Zhao Xijin

Summary

Zhao Xijin (赵喜进; born c. 1935 died July 21, 2012) was a Chinese paleontologist notable for having named numerous dinosaurs. He was a professor at Beijing's Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology.[1]

Biography edit

Zhao Xijin was born c.1935 in China.

Career edit

Paul Sereno and Zhao went on a dinosaur fossil hunt in 2005 to Tibet to look for a site that Zhao had found 27 years prior. Before this hunt, in 2001, they had been engaged in a dig in the Gobi Desert. This involved a rock quarry that led them to finding 25 skeletons of the species Sinornithomimus dongi.[2][3]

In 2008, Zhao was involved in and in charge of a dig in Zhucheng that consisted of digging out a "980 ft-long pit". The site has unearthed more than 7,600 fossils through Xijin's work.[4][5] It is believed to be the largest such site in the world. The majority of the fossils found appeared to be from the Late Cretaceous period.[6]

He died in 2012 at the age of 77.[7]

List of dinosaurs named edit

Besides the above, Zhao Xijin also named the family Mamenchisauridae (with Young Chung Chien, 1972).

See also edit

  • Category:Taxa named by Zhao Xijin

References edit

  1. ^ "100-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Rib Found in Beijing", Chicago Tribune, July 8, 1993
  2. ^ "Dinosasur hunter heads for top of world", United Press International, December 17, 2004
  3. ^ "Young dinos lived and died together" Archived November 8, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, The Hindu, March 16, 2009
  4. ^ Moore, Malcolm, "Dinosaur fossils found in China are world's largest collection", The Telegraph, December 31, 2008
  5. ^ Wray, James, "In Pictures: 'China Dinosaur Fossils'" Archived October 17, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, Monsters and Critics, October 13, 2009
  6. ^ "Shandong dinosaur fossil field `world`s largest`" Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Mathaba, January 3, 2009
  7. ^ 纪念赵喜进先生 [In memory of Zhao Xijin]. 《化石》 (4): 24–27. 2014. Retrieved 2017-08-05.

External links edit

  • Chinese American Dinosaur Exhibit Team Page