Athena Review Image Archive ™
Triassic fossil deposits in Luoping, China
Map of Trassic fossil deposits in southern China (after Benton et al.2013).
Abundant
fossil reptiles and fishes have now been excavated from the Triassic of
Guizhou Province and neighbouring, eastern parts of Yunnan
Province. Two of these, the Panxian biota and the Luoping biota,
date from the Anisian stage of the early Middle Triassic (252-247
mya). A third is the Guanling biota, dating from the from the
Carnian stage of the Late Triassic, dated 235-228 mya.
Probably the most spectacular finds have come from the Luoping
biota, representing an extensive array of both marine invertebrates and
vertebrates. These shallow marine deposits show arthropods as their
most abundant fossils, followed by fishes, marine reptiles, bivalves,
gastropods, echinoderms, brachiopods, conodonts, foraminifers, and
plants (Zhang et al., 2008; Hu et al., 2011).
Nearly 20,000
individual macrofossils have so far been identified from the Luoping
biota in its primary deposits (Benton et al 2013). Recent invertebrate
finds include well-preserved belemnoids (cephalopods with bony parts,
partly resembling small squids), hydromedusae, ammonoids, and lingulid
brachiopods. The dominant arthropods include crustaceans
such as decapods (lobsters and shrimps), isopods, cycloids, and
ostracods, tiny shrimp-like animals whose abundance and variation make
them typically used as chronological markers (second only to conodonts
in that regard). Other arthropods include millipedes and horseshoe
crabs.
Reptiles from the Luoping biota include medium-sized (1-5 m -long) sea reptiles such as Mixosaurus, Dinocephalosaurus, and Sinosaurosphargis, plus unidentfied archosaurs.
References:
Benton et al 2013
Hu et al., 2011
Zhang et al., 2008.
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