安徽巢湖马家山早三叠世海生爬行动物群的研究发掘进展及其意义

Progress of the Scientific Excavation on the Early Triassic Marine Reptile Fauna from Majiashan (Chaohu,Anhui Province) and Its Significance

本文介绍了安徽巢湖马家山早三叠世巢湖龙脊椎动物群的研究历史、存在的主要科学问题、马家山地区系统化石发掘进展情况及其重要科学意义。该动物群是世界范围内保存最完整的、最原始的中生代海生脊椎动物群,对其进行系统的科学发掘、标本收集、保护及综合性研究,将有助于探讨鱼龙等海生爬行动物类群起源、早期演化、扩散及其古地理古环境演化背景等国际关注的重大科学问题,具有重要的科学意义。目前发掘工作和初步研究表明,安徽巢湖龙动物群的海生爬行类至少有3个属种,并伴生多种鱼类及多门类的无脊椎动物,这是世界上首次在早三叠世的海生爬行类产地发现多于一个属种的材料。安徽巢湖龙动物群的高分异度表明在早三叠世晚期海洋生态系统已经开始迅速复苏,与传统认为的延迟复苏相反。

The Early Triassic marine reptile fauna from Ma-jiashan （ Chaohu, Anhui Province ） is characterized by a large number of Chaohusaurus materials.In the cur-rent paper , we reviewed the research history and the re-mained problems and reported the progress of the scien-tific excavation on this fauna .It is the earliest and best preserved marine reptile fauna of the Mesozoic .The col-lection, protection and comprehensive research of this fauna will provide new data on the origin , early evolu-tion, radiation and paleogeography of the marine rep-tiles such as ichthyosaurs , which has important scientif-ic significance.At least three marine reptile species have been found from Majiashan quarry through the ex-cavation co-occurring with abundant fish and inverte-brate fossils .It is the first locality in the Early Triassic that has yielded more than one species of marine reptiles in the world .Contrary to the previous knowledge , the high divert of Chaohu Fauna suggests that the recovery of the marine ecosystem after the end-Permian mass ex-tinction is rapid rather than delayed .