Tao Su

• PhD
• Principle Investigator in Paleoecology Research Center & Curator in Chengdu Natural History Museum at Chengdu University of Technology

Plant-insect interactions are vital for structuring terrestrial ecosystems. It is still unclear how climate change in geological time might have shaped plant-insect interactions leading to modern ecosystems. We investigated the effect of Quaternary climate change on plant-insect interactions by observing insect herbivory on leaves of an evergreen s...

The uplift history of southeastern Tibet is crucial to understanding processes driving the tectonic evolution of the Tibetan Plateau and surrounding areas. Underpinning existing palaeoaltimetric studies has been regional mapping based in large part on biostratigraphy that assumes a Neogene modernisation of the highly diverse, but threatened, Asian...

The Late Paleogene surface height and paleoenvironment for the core area of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) remain critically unresolved. Here, we report the discovery of the youngest well-preserved fossil palm leaves from Tibet. They were recovered from the Late Paleogene (Chattian), ca. 25.5 ± 0.5 million years, paleolake sediments within the L...

Significance The ancient topography of the Tibetan Plateau and its role in biotic evolution are still poorly understood, mostly due to a lack of fossil evidence. Our discovery of ∼47-Mya plant fossils from a present elevation of 4,850 m in central Tibet, diminishes, significantly, that lack of knowledge. The fossils represent a humid subtropical ve...

Spinescence is an important functional trait possessed by many plant species for physical defence against mammalian herbivores. The development of spinescence must have been closely associated with both biotic and abiotic factors in the geological past, but knowledge of spinescence evolution suffers from a dearth of fossil records, with most studie...

Abundant fossil records of Icacinaceae have been documented in the Northern Hemisphere; however, they are rare in the paleotropics where the family is most diverse today. As such, the evolutionary history of the family remains incomplete. In this study, we describe a newly discovered endocarp of Icacinaceae from the late Miocene of northern Vietnam...

The South Asian Monsoon (SAM) is the strong summer monsoon within the Asian Monsoon System, driven by the thermal gradient between the warmer Asian landmass and the cooler Indian Ocean. High-resolution marine proxies indicate a decline in SAM strength after approximately 10 million years ago (Ma); however, terrestrial evidence has been limited. We...

Understanding the Cenozoic vegetation history of what is now the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is crucial for elucidating the co-evolutionary dynamics between plateau development, its environment, and the organisms it hosts. In this study, we conduct a comprehensive analysis of phytoliths within the late Oligocene-Early Miocene lacustrine sedimentary sec...

The function and morphology of plant leaves typically differ according to leaf habit (evergreen vs deciduous), and these differences have been thought to respond divergently to climatic conditions. While the variations in leaf margins with leaf habit and their respective correlation with climate have been investigated, limited investigation has bee...

The Eocene-Oligocene transition (EOT) marked a rapid global cooling event, often considered as the beginning of the modern icehouse world. Influenced by various factors, including tectonic activity and paleogeographic settings, the terrestrial records indicate a diverse response of fauna and vegetation to this global event. We examined nine macrofo...

Evergreen broad-leaved forests (EBLFs) are widely distributed in East Asia and play a vital role in ecosystem stability. The occurrence of these forests in East Asia has been a subject of debate across various disciplines. In this study, we explored the occurrence of East Asian EBLFs from a paleobotanical perspective. By collecting plant fossils fr...

Within the ongoing controversy regarding the orogeny of the Tibetan Plateau region, two directly-conflicting endmember frameworks have emerged, where either: 1) a high central ‘proto-plateau’ existed prior to the onset of India-Asia continental collision, or 2) the early Paleogene central Tibet comprised a wide E-W oriented lowland ∼1-2 km above se...

Dalbergia is a pantropical genus of Fabaceae with a limited fossil record. In this study we describe diverse and well-preserved Dalbergia fossils distributed through Cenozoic (Eocene to Pliocene) strata in Yunnan Province, Southwest China. Comparison with newly collected modern samples from Eurasian forests and herbarium specimens allow accurate id...

The genus Mezoneuron Desf. (Caesalpinioideae, Fabaceae) comprises 23 extant species distributed throughout the Old World tropics and subtropics, yet its fossil record is scarce with finds restricted to Europe and North America. Here, we report a new Mezoneuron pod fossil from the lower Miocene Sanhaogou Formation of Jinggu Basin in Southwest China,...

The structure of lauraceous fossil woods from the middle Miocene deposits of the Dajie Formation of Ninger County, Yunnan Province, China has been studied. The occurrence of wide (> 7 seriate) rays in combination with the presence of scalariform perforation plates, the oil/mucilage cells in rays, axial parenchyma and among fibers as well as some ot...

The Paleogene is a crucial period when terrestrial and marine ecosystems recovered from major disruptions and gradually approached their modern states. In the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding regions, the Paleogene also represents a significant phase of tectonic evolution in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau-Himalaya orogeny, reorganization of...

Throughout the Quaternary period, climate change has significantly influenced plant distribution, particularly affecting species within the genus Tsuga (Endl.) Carrière. This climatic impact ultimately led to the extinction of all Tsuga species in Europe. Today, there are ten recognized species of Tsuga worldwide, one of listed as a vulnerable spec...

Fossil plant assemblages were discovered in the Li Basin, Lamphun Province, Thailand, within Oligocene to Miocene sediments. Over 320 specimens were collected, providing an opportunity to understand the Cenozoic flora, vegetation, and climate evolution in northern Thailand and Indochina. The flora comprises over 40 taxa, including ferns, conifers,...

Syzygium Gaertn. (Myrtaceae) is the most diverse tree genus, having ca. 1200 species distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of the Old World. Its diversity center is in Malesia, but the genus is generally thought to have an austral origin. As one of the most common forest elements, Syzygium inhabits a variety of vegetation types such as lo...

Pterospermum Schreb. ( Malvaceae Juss.) is mainly distributed in tropical regions of Asia and only has a few fossil records in India. This study reported fossil leaves of Pterospermum from the Lower Miocene Sanhaogou Formation in the Jinggu basin (23°31'N, 100°42'E) , Yunnan Province, China. The Jinggu basin is a Cenozoic coal and oil-bearing basin...

Pterospermum Schreb. ( Malvaceae Juss.) is mainly distributed in tropical regions of Asia and only has a few fossil records in India. This study reported fossil leaves of Pterospermum from the Lower Miocene Sanhaogou Formation in the Jinggu basin (23°31'N, 100°42'E) , Yunnan Province, China. The Jinggu basin is a Cenozoic coal and oil-bearing basin...

The growth of the Tibetan topography changed the climate and ecosystem in eastern Asia during the Cenozoic. Here, we briefly summarize previous research results on the impact of Tibetan topographic evolution using proxy and numerical modeling data on both the hydrologic cycle and the ecosystem of eastern Asia. To date, the topographic evolution of...

The complex tectonic evolution in the Tibetan region has impacted climate, the Asian monsoon system, and the development of major biodiversity hotspots, especially since the onset of the India-Eurasia continental collision during the early Paleogene. Untangling the links between the geologic, climatic, and ecological history of the broader region c...

Dipteronia, now endemic to East Asia, was widely distributed in North America during the Paleogene; however, its fossil records in Asia are scarce and none are of the Neogene. Here, we report the first Neogene Dipteronia samaras from South Korea. The more complete fossil records suggest that Dipteronia possibly originated in either Asia or North Am...

The genus Albizia is one of the largest genera in the Fabaceae (the legume family). It is a pantropical genus of ecologically, economically, and chemically important trees, shrubs, and lianas. Fossil records of the genus have been extensively documented from the late Eocene to Pleistocene in Asia. However, no Albizia fossils have been reported from...

Plant fossils play an important role in understanding landscape evolution across the Tibetan Region, as well as plant diversity across wider eastern Asia. Within the last decade or so, paleobotanical investigations within the Tibet Region have led to a paradigm shift in our understanding of how the present plateau formed and how this affected the r...

滇西北-西藏和滇东南-桂西是我国西南植物区系中两个面貌和谱系年龄差异最为鲜明的区域，分别以区系年轻、草本植物和区系古老、木本植物为特征。其中一个饶为有趣的问题是这两个地区的区系分异现象是如何演变形成的？而古植物学研究能为回答以上问题提供重要证据。本文报道分别发现于滇西北-西藏和滇东南-桂西的椿榆属(Cedrelospermum)和臭椿属(Ailanthus)化石新纪录。结合已有研究，这两个类群在我国西南的化石历史为：椿榆属见于西藏中始新世至晚渐新世(C. tibetica)及滇东南晚始新世(C. asiaticum)地层，而臭椿属化石见于西藏中始新世至晚始新世(A. maximus)及滇东南晚始新世至早渐新世(A. confucii)地层。以上古近纪滇西北-西藏和滇东南-桂西植物区系在属级水...

Cedrus Trew (Pinaceae) includes four species, which are disjunctively distributed in the Mediterranean region and western Himalaya. Understanding the historical distribution of Cedrus and the driving factors can provide valuable information for the conservation of these species. In this study, we collected current distribution data and pollen fossi...

During the Miocene Climatic Optimum, a global long-term warm interval, European mid-latitude regions experienced a subtropical palaeoclimate. In particular, areas in eastern Germany were part of a vegetational zone with evergreen broadleaved forests, characterized by subtropical taxa. Regional palaeofloristic concepts denominated this palaeovegetat...

The superfamily Cercopoidea is commonly named as “spittlebugs”, as its nymphs produce a spittle mass to protect themselves. Cosmoscartini (Cercopoidea: Cercopidae) is a large and brightly colored Old World tropical tribe, including 11 genera. A new genus Nangamostethos gen. nov. (type species: Nangamostethostibetense sp. nov.) of Cosmoscartini is d...

Podocarpium is an extinct genus in Fabaceae with rich fossil records in Eurasia dating back to the Eocene. However, the diversification and biogeographic histories of Podocarpium are poorly known due to a lack of fossils in some key regions, such as the Tibetan Plateau, an area recently shown to be crucial for floristic exchanges worldwide in the g...

In this article, we highlight the characteristic features of the Late Rupelian Buran flora of Eastern Kazakhstan. The species list contains 65 plant taxa belonging to Polypodiophyta (2), Gymnospermae (12) and Magnoliopsida (51). Its composition is dominated by leaves, fruits and pollen of Carya; there are also in noticeable quantities of remains of...

Taxonomy plays an important role in understanding the origin, evolution, and ecological functionality of biodiversity. There are large number of unknown species yet to be described by taxonomists, which together with their ecosystem services cannot be effectively protected prior to description. Despite this, taxonomy has been increasingly underrat...

The fig tree genus Ficus L. (Moraceae) is highly diverse with ca. 750 species worldwide, of which more than 500 are distributed in the Indo-Australasian region. The figs provide food and shelters for a wide variety of mammals, modify forest structure through strangling, and support remarkably specialized mutualisms with fig wasps. Therefore, many F...

The growth of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) during the Cenozoic drove dramatic climate and environmental change in this region. However, there has been limited comprehensive research into evolution of climate during this interval. Here we present a quantitative reconstruction using Bioclimatic Analysis (BA) and Joint Probability Density Functio...

植物化石在青藏高原形成过程、植物系统演化和高原生物多样性格局演变的研究中, 发挥着不可替代的作用. 近十年来, 青藏高原新生代植物学研究取得重要进展, 主要包括: (1) 大量新类群被发现. 在西藏新生代植物记录中, 一共发表了63个新种, 其中45个是2010年以后发表的, 占全部新种的70%以上. 这些新种不少是其所在科、属在亚洲乃至全球最早的化石记录, 因此青藏高原是亚洲植物区系的重要源头. (2) 古近纪青藏高原是全球植物区系交流的十字路口, 是植物区系交汇的一个港湾. 目前的古植物地理学研究表明, 该地区植物区系成分的传播和交流, 有进入青藏、走出青藏、走出印度和进出非洲4种模式. (3) 植物化石见证了青藏高原差异隆升的历史. 古高程重建发现古近纪青藏高原中部存在东西向的亚热带中...

Biodiversity hotspots are key regions for understanding the evolutionary history of biodiversity as well as the processes initiating and maintaining it [...]

Quantifying the interactions between topography, climate and plant diversity within one of the world's biodiversity hotspots, the southeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau, remains elusive due to few reliable quantitative paleoelevation reconstructions, precise geological age constraints and well-preserved plant fossils. The Lühe Basin, on the sou...

The Hengduan Mountains region (HMR) on southeastern Tibetan Plateau, supports a high diversity of herbs, particularly in its subalpine to alpine ecosystems due to high altitude and cool temperate climate. Current understandings on the formation of such herbaceous richness is based chiefly on molecular phylogenies, while direct geological evidence i...

Quantitative Miocene climate and vegetation data from the Siwalik succession of western Nepal indicate that the development of the Indian summer monsoon has had an impact, though in part, on vegetation changes. The climate and vegetation of the Lower (middle Miocene) and Middle (late Miocene–Pliocene) Siwalik successions of Darjeeling, eastern Hima...

Cupressaceae fossil tree stumps from the early Oligocene Lühe coal mine in southwestern China contain abundant quartz-petrified damage traces. The wood fossils were assigned to Taxodioxylon (very similar to extant Taxodium) based on wood anatomy analysis. Within the woods, three types of arthropods- and one fungus-mediated ichnofossils LHIF 1–4 (Lü...

The fossil record evidences an old origin and diversification of Malvaceae in the Northern Hemisphere. The central Tibetan Plateau was at a low elevation with a monsoon influence during the Eocene, allowing the development of a subtropical flora containing Malvaceae. The taxonomic study of fossils from the Eocene of what is now the Tibetan Plateau...

The antiquity of the tropical Asian flora is being revealed by recent detailed work on a number of Cenozoic plant megafossil sites, some of which have been radiometrically dated for the first time, but our knowledge of how the highly diverse modern biota came into being remains poor due to a sparsity of records. In this paper, we describe fossil pl...

Extant Bauhinia (Leguminosae) is a genus of 300 species of trees, shrubs, and lianas, widely distributed in pantropical areas, but its diversification history in southeastern Asia, one of its centers of highest diversity, remains unclear. We report new fossils of three Bauhinia species with cuticular preservation from the Paleogene of Puyang Basin,...

Reconstructing the Paleogene topography and climate of central Tibet informs understanding of collisional tectonic mechanisms and their links to climate and biodiversity. Radiometric dates of volcanic/sedimentary rocks and paleotemperatures based on clumped isotopes within ancient soil carbonate nodules from the Lunpola Basin, part of an east-west...

Two new fossil taxa of the ash tree, namely F. zlatkoi Meng-Xiao Wu et J.Huang sp. nov. and Fraxinus cf. honshuensis Tanai et Onoe were reported from the early Oligocene of the Lühe flora, Yunnan Province, Southwest China. The fruit traits were used to assign the proposed species to the genus Fraxinus. These traits were a flattened and symmetrical...

Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA) is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, hosting high endemism of plants and animals under a tropical seasonal climate, yet it suffers high extinction risks due to increasing anthropogenic pressure. Effective conservation requires a better understanding of the evolutionary history of the regional vegetation to cla...

The genus Mucuna Adans. (Papilionoideae, Fabaceae) contains approximately 105 extant species. It is widely distributed in pantropical areas, with its center of diversity located in Asia. Recent molecular phylogenetic analyses investigated the historical biogeography of the genus; however, a lack of fossil evidence has limited a fuller understanding...

Neogene fossil records from the Indus Basin sedimentary rocks (IBSR), deposited in the Indus Tsangpo Suture Zone (ITSZ), are very rare, but are important to understand the history of plant diversity and paleoclimate in the Himalaya. We report fossil wood ascribed to Ebenoxylon siwalicus Prakash from late Miocene sediments of the Karit Formation bel...

Plant–arthropod interaction offers insight into the evolution of terrestrial ecosystems in the geological past. In this study, leaf fossils with arthropod traces, collected from the Miocene Huaitoutala flora, Qaidam Basin, northern Tibetan Plateau, were studied to provide direct evidence of plant–arthropod interactions on the Tibetan Plateau. The r...

During the late Eocene to the early Oligocene, marine records document a globally congruent record of declining carbon dioxide concentrations, Antarctic icesheet growth, and associated reorganisation of the global climate system. In contrast, the few existing terrestrial records demonstrate high heterogeneity of environmental change and are difficu...

Sclerophyllous evergreen broad-leaved forests, mainly made up of sclerophyllous oak, Quercus section Heterobalanus (Øerst.) Menitsky, Fagaceae, represent the most typical forest type in the Hengduan Mountains. Their distribution pattern is closely related to the growth and formation of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP). The oldest fossil record of...

Fossil plant assemblages were found from the Oligocene Dong Ho Formation of the Halong Bay region, northern Vietnam. The flora contains about 40 species, including conifers and angiosperms. The Halong flora mainly comprises Fagaceae, Lauraceae and Dipterocarpaceae, with significant tropical Asian kinship. It has high similarity with other Paleogene...

Recent paleobotanical investigations in Vietnam provide a good opportunity to improve our understanding of the biodiversity and paleoclimatic conditions in the geological past of Southeast Asia. Palms (Arecaceae) are a diverse family of typical thermophilous plants with a relatively low tolerance for freezing. In this study, we describe well-preser...

The Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (QTP) played a crucial role in shaping the biodiversity in Asia during the Cenozoic. However, fossil records attributed to insects are still scarce from the QTP, which limits our understanding on the evolution of biodiversity in this large region. Fulgoridae (lanternfly) is a group of large planthopper in body size, whic...

Yunnan at southeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau is subject to frequent wildfires each year, while its wildfire history remains poorly known due to the lack of studies on palaeofire in the region. In this study, we report a local fire from the late Pliocene of northwestern Yunnan, based on macroscopic fossil charcoals recovered from the Sanying...

The sedimentary basins of Yunnan, Southwest China, record detailed histories of Cenozoic paleoenvironmental change. They track regional tectonic and palaeobiological evolution, both of which are critically important for the development of modern floral diversity in southwestern China and throughout Asia more generally. However, to be useful, the se...

Trapa (water chestnut or water caltrop) is a genus of annual free-floating plants mostly native to Africa and Eurasia and included in the family Lythraceae. The genus only contains 10 species today but has a large number of species in the Neogene record, mainly based on fruits but also on the occurrence of pollen grains. In China, several species h...

壳斗科栎属高山栎组植物(Quercus section Heterobalanus (Øerst.) Menitsky)组成的硬叶常绿阔叶林，是横断山地区生态系统中的重要森林类型，其分布格局与青藏高原的形成和演变密切相关。此前，高山栎组植物的最早化石记录产自西藏南部南木林县的中中新统嘎扎村组，而我们最近在青藏高原东南缘芒康盆地的上始新统拉屋拉组发现的高山栎组叶片化石，表明该组植物的起源时间至少比之前认识的提前了近20Myr。通过几何形态测量法，结合该组植物在青藏高原及横断山地区的分布区扩张和群落中生态位的转变，推测高山栎组植物叶片至少在晚始新世时已出现适应局部区域特殊的高寒干旱生境的特征；之后随着高原隆升和新生代后期的全球降温，逐步寒化旱化的生境使其叶片的较强适应性得以发挥，并通过稳定选择表...

Quantifying how land surface height, such as that of the Tibetan region, has changed with time is crucial for understanding a range of Earth processes, including atmospheric dynamics, biotic evolution and tectonics. Elevation reconstructions are highly uncertain and controversial, in part because of assumptions used in their calculation. The larges...

While a recent molecular phylogeographical study shows that, Cladrastis, a small woody genus in the bean family (Leguminosae), may have been established in Asia after the middle to late Eocene, fossils of the genus have not been previously documented in the Paleogene of Asia. Here we report an infructescence and four fossil fruits of Cladrastis fro...

Today, Northeastern India receives some of the highest annual rainfall totals globally. The major portion of annual precipitation in this region falls during the Indian Summer Monsoon season (June–September); however, this region also receives a significant amount of rainfall during the pre-monsoon season (March–May). Here, we quantitatively recons...

The West Kunlun region forms the northern margin of the Tibetan Plateau, and sedimentation in this region contributed to plateau formation and its northwards expansion, as well as the development of central Asian aridification. However, the stratigraphic dating framework in this region has been ambiguous, hampering the understanding of both tectoni...

The growth of the Tibetan Plateau throughout the past 66 million years has profoundly affected the Asian climate, but how this unparalleled orogenesis might have driven vegetation and plant diversity changes in eastern Asia is poorly understood. We approach this question by integrating modeling results and fossil data. We show that growth of north...

In this paper, we review evidence for a major biotic turnover across the Oligocene/Miocene in the Tibetan Plateau region. Based on the recent study of six well-preserved fossil sites from the Cenozoic Lunpola and Nima basins in the central Tibetan Plateau, we report a regional changeover from tropical/subtropical ecosystems in the Late Oligocene ec...

Determining whether the high-latitude Bering land bridge (BLB) was ecologically suitable for the migration of mesothermal plants is significant for Holarctic phytogeographic inferences. Paleobotanical studies provide a critical source of data on the latitudinal positions of different plant lineages at different times, permitting assessment of the e...

The Tibetan Plateau was built through a succession of Gondwanan terranes colliding with Asia during the Mesozoic. These accretions produced a complex Paleogene topography of several predominantly east-west trending mountain ranges separated by deep valleys. Despite this piecemeal assembly and resultant complex relief, Tibet has traditionally been t...

Menispermaceae are a pantropical and temperate family with an extensive fossil record during the Paleogene, especially in North America and Europe, but with much less evidence from Asia. The latest fossil evidence indicates a succession of tropical to sub‐tropical flora on the central Tibetan Plateau during the Paleogene. However, the biogeographic...

Icacinaceae are well represented in the modern tropical flora of East Asia, but this family has no confirmed macrofossils from this region. Most of the unambiguous fossils (e.g., endocarps) are from the Paleogene of North America and Europe, where the family is no longer present. Here we report a fossil endocarp of the liana genus Iodes from the Ol...

Compressed materials of fossil foliage described here as Itea polyneura sp. nov. (Iteaceae) were collected from the Oligocene of Wenshan, Yunnan Province, southwestern China. The identification is based on the following characters: eucamptodromous secondary veins, strict scalariform tertiary veins, irregular tooth with setaceous apex. The leaf morp...

Illigera (Hernandiaceae) is a liana genus distributed mainly in the tropical Asia and Africa. Previous fossil records suggested that Illigera was restricted in western North America during the Eocene. Recent paleobotanical investigation has unveiled a Paleogene flora that is totally different from today's vegetation in central Tibet. This provides...

Views differ on the uplift history of the SE Tibetan Plateau and causal geodynamic mechanisms, yet reliable age-constrained paleoaltimetry in this region could test growth models of the entire plateau. Here we apply carbonate clumped isotope thermometry to well-dated carbonate paleosols and marls in the Gonjo Basin, SE Tibet, to reveal the topograp...

Herbivore damage patterns on fossil leaves are essential to explore the evolution of plant-herbivore interactions under paleoenvironmental changes and to better understand the evolutionary history of terrestrial ecosystems. The Eocene–Oligocene transition (EOT) is a period of dramatic paleoclimate changes that significantly impacted global ecosyste...

The early Oligocene represents the beginning of the modern icehouse world. To better understand how vegetation and climate changed during this period, we reconstruct quantitively the early Oligocene vegetation and climate by analyzing fossil spore and pollen assemblages from Lühe basin, Yunnan Province, in southwestern China. The reconstructed pale...