China's 'Indiana Jones'

"Basically we are reconstructing the evolutionary tree of life."
"If you have more species to study, you have more branches on that tree, more information about the history of life on Earth."
"The developer [of a construction project] was really not happy with me [when Chinese law kicked in to allow archaeology to inspect the site]."
"To publish papers and discover new species, you need new data -- you need new fossils [finding new species isn't something a scientist can plan]."
"My experience tells me that you really need luck, besides your hard work. Then you can make some important discoveries."
Xu Xing, paleontologist, Beijing, China

In this Sept. 13, 2018, photo, paleontologist Xu Xing brushes away sediment to examine fossils recovered from a dig site in Yanji, China. The excavation, led by Xu, begun after construction crews erecting new apartment buildings accidentally uncovered dinosaur bones and other fossils, dating back 100 million years. (AP Photo/Christina Larson)

China's building boom is unprecedented, anywhere in the world, as the country's vast geography is impacted by growing urbanization caused by rural dwellers moving in great numbers from farms and countryside to newly growing cities. To accommodate this huge transfer of population migration cities are expanding, the building boom in new apartment complexes leading to the areas being exposed to steam shovels becoming archaeological dig sites. And China's foremost paleontologist Xu Xing, is prepared to respond to as many of those new sites as he possibly can.

In this one year coming to an end alone, he has been responsible for unearthing seven new species of dinosaur, one that is 200 million years old among them, representing the most ancient specimen he has so far discovered. In his career all told, Xu has named over 70 dinosaurs, a number far exceeding claims by any other living paleontologists. And to maintain that record he is dependent on China's construction boom where fossils are continually being churned up as sites are in the process of being prepared for construction.

Paleontologist Xu Xing stands in front of a dig site in Yanji, China.

Christina Larson/The Associated Press

Leads from the building boom has him speeding to present himself everywhere in the country, and as a result he has earned the popular sobriquet of "China's Indiana Jones".

In the past four decades, the populations of Chinese cities has quintupled to close on 900 million people. It is anticipated that by the time 2030 rolls around, one in five city-dwellers in the world will be of Chinese extraction. Some of China's largest, most sprawling metropolises are under pressure to accommodate ever-greater numbers of people. Urban sprawl spreads in major city clusters such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebel and the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions.

One of Xu's latest finds out of a construction site in Jiangxi province is set to throw light on how the reproductive systems of modern birds evolved from their dinosaur ancestors. School children in countries around the world, introduced by their teachers to the exploits of the man whose celebrity as a world-leading scientist continues to grow, mail him handwritten notes and crayon drawings of dinosaurs. He has hung several in his Beijing office. And astonishingly, he makes an effort to respond to them all.

A paleontologist from the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum in Japan, Toru Sekiy, assisted on the Yanji dig, and speaks of his Chinese colleague as "a superstar paleontologist" whose discoveries previously include the eight-metre-long gigantoraptor as well as the microraptor, a tiny, four-winged dinosaur weighing about a kilogram.

In this Sept. 12, 2018, photo, a dinosaur model stands near the site of a future dinosaur museum in Yanji, China.    Christina Larson/The Associated Press

Xu is also inspired in an especially creative manner in the naming of species, with the imaginative use of Chinese culture to end up with names such as Mei Long ("Sleeping dragon"), the Dilong Paradoxus ("emperor dragon"), and the Nanyangosaurus whose name was inspired by a city close to its origins which also happens to be the place where a famous military strategist in Chinese history was born.

Xu's 2016 experience in Yanji, located geographically an hour from the border with North Korea. represented an intersection of interests between heritage/archaeology and development, when city authorities obeying a national law saw that construction on adjacent highrise buildings was suspended to enable archaeological exploration to proceed and the builders to cool their heels until the dig was closed eventually.

The city of Yanji accommodatingly built an on-site police station to ensure the unearthed fossils would be guarded from possible theft. At such time as the excavation is complete, a city museum is planned which will display recovered fossils and photographs of Xu's paleontological team at work.

In this Sept. 12, 2018, photo, paleontologist Xu Xing examines an ancient crocodile skull and teeth, recovered from a dig site in Yanji, China. The excavation was begun after construction crews erecting new apartment buildings accidentally uncovered dinosaur bones and other fossils, dating back 100 million years. (AP Photo/Christina Larson)