The Changhsingian is named after Changxing (Chinese: 长兴; pinyin: Chángxīng; Wade–Giles: Ch’ang-hsing) in northern Zhejiang, China.

[2] The top of the Changhsingian (the base of the Induan Stage and the Triassic System) is at the first appearance of the conodont species Hindeodus parvus.

[8] In the second part of the 20th century, appearance of the ammonite Otoceras, that existed no more than 100,000 years, in the boreal region was considered a marker of the Lower Triassic boundary.

However, a more detailed study of Lower Induan biostratigraphy revealed the diachronicity of the appearance of these mollusks in different regions of the Earth.

Another deep-bodied fish, Sinoplatysomus, is known from Zhejiang province of China, along with the elongate saurichthyiform Eosaurichthys and the coelacanths Changxingia and Youngichthys.

Changhsingian aged beds of the Tesero Member of the Werfen Formation produced fossils of a crown group echinoid, Eotiaris teseroensis and other taxa.