Zhao Xijin

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

Zhao Xijin was born c.1935 in China.

Career

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

• Chaoyangsaurus (1983)
• Chinshakiangosaurus (1986)
• Dachongosaurus (1986)
• Damalasaurus (1986)
• Klamelisaurus (1993)
• Kunmingosaurus (1986)
• Lancangjiangosaurus (1986)
• Megacervixosaurus (1983)
• Microdontosaurus (1983)
• Monkonosaurus (1990)
• Monolophosaurus (with P. Currie, 1994)
• Ngexisaurus (1983)
• Sangonghesaurus (1983)
• Sinraptor (with P. Currie, 1993)
• Oshanosaurus (1986)
• Xuanhuasaurus (1986)

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

See also

• Category:Taxa named by Zhao Xijin