Xiaoming Wang is a Chinese-born American vertebrate paleontologist and

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

who lives and teaches in the United States.

Areas of expertise

Professor Wang specializes in the fossil evolution,

systematics Systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: phylogenetic trees, phylogenies). Phy ...

, and

phylogeny A phylogenetic tree or phylogeny is a graphical representation which shows the evolutionary history between a set of species or Taxon, taxa during a specific time.Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, M ...

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

s of the

Cenozoic The Cenozoic Era ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterized by the dominance of mammals, insects, birds and angiosperms (flowering plants). It is the latest of three g ...

. He has researched the

biostratigraphy Biostratigraphy is the branch of stratigraphy which focuses on correlating and assigning relative ages of rock strata by using the fossil assemblages contained within them.Hine, Robert. "Biostratigraphy." ''Oxford Reference: Dictionary of Biology ...

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of China. Its border includes two-thirds of the length of China's China–Mongolia border, border with the country of Mongolia. ...

and

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

as a whole, the

geochronology Geochronology is the science of Chronological dating, determining the age of rock (geology), rocks, fossils, and sediments using signatures inherent in the rocks themselves. Absolute geochronology can be accomplished through radioactive isotopes, ...

of Asia, paleoenvironments of the Tibetan Plateau, and mammalian migrations between

Eurasia Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. Wang has also investigated the systematics and phylogeny of

canid Canidae (; from Latin, ''canis'', "dog") is a family (biology), biological family of caniform carnivorans, constituting a clade. A member of this family is also called a canid (). The family includes three subfamily, subfamilies: the Caninae, a ...

s (dogs and their kin) as well as

Late Eocene The Priabonian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ICS's geologic timescale, the latest age (geology), age or the upper stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Eocene epoch (geology), Epoch or series (stratigraphy), Series. It spans ...

through

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

fossil mammals of Southern California and Mexico. ''(see Natural History Museum of LA)''.

Education

* B.S. Nanjing University,

Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

, Jiangsu province, PRC. *

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS; ) is the national academy for natural sciences and the highest consultancy for science and technology of the People's Republic of China. It is the world's largest research organization, with 106 research i ...

, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, PRC. * M.A. and Ph.D., University of Kansas,

Lawrence, Kansas Lawrence is a city in and the county seat of Douglas County, Kansas, United States, and the sixth-largest city in the state. It is in the northeastern sector of the state, astride Interstate 70 in Kansas, Interstate 70, between the Kansas River ...

, United States. * Post-doctoral work,

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...

. *Assistant Professor, Long Island University, New York.

Professional life

Wang is a

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

in the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology at the

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the laws, elements and phenomena of the physical world, including life. Although humans are par ...

and Natural History Museum. Wang is also a contributing researcher of the Paleobiology Database created by John Alroy, Ph.D.Paleobiology Database Contributing Researchers
/ref> Below is a list of taxa that Wang has contributed to naming:

Research

*The Origin and Evolution of the Dog Family **'' Hesperocyoninae'', '' Borophaginae''. *Other Families of Carnivora. *Paleoenvironment of the Tibetan Plateau. *Biostratigraphy of Inner Mongolia. *Neogene Terrestrial Mammalian Biostratigraphy and Chronology in Asia.

Grants

U.S. National Science Foundation, National Natural Science Foundation of China,

, and the U.S.

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, natural sc ...

Publications

Society of Vertebrate Paleontology
Wang is also co-author, with

paleontologist, Richard H. Tedford of a popular book '' Dogs: Their Fossil Relatives and Evolutionary History'', based upon their research on fossils of the

Canidae Canidae (; from Latin, ''canis'', "dog") is a family (biology), biological family of caniform carnivorans, constituting a clade. A member of this family is also called a canid (). The family includes three subfamily, subfamilies: the Caninae, a ...

References

Wang, Xiaoming; and Tedford, Richard H. Dogs: Their Fossil Relatives and Evolutionary History. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wang, Xiaoming 21st-century American geologists American paleontologists Chinese emigrants to the United States Chinese geologists Chinese paleontologists Living people Long Island University faculty Nanjing University alumni Place of birth missing (living people) University of Kansas alumni 1955 births