Shuzhong Shen

Academician Nanjing University

Shen Shuzhong is a leading paleontologist whose work has reshaped understanding of Permian–Triassic Earth history. He established continuous bio-, chemo-, and lithostratigraphic records across the Permian–Triassic boundary in southern Tibet—part of Gondwana’s northern margin—challenging the long-held view that Middle to Upper Permian strata were missing in the region. By comparing faunas from southern Tibet with those along the Yarlung Zangbo Suture Zone, he demonstrated fundamental differences between these blocks and the Lhasa Terrane, arguing that the Neo-Tethys Ocean had already opened by the Middle Permian. His systematic studies span brachiopod and conodont faunas from over ten countries. He led the creation of a global Carboniferous–Triassic brachiopod database, enabling reconstructions of paleobiogeography, biodiversity dynamics, and marine benthic ecosystem evolution, and linking pre-Lopingian extinction events to global sea-level regression and habitat loss. In research on the end-Permian mass extinction, Shen and collaborators integrated high-resolution geochronology, quantitative biodiversity analysis, and geochemical proxies to show the extinction’s synchrony and abruptness on land and in the oceans, attributing it primarily to environmental catastrophes triggered by massive volcanic activity.