Ancient DNA unravels species identification from Laosicheng site,Hunan Province,China,and provides insights into maternal genetic history of East Asian leopards

DEAR EDITOR,The Laosicheng site in Yongshun County,Hunan Province,China,plays an important role in elucidating the animal population composition of the region prior to the middle Qing Dynasty(approximately 300 years ago).This site has yielded a substantial number of animal bones,11960 of which have been identified to the species level,serving as direct evidence of ancient animal populations(Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology,2018).

An edible fruit from the Jurassic of China

Frugivory is an important ecological tie between animals and angiosperms.It plays an important role in the evolution of food webs and energy flow networks in the ecosystem.However,little is known about how old this relationship can be due to lack of relevant fossil evidence.Here,the authors report a fossil fruit,Jurafructus gen.nov.,a putative angiosperm from the Middle-Late Jurassic(>164 Ma)of Daohugou Village,Inner Mongolia,China,which provides the currently earliest evidence of frugivory.The fossil is a more or less three-dimensionally preserved coalified drupe that has been damaged by animals in two different ways.The pericarp,in addition to the seed coat surrounding parenchyma seed contents,is suggestive of an angiospermous affinity,as such a 3+3 structure is distinct from a three-layered seed coat in gymnosperms.The seed possesses a distal micropyle,attached on the base of the pericarp,suggestive of a former orthotropous ovule in the gynoecium.The damaged pericarp of Jurafructus suggests that firugivory can be dated back to the Middle-Late Jurassic.Apparently,the ecological relationship between angiosperms and animals extends deep into the fossil record.