Dong Zhiming was a Chinese vertebrate paleontologist formerly employed at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing.
15 Facts About Dong Zhiming
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Dong Zhiming began working at the IVPP in 1962, studying under Yang Zhongjian, who was director at the time.
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Dong Zhiming investigated and described the Shaximiao Formation; an important contribution to science since they are composed of Middle Jurassic beds which do not commonly yield fossils.
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Dong Zhiming was born in January 1937 in Weihai, Shandong.
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At the age of 13, Dong was introduced to dinosaurs by a museum exhibit showcasing hadrosaur fossils.
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Dong Zhiming graduated from university in 1962 with a degree in biology.
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Dong Zhiming participated in his first field expedition in 1963, aged 26, when he was part of a seven-person team sent by the IVPP to a site 180 miles outside Urumqi, Xinjiang.
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On this expedition, Dong Zhiming discovered fossils of a sauropod dinosaur.
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Dong Zhiming worked on a farm in Henan for one year and returned to Beijing just as the Cultural Revolution was beginning.
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Nonetheless, his mentor Yang continued to study palaeontology and met with Dong Zhiming often, encouraging him to continue his research in addition to his work for the state.
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Around this time, Dong Zhiming petitioned the government to reinstate the IVPP's journal - Vertebrata PalAsiatica - and returned to work at the IVPP.
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However, Dong Zhiming continued to push this third-order theory as late as 2008, shortly before his retirement.
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Dong Zhiming has discovered and described more than 42 genera of dinosaurs, of which 27 are still considered valid.
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Dong Zhiming is considered an instrumental part of the reason that China has such an array of known stegosaurid species.
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Dong Zhiming wrote or co-wrote a number of books on Chinese dinosaurs, including in English:.