SGER: A New Triassic Plant Locality in Northern China with Gondwanan Affinities

三叠纪末期是陆地生态系统演化的重要时期，从“古老的”动物群向具有鲜明现代特征的动物群发生了重大转变。到目前为止，辽宁省陆相三叠纪的植物化石还很少受到关注，关于它的植物化石的出版物也寥寥无几。今年早些时候，PI在羊草沟组进行了大量的野外工作，产生了一些已知的三叠纪最完整和最重要的植物大型化石。壮观的蕨类、苏铁类和蝶类植物标本为了解它们的生长习性提供了全新的见解。在野外季节结束时，PI发现了一层具有丰富遗迹的明确的Umkomasia--伞形体的雌性生殖轴。冠子植物几乎只分布在冈瓦那，这在亚洲是第一个记录。也许同样重要的是，新的地点提供了一个收集蕨类植物关节遗骸的绝佳机会。因此，对这一新地点进行密集挖掘是至关重要的。然而，这项工作在一定程度上是紧迫的，因为当地农民一直在非法从该地区收集化石，将化石出售给经销商。事实上，他们已经挖掘了部分主要的乌姆科马西亚生产地，以获取更大的蜘蛛标本，然后他们从岩石中粗糙地切割出这些标本。拟议的工作将包括对乌姆科马西亚床的大规模挖掘。所有收集的材料将运往美国进行准备和研究。南阿拉巴马大学的本科生和研究生将参与这项工作，弗吉尼亚自然历史博物馆将与北京中国国家地质博物馆联合举办以这些材料为特色的展览。最终，所有收集到的材料都将存放在GMC。

The end Triassic is an important interval in the evolution of terrestrial ecosystems with a major shift from "archaic" faunas and floras to those with a distinct modern aspect. To date the terrestrial Triassic of Liaoning Province has received little attention and there have only been a handful of publications on its plant fossils. Earlier this year the PIs conducted substantial field work in the Yangcaogou Formation yielding some of the most complete and significant plant macrofossils known from the Triassic. Spectacular specimens of ferns, cycadophytes and sphenophytes are providing completely new insights into their growth habits. At the end of the field season the PIs discovered a layer with abundant remains of unequivocal Umkomasia - the female reproductive axis of corystosperms. Corystosperms are almost exclusively confined to Gondwana and this is the first record in Asia. Perhaps just as significantly the new locality offers an excellent opportunity to collect articulated remains of corystosperms. It is therefore vital that this new locality is subjected to intensive excavation. There is, however, some degree of urgency to this work as the local farmers have been illegally collecting from the area, selling the fossils to dealers. Indeed they have already dug through part of the main Umkomasia-producing beds to reach larger specimens of sphenophytes which they have then crudely cut out of the rock. The proposed work will include a large excavation of the Umkomasia beds. All collected material will be shipped to the US for preparation and study. Undergraduate and graduate students will be involved in this work at the University of South Alabama, and an exhibit featuring the material will be developed at the Virginia Museum of Natural History in conjunction with the National Geological Museum of China (GMC) in Beijing. Eventually all collected material will be housed at GMC.