Spirematospermum is a well-known extinct zingiberalean taxon, characterized by trilocular capsules containing many distinctive, spirally striate and arillate seeds. It is frequently found and studied in European Neogene carpological floras, but is scarcely represented in East Asia floras. In this work we recognize a new fossil record of Spirematospermum wetzleri (Heer) Chandler based on the capsules and seeds from the Miocene of Weichang, Hebei Province, North China. These fossils represent the first record of the species in the Miocene of China. Fossil data indicate that Spirematospermum probably originated in the Late Cretaceous of North America or Central Europe. The genus still existed in the Paleocene of North America, but became extinct after that time. However, the genus successively survived in Europe from the Eocene to Pliocene, and flourished luxuriantly during the Oligocene to Miocene. As there was Turgai Strait between Europe and Asia during the Eocene, the genus did not spread to Central Asia and West Siberia until the strait closed in the late Eocene/early Oligocene, and further expanded eastwardly to eastern Siberia, Russia, northern China and central Japan during the Miocene, but became extinct in Asia after the Miocene. The genus contracted its distribution to Europe in the Pliocene, and afterwards it became extinct in the world.

Abundant aggregated, elongate, shallow borings have been discovered from the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation in western Liaoning, China. By contrast with several similarly-shaped trace fossils, such as Asthenopodichnium, Teredolites, Rogerella, Cubiculum and Petroxestes, their appearance, size, arranged modes, distribution density and substrate types are most similar with traces of Petroxestes that was discovered from Southern Ohio, USA (Wilson and Palmer 1988). This is the first report of Petroxestes from China, and also the first report of these traces from a terrestrial environment.

The Lower Cretaceous Guantou Formation is known as an important horizon for Cretaceous petrified wood in southern China. Though abundant Cretaceous wood remains have been found in this formation, only one species has been recognized. A new coniferous wood, Brachyoxylon zhejiangense sp. nov. is described from the Lower Cretaceous Guantou Formation in Xinchang of Zhejiang Province, southeastern China. Anatomically, the new species is characterized by obscure annual rings, mixed type of radial pitting, araucarioid cross-field pits and uniseriate xylem rays. The finding of Brachyoxylon zhejiangense sp. nov. represents the first well-defined record of Brachyoxylon in southeastern China, and enriches the diversity of Early Cretaceous petrified wood in southern China. Additionally, the finding sheds new light on further understanding the floral composition, especially the forest vegetation type of the southern phytoprovince in the late Early Cretaceous. Diverse compressed leaf fossils of Cheirolepidiaceae have been described from the Guantou Formation at the fossil locality of the present petrified wood. The co-occurrence of Brachyoxylon zhejiangense sp. nov. and cheirolepidiaceous leaf fossils provide additional evidence to support that Brachyoxylon may be systematically related to the Cheirolepidiaceae.

Pronephrium stiriacum (Unger) Knobloch et Kva?ek 1976 (Filicales, Thelypteridaceae Holttum 1971) is reported from the Oligocene Petro?ani Basin and from the Miocene Bozovici Basin in Romania. Morphological variations of this species, such as size of the leaves, venation and marginal teeth, in the Oligocene-Miocene time interval in Romania are described, discussed and illustrated. The distribution of the Thelypteridacean species Pronephrium stiriacum is also discussed regarding its European expansion during the Cenozoic. Moreover, the palaeoecology of this species is discussed based on taphonomy and occurrences, as Pronephrium stiriacum was a secondary coal generator.

A relatively small number of tetrapod tracksites from Zhejiang Province fills out the fossil record from that region,which is also known to have yielded both saurischian (titanosauriform, coelurosaur) and ornithischian (basalornithopod, ankylosaurian) body fossils as well as dinosaurian eggs. We use photogrammetry and 3D imaging toreinterpret the sauropod tracks from Lishui City, which revealed the existence of trackways. The track record fromthree documented sites in Zhejiang Province includes avian and non-avian theropod, sauropod, ornithopod andpterosaur tracks. Previous work showed that the purported new bird ichnospecies Dongyangornipes sinensis is asynonym of Uhangrichnus chuni, while we here consider Pteraichnus dongyangensis as a nomen dubium. Such“provincial ichnotaxonomy” may mask similarities in the ichnofauna across large regions. In fact, we show that theichnofauna is similar to that found in the Early Cretaceous elsewhere in China.

The computerized geochemical modeling, a useful tool to understand the diagenetic processes influencing the quality of hydrocarbon reservoirs, is performed by using different modules of computer codes based on the thermodynamic and chemical kinetic principles and their associated parameters. As observed in the reservoir lithofacies deposited from the marine sediment-gravity flows, a case study of diagenesis is presented here from the Espírito Santo Basin in southeastern Brazil. The study uses the Geochemist's Workbench (GWB^TM), PHREEQC^TM and TOUGHREACT^TM computation packages. The comparison of performances of these packages demonstrates the convergence of results from the software-based geochemical modeling with the petrographic observation of dissolution, albitization, kaolinization, and the precipitation of calcite and dolomite. Moreover, with limited data points, e.g., the sedimentary petrographic data acquired from limited number of boreholes, the computer simulation establishes itself to be a powerful quantitative method estimating the degree and type of diagenetic alteration of turbidite reservoir bodies in contact with a source of saline-water influx associated with salt tectonics. Therefore, using the limited petrographic data points, the geochemical computer-simulation method can even be utilized and extrapolated for areas where similar geological context is interpreted but no borehole data are available. Hence, porosity of turbidite reservoir lithofacies can be predicted in relation to the spatial distribution of dissolution, kaolinization, and albitization of feldspars and authigenic carbonate precipitation.