Prof. ZengeZhao Feng (also known as Z.Z. Feng or ZeZ. Feng in publications) passed away at 20:50 Hrs (Beijing Time) on 5th January, 2023 in Beijing, China. He was the Initiator of the International Society of Palaeogeography (ISP). He was also the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Palaeogeography (JoP) both English and Chinese Editions. An extensive list of his publications is included. Prof. Z.Z. Feng was a geoscientist with many talents. He was a researcher, innovator, initiator, author, editor, educator, mentor, organizer, and above all was a great human being! Even at the age of 97, just two weeks before his passing, he was full of energy and enthusiasm in screening manuscripts for the Journal of Palaeogeography. He left a great void in Journalism. We all will miss him as an iconic sedimentologist!

The present work analyzes the monotypic Taenidium barretti ichnofabric developed in abandoned channels and floodplains to understand its paleoecological significance in highly seasonal fluvial systems. The data come from the Cretaceous paleosols of the Marília Formation (Bauru Basin, SE Brazil), in which the T. barretti ichnofabric and rhizoliths represent the biotic record. Beetle larvae are considered to be the most likely T. barretti tracemakers in these paleosols. The intensity and recurrence of bioturbation suggest that the windows of opportunity for beetle population growth were very short and controlled by the progressive substrate desiccation after flood cessation. The characteristics of the trace fossil assemblage suggest soil colonization by r-strategic organisms triggered by flooding events that provided the resource inputs necessary for their living during rainy seasons. The results also show that in fluvial systems with high discharge variations, the boundaries between a "pre-desiccation suite" and a "desiccation suite" in the Scoyenia ichnofacies can be diffuse due to the short duration of colonization windows and progressive terrestrialization of floodplains and channels. Therefore, the frequency of flooding events, the lowered water table, and the rapidity of substrate desiccation constrained colonization by other burrowers and may be considered as first-order factors controlling the generation of a monotypic T. barretti ichnofabric. Thus, the monotypic Taenidium ichnofabric in the Scoyenia ichnofacies context is an ichnomarker of brief windows for colonization in highly seasonal environments.

Mammals have high dispersal ability, and many lineages can spread across the continents when a landbridge appears. Here, we summarize the dispersal of mammals between the Old and New World at the end of the Miocene. Our analysis suggested that the three phases of dispersal represented the largest dispersal tide during the Neogene, and the direction of dispersal is dominated by being from the Old to New World. Judging from the components that crossed the dispersal corridor, the Arctic environment near the Beringia corridor in the first phase (~7.5 Ma) is a mixed environment, and in the second phase (~6.5 Ma) is an open environment, and in the third phase (~5.8 Ma and continue to the Pliocene) is a wooded (closed) environment. A clear trend of eastern Asian humidification driven by Asian monsoon and the global C4 grassland expansion explain this dispersal pattern. The boost of mammalian dispersals is controlled by the heterogeneity of environmental changes in different continents.

Sheltered preservation, in which organisms are trapped within shells of cephalopods, is a well-known phenomenon. This preservational style constitutes an important source of paleontological data. Here, we report the first crinoid preserved inside the early Albian ammonite Cleoniceras besairiei Collignon from Madagascar. This crinoid is assigned to the aspidocrinid phyllocrinid (Apsidocrinus, Phyllocrinidae), and constitutes the first phyllocrinid from the African continent, the second from the southern margin of the Tethys (after New Zealand), and also from the southern hemisphere. This specimen represents the youngest occurrence of a phyllocrinid in the world as well, and constitutes one of the youngest occurrences of cyrtocrinids from shallow sea environments before predation-induced migration of the stalked crinoids to the deep sea refugia due to the so-called Mesozoic Marine Revolution. This finding highlights that ammonite shells may also be a convenient material for studying echinoderms.

Macroalga Gesinella, a carbonaceous compression, is found in the upper part of Doushantuo Formation (Ediacaran) in the Yangtze Platform of South China. Morphologically, it is composed of a thallus (including an oval or oblong lamina and a short-rod-like stipe) and a holdfast (including a cone-shaped rhizome and many filamentous rhizoids). The cone-shaped rhizome connects with the stipe and the long rhizoids grew on the rhizome, meaning that the rhizome grew downwards and inserted into the sediment, while the rhizoids grew in the gaps between the sediment grains to anchor its body on the seafloor. On the lamina, branching and/or unbranching filaments are regularly distributed, so that the oval or oblong lamina can be interpreted as a sac-like body that has been compressed. The filaments on the lamina extend from the three-dimensionally preserved stipe, suggesting that the short-rod-like stipe may have been flexible to support the sac-like body in the water column. With tissue and organ differentiations, Gesinella can be regarded as a eukaryotic macroalga and a high-level metaphyte. Based on measurement and analysis of 108 specimens, the Ediacaran macroalga Gesinella from South China can be divided into three stages: juvenile stage (<3 mm maximum width) identified with difficulty, adult stage (3-10 mm maximum width) interpreted to have grown upwards for sunlight, and senescent stage (>10 mm maximum width) that grew sideways.

The ‘man fern’ (Cibotium, Cibotiaceae), a typical tree fern of tropical and subtropical climates, is today mainly distributed in the Hawaiian Islands, Mesoamerica, and tropical and subtropical regions of East and Southeast Asia. Reliable fossil records of this genus are rare. Only two cases of stem fossils have been reported from the Upper Cretaceous of Iwate-Ken, Japan and the upper Eocene of Oregon, USA. In this paper, ultimate fertile pinna fossils of Cibotium are described from the Miocene Erzitang Formation of Guiping Basin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, South China, which also preserve in situ spores and cuticles. As the first global discovery of Cibotium pinna fossils preserving both in situ spores and cuticles, this find enriches the organ types of Cibotium fossils. This is also the first discovery of Cibotium fossils within its modern distribution range, indicating that Cibotium had migrated southwards into its modern distribution by at least the Miocene. Based on the modern habitat of Cibotium, we infer that the Guiping Basin was under a warm and humid tropical/subtropical climate in the Miocene.

This paper presents a 3D seismic-based case study from the deep-water Niger Delta Basin to investigate sedimentary-tectonic interaction on growth sequence architecture within the thrust-related intraslope or piggyback basins. Gravitational contraction in the lower continental slope had yielded a series of thrust faults and associated folds in the study area, which formed several piggyback basins. These basins were filled by a suite of growth sequences with varying stratigraphic architecture. Analysis of the 3D seismic data recognized three primary seismic facies types respectively as: convergent, draping and chaotic, which contain seven subtypes. These facies types are combined to form different filling successions for convergent or chaotic growth sequences. The convergent growth sequences mainly occur in the deep section of basin fills during strong gravitational deformation, and always began with convergent-baselapping strata succeeded by convergent-thinning strata, representing pond-to-bypass transition in the ponded-basin accommodation space. The chaotic growth sequences mainly occur in the shallow section of basin fills in response to weak gravitational deformation, and usually began with debris-flow deposits succeeded by channel-levee complexes, reflecting dominant erosion-bypass processes in the slope accommodation space. A dynamic fill-and-spill model considering relationship between episodic sedimentation rate and structural growth rate is proposed to explain the formative mechanisms of growth strata units and associated successions. Interaction between glaciation or deglaciation and sea-level change and gravitational deformation history are suggested to be the factor which resulted in the complex stratal stacking patterns, including progradational or retrogradational stacking patterns within convergent growth sequences, and progradational stacking patterns within chaotic growth sequences.

During the Ordovician-Silurian transition period, the Yangtze area experienced significant environmental changes, which were recorded by the widely distributed black shale of the Upper Ordovician Wufeng and Lower Silurian Longmaxi formations. However, the petrological and geochemical analyses of the Upper Ordovician-Lower Silurian black shale in Well JY1 (eastern Sichuan Basin) and Well YY2 (western Hubei Province) drill cores show that there are some significant differences with respect to lithology, thickness, and geochemical characteristics despite the long-term similar variation trend in petrology and geochemistry. This may suggest some major environmental changes and their differential influence on black shale deposition in the Yangtze area. Based on the analyses of lithology, total organic carbon (TOC), Mo_EF, and U_EF, four long-term sedimentary cycles (one for the Wufeng Formation and three for the Longmaxi Formation) were identified in Well JY1. In Well YY2, only three long-term sedimentary cycles can be recognized (one for the Wufeng Formation and two for the Longmaxi Formation). Different from the gradual increase of the geochemical proxies (such as TOC, Mo_EF, and Ni_EF) followed by an abrupt decrease in the Wufeng Formation, these proxies of the Silurian sedimentary cycles in both wells exhibit an abrupt increase at the base followed by a gradual decrease, showing that controlling mechanisms for the Lower Silurian black shale deposition in the study areas were different from those of the Upper Ordovician black shale. However, the black shale of each Silurian cycle in Well JY1 is much thicker than that in Well YY2. Compared with the thick silty mudstone developed in Well JY1 during the Rhuddanian-Aeronian transition, there is a stratigraphic gap in Well YY2 except for a thin calcareous dolostone formed in a strongly restricted environment. These differences indicate that tectonism and glacial eustasy should be the key factors for black shale development, but their influences on the deposition of the Lower Silurian black shale varied between eastern Sichuan Basin and western Hubei province. Since the early Rhuddanian stage, continuous tectonic subsidence in eastern Sichuan Basin promoted the development of thick black shale, while a persistent tectonic uplift in western Hubei Province led to the formation of thin black shale. Meanwhile, the study areas experienced a significant sea-level drop related to intensified glaciation during the Rhuddanian-Aeronian transition, which is recorded by the low chemical index of alteration (CIA) values in both wells. This resulted in the formation of a stratigraphic gap in western Hubei Province and the deposition of thick silty mudstone in eastern Sichuan Basin. Moreover, abrupt increases in CIA, TOC, Mo_EF, and Ni_EF observed in the lower part of the Aeronian black shale in the two wells suggest that eastern Sichuan Basin and western Hubei Province experienced a significant sea-level rise during the early Aeronian stage, which may be related to a global warming event. Subsequently, eastern Sichuan Basin and western Hubei Province both suffered a significant tectonic uplift related to the Kwangsian Movement leading to the termination of the Aeronian black shale formation. However, the thickness variations of the Aeronian black shale in the two study areas indicate that remarkable geomorphological differences persisted in these two areas until the middle Aeronian stage. Thus, this study not only reveals differences of the Upper Ordovician-Lower Silurian black shale in eastern Sichuan Basin and western Hubei Province, but also interprets the causes of these differences, which provide new data and perspectives for the understanding of global paleoclimate and sea-level changes during the Ordovician-Silurian transition.

The Dabie Orogenic Belt, located in east-central China, is known for the greatest outcrop area of the ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic rocks in the world and is typical for studying deep continental subduction and continent-continent collision. However, since lower-grade metamorphic rock occurrence in the core of the ultrahigh-pressure terrane was reported, it has become a new point of concern. This study reported new results. The so-called lower-grade metamorphic rocks are divided into sedimentary rocks and meta-volcanics. The sedimentary rocks consist mainly of fine-grained turbidites formed under an anoxic deep-water lacustrine basin. Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry U-Pb detrital zircon dating indicates that their maximum deposit age is 119.0±1.1 Ma belonging to the mid-Cretaceous Aptian. U-Pb detrital zircon ages from the sedimentary rocks cluster in three age groups: 1) 2773.8-1550.0 Ma (45.0%); 2) 868.8-622.3 Ma (23.0%); 3) 147.0-100.0 Ma (31.5%). And the provenance and tectonic settings of these sedimentary rocks are discussed by synthesizing U-Pb detrital zircon ages, initial Hf isotope ratios, and trace elements of the zircons. Source rocks of the first group were mainly composed of the Paleoproterozoic basement derived from the reworking of the Paleoarchean-Neoarchean Yangtze continental crust. For the second group, its source rocks consisted of Neoproterozoic volcanics mainly from an island arc system, which derived from the reworking of older continental crust in the northern Yangtze Block. The third group's source rocks were chiefly composed of Cretaceous rift igneous rocks derived from the derivation through melting of middle-aged continental crust in the Dabie Orogenic Belt. The meta-volcanics have weighted mean U-Pb ages from 751.0±16 Ma to 786.3±5.9 Ma, and their protoliths formed under a Middle Neoproterozoic island arc system in the northern Yangtze Block. The meta-volcanics underwent a Triassic subduction of different depths and then an exhumation, but the sedimentary rocks did not. The findings suggest that the ultrahigh-pressure terrane had suffered violent subsidence during the mid-Cretaceous, and a four-stage evolution model of the Dabie Orogenic Belt was established accordingly.