Zixiao Yang

The focus of my PhD research has been the Jurassic Yanliao Biota from northeastern China, which, since its discovery in the 1980s, has yielded over 200 species of plants, over 500 species of insects and other invertebrates, and over 40 species of vertebrates including feathered dinosaurs, pterosaurs and early mammals. Particularly I am interested in the possible mechanisms responsible for its famous exceptional soft-tissue preservation (e.g. feathers, hair, skin, gill arches, eyespots, etc.), and the potentially rich biological and evolutionary information enclosed within the soft-tissue remains.