The Qaidam Basin is a key area for understanding the paleoenvironmental and faunal history of the Tibetan Plateau. The fossil schizothoracine fish, Hsianwenia wui, evolved extraordinarily thickened bones to adapt to the aridification of the Qaidam Basin during the Pliocene. However, the nature of the bone thickening itself remains elusive. To promote the further investigation of the physiological mechanism of the pachyostosis and the phylogenetic interrelationships of Hsianwenia and all relevant cyprinids, here we present a comprehensive morphological study of Hsianwenia. We have new information on the anterior part of the cranial cavity, a large supraneural 3 in the Weberian apparatus, numerous procurrent caudal fin rays supported by the preural centrum (Pu) 5, and a neural arch on Pu2. We also find the differentiated pattern of the bone-thickening: the pachyostosis exists in the endoskeleton but not in the dermal skeleton; it is more obvious in ventral bones than in dorsal ones, when the thickening is present in the dorsally and ventrally grouped endoskeletal bones (e.g., the epineural and epipleural intermuscular bones). Considering the integrity of musculoskeletal system manipulating the chewing activities, we suspect that the thickened pharyngeal jaws and the hard food processing might be associated with the unique hind protrusion (cleithral “humeral” process) of the dermal pectoral girdle of Hsianwenia.

File naming and required software

This data includes the PDF of the original paper and the illustrations of the original resolution paper (including fossils, strata and phylogenetic trees, etc.), which can be directly cited by authorization

Data Citations Data citation guideline What's data citation?

Cite as:

Wu, F. (2021). Revisit of Hsianwenia wui (Cyprinidae: Schizothoracinae) from the Pliocene of Qaidam Basin. A Big Earth Data Platform for Three Poles, DOI: 10.19615/j.cnki.2096-9899.211026. (Download the reference： RIS | Bibtex )

Using this data, the data citation is required to be referenced and the related literatures are suggested to be cited.

References literature

1.Bi, D.R., Wu, F.X., Wang, N., Zhang, M.M., & Fang, G.Y. (2021). Revisit of Hsianwenia wui (Cyprinidae: Schizothoracinae) from the Pliocene of Qaidam Basin. Vertebrata PalAsiatica. DOI: 10.19615/j.cnki.2096-9899.211026 (View Details )

Support Program

Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition Program

Copyright & License

To respect the intellectual property rights, protect the rights of data authors, expand services of the data center, and evaluate the application potential of data, data users should clearly indicate the source of the data and the author of the data in the research results generated by using the data (including published papers, articles, data products, and unpublished research reports, data products and other results). For re-posting (second or multiple releases) data, the author must also indicate the source of the original data.

License： This work is licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)