinction of all stenolaemate orders except the Cyclostomida by the end of the Triassic. Comparisons between global carbonate rock volume, outcrop surface area, and bryozoan diversity indicate that the documented diversity pattern for bryozoans may have been related, in part, to the availability of carbonate environments during the Triassic.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document