Xu Xing is a Chinese paleontologist, specializing in avian dinosaurs on Xinjiang, and theorizing on the evolution of feathers in dinosaurs.
Xu Xing was born in Yining in July of 1969. Being from a mainly Muslim region of China, Xing didn't have any exposure to dinosaurs until he went to university. He studied geology, as during this time university students were told what courses to take, as opposed to choosing them themselves. He got his bachelor's degree of Paleontology and Stratigraphy of the Department of Geology at Peking University in 1992. In 1995 he got his master's degree in Vertebrate Paleontology, where he learned he loved looking for fossils.
Xing was inspired by Roy Chapman Andrews, an American naturalist, and especially by Roy Andrews' adventures in the Gobi Desert.
Xu Xing has discovered or described at least 57 species of dinosaur, the most of any living paleontologist.
When you want to dig for dino data!