Meet the Scientist
Associate Professor, China University of Geosciences, Beijing
Lida Xing on finding the tip of a dinosaur’s tail encased in amber
Xing’s efforts have been rewarded with some spectacular specimens.
In conflict-torn Myanmar, Lida Xing has privileged access to the country’s mines, but it’s dangerous work. His latest discovery is four rainforest frogs preserved in amber from the Cretaceous period.
Lida Xing didn’t take a conventional career path into scientific research. His employment history en route to becoming a palaeontologist included being an editor of a dinosaur website, a science reporter and the manager of a prehistoric theme park.
Clearly, though, there was a theme in there. “Every little boy is keen on dinosaurs,” says Xing. “I’ve just indulged myself a little longer.”
Xing’s dedication was obvious while he was still at school, when he established an online dinosaur museum, back in the early days of the internet, by collecting information from all the books he could find. Even then, it was more than a childish hobby.
“I realised that only a few dinosaurs had Chinese names. So I spent about three years translating them. Almost all Chinese popular science books use my names now.”
A number of interesting career moves later, Xing decided that looking at dinosaurs wasn’t enough; he wanted to look for them. So he embarked on a formal scientific education in Canada. With an MSc and a PhD under his belt, he applied his expertise to the study of dinosaur footprints.
It was a chance conversation that changed things again. “This was quite a coincidence. I have a good friend who shares my love for collecting dinosaur stamps. One day he presented me with a piece of Burmese amber from the Cretaceous period with ‘a dinosaur’s leg’ inside. It turned out to be just a lizard, but I suddenly saw the possibilities.”
Exploring those possibilities was not straightforward. Though no longer under oppressive military rule, Myanmar (formerly Burma) remains beset with political unrest, military conflict and civil and ethnic tensions. Xing had to visit the mines secretly.
“This is dangerous. It’s not likely that European or American researchers have any chance of visiting the mining areas and I may be the only Chinese amber researcher to have been there.”
Digging for the fossils himself proved impossible. Xing became embroiled in fierce conf licts between miners and soldiers who extort protection fees. He now obtains specimens with the help of the country’s ethnic Chinese community. “They speak the local language and can enter and leave these mines with ease, and I train them with basic knowledge of geology and palaeontology.”
But it’s surely been worth it. His efforts have been rewarded with some truly spectacular specimens – lizards, primitive birds, frogs and molluscs – all looking like they did on the day they were enveloped by tree resin 100 million years ago.
And yes, he’s also found a proper dinosaur – or, at least, the tip of a proper dinosaur’s feathered tail.
“This was the jackpot,” says Xing. “They are the first dinosaurs ever found in amber and the most important find in my career for now.”