Amber first became relatively abundant and widespread in the geological record during the Cretaceous period. It originated often as copious resin production by a variety of incompletely understood coniferous trees, generally under humid climates, but not excluding seasonal aridity. Study of insect and other organic inclusions only commenced in the twentieth century, but has expanded considerably since then, with several thousand taxa now described. Cretaceous amber insects can be exquisitely preserved in three dimensions, although tend to be biased towards smaller individuals that lived in the local forest environment. They are therefore complemented by the Cretaceous rock record, which sampled larger insects and other habitats. As well as the fine morphological detail exhibited by the amber insect inclusions, various behaviours and interactions unlikely to be otherwise preserved can be found frozen in time, such as brooding behaviour and the entrapment of insects in spiders’ webs. Insects in amber also provide important information about evolutionary changes over the course of the Cretaceous, including the rise of eusociality and angiosperm pollination.

Fossil tiger beetles are scarce. Here we describe a new tiger beetle species, Hujia gongi sp. nov., from mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber. The new specimen is attributable to the family Cicindelidae due to sickle-shaped mandibles, elongated prothorax, slender ambulatory legs and the ratios of BW: TL and IL: TL. It is the second species of the genus from the same location that can be distinguished from its congener by its larger size, slightly forward-tapering head and broadened tarsomeres of the prothoracic leg, demonstrating male characteristics and potentially greater predation ability. The new taxon represents the fourth definite Mesozoic record of Cicindelidae.

The Fungal Growth Optimizer (FGO) is a nature-inspired metaheuristic that simulates fungal colony behaviors, but its exploitation phase can lose search diversity when guidance is dominated by limited peer or global-best information. In this paper, we propose an enhanced variant called the Comprehensive Learning Fungal Growth Optimizer (CLFGO). We integrate a conditionally activated Comprehensive Learning (CL) strategy into the FGO framework. When a candidate solution stagnates, the strategy constructs a dimension-specific learning exemplar. This mechanism allows each dimension to learn from the personal best of a different peer, extending the original fungal growth model. CLFGO is therefore intended for high-dimensional, multimodal, hybrid, and composition landscapes in which the original FGO is prone to diversity loss, rather than as a universal replacement for all problem classes. This approach improves population diversity and reduces the risk of premature convergence. We evaluated CLFGO on 29 CEC2017 benchmark functions at 30 dimensions against nine metaheuristics under the same maximum-function-evaluation budget. CLFGO achieved the lowest mean error on 21 of 29 functions and attained a Friedman average rank of 1.5517. Furthermore, we applied CLFGO to a reservoir production optimization problem, where it obtained a mean Net Present Value of $9.97\times {10}^8$ USD, outperforming the compared algorithms in both solution accuracy and convergence stability.

A tiger beetle, Pronotocindis liui gen. et sp. nov., is described based on a well-preserved specimen from mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber. This specimen can be assigned to the tribe Megacephalini on the basis of the following characteristics in combination: broad mandibles, the ratios of width of basal area: total length (0.42), incisor tooth length: total length (0.38) and terebral length: total length (0.59), absence of the latero-marginal seta on both sides of labrum and forward protruding pronotum. It can be distinguished from other genera of the tribe mainly by its robust and short mandibles, flat labrum with dentate anterior margin and mandibular groove with no setae present. The enormous compound eyes indicate its diurnal predatory habits. This specimen provides valuable Mesozoic amber evidence for Megacephalini in Asia, confirming the tribe’s presence across the continent in the Cretaceous.

Deeply buried carbonate strata have been recognized as significant exploration targets in recent decades. Great breakthroughs have been found in dolostones of the Lower Cambrian Xiaoerbulake Formation in the northern Tarim Basin, which shed light on global petroleum prospecting in deep Cambrian strata. However, sedimentary architectures of favorable hydrocarbon reservoirs within the Xiaoerbulake Formation remain unclear, hindering further exploration work in this region. In this study, a combination of petrographic, sequence stratigraphic, and C-O-Sr isotopic analysis was conducted for Cambrian dolomites intersected by ultra-deep drill-holes TS5, LT1, and YS2, in order to characterize the depositional architecture of the Xiaoerbulake Formation and infer favorable targets for petroleum exploration. Four high-frequency sequence stratigraphic units are identified within the Xiaoerbulake Formation (SSQ1–SSQ4). The three deep drill-holes occupied different positions within the same progradational depositional system. LT1 was located closest to the rollover and high-energy shoal belt, which contains favorable petroleum reservoirs. The C-O-Sr isotopic ratios, rare earth element distribution patterns and moderate dolomite ordering show that dolomitic reservoirs within the Xiaoerbulake Formation were formed during the early marine/shallow-burial diagenesis and may have been modified by basinal fluids. The outcomes of this study imply that ultra-deep Cambrian strata have the potential to preserve complete prograding carbonate wedge architectures that are favorable for petroleum exploration in the Tarim Basin, and possibly elsewhere in the world.