Chong Dong

Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology · Department of Palaeobotany and Palynology

The Juglandaceae family experienced significant diversification during the early Tertiary, as evidenced by fossil records showing a broad expansion of both extant and extinct taxa. The genus Pterocarya is characterized by its distinctive fruit with butterfly-shaped wings and a small nutlet. Macrofossil records suggest that this genus was distribute...

The evolutionary history of terrestrial moss in Asia during the Cenozoic is poorly interpreted in largely because of very limited fossil evidence. The middle Miocene Zhangpu amber is the sole resin source of moss fossils in China, which shows a diverse moss population during the mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum. In this study, we reported the discovery...

Zhangpu amber is an important source of Miocene bryophytes in China. Zhangpu amber originates from the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum (MMCO), which is well known for the appearance of Dipterocarpaceae-dominated megathermal forests in East Asia. The humid and warm climate of these forests might have triggered the development of diverse epiphytic br...

Umaltolepis seed-bearing structures and Pseudotorellia leaves were considered to be produced by the same plant according to their consistent association in the same bed and similarities in cuticular structures. Here we describe new fossils of Umaltolepis and Pseudotorellia based on well-preserved materials from the Middle-Late Jurassic Daohugou Bed...

Well-preserved coprolites (fossil faecal pellets) were found from lignite seams of the Lower Cretaceous Huolinhe Formation at the Huolinhe Basin in eastern Inner Mongolia, Northeast China. These coprolites provide a combination of following features: oval to cylindrical shaped with six longitudinal ridges, hexagonal to elliptical cross-sections, an...

Terrestrial red beds are extensively developed in the Upper Jurassic of the Sichuan Basin, southern China, where few fossils have been documented. Recently, abundant silicified wood specimens were found in the central Sichuan Basin, but no plant foliage fossils have been recorded from the same strata. Here, we report the first leafy shoot fossils c...

The Early Cretaceous Huolinhe Formation in eastern Inner Mongolia, northeastern China has yielded abundant and diverse plant fossils, to which we here add a new species of Taxus based on exceptionally well-preserved, lignified leaves from the Gucheng open-cast coal mine. Taxus huolingolensis sp. nov. has linear leaves with a lamina that tapers to a...

The middle Miocene Zhangpu biota from the Fotan Group of South China represents a highly diverse seasonal tropical rainforest ecosystem. Fossil evidence suggests that the canopy of the Zhangpu middle Miocene rainforests is dominated by trees of Dipterocarpceae, but the understory plants of the rainforest are poorly known. Here, we describe a new re...

Neogene plant fossils from low latitudes of China are critical for understanding the history of plant diversity and paleoenvironment in that region. Here we describe well-preserved Cercis fruit fossils from the Fotan Group (~14.7 Ma) in Fujian, southeastern China. Based on detailed morphological and anatomical comparisons with extant and fossil spe...

化石植物的中文名, 即化石植物学名的中文译名, 在古植物学、植物演化生物学专业领域和科学普及等方面起着重要的作用。然而, 长期以来对化石植物中文名重视程度不够且拟订时缺乏统一的标准, 导致各种文本中化石植物的中文名比较混乱, 不利于古植物学知识的传播及科学普及。本文通过统计中文古植物学综合性文献和教材中的化石植物中文名, 梳理出化石植物中文名拟订方面出现的一些包括同物异中文名、中文名重名、音译拗口和存在生僻字的使用等常见问题。针对这些问题, 本文提出应尽快制定出一套规范统一的化石植物中文名拟定方案, 编写和出版化石植物拉汉词典及相应网络查询系统等, 从而统一和规范化石植物的中文名, 同时也可为化石动物中文名的拟订方案提供相关参考。

Well-preserved fossils from the Middle–Late Jurassic Daohugou Bed in eastern Inner Mongolia, China, closely resemble the extant catkinyews Amentotaxus.They provide unequivocal evidence that the catkin-yews have undergone little morphological change over at least∼160 million years. Like ginkgo, the catkin-yews are living fossils that provide an impo...

Triassic insect fossils from China are very limited. Here we report on numerous insect fossils discovered in the Upper Triassic Laohugou Formation at Heishanyao, Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province. These fossils are represented mainly by forewings of cockroaches and coleopteran elytra. The insect assemblage is most similar to that from the Upper Triassic...

Premise of research. Discovery of abundant leafy twigs with attached pollen cones and seed cones of Austrohamia acanthobractea from the Middle Jurassic Daohugou Lagerstätte in Inner Mongolia, Northeast China, provides detailed morphological and anatomical features of the species, permitting a whole-plant reconstruction and a more detailed evaluatio...

The Upper Triassic Xujiahe and Lower Jurassic Zhenzhuchong formations of the Sichuan Basin, China, are important sources of plant fossils and windows into the intervening extinction event. However, there is an on-going debate as to whether the environment represented by the Xujiahe and Zhenzhuchong formations was continental or included an importan...

Taxus guyangensis sp. nov. is from the Lower Cretaceous Guyang Formation of the Guyang Basin of Inner Mongolia in northern China, based on an excellently preserved leafy branch with attached leaves and seed-bearing structures. Three ovules occur on the leafy branch. A pair of ovules is borne on the terminal ovuliferous shoot, and another one appear...

The Ordos Basin is an important intracontinental sedimentary basin in western China for its abundant Mesozoic crude oil resources. The southern part of the Tianhuan Depression is located in the southwestern marginal area of this Basin, in which the Jurassic and Triassic Chang-3 are the main oil-bearing strata. Currently, no consensus has been reach...

Two fossil leaves identified as Castanopsis presclerophylla n. sp. collected from a diatomite bed in the upper Pliocene (3.3–2.8 Ma) in Tengchong County, Yunnan Province, Southwest China, are characterized by elliptic laminar shapes with acuminate apex, convex base, simple trichome bases and cyclocytic stomata. The cuticles of extant leaves from si...

Compressions of leafy twigs, pollen cones and seed cones of Athrotaxites yumenensis C. Dong et B.N. Sun sp. nov. (Cupressaceae) are abundant in certain layers of the Lower Cretaceous Zhonggou Formation in western Gansu Province, northwestern China. The leafy branches are stiff and ascending. The leaves are scale-like, spirally arranged and closely...

: Three Schizolepis species collected from the Lower Cretaceous layer of the Huolinhe Basin, Inner Mongolia, China are described. These fossils are Schizolepis longipetiolus Xu XH et Sun BN sp. nov., which is a new species, Schizolepis cf. heilongjiangensis Zheng et Zhang, and Schizolepis neimengensis Deng. The new species is a well-preserved femal...

Lindera is a large genus of graceful, pleasantly scented and common native trees and shrubs of southern China and neighboring regions of SE Asia. There is a well‐documented Cenozoic fossil record not only in these regions but also from elsewhere. A new fossil leaf record has been found in diatomite beds from the Upper Pliocene Mangbang Formation of...

As an ancient conifer, Elatides is of great significance for studying the composition of high-latitude vegetation in Northern Hemisphere during the Mesozoic Era. Some vegetative shoots and female cones of Elatides fossils with carbonaceous membrane were collected from the Lower Cretaceous, Jiuquan basin. Their gross morphology and well-preserved fe...

Some fossil remains of morphogenus sterile fern foliage Cladophlebis were collected from the Lower Cretaceous Bantou Formation, Yong'an City, Fujian Province. The gross morphological structure and microstructure of cuticles are studied. These fronds are at least bipinnate, main rachis broad, pinnules small, with entire margin crowdedly attached to...

The cuticular delta C-13 values and stomatal parameters (stomatal density and stomatal index: SD and SI) of two Betulaceae species, Betula mioluminifera Hu et Chaney and Carpinus miofangiana Nathorst, from a suite of superposed horizons in West Yunnan, southwestern China, were measured in order to recover Late Pliocene CO, levels. Correlations are...