Establishment Of Amber Fossil Database And Evolutionary Analysis Of Representative Taxa

Earth is a complex four-dimensional dynamic system,and the evolution of life is preserved in geologic records that are information-rich but incomplete,spanning over 4.5billion years.How many species are there on Earth? How do organisms evolve? Why were there species explosions and mass extinctions? It can be seen that studying the evolution and ecology of animals and plants during this critical period in Earth’s history plays an important role in understanding the formation of modern biodiversity.Fossils serve as compelling evidence in paleontological research,but currently,various types of fossil evidence are still very rare.Therefore,it is essential to conduct scientific data collection and protective analysis of fossils.With the in-depth exploration of the mid-Cretaceous amber deposits,many new species from an amber biota buried at plate junctions in Southeast Asia has been discovered.These amber fossils preserve exquisite surface and internal features and can be digitally replicated as visual resources,thus filling the gap of high-precision Mesozoic fossil data from low latitudes.This project summarized 208 paleontological databases,optimized 2D and 3D data collection techniques,and established an integrated database framework of biodiversity of amber fossils in key geological history periods.More than 37,400 amber fossil specimens were sorted and reviewed,and at least 890 new taxa of plant fossils and 670 new taxa of insect fossils were discovered.High-precision conversion of approximately 600 amber fossils into digital models,and collection of online resources such as more than 1,000 publications and more than 50,000 specimen photos were completed.Currently,the database contains approximately 416,000 pictures and over 100 models,totaling about 630 GB of data;among them,about 92% are plant-related data,about 7% are animal-related data,and about 1% are other.Taking 17 groups(327 specimens)of these amber fossils as examples,this project demonstrates the application and typical results of the database in exploring biodiversity hotspots and representative taxa,yielding the following findings: 1)database based 2D image and 3D model identification of the oldest extant flowers and evidence of fire as an important driver of early angiosperm evolution;2)database based morphological analysis and publications label pointing to discover the early symbiotic relationship between ectomycorrhizal mycorrhizal fungi and angiosperms;3)revision of misidentified amber fossils based significance analysis function of the database.It can be seen that the integration and analysis of the above data are valuable for studies on biological evolution,interactions,and ecological pattern assessment,and provide an accurate source for downstream work on AI taxonomic identification of amber fossils and the construction of macroevolutionary models.