Xu Xing (paleontologist)

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Xu Xing ( Chinese  徐星 , Pinyin Xú Xīng ; * 1969 in Xinjiang ) is a Chinese vertebrate paleontologist who studies dinosaurs .

life and work

Xu's parents were exiled to the country during the Cultural Revolution and he grew up in poor conditions. In 1988 he won a scholarship to attend Peking University and originally wanted to study economics, but was seconded to study paleontology. At the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IVPP) in Beijing, as a student of Zhao Xijin , he became interested in dinosaurs. He analyzed Jurassic dinosaur fossils that his teacher Zhao had collected and that turned out to be some of the oldest ceratopsians ( Yinlong ). He runs his own laboratory at the IVPP with seven taxidermists.

He is involved in numerous first descriptions, so the predators Guanlong , gigantoraptor , Mei , Sinovenator , the feathered yutyrannus , Yixianosaurus , Xixianykus , Erliansaurus , Eshanosaurus , graciliraptor , liaoceratops , liaoningosaurus , Jinzhousaurus , incisivosaurus , jeholosaurus , hongshanosaurus , linheraptor , Zhuchenceratops , Microraptor , Nanyangosaurus , Neimongosaurus , Chaoyangsaurus , Dilong , the feathered Beipiaosaurus , Pedopenna , Sinornithosaurus , Sonidosaurus , Sinusonasus , Xinjiangovenator ( previously described as Phaedrolosaurus by Dong Zhiming ), Archaeovolans (which turned out to be a juvenile specimen of Yanornis . ) And Anchiornis . With 60 initial descriptions of dinosaurs (as of 2012) it holds a record worldwide.

Among his initial descriptions and the dinosaurs he studied are a number of feathered dinosaurs, the discovery of which in China put new ideas about the relationship between birds and dinosaurs.

He also works with commercial collectors, such as the director of the Tianyu Museum Xiaoting Zheng (former head of a state gold mine), who amassed a large collection, particularly of feathered dinosaurs. One of these finds, Xiaotingia zhengi (named in honor of Xiaoting Zheng), was used by Xu in 2011 for a revision of the bird-like dinosaurs in the type of Archeopteryx , which he classified closer to Deinonychus within Paraves . The finds of Microraptor and Anchiornis from the rich deposits of Liaoning with feathers on both fore and hind limbs are not a dead end of evolution, according to Xu, but transitional forms to the really flightable birds. According to Xu, feathers were widespread among dinosaurs and originally served purposes other than flight (preservation of body heat, courtship ).

From the beginning he tried to establish contacts with foreign scholars and publishes mostly in English and often in international magazines. He also consistently uses cladistics in his systematic work, at a time when this had not yet become established with dinosaurs in China, unlike in the West. He proceeds carefully with his systematic classifications and they have rarely been questioned by Western scientists either. Xu sees the unwillingness to criticize a major obstacle for Chinese paleontology and a further obstacle in the widespread forgeries. In 2000, Xu was involved in the investigation of the fake Archaeoraptor (composed of a bird fossil and a microraptor hind part).

He is also involved in the evaluation of the very rich dinosaur site discovered in Zhucheng in 2008 .

He is married and has two sons.

Fonts

  • Feathered dinosaurs from China and the evolution of major avian characters , Integrative Zoology 1, 2006, 4-11
  • with Y. Guo The origin and early evolution of feathers: Insights from recent paleontological and neontological data , Vertebrata Palasiatica, 2009, 311–329
  • Dinosaur Distribution (with Weishampel et al.) In Weishampel, Osmolska, Dodson The Dinosauria , University of California Press, 2nd edition 2004

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ X. Zhao, Z. Cheng, X. Xu: The earliest ceratopsian from the Tuchengzi Formation of Liaoning, China . In: J. Vert. Paleontol. , 1999, 19, pp. 681-691
  2. ↑ Xing Xu, James M Clark, Catherine A Forster, Mark A Norell, Gregory M Erickson, David A Eberth, Jia Chengkai, Qi Zhao: A basal tyrannosauroid dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of China . In: Nature , 439, 2006, pp. 715-718
  3. ↑ Xing Xu, Qingwei Tan, Jianmin Wang, Xijin Zhao, Lin Tan: A gigantic bird-like dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of China . In: Nature , 447, 2007, pp. 844-847
  4. ↑ X. Xu, K. Wang, K. Zhang, Q. Ma, L. Xing, C. Sullivan, D. Hu, S. Cheng et al .: A gigantic feathered dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of China . In: Nature , 484, 2012, pp. 92-95
  5. ↑ X. Xu, Z. Zhou, X. Wang: The smallest known non-avian theropod dinosaur . In: Nature , 408, 2000, pp. 705-708
  6. ^ X. Xu, ZL. Tang, XL. Wang: A therizinosauroid dinosaur with integumentary structures from China . In: Nature , 399, 1999, pp. 350-354
  7. ↑ X. Xu, X.-t. Zheng, H.-l. You: A new feather type in a nonavian theropod and the early evolution of feathers . In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA , 206, 2009, pp. 832-834
  8. ↑ Xu Xing, Qi Zhao, Mark Norell, Corwin Sullivan, David Hone, Gregory Erickson, Xiao Lin Wang, Feng Lu Han, Yu Gao: A new feathered maniraptoran dinosaur fossil that fills a morphological gap in avian origin . In: Chinese Science Bulletin , 51, 2009, pp. 430-435
  9. ↑ X. Xu, H. You, K. Du, F. Han: An Archeopteryx-like theropod from China and the origin of Avialae . In: Nature , 475, 2011, pp. 465-470, PMID 21796204
  10. ↑ X. Xu, Z. Zhou, X. Wang, X. Kuang. F. Zhang, X. Du: Four winged dinosaurs from China . In: Nature , 421, 2003, pp. 335-340, PMID 12540892
  11. ↑ Michael Benton, quoted in Kerry Smith: China's dinosaur hunter , Nature News 2012
Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Xu is the family name here, Xing is the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Xu, Xing
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 徐星 (Chinese); Xú Xīng (Pinyin Romanization)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chinese paleontologist
DATE OF BIRTH 1969
PLACE OF BIRTH Xinjiang