First Announcement

Triassic and Later Marine Vertebrate Symposium, Guanling, China

August 28-29, 2010, followed by field trips

Guanling County, Guizhou Province, China will host a symposium on marine vertebrates (Aug. 28-29, 2010).  It will be followed by a field trip to Triassic marine reptile localities in southwest Guizhou and east Yunnan.

Guanling is known for its lower Carnian (Upper Triassic) marine fossils, including large marine reptiles. It is fresh to our memory that the oldest turtle Odontochelys, from Guanling, surprised the world late last year with its toothed jaws and half-complete shell—only the bottom shell (plastron) existed. Other marine reptiles inlcude large ichthyosaurs that reached 10 m, as well as thalattosaurs and armored placodonts.

 

The first circular of the meeting is available here.  Please let us know of your preliminary interest in attending this symposium by using a web form, or sending a form that is attached to the first circular by email or snail mail.

Location of Guanling: Yellow house symbol represents Guanling.  Blue airplane symbols indicate the airports that you would likely go through.

Place: Guanling Hotel

Registration Fee: 500 RMB (about $75).

Sponsors: Anshun City; Department of Land and Resources, Guizhou Province; Peking University

Secretariat: Gao, Yin-ping; Jiang, Da-yong.

Preliminary Session Topics:

  • Triassic ichthyosaurs from Guizhou in comparison with European and American forms
  • Diversity, evolution and paleogeography of Triassic marine reptiles
  • Evolution and paleogeography of Triassic fishes
  • Triassic marine reptile Faunas of Guizhou and their stratigraphy
  • Evolution of marine reptiles after the Triassic

Preliminary Forum Topic:

  • National geopark development and travel industry

Travel Arrangements: Arrangements will be made to transport international attendees from the Guiyang Airport (KWE) to the Guanling Hotel; i.e., you do not have to worry about ground transportation.  You are responsible for flying to Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou Province.  It is as easy as transferring once at Beijing (PEK) or Shanghai (SHA)–you may easily purchase such tickets through online venders, such as Travelocity and Expedia.  It would probably be least expensive if you go through SHA and purchase the international and Chinese tickets separately

Field Trips

August 30-September 2?

Field trip plans are still in development.  The following four options are being considered:

  • Option 1: Day trip to Guanling National Geological Park (Carnian)
  • Option 2: Run-through of Triassic stratigraphy and marine vertebrate fossil localities in Guizhou Province.  Including  visits to Huangguoshu Waterfall (National Park), Huajiang Canyon and Dragon Palace.
  • Option 3: Trip to Keichousaurus Museum in Dingxiao and Wusha Geopark (Ladinian).  Including a visit to Malinghe Canyon (National Park).
  • Option 4: Trip to Luoping (Yunnan Province) and Panxian (Guizhou Province), where the Anisian is exposed.  Triassic stratigraphy in  Yunnan Province

Please let us know which option may be most appealing to you.  Below are the maps for these localities and some photographs.

Possible field trip destinations: This link will let you download a KLM file that can be imported into GoogleEarth.

Photographs

Huangguoshu Waterfall (Yellow Fruit Tree Waterfall) near Guanling: The largest waterfall in Asia.

Huangguoshu

 

Wanfenglin (Forest of ten thousand peaks) in Xingyi City

Wanfenglin

 

 

Malinghe Gorge (Horse bell river Gorge) near Dingxiao

Malinghe

 

Wumengosaurus from Xinmin, Panxian

 

Hill Locality in Yangjuan, Xinmin, Panxian–now protected.

Hillsite

 

Fish fossil exposed at one of the localities in Luoping

fish

 

Looking for fallen fossils in Luoping

Luoping