Discovery of a new vertebrate fauna of Late Permian from western Gansu and its stratigraphic significance

摘要

In 1981, the working group for continental Permian and Triassic sequences from the Institute of Geology, Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources, and Gansu Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources under Gansu Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources made an investigation on the Permian and Triassic strata and found some vertebrate fossils. The three-time excavations in 1981, 1982 and 1985 proved that Dashankou of Yumen is a good locality for studying Late Permian vertebrates. During 1991--1992, two large-scale excavations were made. Up to now, half of our materials from that locality have been repaired and studied. Our preliminary results show that this vertebrate fauna has a close affinity to those of the Late Permian II zone of Russian Platform and of the Eodicynodon zone newly established in South Africa.