NEOGENE MAMMALIAN BIOSTRATIGRAPHY IN CHINA:PAST,PRESENT,AND FUTURE

Research in the biostrahgraphy of Cenozoic terrestrial deposits was one of the first organized programs in paleontology of the Geological Survey of China. Neogene fossil occurrences were placed in relative temporal order through a unique union of geomorphological and paleontological research. By the end of the 1930's the broad outline of late Neogene physical and biological events in north China and their correlahon through the fossil record with the International Geological Time Scale had been effected. Extension of these methodologies into other parts of China were confounded by local conditions, and by mid-century this research program was discontinued. The past two decades have seen a resurgence of efforts to establish the temporal sequence of Cenozoic faunas in China and their calibration by correlation with established biochronologies in Europe.Great distance and spans of marked endemism of the Chinese fauna have hndted such comparisons, thereby necessitating consideration of other chronological strategies. The rarety of materials for radioisotopic dating in the continental Cenozoic strata of China has shifted attention to magnetostratigraphy as a practical tool in local and regional correlation and, aided by biochronology, as a means of calibration through reference to the Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale (GPTS). Examples are provided of the methodology as applied to the biostratigraphy of latest Miocene through Pliocene sediments of the Yushe Basin, central Shanxi. The methodology shows considerable promise in future application to older Neogene (and Paleogene) strata yielding more precisely delimited biochronologies and age determinations for the containing strata.