<正>Investigation of an eclogite xenolith,discovered in a Cretaceous granite from the Central Domain of the Dabieshan massif in eastern China, yields new petrological insights into the high to ultrahigh -pressure metamorphism,experienced by the Qinling-Dabie orogen.Prior to inclusion as a xenolith in the granite during the Early Cretaceous,this eclogite xenolith had recorded a complex metamorphic evolution that complies with subduction and exhumation processes experienced by the continental crust of the South China Block.Well-preserved mineral parageneses substantiate the prograde and retrograde stages revealed by inclusions in porphyroblastic garnet and zoned minerals such as garnet,omphacite and amphibole in the matrix.The relatively low P/T re-equilibration during a late metamorphic stage was textually inferred by the presence of aluminous and calcic-subcalcic amphiboles such as katophorite,edenite,taramite and pargasite as main matrix phases.According to our U/Pb,Rb/Sr and new ~(40)Ar/~(39)Ar geochronological results,namely109±1 and 112±2 Ma plateau ages for muscovite and amphiboles,respectively,two successive but distinct cooling stages account for the thermal history of the granite-migmatite gneiss dome that forms the Central Dabieshan Domain.We argue that prior to the Cretaceous doming,the Central Dabieshan Domain experienced a tectono-metamorphic evolution similar to that observed in the high-pressure to ultra high-pressure units developed in the Southern Dabieshan Domain and Hong'an massif.