果实、种子化石研究（古果实学）是古植物学领域的重要组成部分，其在欧洲和北美发展成熟，但在国内相对薄弱。最近，申请人在云南鹤庆的晚上新世三营组地层中发现了大量果实、种子化石。这些化石具有三维立体结构，表面具有精美纹饰，且类群丰富，其中许多是草本植物，是国内果实、种子化石研究不可多得的材料。本项目拟系统采集果实、种子化石，利用形态学、微形态学和解剖学等分类性状，准确鉴定化石，从而认识植物群的区系组成，分析群落结构，重建古植被，并利用共存分析法定量重建古气候，讨论古植被和古气候的演变。本项目将着重研究该植物群的草本植物多样性，以此为例，探讨横断山地区晚上新世草本植物多样性的兴起和以草本植物为重要成分的植被类型的出现，并结合古气候和古环境，讨论草本植物多样性的兴起与气候、环境背景的关联。

The study of fossil fruits and seeds (fossil carpology) is one of the key research areas in palaeobotany. It is well developed in European and North American countries, but has attracted much less attention in China. Recently, we found plenty of fossil fruits and seeds from the Sanying Formation of late Pliocene at Heqing County in northwestern Yunnan Province. These fossil fruits and seeds are three-dimensionally preserved and have diagnostic sculptures on the surface. Notably, they display a considerable diversity in taxa which include several herbaceous species. This is one of the few findings of fruit and seed fossil floras in China, and may give a good opportunity to conduct fossil carpological research.. In this project, we will collect abundant fossil fruits and seeds to cover almost all fossil taxa the flora may have, and then examine the fossils in morphology, surface micromorphology and anatomy, in order to identify them correctly and reliably. Based on the revealed floristic composition, we will interpret the palaeovegetation on the basis of the ecological features and growth forms of the taxa, and reconstruct its palaeoclimate by using the quantitative approach namely Coexistence Approach (CA). We will particularly focus on the diversity of herbaceous species in this flora and try to establish a new vegetation type from the late Pliocene of the Hengduan Mountains, which has herbaceous plants as its important elements. The correlation between the late Pliocene rise of herbaceous richness and palaeoenvironment will be looked at as well.