This timely book documents marvelous brachiopod fossils from the Palaeozoic-Mesozoic transition of South China. Numerous beautiful pictures and detailed descriptions (specifically the measurements of body size) of brachiopod species are presented. Systematic discussion on the evolution of brachiopod biodiversity and morphological features across the critical interval is not only extremely important for paleontologists to understand the marine ecosystem evolution from the Palaeozoic to the Mesozoic, but also attractive for students who need to know about the end-Permian mass extinction. The book distinguishes itself from other studies by its detailed study of the taxonomy, biodiversity and paleoecology of Permian-Triassic brachiopods from different palaeogeographic facies, especially from the deep-water environment in South China. The book also offers a unique study of the response of morphological features of brachiopods to palaeoenvironmental changes, providing insights for the process of Permian-Triassic crisis.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Natural Computing, TPNC 2020, held in Taoyuan, Taiwan, in December 2020. The 12 full papers presented in this book, together with one invited talk, were carefully reviewed and selected from 24 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections named: applications of natural computing; quantum computing and unconventional computing; and swarm intelligence, evolutionary algorithms, and DNA computing.