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一个重要时期，是由“古代”动植物群向具有鲜明现代特征的动植物群转变的重要时期。迄今为止，辽宁陆相三叠纪的植物化石受到的关注较少，发表的文献也不多。今年早些时候，中国科学院在杨草沟组进行了大量的野外工作，发现了一些三叠纪以来最完整、最重要的植物大化石。蕨类植物、苏铁植物和蕨类植物的壮观标本为它们的生长习性提供了全新的见解。在野外季节结束时，pi发现了一层有大量明确的Umkomasia遗骸-雌性生殖轴的胚囊。覆胚植物几乎只存在于冈瓦纳，这是亚洲的第一次记录。也许同样重要的是，新的地点提供了一个极好的机会来收集有关节的后胚层的遗骸。因此，对这个新地方进行密集的挖掘是至关重要的。然而，由于当地农民在该地区非法收集化石，并将其出售给经销商，这项工作有一定程度的紧迫性。事实上，他们已经挖穿了部分主要的乌姆科马西亚产层，以获得更大的叶生植物标本，然后他们从岩石中粗切出这些标本。拟议的工作将包括对Umkomasia地层进行大规模挖掘。所有收集到的资料将被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的中国国家地质博物馆（GMC）共同开发一个展览，展示这些材料。最终，所有收集到的材料将被安置在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.