Abstract:  Dinosterol, also known as dinoflagellate sterol, is an important component of cell membrane lipids of dinoflagellate. As a biomarker of dinoflagellate, dinosterol is featured by high source specificity, structural stability, and resistance to degradation. It widely distributed in various sedimentary environments, such as oceans and lakes as well as peat, and this compound effectively records paleoenvironmental information from different geological periods. Currently, dinosterol and its hydrogen isotope composition have been used to reconstruct past ecological and environmental changes. The application of dinosterol provides a new perspective for understanding past climate and environmental changes and ecosystem responses. Therefore, dinosterol has become one of the key biomarkers in marine and lake paleoenvironmental reconstruction studies in recent years. Based on this, this paper first introduced the structure, biological sources, and distribution characteristics of dinosterol in marine and lake environments. It briefly outlined and compared several purification methods of dinosterol, and then explained the principles underlying its use in reconstructing paleoenvironments and paleoclimates. Furthermore, the paper summarized the paleoenvironmental implications of dinosterol, particularly its content in reconstructing paleoproductivity and its hydrogen isotope ratios in reconstructing salinity and precipitation. Accordingly, the paper also presented future considerations for dinosterol in paleoenvironmental reconstruction studies, such as the specific biological sources of dinosterol and the impact of environmental factors on dinosterol.

Key words: dinosterol, paleoenvironment, compoundspecific hydrogen isotope composition, lipids biomarkers, ocean, lake