Zhao Xijin (赵喜进; born c. 1935 died July 21, 2012) was a Chinese
paleontologist
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
notable for having named numerous
dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
s. He was a professor at
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
's
Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP; ) of China is a research institution and collections repository for fossils, including many dinosaur and pterosaur specimens (many from the Yixian Formation). As its name suggest ...
.
Biography
Zhao Xijin was born ''c.''1935 in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
.
Career
Paul Sereno
Paul Callistus Sereno (born October 11, 1957) is a professor of paleontology at the University of Chicago and a National Geographic "explorer-in-residence" who has discovered several new dinosaur species on several continents, including at sites ...
and Zhao went on a dinosaur fossil hunt in 2005 to
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
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
The Gobi Desert (Chinese: 戈壁 (沙漠), Mongolian: Говь (ᠭᠣᠪᠢ)) () is a large desert or brushland region in East Asia, and is the sixth largest desert in the world.
Geography
The Gobi measures from southwest to northeast an ...
. This involved a
rock quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their en ...
that led them to finding 25 skeletons of the species ''
Sinornithomimus dongi''.
In 2008, Zhao was involved in and in charge of a dig in
Zhucheng
Zhucheng () is a county-level city in the southeast of Shandong province, People's Republic of China. It is under the administration of Weifang city and had at the 2010 census a population of 1,086,222 even though its built-up (''or metro'') area ...
that consisted of digging out a "980 ft-long pit". The site has unearthed more than 7,600 fossils through Xijin's work. 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
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...
period.
He died in 2012 at the age of 77.
List of dinosaurs named
*''
Chaoyangsaurus
''Chaoyangsaurus'' (" Chaoyang lizard") is a marginocephalian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of China. It has been dated to between 150.8 and 145.5 million years ago. ''Chaoyangsaurus'' belonged to the Ceratopsia (Greek for "horned faces"). ''Ch ...
'' (1983)
*''
Chinshakiangosaurus
''Chinshakiangosaurus'' (JIN-shah-jiahng-uh-SOR-us, meaning "Chinshakiang lizard") is a genus of dinosaur and probably one of the most basal sauropods known. The only species, ''Chinshakiangosaurus chunghoensis'', is known from a fragmentary ...
'' (1986)
*''
Dachongosaurus'' (1986)
*''
Damalasaurus'' (1986)
*''
Klamelisaurus
''Klamelisaurus'' (meaning " Kelameili Mountains lizard") is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic Shishugou Formation of China. The type species is ''Klamelisaurus gobiensis'', which was named by Zhao Xijin in 1993 ...
'' (1993)
*''
Kunmingosaurus
This list of informally named dinosaurs is a listing of dinosaurs (excluding Aves; birds and their extinct relatives) that have never been given formally published scientific names. This list only includes names that were not properly published ...
'' (1986)
*''
Lancangjiangosaurus'' (1986)
*''
Megacervixosaurus'' (1983)
*''
Microdontosaurus'' (1983)
*''
Monkonosaurus'' (1990)
*''
Monolophosaurus
''Monolophosaurus'' ( ; meaning "single-crested lizard") is an extinct genus of tetanuran theropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic Shishugou Formation in what is now Xinjiang, China.Holtz, Thomas R. Jr. (2011) ''Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up ...
'' (with P. Currie, 1994)
*''
Ngexisaurus'' (1983)
*''
Sangonghesaurus'' (1983)
*''
Sinraptor
''Sinraptor'' is a genus of metriacanthosaurid theropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic. The name ''Sinraptor'' comes from the Latin prefix "Sino", meaning Chinese, and "raptor" meaning robber. The specific name ''dongi'' honours Dong Zhiming. ...
'' (with P. Currie, 1993)
*''
Oshanosaurus'' (1986)
*''
Xuanhuasaurus'' (1986)
Besides the above, Zhao Xijin also named the family
Mamenchisauridae
Mamenchisauridae is a family of sauropod dinosaurs belonging to Eusauropoda known from the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous of Asia and Africa. Some members of the group reached gigantic sizes, amongst the largest of all sauropods.
Classification
T ...
(with
Young Chung Chien, 1972).
See also
*
:Taxa named by Zhao Xijin
References
External links
Chinese American Dinosaur Exhibit Team Page
1930s births
2012 deaths
Chinese paleontologists
People from Rizhao
Biologists from Shandong
Educators from Shandong
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