When did living things on the earth appear in large quantities? What on earth did the "Cambrian Period explosion" produce? After two decades' efforts Chinese scientists first discovered the general outline of the explosion through studies on the Chengjiang Fossil Fauna in Yunnan Province, and proved that ancestors of almost all animals were once on the same starting line. The achievement is "an important development to Darwin's evolution theory".

The research entitled "Chengjiang Fossil Fauna and Cambrian Period Explosion" has just won the first prize of the 2003 National Natural Science Award of China. Since the founding of New China in 1949 only 28 research items have been given the honor. Scientists Chen Junyuan, Hou Xianguang and Shu Degan from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yunnan University and Northwest University shared the honor this time on February 20.

The appraisal panel of the national award gave its comment to the research -- the Chengjiang Fossil Fauna is a great discovery in paleontology in the 20th century that shed new light on the questions of early-stage organisms and the "big explosion" at early "Cambrian Period". Researchers of the project conducted systematic studies on the early-stage evolutions of some existing species this is an important development to Darwin's evolution theory, which is of great scientific value and far-reaching influence in world scale.

Discovery and studies on the Chengjiang Fossil Fauna drew strong concern from the international community. A member of the Royal Society of Britain said the Chengjiang Fossil Fauna is always a grand building of science, while New York Times lauded it as "one of the most amazing discoveries in the 20th century". ­Major researchers of the projects have published 14 articles on world top magazines as Nature and Science.

(People's Daily February 23, 2004)