Jih-Pai Lin Post Doctoral Associate Email Me Office: ESC 274 Phone: (203) 432-8744 Research Interests: My research goals focus on understanding the early evolution of two important invertebrate clades: arthropods and echinoderms, and the origination and sustainability of marine benthic communities through time. By understanding the taphonomic aspects, including necrolysis, entombment processes, and fossil-diagenesis, we can understand how those exceptionally preserved arthropods once lived, died, and were buried in the fossil record. Although the exact taxonomic affinities of many Cambrian taxa are still uncertain at best, my research focuses on a few key species, including Skania, Naraoia, Burgessia, and Phytophilasphis, that provide clue about the origins of trilobites, crustaceans, and chelicerates. Based on new material from South China, my colleagues and I have published series of papers on the taphonomy and ecology of Cambrian stalked echinoderms. Important results include: 1) determining the main elemental concentrations responsible for the variety of coloration on gogiid echinoderms in the siliciclastic settings; 2) documenting the preservation of soft-parts and skeletal microstructures in articulated gogiids; 3) interpreting some selective disarticulation patterns due to infaunal activities; and most significantly, 4) proposing that gogiids and helicoplacoids, which are the most enigmatic echinoderms known, shared the same biologic grade - binding skeletal plates with undifferentiated mesodermal connective tissue. The unique aspect of the Cambrian-Precambrian transition is that most of the modern phyla have evolved or can be traced to that critical time and most of modern animal classes are fully established by the Ordovician. Thus, we can test known hypotheses on evolutionary ecology based on the new information we gathered around the beginning of the fossil record. One idea is that the dynamic interactions among principle ecologic members were already existed among Cambrian deposits of exceptional preservation based on my work on Kaili Biota (see http://hdl.handle.net/1811/24227). I would like to test it further with other major deposits in the early fossil record. I collaborate with the following Ediacaran and/or Cambrian colleagues on the evolution of early life. USA: W.I. Ausich & L.E. Babcock (The Ohio State University); S.M. Gon, III (The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii). China: Y.-L. Zhao & J. Peng (Guizhou University); J.-L. Yuan (Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences); S.-X. Hu (Yunnan Institute of Geological Science); X.-L. Zhang (Northwest University). Taiwan: C.-W. Li (National Tsing Hwa University); Y.-K. Hwu (Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica). Russia: A. Ivantsov (Paleontological Institute). UK: A. C. Scott (Royal Holloway University of London at Egham). Australia: J.G. Gehling (South Australian Museum) Selected Publication(s): Lin, J.-P., Gon, S. M., III, Gehling, J. G., Babcock, L. E., Zhao, Y.-L., Zhang, X.-L., Hu, S.-X., Yuan, J.-L., Yu, M.-Y. & Peng, J. 2006 A Parvanocrina-like arthropod from Cambrian strata of South China. Historical Biology 18, 22-45. Lin, J.-P., Scott, A. C., Li, C.-W., Wu, H.-J. & Ausich, W. I. 2006 Silicified egg clusters from a Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale-type deposit, Guizhou, south China. Geology 34, 1037-1040. Lin, J.-P., Ausich, W. I., Zhao, Y.-L. & Peng, J. 2008 Taphonomy, palaeoecological implications, and colouration of Cambrian gogiid echinoderms from Guizhou Province, South China. Geological Magazine 145, 17-36. Lin, J.-P. 2008 From a Fossil Assemblage to a Paleoecological Community: Time, Organism and Environment based on the Kaili Lagerstatte (Cambrian), South China and Coeval Deposits of Exceptional Preservation. Saarbrucken: VDM Verlag Dr. Muller, 412p. ISBN: 9783639101089 Lin, J.-P. 2009 Function and hydrostatics in the telson of the Burgess Shale arthropod Burgessia. Biology Letters. Doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2008.0740