Tracing the Backbone in China's Rocks

Home , Dunyu, Haikouichthys, Xu Xing (paleontologist)

From Fish Nature http://doi. to Human: org/4j4; 2013). The March of Each fauna or group Vertebrate Life in BRIAN CHOO China of faunas is followed CORWIN SULLIVAN, by a concise review of WANG YUAN AND a related evolutionary BRIAN CHOO transition. So the dis- Popular Science: cussion of how feath- 2015. ers evolved into their modern form fol- lows a description of the Jehol Biota, which yielded much of the fossil evidence for it. The balance between specific discoveries and general evolutionary history allows a clear and current understanding of vertebrate evolution, and showcases the beauty of the extinct animals. Thus stunning pho- tographs, for example of the exquisitely preserved fossils from the Chengjiang Biota, sit alongside remarkable reconstruc- tions of creatures and habitats. Informative drawings show the family trees of major vertebrate groups and biological structures such as tetrapod limbs. I do have quibbles. The chapter on basics such as how fossils form will help begin- ners, but the rest seems to be written for advanced readers. Discussion of some Megamastax amblyodus eating Dunyu longiferus, from the 423-million-year-old Xiaoxiang Biota of China. important groups is missing; for example, we read nothing of the Late Cretaceous Bayan PALAEONTOLOGY Mandahu Fauna (about 75 million years old), from which significant information on dinosaur behaviour has been recovered. The authors list 79 major vertebrate fossil sites in Tracing the backbone China — at least 10 short, in my view. They describe only 15. Attractive global palaeogeographic in China’s rocks maps show the arrangement of the con- tinents and oceans in different geological Xu Xing relishes a bilingual book on the evolution of periods, but there is no indication of the vertebrate life in his fabulously fossil-rich country. modern locations of the fossil faunas in China. Neither is there a summary guide to their stratigraphic distribution. And in a hina’s rich fossil resources have epoch. The Cambrian Chengjiang Biota, few cases, the Chinese translation is subtly supplied many firsts — discoveries for example, dating to around 525 million different in meaning and intent from the that have rewritten and helped to years ago, contains the oldest known diverse original English. Cconstruct evolutionary history. The bilingual multicellular animals, including the earliest Nevertheless, this book should occupy (English and Chinese) From Fish to Human vertebrates, such as the primitive, fishlike the shelf of anyone eager to keep up with summarizes and highlights the spectacular Haikouichthys. It is shedding light on the advances in palaeontology and evolu- Chinese vertebrate fossil record and its place rapid diversification of life known as the tion, or to know more about Chinese in the broader span of vertebrate life. Cambrian explosion. palaeontology. ■ This volume, rich with illustrations, Flamboyant feathered dinosaurs from was produced by an international team the roughly 125-million-year-old Jehol Xu Xing is a professor at the Institute of vertebrate palaeontologists. Corwin Biota, such as the four-winged Microraptor of Vertebrate Paleontology and Sullivan wrote the English text with input and the gigantic tyrannosaur Yutyrannus, Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy from the other authors, Wang Yuan did the have garnered much public attention; less of Sciences in Beijing. Chinese translation and Brian Choo pro- known are the earlier Silurian Xiaoxiang e-mail: [email protected] duced the illustrations. (I work alongside and Devonian Zhongning faunas. The all three, but was not involved with this authors explain how discoveries from these book.) Their effort has produced an excel- have helped to establish the evolution of CORRECTION lent resource. important structures such as jaws and The Q&A ‘Geological historian’ (Nature From Fish to Human describes 15 Chinese limbs. Entelognathus from Xiaoxiang, for 520, 294; 2015) incorrectly used faunas — collections of fossils of a similar age example, is a placoderm, or armoured fish, “geology and surveying” instead of from the same general area — that highlight with the jawed face of an osteichthyan, or “geometry and surveying”, and “core every major geological time period from bony fish — a finding that blurs the bound- seams” instead of “coal seams”. the early Cambrian to the late Pleistocene ary between major vertebrate groups (see