Abstract: The Northern Jiangsu basin is an oil-gas bearing half graben-like basin of Middle Caenozoic era in Eastern China, and is mainly made up of three structural units： the Dongtai sag, the Yancheng - Funing sag and the Jianhu upheaval. The heaves in sags and depressions in upheavals are the minor units of the basin. Based on the prototype analysis method, this paper deals with erosion source area, subsidence history, evolution of sedimentation center, borderline structure and sedimentation intervals of the northern Jiangsu basin, and also estimates its subsidence quantity and denudation quantity. The paper suggests that basin＇s formation and evolution process can be divided into four stages： compressed foreland basin, back arc tensile rift basin, massive tensile fault basin and heatsinking sag basin. Its rich sediments came from following five erosion source areas： the Binhai upheaval on the northeast of the basin, the Shandong- Jiangsu upheaval on the northwest of the basin, the Dabie mountain on the west of the basin, the Zhangbaling mountains on the southwest of the basin, and the Paleozoic sedimentary area of Yangzhou - Nanjing and Zhenjiang on the south of the basin ; There were four uplifting and denudation events （ the Yizheng event, the Wubao event, the Zhenwu event and the Sanduo event） during the basin evolution, which played a very important role for the formation of the asymmetric dustpan-shaped basin. The resumed subsidence history of the basin commendably reflects the evolution history of the basin from Late Cretaceous to Neogene.