UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) The fossil Crustacea of China: their taxonomy, palaeobiology, biogeography and phylogenetic relationships Taylor, R.S. Publication date 1999 Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Taylor, R. S. (1999). The fossil Crustacea of China: their taxonomy, palaeobiology, biogeography and phylogenetic relationships. Fac. der Biologie. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:29 Sep 2021 Fossil Crustacea of China Chapter 5 The Crustacea of China: a Palaeobiogeographical Perspective Abstract The fossil record in China has been much discussed in the scientific literature of late with the recent discovery of new localities there with many new and informative fossil taxa. One group in particular has received attention, the Crustacea (and the Arthropoda in general). The known Crustacean fossil record of China is summarized and discussed in this paper. These Chinese fossils are compared to related taxa worldwide, in an attempt to piece together local and global biogeographic trends for these groups. The importance of the fossil record in understanding the evolutionary history of any group is a prevalent theme. Introduction Consideration as to the true nature of fossils is a practice that has been ongoing since the early days of human civilization. The first recorded commentary on the organic origins of fossils dates back to Xanthos of Sardis in about 500 B.C.; 150 years later, Aristotle discussed how fossil fish were the remains of once living animals that had swum into cracks in rocks and had been stranded there. Palaeontology as we think of it today, however, did not truly com­ mence until the 19th century. At this time, the ichthyosaurian, plesiosaurian and pterosaurian fossil remains discovered by Mary Arming and the description of the first known dinosaur, Iguanodon, by Mantell in the early 1800s captured the attention of the media in Britain and ini­ tiated what would eventually become the modern-day worldwide fascination with fossils (McGowan, 1991). The palaeontological situation in China is perhaps one of the most exciting right now, with the recent discovery of such palaeontological treasures as the Lower Cambrian Chengjiang fauna in Yunnan, southwestern China, and new birds and dinosaurs in Liaoning province, northeastern China. Palaeontological research, however, has been slower to develop in China than in the 'western world'. Even now, much of the palaeontological work done in China is published in Chinese language journals (only sometimes with an English abstract and/or summary) that are not carried by most non-Chinese libraries. Because of this, it is often difficult for non-Chinese palaeontologists to get a true feeling for the extensive palaeon­ tological research being done there today. The intentions of this paper are twofold. One is to present a relatively up-to-date pic­ ture of China's fossil crustacean record, incorporating where possible information published in less-well-known Chinese journals. The second goal of this paper is to put the Chinese crus­ tacean fossil record in a more global framework, thus allowing for a better understanding of the palaeobiological history of China with respect to the related faunas around the world. Palaeontological Research in China The palaeontological record in China is rich and diverse, as reflected by the enormous numbers of published studies focussing on fossils from China. Some examples demonstrating 85 Chapter 5 this diversity are the trilobite studies of Yang Jialu (e.g., Yang, 1978; Yang et al., 1984), Lin Bayou's work on corals (e.g., Lin and Chou, 1977; Lin and Wang, 1985), Wang Keliang's foraminiferan studies (e.g., Wang, 1984; Wang, 1985), Huang Wanpo's publications regarding China's mammal faunas (e.g., Huang, 1980; Huang, 1986), and the works on China's palaeoflo- ras by Xu Ren (e.g., Xu, 1982). This is hardly a comprehensive list of the studies emerging from China's palaeobiological community It does give some idea of the broad range of work occurring there today, however [for more information, see the recent volumes 'The Palaeobiogeography of China' (Yin, 1994) and The Geology of China (Yang et al., 1986)]. A good example of the depth of the long-term studies taking place in China is the Chinese literature regarding graptolites, a group of colonial hemichordates that dominated the plankton of the world's oceans during the Ordovician and Silurian. The database regarding these animals from Chinese strata is nothing short of enormous. Several authors have pub­ lished extensively on Chinese graptolites, including Mu En-zhi in the 1960s - 1980s (e.g., Mu and Chen Xu, 1962; Mu et al, 1974; Mu and Lin, 1984; and as Mu A.T. in the 1940s - 1960s), Lin Yao-kun in the 1980s (e.g., Lin Yao-kun, 1980; Lin Yao-kun and Zho Zhao-ling, 1989) and Chen Xu in the 1980s and 1990s (e.g., Chen et al., 1981; Chen, 1994). Thanks to the work of these and other authors, the biostratigraphic and palaeobiogeographic history of the Graptolithina is well understood in a global context. The appearance of recent volumes in English, such as the won­ derful book 'Graptolite Research Today' edited by Chen et al. (1994), has greatly improved the international understanding and interpretation of these Chinese graptolites (e.g., Cooper et al., 1991). The past few years in particular have seen China emerge as the source of some of the world's most significant fossil finds. Issues that have long been sources of contention within the palaeontological community (and, increasingly, the general public) have been influenced by recent finds from China. Perhaps the most widely publicized of these has been the issue of bird-dinosaur relationships and bird evolution, which has been greatly bolstered by the discov­ ery of dinosaurs with feathers (Ji Qiang et al., 1998) and early therapod dinosaurs that possess many morphological features shared with birds (Chen et al., 1998). Another widely publicized palaeontological find from China recently has been the dis­ covery of a Lower Cambrian Lagerstätte in Moatian, Yunnan Province, southwestern China. This locality has produced extensive amounts of fossiliferous material comparable in quality to (perhaps even better than) the Burgess Shale Lagerstätte fossils of western Canada. The fossils from this locality are revealing much about the early nature of life, the evolution of arthropods, the origins of major phyla, and the relationships between these phyla (e.g., Chen et ah, 1996; Chen and Zhou, 1997; Hou and Bergström, 1997; Conway Morris, 1998). Fossil Crustacea in China and their global 'relatives' Several crustacean groups are represented in the fossil record of China, some extensive­ ly. Others are known from China through only a few occurrences (or even a single specimen in a few cases). Several factors may be responsible for the seeming irregularities in the distrib­ utions of fossil Crustacea in China. Among them are true variability in the distributions of dif­ ferent animal groups, which would naturally be reflected in their fossil record, and/or incom­ pleteness of the fossil record itself. Another reason, and perhaps the most important with 86 Fossil Crustacea of China respect to this discussion, is our relative ignorance of the geological and palaeontological sequences of China. Nevertheless, our knowledge of the palaeobiological history of China has increased tremendously in recent decades. While we are now filling in the numerous gaps in our knowledge of Chinese paleobiology, there are still considerable questions that remain to be answered. In this paper, I will briefly summarize the current state of knowledge pertaining to the fossil Crustacea of China and how they compare to related forms, both fossil and recent, around the globe. This effort cannot be a comprehensive summary of the subject - such a par­ taking would unfortunately be far beyond the scope of this paper. It is intended rather to serve as an introduction to the research occurring there today and to serve as a stimulus to delve deeper into the wealth of palaeontological information that is today emerging from Chinese strata. Class Phyllopoda The Phyllopoda Latreille, 1825 are one of the four major crustacean classes and are characterized by the possession of leaf-shaped, polyramous limbs. They are known both from Recent taxa and the fossil record, and include both the subclass Phyllocarida Packard, 1879 and the subclass Calmanostraca Tasch, 1969. Among the calmanostracan orders of particular interest to this paper are the Kazacharthra Nozohilov, 1957 and Conchostraca Sars, 1867. Subclass Phyllocarida A major component of the crustacean fossil record in China is the Class Phyllopoda (in the sense of Schram, 1986), which includes the subclass Phyllocarida Packard, 1879 (Figure la). Phyllocarida have long been problematic taxa in regards to their classification, and their taxonomy is currently seriously in need of revision (Dahl, in Schram, 1986). The fossil taxa (including the orders Archaeostraca, Canadaspidida, Hoplostraca, and Hymenostraca) share the same taxonomie problems, largely because many fossil forms are known from limited material such as tailfan elements or isolated carapaces.