Xu Xing (paleontologist)


Xu Xing is a Chinese paleontologist who has named more dinosaurs than any other living paleontologist. Such dinosaurs include the Jurassic ceratopsian Yinlong, the Jurassic tyrannosauroid Guanlong, the large oviraptorosaur Gigantoraptor, and the troodontid Mei.

Biography

Xing was born in Xinjiang, China, in 1969. A graduate from the department of geology of Peking University, he is currently a researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. He had originally planned to become a physicist. However, he was assigned to the department of geology as the university's department of physics did not have any admission quota in Xinjiang. He graduated in 1995, and claims inspiration from Roy Chapman Andrews.
Among Xu's paleontological contributions have been discovery and analysis of dinosaur fossils with avian characteristics, and development of theories in regarding the evolution of feathers.

Genera described by Xu Xing

Selected publications