Chief Scientist: WANG Yuanqing
Email:
wangyuanqing@ivpp.ac.cn The impact of Paleogene global changes on the continental environment and its relationship to the evolution of living things is among the hotspots in geological research in Europe and North America. However, such study has not been carried out systematically in Asia, and this has hampered the discussion of global environmental events. Central area of Nei Mongol (Inner Mongolia) in northern China has well-developed Paleogene fossilliferous deposits, and many widely used Asian Land Mammal Ages were named after the faunas in this area. Therefore, it becomes the key area in studying the influence of Paleogene climatic change to both paleoenvironment and mammal evolution of eastern Asia. The primary research work of this project includes: 1) On the basis of the detailed and systematical biostratigraphical work, the project will improve the subdivision of mammalian assemblages and clarify the definition of related Asian Land Mammal Ages. 2) Cooperated with the paleomagnetic dating, the project will establish the mammalian evolutionary sequence with date calibration. 3) This project will also recognize the important environmental events through the oxygen and carbon isotope analyses, and correlate them with mammalian evolutionary sequence and local geochronological framework. On the basis of the accomplishment of the above work, the team is expected to achieve the purpose of this project―to recognize the impact and expression of Paleogene global environmental change in eastern Asia, and understand the response of mammalian evolution to the environmental changes. Results of this project will become the frame of reference in the related research of eastern Asia, greatly enhance our understanding of Paleogene environment and mammalian events in eastern Asia, and contribute significantly to the study of Paleogene global environmentalbiological events.