Daran ZHENG

Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology (NIGPAS)
Chinese Academy of Sciences

Prof. Daran Zheng works at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology (NIGPAS), Chinese Academy of Sciences. Before joining NIGPAS in 2021, he conducted research as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). He obtained his Master's degree in Geobiology (2015) from the NIGPAS, and Ph.D. in Geochronology (2018) from the HKU.

His research tries to understand the terrestrial biological evolution responded to global environmental events through Earth time, by integrating palaeontology, stratigraphy, geochronology and geochemistry. For example, his findings confirm that the clade Holometabola and aquatic insects experienced a radiation event in the Middle Triassic, and reveal the earliest-known complex lacustrine ecosystem recovered during the Middle Triassic. He reported the oldest-known forest (ca. 372 myr ago) in China, and linked the flora turnover and the Frasnian-Famennian boundary (FFB) crisis. He discovered the Tilin amber biota from central Myanmar. This biota represents the latest-known diverse insect assemblage in the Mesozoic, supporting that the tropical forests were the cradle for the diversification of crown-group ants. He systematically studied the Mesozoic to Cenozoic dragonfly fossils and established about 47 new species. This allows us to track the origination, early evolution, biogeography and behaviour of the odonatans.

His current projects mainly focus on the spatiotemporal evolution of the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota in East Asia. The Jehol Biota is a terrestrial Lagerstätte that appeared during the middle Cretaceous when the modern terrestrial ecosystems were generated. These projects contribute to recovering the Early Cretaceous biodiversity in East Asia, and revealing how the extreme environmental changes influence the biological transition.

The Spatiotemporal Evolution of The Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota in East Asia

The modern terrestrial ecosystems greatly developed during the mid-Cretaceous, characterized by the dominance of angiosperms. The flourishment of the angiosperms drives elevated species richness by co-evolving with insects, vertebrates and fungi, strongly altering the Cretaceous climate and water cycles by increasing bedrock weathering. The Lower Cretaceous non-marine sediments in East Asia contain the famous Lagerstätte: the Jehol Biota. This Biota produced numerous exceptionally well-preserved fossils, including feathered dinosaurs, early birds, mammals, amphibians, pterosaurs, insects and early angiosperms, contributing to tracking the early evolution of modern terrestrial ecosystems.

The Jehol Biota sensu stricto is a terrestrial fossil assemblage mainly distributed in northern Hebei Province, western Liaoning Province, and southeastern Inner Mongolia Region of the North China Craton, characterized by the 'Eosestheria-Ephemeropsis-Lycoptera' (EEL) assemblage. This assemblage has a very wide distribution in East Asia thus generating the view of the Jehol Biota sensu lato. The evolution of the Jehol Biota was generally divided into three evolving stages, i.e., Jehol Biota stages I to III (JBS I to III), represented by the fossil assemblages from the Dabeigou (~132–130 Ma), Yixian (~125–122 Ma) and Jiufotang (~122–115 Ma) formations, and their corresponding strata. The Jehol Biota begins with the appearance of elements like Ephemeropsis trisetalis (insect) and Peipiaosteus (fish) during the JBS I. It flourished during the JBS II, further developed during the JBS Ⅱ, and finally transformed into the Fuxin Biota during the late Early Cretaceous. JBS Ⅱ was the evolutionary climax of the Jehol biota, and nearly all the typical vertebrates and angiosperms of this biota appeared.

The biota’s survival of the middle Early Cretaceous breakup of Gondwana and the destruction of the North China Craton demonstrates an adaptive response to long-term environmental changes. This study widely investigated the Lower Cretaceous in East Asia, collecting abundant fossils to recover the Early Cretaceous terrestrial biodiversity and palaeogeography in East Asia. The spatiotemporal evolution of the Jehol Biota is evaluated after a comprehensive study from biostratigraphical, biogeographical, high-precision geochronological, and quantitative analyses.