Paleobiology, evolution, and biodiversity of Chinese fossils in The Anatomical Record

Abstract

For the past century, China has provided a wealth of exciting fossil discoveries (e.g., Dodson, 2025). Starting with the initial discovery of dinosaurs and hominins in China in the 1920s, a plethora of findings quickly followed of early mammaliaforms, birds, sabretooth cats, Ice Age megafauna, and much more. In fact, China now has more described dinosaur genera than any other country.

In this Special Issue of The Anatomical Record, we celebrate the paleobiology, evolution, and biodiversity of the Chinese fossil record. The volume brings together a collection of papers on diverse taxa ranging from flying pterosaurs (Chen et al., 2025; Wu et al., 2025) to oversized primates (Pan et al., 2025) to giant swamp otters (Adrian et al., 2025) to tiny insects (Zhang et al., 2025) to sabretooth cats (Jiangzuo et al., 2025) to long-necked archosauromorphs (Wang et al., 2025). The issue has been Guest Edited by three experts in the field of paleontology, Drs. He Chen, Tong Bao, and Hong Pang (Figure 1).

Dr. He Chen is an Associate Researcher at Sun Yat-sen University's School of Ecology, specializing in Mesozoic and Cenozoic Paleoecology, with a particular interest in the evolution of Pterosaurs. Her team investigates the relationship between the environment and vertebrates through the study of coprolites and dental calculus (Chen et al., 2018; Rummy et al., 2021). She is one of the key members of a long-term international collaborative research team between China and Brazil focusing on pterosaurs (Chen et al., 2020) and has discovered numerous new species of pterosaurs (Wang, Kellner, et al., 2023; Wang, Zhang, et al., 2023), including the renowned and rare Hamipterus (Wang et al., 2017). In their ongoing research on Hamipterus, Dr. Chen's team conducted a preliminary analysis of its dental microstructure (Chen et al., 2025) and emphasized the similarities and differences between the flight apparatus of pterosaurs and birds by studying the pectoral girdle of Hamipterus (Wu et al., 2025). To clarify the poorly understood palatal region of pterosaurs, they employed advanced x-ray imaging techniques on various clades of pterosaur specimens (Dsungaripterus, Kunpengopterus, Hongshanopterus, and Hamipterus). They showed that advanced x-ray imaging techniques provide insights into pterosaur cranial anatomy and offer a fresh perspective for exploring the evolutionary history of these flying reptiles (Chen et al., 2024).

Dr. Tong Bao is an Associate Professor at Sun Yat-sen University's School of Ecology, and he pioneers research on Mesozoic insect-plant coevolution using micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) and confocal laser microscopy. His team's landmark discovery of 100-million-year-old pollen-carrying beetles in Burmese amber (Bao et al., 2019) provided the earliest direct evidence of insect pollination, advancing fossil records by 50 million years. Addressing aquatic insect preservation, they combined isotopic dating and taphonomic experiments to decode exceptional fossilization in Triassic–Jurassic–Cretaceous biotas, clarifying morphological adaptations. Leading interdisciplinary efforts, Dr. Bao integrates cutting-edge technologies with paleontological evidence to unravel Mesozoic ecosystem dynamics and coevolutionary mechanisms.

For the last 20 years, Dr. Hong Pang has been working in the School of Life Sciences and School of Ecology, Sun Yat-sen University as the Professor of Entomology teaching Zoology and Insect Phylogeny, Director of The Museum of Biology, and a Principal Investigator (PI) of State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol. She is the author of more than 260 research publications on taxonomy and systematics of insects, population genomics of ladybeetles, and author of books on Colored Pictorial Handbook of Ladybird Beetles in China, Ladybird Beetles of the Australo-Pacific region, and The Elves of the Dinosaur Age: Tracing the Footprints of Insects.

Over the years, charismatic fossils from China have graced the pages of many issues in The Anatomical Record (AR). For example, the eusuchian crocodyliform Planocrania Li, 1976 from the Paleocene of China is one of the rare examples of the family Planocraniidae, with its ziphodont dentition suggesting a terrestrial ecology for the clade (Pochat-Cottilloux, 2025). The hadrosauroid Tanius is the earliest named ornithischian genus from China, and “T. laiyangensis,” once attributed to this genus, was reclassified as an indeterminate kritosaurin hadrosaurine based on anatomical, phylogenetic, and morphometric evidence (Zhang et al., 2019). Histological analysis of juvenile specimens of the ceratopsian dinosaur Psittacosaurus revealed limited developmental variability, evidence of precociality, and growth patterns consistent with small body size (Bo et al., 2016). Another key study redescribed the sauropodomorph Jingshanosaurus xinwaensis and highlighted its significance for understanding early sauropodiform evolution and diversity (Zhang et al., 2020). Mamenchisaurus hochuanensis from the Sichuan Basin and Yunnan Province in China was incorporated into a study that found that vertical reach, supported by joint articulation and rearing adaptations, is a likely function of the extremely long necks of sauropods (Paul, 2017).

Several studies of early fossil birds, including Chinese specimens, have been published in AR. A study of Protopteryx fengningensis from the Early Cretaceous Huajiying Formation of China described two new well-preserved specimens, revealing detailed skeletal and feather morphology and providing the earliest evidence of intermittent flight in enantiornithine birds (Chiappe et al., 2020). Another study on early birds demonstrated that the evolution of the modern avian jugal bar involved gradual morphological changes, enabling the development of cranial kinesis unique to modern birds (Wang & Hu, 2017).

Homo erectus specimens from the site of Zhoukoudian near Beijing have been included in many comparative hominin studies, helping to shed light on the evolution of the cranial morphology in early Homo (e.g., Bräuer et al., 2004; Bruner & Manzi, 2005; Durband, 2008; Laitman & Tattersall, 2001; Lordkipanidze et al., 2006). Another study used mandible shape and cranial biomechanics to suggest that the mammaliaform Hadrocodium wui from the Jurassic of China was not fully fossorial but likely semi-fossorial or semi-aquatic, feeding on soft invertebrates (Tumelty & Lautenschlager, 2025). A basal anthropoid petrosal bone from Shanghuang was included in a study on the evolution of mammal hearing, which found that high-frequency hearing likely evolved early in euarchontans, while low-frequency sensitivity likely developed later in specific lineages like haplorhines (Coleman & Boyer, 2012).

In all, the rich Chinese fossil record has yielded an abundance of novel paleontological and paleoecological data. These discoveries have deepened insights into the evolution of vertebrate and invertebrate fossil taxa, revealed major extinction events, and increased our understanding of the development of paleoecosystems. We hope you enjoy the collection of fascinating papers on Chinese paleobiology in this Special Issue.

Heather F. Smith: Writing – review and editing; writing – original draft; investigation; conceptualization; visualization; project administration. Jeffrey T. Laitman: Writing – original draft; writing – review and editing; conceptualization; project administration.