ANOM Lab in China – Inaugural Meeting of the International Joint Laboratory

Members of the ANOM Lab recently visited Kunming, China to attend the Inaugural Meeting of the Ministry for Education and China (MEC) International Joint Laboratory for Palaeobiology and Palaeoenvironment. The ANOM Lab is honoured and delighted to be collaborating with the Yunnan Key Laboratory for Palaeobiology, and we thoroughly enjoyed this important first meeting of minds, as we explore our future research efforts together.

Francesc Perez Peris, Pierre Gueriau, and Lorenzo Lustri started the trip by attending three field excursions to important paleontological localities near Kunming: the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary at Meishucun, the Jurassic Lufeng Dinosaur Valley, and the Chengjiang Biota museums located in the Chengjiang city and over the site of the first fossil discoveries in Miaotanshan.

Allison Daley joined them on 8 and 9 December, for the academic sessions of talks and posters. We enjoyed hearing about the newest paleontological research coming out of the YKLP, as well as from numerous international guests. Pierre Gueriau spoke about advanced chemical imaging methods, that shed light on early arthropod evolution, and Allison Daley presented ANOM Lab research on the early evolution of arthropods during the Cambrian Explosion. We wrapped up our trip to China by working on fossil specimens at the YKLP and at the Chengjiang Fossil Site museum, with our colleagues Greg Edgecombe and Peiyun Cong. In particular, we thank Peiyun for hosting using during our fantastic stay in China!