Fallback foods (FBF), categorized into staple and filler types, are suboptimal food sources chosen by animals in response to a scarcity of preferred food items during specific periods. Using lichens as FBF by Yunnan snub‐nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus bieti) represents a distinctive ecological adaptation and evolutionary development within nonhuman primates. This study delves into the annual dietary choices of the species to address issues, elucidate the nutritional value, and understand the ecological significance of lichens for this primate species, which resides at the highest altitudes and experiences the coldest weather among global primates. The findings reveal that the lichens consumed by the monkeys serve as the staple FBF, with Bryoria spp. and Usnea longissima being the primary dietary species. The former is the preferred choice, providing higher digestible fiber (neutral detergent fiber) levels but lower tannin, fat, ADF, and energy levels. During the dry season, lichens dominate as the monkeys' primary food and nutritional resources. In the wet season, they act as a fundamental food selection rather than an ideal dietary choice, substituting nutrients from fruits, seeds, and leaves. Compared to other Asian colobine counterparts, this species exhibits the highest lichen consumption but the lowest proportions of leaves, flowers, and seeds. This study provides valuable evidence and information for developing or amending conservation strategies and guidelines for the dietary management of captive breeding of monkeys, one of the world's critically endangered primate species.

Retrospective reconstruction of animals' evolutionary development and geographic changes in recent history, as well as monitoring contemporary conservation status, are critical to amending existing conservation strategies. This study presents an innovative effort, as demonstrated by the Sichuan golden monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana) in China. We studied their fossil distribution patterns during the Pleistocene, explored historical distribution changes over the last 400 years, and surveyed 27 nature reserves where they dwell. The results indicate that this species successfully dispersed from Southwest China to the rest of the mainland of East Asia along the Yangtze and Pearl Rivers, reaching Taiwan during the Pleistocene, which marked the broadest geographic distribution in its evolutionary history. Unfortunately, its population began to shrink during the Holocene, leaving it currently restricted to the provinces of Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi, and Hubei in China. Accordingly, we proposed four conservation strategies to amend its conservation status.

Vertically exploring the animals’ biodiversity and distribution change trajectories and horizontally demonstrating their association with the existing floral structures are critically required to integrally analyze their biodiversity changes and predict their future survival trends. Here, we study the distribution of amphibian fossils since the Paleozoic and their extant taxa in China. They have been regarded as very sensitive to environmental changes and ecologically fragile. We also explore their association with vascular and nonvascular plants. The results indicate that amphibians appeared in the Late Paleozoic in Northern China, currently Xinjiang, Ningxia, Gansu, and Henan provinces. Their dispersion and radiation during the Mesozoic period were from three isolated centers. A future development during the Cenozoic was toward South and Southwest China. Southwest and coastal regions are major biodiversity‐bearing areas, corresponding to abundant vascular and nonvascular floral structures. They, however, rely more on vascular plants that present the most extraordinary biodiversity index and the most outstanding national repositories in Southwest China. Thus, the conservation strategies for amphibians in China must prioritize the region, especially Yunnan and Sichuan, as well as the coastal region. Avoiding further human disruption is a conservation policy in the central region, and less investment in the northwest and northeast, where amphibian biodiversity and distribution have met a bottleneck due to further desertification of the environment and ecology.

Understanding how ecological and environmental changes, anthropogenic activities, and climate have driven and will direct animals’ development and predicting their prospective distribution profiles in the Quaternary are essential to making a tangible conservation strategy. Macaques ( Macaca ) distributed in mainland East Asia provide an ideal research model for such an effort. We reconstruct macaques’ geographic distribution profiles during the Quaternary, from the last inter-glaciation (LIG, 120,000 - 140,000 years BP), the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 22,000 years BP), and the present (1970-2000) – based on which we deduce their perspective distribution in the 2050s. The results show their suitable habitats during LIG and LGM were mainly in Southwest, Central, and Coastal China. A noticeable distribution reduction started in LIG and persisted until the current (1970-2000). Their distribution centroid would shift northward to mountainous regions, mainly in Southwest China, where more migration corridors would be reserved for their future development. Also, the results indicate that China’s Protected Area currently does not cover more than 87% of macaques’ habitats, a dismal situation for their conservation. Finally, this study proclaims that the conservation priority of the macaques in the years to come should focus on Southwest China – their future refuge region in Quaternary.