diff --git a/NEW_RELEASE_NOTES.md b/NEW_RELEASE_NOTES.md
index 4a1a9c7fa7e4..ee533ab0189a 100644
--- a/NEW_RELEASE_NOTES.md
+++ b/NEW_RELEASE_NOTES.md
@@ -7,3 +7,4 @@ for next branch cut* header.
 appropriate header in [RELEASE_NOTES.md](./RELEASE_NOTES.md).
 
 ## Release notes for next branch cut
+fix crash: the 'target_node' of Animation Channel may be nullpointer.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/libs/gltfio/src/Animator.cpp b/libs/gltfio/src/Animator.cpp
index 0d8b667644b1..7b1bd6eb2508 100644
--- a/libs/gltfio/src/Animator.cpp
+++ b/libs/gltfio/src/Animator.cpp
@@ -408,6 +408,9 @@ void AnimatorImpl::addChannels(const FixedCapacityVector<Entity>& nodeMap,
     const Sampler* samplers = dst.samplers.data();
     for (cgltf_size j = 0, nchans = srcAnim.channels_count; j < nchans; ++j) {
         const cgltf_animation_channel& srcChannel = srcChannels[j];
+        if (!srcChannel.target_node) {
+            continue;
+        }
         Entity targetEntity = nodeMap[srcChannel.target_node - nodes];
         if (UTILS_UNLIKELY(!targetEntity)) {
             if (GLTFIO_VERBOSE) {