First Zircon U-Pb Ages of the Pigeon Hill Fossil Locality of the Jehol Biota in the Greater Khingan Mountains, Inner Mongolia

Objective The Pigeon Hill fossil locality yielded a diversity of fossils of the Jehol Biota.It sheds new light on the evolution of the Jehol Biota in more distant paleogeographic locations.Although several taxa of extinct vertebrates were described from the Pigeon Hill.

A New Genus of Paleonisciformes from the Early Cretaceous Longjiang Formation in Heilongjiang Province, China

We report a new genus and species of Paleonisciformes-Cretolepis dongbeiensis gen. et sp. nov.,from the Early Cretaceous Longjiang Formation in Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province. The new materials can be distinguished from other Paleonisciformes genera by possessing the following characteristics: a sclerotic ring composed of more than five small bones; three pieces of suborbitals; one dermohyomandibular;a jaw hanging apparently inclined anteriorly; long and tall horizontal branch of the preopercular, a short vertical branch, with the angle formed by the two branches slightly higher than 90°; a triangular dorsal fin in the middle point between the pelvic and anal fins. The discovery of Mesozoic Paleonisciformes in northeastern China adds to the biodiversity and geographic distribution of Paleonisciformes.

Pollen Morphology of Tundra Shrubs and Submarginal Plants from Barrow, Alaska

Investigation of plant morphological features, pollen, and habitat have been made for two shrub species from Barrow, Alaska, namely Dryas integrifoila M. Vahl and Salix rotundifolia Trautv., both of which are endemic to the Arctic floristic area. The former species has small lanceolate or plate leaves, whereas the latter has rounded leaves with distinct veins, rich in vitamin C. Both have dwarf and sprawling habits. Pollen studies showed that the pollen grains of the two species are spheroidal to sub-spheroidal or prolate. The type of aperture was tricolporate; pollen size 26.3-31.3 μm; ornamentation finely reticulate under a light microscope （LM） and strlate-reticulate under a scanning electron microscope （SEM） for D. integrafoila and finely reticulate under the LM and SEM for S. rotundifolia. Comparisons were made between the pollen from the same species from Arctic collections with those from China and Japan. Investigation of pollen morphology of tundra plants can provide significant data for comparative studies of fossil pollen and for the reconstruction of paleovegetation and paleoclimate in the Barrow area.