Recentes avanços na paleontologia chinesa

Recent advances in Chinese palaeontology

Xing Xu1,*, Zhe-Xi Luo2 and Jia-Yu Rong3

- Author Affiliations

1Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Systematics of Vertebrates, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, People's Republic of China

2Section of Vertebrate Paleontology, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-4080, USA

3State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, People's Republic of China

* Author for correspondence (xingxu@vip.sina.com).

Abstract

Discoveries are a driving force for progress in palaeontology. Palaeontology as a discipline of scientific inquiry has gained many fresh insights into the history of life, from the discoveries of many new fossils in China in the last 20 years, and from the new ideas derived from these fossils. This special issue of Proceedings of Royal Society B entitled Recent Advances in Chinese Palaeontology selects some of the very latest studies aimed at resolving the current problems of palaeontology and evolutionary biology based on new fossils from China. These fossils and their studies help to clarify some historical debates about a particular fossil group, or to raise new questions about history of life, or to pose a new challenge in our pursuit of science. These works on new Chinese fossils have covered the whole range of the diversity through the entire Phanerozoic fossil record.

palaeontology evolution paleobiogeography morphology China

Footnotes

One contribution to a Special Issue ‘Recent advances in Chinese palaeontology’.
Received September 14, 2009.
Accepted September 14, 2009.
© 2009 The Royal Society

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