| The Dabie orogenic belt underwent deep subduc-tion of continent, rapid exhumation, and huge amount of erosion during the Mesozoic. Its tectonic evolution, especially how that was recorded in sedimentary ba-sins at the flanks of the Dabie orogenic belt is one of the most important issues. The overall distribution of different basin types in the orogenic belt indicates that shortening and thrusting at the margins of the orogenic belt from the Late Triassic to the Early Cretaceous controlled the foreland basins, and extension, doming and rifting were initiated in the core of the orogenic belt from the Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous, and were expanded to the whole orogenic belt after the Late Cretaceous. |