Quantitative lithofacies palaeogeography is an important discipline of palaeogeography. It is developed on the foundation of traditional lithofacies palaeogeography and palaeogeography, the core of which is the quantitative lithofacies palaeogeographic map. Quantity means that in the palaeogeographic map, the division and identification of each palaeogeographic unit are supported by quantitative data and quantitative fundamental maps. Our lithofacies palaeogeographic maps are quantitative or mainly quantitative. A great number of quantitative lithofacies palaeogeographic maps have been published, and articles and monographs of quantitative lithofacies palaeogeography have been published successively, thus the quantitative lithofacies palaeogeography was formed and established. It is an important development in lithofacies palaeogeography. In composing quantitative lithofacies palaeogeographic maps, the key measure is the single factor analysis and multifactor comprehensive mapping method — methodology of quantitative lithofacies palaeogeography. In this paper, the authors utilize two case studies, one from the Early Ordovician of South China and the other from the Early Ordovician of Ordos, North China, to explain how to use this methodology to compose the quantitative lithofacies palaeogeographic maps, and to discuss the palaeogeographic units in these maps. Finally, three characteristics, i.e., quantification, multiple orders and multiple types, of quantitative lithofacies palaeogeographic maps are conclusively discussed.

During latest Devonian and early Carboniferous times, calcareous foraminifers were abundant, widely distributed, and showed the most rapid rate of evolution in the shallow-sea deposits. These factors, especially their fast phylogenetic changes, make them an essential element in biostratigraphic schemes of this time interval. However, the distribution patterns of calcareous foraminifers depend on a series of biological and non-biological factors, such as population sizes, dispersion, oceanic currents and temperatures, and substrate types, which are not always well-controlled when interpreting spatial and temporal distribution patterns.

Over the last 30 years, terrestrial ichnofossil research was mostly focused on three ichnofacies: the Scoyenia ichnofacies, characterizing transitional fluvio-lacustrine environments, the Mermia ichnofacies, characterizing fully lacustrine settings, and the Termitichnus ichnofacies, characterizing terrestrial environments, especially, paleosol deposits. Specially in China, many terrestrial ichnofossils, including at least 24 ichnogenera from fluvial deposits and 59 ichnogenera from lacustrine deposits, have been found in Mesozoic and Cenozoic basins. Most of them belong to the common elements of the three ichnofacies and consist of feeding, grazing, crawling, dwelling, and resting traces and rhizoliths. Based on the composition, occurrence and distribution characteristics of trace fossils from terrestrial sedimentary basins of China, 36 ichnoassemblages have been proposed. However, the most common 12 ichnoassemblages, in which six are found in fluvial sedimentary environments from the Upper Cretaceous of the Sichuan Basin in western China and Xixia Basin in western Henan Province, include: (1) Scoyenia-Rusophycus ichnoassemblage generated in the floodplain along channels and the shallow water swales or lakes (such as oxbow lakes); (2) Skolithos-Arenicolites ichnoassemblage produced in the high energy sandy bar (heart bar or point bar) of the channel environment; (3) Gastruichnus-Palaeophycus ichnoassemblage developed in the channel-levee environment; (4) Beaconites-Taenidium ichnoassemblage occurring in the embankment (crevasse splay) sedimentary environment; (5) Beaconites-Rhizolithos ichnoassemblage appearing in the floodplain sedimentary environment, and (6) Beaconites-Scoyenia ichnoassemblage distributed in the periodically exposed overbank lake (extremely shallow lacustrine) sedimentary environments. The other six ichnoassemblages are found in lacustrine sedimentary environments: (1) Scoyenia-Skolithos ichnoassemblage always developed in periodically exposed, extremely shallow lakeshore and interdistributary bay of the lake delta plain under drought or semiarid climate conditions; (2) Palaeophycus-Arenicolites ichnoassemblage formed in the lakeshore to the upper part of the shallow lake, corresponding to the lake delta plain to delta front; (3) Planolites-Teichichnus ichnoassemblage generated in the lower part of the shallow lake, restricted lake bay or distal front delta; (4) Vagorichnus-Helminthopsis ichnoassemblage developed in the deeper lacustrine (profundal) turbidite sedimentary environment; (5) Mermoides-Neonereites ichnoassemblage occurring in the quiet deep or deeper lacustrine sedimentary environment; and (6) Semirotundichnus-Chondrites ichnoassemblage formed in even deeper lacustrine sedimentary environments with lower oxygen content.

The Middle Triassic records the return of diverse marine communities after the severe effects of the end-Permian mass extinction. This diversification leads to the Mesozoic/modern adaptive radiation resulting in substantial changes in marine communities in comparison to their Paleozoic predecessors. This analysis focuses on the faunal abundance, ecological patterns, and environmental interpretation of a Middle Triassic section in Central Nevada. Twelve bulk samples were collected. Visible fossils were identified and tallied from hand samples and thin-sections were used to aid in environmental interpretation. Beginning in the Late Anisian, we observed an ammonoid dominated to flat-clam, epifaunal dominated benthic community within a muddy, quiet, inner shelf depositional environment. Through time, epifaunal bivalves dominate within a middle shelf environment followed by an increase in infaunalization and shell-thickness. During this time the presence of oncoids and the reported finding of corals suggest the middle shelf environment gave way to a higher energy patch reef shelf edge environment. Finally, we observe epifaunal brachiopods communities at the top of our section deposited in a middle shelf environment. In sum, we observe the dominance of modern taxa (i.e., bivalves) with Paleozoic ecologies (i.e., epifaunal), followed by the dominance of modern taxa with Modern ecologies (i.e., infaunal, thick shells) and then a return to Paleozoic taxa (i.e., brachiopods) and Paleozoic ecologies within an overall transgressive environment.

The lignite deposits of Kutch, India are stratigraphically referred to the Naredi Formation and considered to be Early Eocene in age. The biostratigraphy of the older mine at Panandhro and a newly opened mine at Matanomadh has constrained the upper age limit of lignite to the early Bartonian. Its lower age may extend to the late Lutetian. Temporally the formation of lignite corresponds to the warming event of the Middle Eocene and suggests a humid climate at the onset of the warming. The previous palynological studies have already suggested dominance of tropical angiospermic pollen. A diverse assemblage of fossil whales and other vertebrates, many of them supposedly the oldest representatives, were reported from Panandhro mine. These were initially assigned to the Early Eocene and later to the Lutetian age. The present biostratigraphic study revises their age to the Early Bartonian.

Detailed zircon U-Pb dating and whole-rock geochemical analyses were carried out on the sedimentary rocks of the Paleogene Dainan Formation from Gaoyou Sag in the North Jiangsu Basin, East China. Whole-rock rare earth element characteristics suggest that the provenance was mainly from the Late Proterozoic low-grade metamorphic felsic rocks in the Dabie-Sulu orogenic belt, with the parent rocks probably being the I-type high-potassium granite gneiss. Cathodoluminescence images indicate that most of the detrital zircons are originally magmatic. A few zircons show overgrowths, indicating multiple-episode tectonic events. The U-Pb age distribution patterns of the detrital zircons suggest four main magmatic episodes in the provenance: Late Archean-Early Proterozoic (2450-2600 Ma), Early Proterozoic (1700-1900 Ma), Late Proterozoic (700-850 Ma), and Late Paleozoic-Mesozoic (100-300 Ma). These zircon U-Pb age and whole-rock geochemical results suggest that the sediments of the Dainan Formation were mainly sourced from the recycled orogenic belts within and/or around the North Jiangsu Basin, including the basement of the Yangtze Block, the Neoproterozoic rocks in the Dabie-Sulu orogenic belt, and the Mesozoic igneous rocks in the south part of Zhangbaling Uplift.