A dynamic view of mass assembly is essential for understanding the formation of massive stars and clusters. However, interpreting evolutionary diagnostics from Galactic-wide surveys requires careful consideration of distance and environmental variations. The G316.8 filament provides an excellent controlled case: a 14-parsec, nearly linear structure comprising three contiguous subregions with comparable molecular gas reservoirs (each ~10000M_{sun}), yet spanning a clear evolutionary sequence from a northern infrared dark cloud (young) through a central massive young stellar object (intermediate), to a southern HII region (evolved). The Linear filament and nested cluster evolution tomography (LANCET) project mapped the entire G316.8 filament with the Atacama Compact Array (ACA) at 1.3mm, achieving 6 arcsec (0.08pc) resolution over 26.7 arcmin^2^ (17.1pc^2^). By combining ACA 7m data with Herschel and APEX/ArT'eMiS observations, we produced high-resolution temperature and column-density maps. We quantified subregional differences using (i) dense-fragment statistics, (ii) column-density probability distribution functions (N-PDFs), and (iii) the scale-dependent structural diagnostic, the delta-variance. From young to intermediate to evolved, the maximum fragment mass increases from 8 to 160 to 490M{sun}_, while the dense-gas mass fraction (>0.5g/cm^2^) rises from 0.4% to 2.3% to 9.6%. Along this sequence, the N-PDF develops a slightly flatter primary power-law tail and an additional, steeper secondary tail; the delta-variance slope becomes progressively shallower. Across G316.8, the subregional differences consistently indicate a coherent evolutionary trend of massive star formation, in which gas is continuously assembled into sub-parsec dense structures. The forthcoming 12m array observations are about to extend this dynamic picture by resolving dense core formation and probing gas kinematics and magnetic fields.
Cone search capability for table J/A+A/708/A251/table2 (Catalog of astrodendro leaves)
Cone search capability for table J/A+A/708/A251/list (List of fits maps)
