Study on the Jehol Biota: Recent advances and future prospects

The Jehol Biota is an Early Cretaceous terrestrial fossil assemblage of paramount significance, and its core distribution areas are western Liaoning, northern Hebei, and southeastern Inner Mongolia. Despite with a research history of more than 150 years, it started yielding important fossils until early 1990s, which include feathered dinosaurs, early birds, early mammals, flower-visiting insects, and early angiosperms. These discoveries have implications for understanding the origins and early evolution of several major organismal groups, as well as the origin and initial formation of modern terrestrial ecosystem. This review presents a brief introduction of the major discoveries, research history, and current understanding of this biota, and also provides future prospects for studying the Jehol Biota.