The terrestrial end-Permian mass extinction in the paleotropics postdates the marine extinction.

The end-Permian mass extinction was the most severe ecological event during the Phanerozoic and has long been presumed contemporaneous across terrestrial and marine realms with global environmental deterioration triggered by the Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province. We present high-precision zircon U-Pb geochronology by the chemical abrasion-isotope dilution-thermal ionization mass spectrometry technique on tuffs from terrestrial to transitional coastal settings in Southwest China, which reveals a protracted collapse of the Cathaysian rainforest beginning after the onset of the end-Permian marine extinction. Integrated with high-resolution geochronology from coeval successions, our results suggest that the terrestrial extinction occurred diachronously with latitude, beginning at high latitudes during the late Changhsingian and progressing to the tropics by the early Induan, spanning a duration of nearly 1 million years.

HDL-cholesterol concentration and its association with coronary artery calcification: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Coronary artery calcification (CAC) is a potential risk marker of coronary atherosclerosis that has high specificity and sensitivity. However, the association between high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) concentration and CAC incidence and progression is controversial.

Methods: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Scopus were systematically searched to identify relevant observational studies up to March 2023 and assessed the methodological quality using Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) scale.

Community service-based preventive dental education for elementary school-aged children.

Objectives: The effectiveness of one-to-one preventive dental education provided by dental undergraduate students for improving elementary school-aged children's oral self-care skills, diet-related knowledge, and diet behavior was tested.

Methods: The sample consisted of 106 children between the ages of 5 and 12 years who attended the same school. Oral self-care skills were assessed by undergraduate dental students using a tooth-brushing assessment form, and diet knowledge and behaviors by means of a questionnaire.

Calibrating the zenith of dinosaur diversity in the Campanian of the Western Interior Basin by CA-ID-TIMS U-Pb geochronology.

The spectacular fossil fauna and flora preserved in the Upper Cretaceous terrestrial strata of North America's Western Interior Basin record an exceptional peak in the diversification of fossil vertebrates in the Campanian, which has been termed the 'zenith of dinosaur diversity'. The wide latitudinal distribution of rocks and fossils that represent this episode, spanning from northern Mexico to the northern slopes of Alaska, provides a unique opportunity to gain insights into dinosaur paleoecology and to address outstanding questions regarding faunal provinciality in connection to paleogeography and climate. Whereas reliable basin-wide correlations are fundamental to investigations of this sort, three decades of radioisotope geochronology of various vintages and limited compatibility has complicated correlation of distant fossil-bearing successions and given rise to contradictory paleobiogeographic and evolutionary hypotheses.

Sustained and intensified lacustrine methane cycling during Early Permian climate warming.

Lakes are a major emitter of the atmospheric greenhouse gas methane (CH); however, their roles in past climate warming episodes remain poorly understood owing to a scarcity of geological records. Here we report the occurrence of sustained and intensified microbial CH cycling in paleo-Lake Junggar in northwestern China, one of the largest known Phanerozoic lakes, during Early Permian climate warming. High-precision U-Pb geochronology refines the age of the upper Lucaogou Formation to the Artinskian, which marks a major glacial-to-postglacial climate transition.