(Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 2 10008)

Six seminars were held in this subject area. Among them, the report of the symposium on "Palaeogeography and Reconstruction of Ancient Continental" (Chairman: Jin Yugan, A.M. Ziegler) covers a wide range of topics from Ordovician to Miocene. However, the Permian world is the central topic of the seminar. In the 2 1 report, 12 report expounds the newly established Permian continental reconstruction, climate and biogeographic pattern, and the extinction model at the end of Permian, which provides useful basic information for understanding the mystery of pan-continental evolution.

Organized a symposium on "global extinction and its recovery in geological history" with 335 international geological related projects (moderators: Douglas H.Erwin, A.Hal-lam, Hao Yichun). The report on coal-forming vacancy period, coral vacancy period and possible deviation of geological record preservation puts forward new ideas for the slow recovery after the extinction at the end of Permian.

Like previous geological congresses, this congress also organized a seminar on "Paleocommunities in Geological Period" (hosts: A.J.Boucot, D.L.Bruton and Chen). This seminar * * * received 53 abstracts and arranged 24 reports. The contents of the report are novel and diverse, showing a strong interest in comprehensive paleoecological analysis of fossils and various geological applications.

A total of papers 18 (chairman: P.Crimes, C.G.Maples, Wu Xiantao) were published in the seminar on "Burials, Trace Fossils and Specially Preserved Fossils", most of which discussed trace fossils and well-preserved fossils.

There are four reports in the seminar "Evolution of Marine Vertebrates" hosted by Zhang Miman. The seminar was quite successful, and the relatively small scale of the meeting prompted the participants to express many important opinions.

The symposium "Evolution of calcareous algae, stromatolites and mud mounds and their environmental significance" (Chairman: R.Riding and Zhu Shixing) was supported by 380 items of the International Geological Correlation Plan. The report of the seminar reflects the growing interest in the study of in-situ microcrystalline limestone and microbial deposition.

Finally, the editor is deeply grateful to the experts who reviewed this volume, including A.J. Bookot, P. Crime, B. Leinisto, R. Reading and Dr. J. Udine.