While a major exhibition called Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries is on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City generating tremendous interest in Dinosaurs of China among others, the Renwen Society at China Institute will present special lecture on Saturday, June 4 on Zhongguo Konglong (Dinosaurs of China) by Dr. Xu Xing, a research fellow at the American Museum of Natural History.
Dr. Xu has been working at the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology (IVPP), Academia Sinica (Chinese Academy of Sciences), Beijing, China since 1992, focusing on the study of dinosaur fossils and Mesozoic biostratigraphy. He has excavated at some of China's most significant dinosaur sites, including the dinosaur egg site in Henan Province, the feathered dinosaur site in Liaoning Province, deserts of northwestern China and some classical dinosaur localities in Mongolia as well. He has named more than 20 new dinosaur species, including several species that are the weirdest dinosaur ever known such as the four-winged dromaeosaur Micoraptor and the bizarre primitive oviraptorosaur Incisivosaurus which has a pair of big front teeth superficially similar to those in some mammals such as beaver. His recent expedition in Gobi desert in western China are disclosing a spectacular Middle-Late Jurassic fauna which might advance significantly our understanding of this poorly known but critical stage for dinosaur evolution Dr. Xu will tell the discoveries of some of the most important and weirdest dinosaur species ever found in the world and their significance to the understanding of dinosaur evolution based on his personal experience in the field and the lab.