Ji Qiang: The Terminator of Paleontology.

Editor/Zhou Jianping rwzkjpz@ 163.com

Ji Qiang

The first generation of "Dragon King" was geologist and paleontologist Yang.

Ji Qiang, 7 1 year-old, has always been a "troublemaker" in the eyes of China paleontologists.

In the fierce paleontological competition in China, Ji Qiang is a headache for colleagues who are used to guarding an acre of land/hills, but he has to be persuaded. His sensitivity to major evolutionary issues, his ability to trace key fossils and his ability to organize and implement research topics have made many colleagues feel "inferior".

"I just want to solve some scientific problems." The internationally renowned paleontologist has been laughing, and he is somewhat proud of his practical jokes. "Then I solved the problem. You can't always complain about my meddling, can you? "

When the "rules" are broken, it is natural to pay the price. Character determines fate. Ji Qiang said that he had long wanted to be transparent, "no desire is just." As long as he still has some ideas about something, he will worry about offending people. If he wants to force himself to say something against his will, he can't get rid of it. "I especially like Sichuan, which is willing to give up wine. It is enough to leave a few valuable articles in the world in this life. "

20 16 After he retired from Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, he was hired as a tenured professor by Hebei Geological University. In a few years, he hastily organized and promoted scientific research projects. In June, 20021,he and Professor Ni Xijun jointly published a paper on the "Dragon Man" project on the Internet and around the world, which immediately set off a shock in the international academic and press circles.

Different from the images of "scientist" and "bookworm" portrayed in mainstream reportage works in the early years of ancient times, Ji Qiang has a distinct personality, grounded gas, Jianghu heroism and a little unpredictable cunning.

Special Burying in Historical Faults

Grounding gas, Jianghu heroism and tenacious vitality, originated from Ji Qiang's early social experience in riff-raff.

Unlike the younger generation who have been wandering between schools, universities and scientific research institutions all their lives, Ji Qiang, who belongs to the "post-50 s" generation, grew up in a special historical fault. In that fault, becoming a natural scientist is a rare and special "burial".

195 1 year, Ji Qiang was born in Rudong County, Nantong, Jiangsu Province, a small town facing the Yellow Sea. 1966 when the "cultural revolution" broke out, he just graduated from junior high school and was sent to the most barren coastal countryside in the area to settle in line. He belongs to the educated youth in a small town, and he did not enjoy the treatment given by the state to the educated youth in the city at that time, nor did he have family shelter for the young people who returned home, so his life was particularly difficult.

In the first year of decentralization, the whole year's farm work was finished, but he owed 68 yuan to the people's commune, "because you didn't earn enough points to pay for the meals in the team." In order to survive, he did almost everything, repaired tractors, carried bricks in kiln factories, worked as a substitute teacher in the village, and even sang revolutionary model operas on the stage. "When the cadres of the brigade say that they will give you a post, they will be converted into work points." In the cold of March 9, he went fishing on the beach barefoot with a fork. The fish he catches sells for seven or eight yuan, and he has two months' money for oil and salt.

Maybe it's "survivor's prejudice". Ji Qiang has always believed that this kind of life experience at the bottom has made him-honing a naughty wild child into a very motivated person. "I will cherish the opportunity to study in the future and work hard." Because he suffered a lot, he later encountered some "small pains and small grievances" in scientific research, and he also felt nothing.

1973, 22-year-old Ji Qiang got an opportunity recommended by the commune brigade to apply for workers, peasants and soldiers.

At that time, he filled in two volunteers, the first one was Zhenjiang Agricultural Technology College, and the second one was Wuxi Institute of Light Industry. His idea is simple. He has repaired tractors in the countryside, so he should have no problem with machinery. After graduation, he can have an iron rice bowl in the county agricultural machinery company and share the responsibility for his family.

That year, Nanjing University, as the number one key institution in the province, had the first batch of students' right to choose. They adjusted Ji Qiang's candidate files in advance.

Ji Qiang was surprised, happy and confused when he received the admission notice of Nanjing University's paleontology major. He took the admission notice and went to consult the most cultured cultural curator in the county. "After reading it for a long time, he said that he knew the Department of Archaeology, but he had never heard of what this paleontology major did."

Ji Qiang never wore underwear before he went to college in the provincial capital. When he got up in the morning, he put on his shabby coat and went out to work. His mother spent a few days making him some underwear and told him, "You are a college student now. You should be like a college student."

Nanjing University, far from the center of political movement, has become a "pure land". At that time, normal teaching had been interrupted for several years. Teachers at NTU are full of energy when they see these new students, and they try their best to train them well. "They really treat us as treasures. Every time I go to the field to do my homework, the teachers eat and live with us and are completely integrated. "

These older students, who only had junior high school education before the Cultural Revolution, suffered a lot in society, especially cherishing hard-won learning opportunities. "The style of study is very positive, and everyone studies hard to make up the foundation. As soon as we have dinner at night, everyone will go to the classroom to grab seats in advance, and then take a few mouthfuls of rice in the cafeteria and rush back to the classroom to study. "

1976 After graduating from NTU, Ji Qiang was assigned to Xi Coalfield Geological Exploration Institute of the Ministry of Coal Industry. The "steel wire noodles" made of sorghum and corn miscellaneous noodles gnawed in the northwest for one year was admitted to Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as "Southland Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences") with 1978, becoming the first graduate student recruited by Southland after the Cultural Revolution.

"To be fair, from the perspective of other disciplines of geology, the old man put forward this standard is in line with the objective reality of China. But the time concept of dividing the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary, or any boundary, should be global, not just regional. For example, the coral in this foam ditch may not be found abroad, so it cannot become an international standard. "

After determining the direction of the thesis with the tutor, Ji Qiang devoted himself to his work in full swing. A man ran to the field to take samples, make a profile, carry the stone back to the station, then let the tractor pull it to the railway station for consignment, and then make an analysis in the laboratory of the institute himself. "The result is very good. The conodont specimens obtained are all Devonian, and none of them are Carboniferous. "

"So, I came to the conclusion at that time: It is possible that the C belt that Mr. Yu Lao said in those years was the coral belt in the foam inner ditch, and its age was not earlier than the Carboniferous, but later than the Devonian. In principle, this is a great progress, because it is directly in line with international standards. But our director at that time, he was engaged in coral fossils himself. He believes that this set of standards proposed by Mr. Yu Lao cannot be moved, and standards are standards. You'd better change yours. I said, "Director, how to change this? If I find several Carboniferous periods, I will change the time in my paper to Early Carboniferous, but all I find are late Devonian conodonts. If I change it, my paper won't stand. "

By the end of the defense of the master's thesis, the jury made a conclusion: Ji Qiang was agreed to graduate and was awarded a master's degree. After learning this result, Ji Qiang put his heart down and reported happily to the headquarters of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences in Beijing. At that time, the girlfriend he was talking about was from Beijing, so he wanted to work in the capital and got a job assignment.

After arriving in Beijing, he waited for four months and didn't get his diploma and degree certificate. Upon inquiry, all his classmates got these two certificates. Later, he learned that after the paper passed the review, the party Committee of Nanguo Institute held another meeting and decided to award Ji Qiang graduation, but he did not agree to award a degree. He wrote it and sent it to the Beijing headquarters of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences.

At the critical moment of personal fate, the goddess of fortune smiled at him again. From 65438 to 0978, Deng Xiaoping expounded the conclusion that "science and technology are productive forces" at the National Science Conference, and Guo Moruo, then president of Chinese Academy of Sciences, praised "the spring of science". Ji Qiang finally got his master's degree. In that era when personal choice opportunities were extremely scarce, Ji Qiang was still a little scared every time he looked back: what would he do in the future without that "scientific spring"? "It may be burning a boiler." It is more likely to be sent to a small county-level unit for a lifetime. "It is estimated that there are also a department-level or even department-level cadres."

From 65438 to 0990, Ji Qiang won Humboldt Scholarship from the Federal Republic of Germany and went to Europe for postdoctoral research. In the history of paleontology, Europe is a traditional research center, which once gave birth to bright stars such as Darwin and Huxley. During his stay in Germany, Ji Qiang experienced an ideological leap. Under the guidance of his tutor, William Ziegler, director of the Natural History Museum in St. Kenburg, he continued to study stratigraphy and conodonts. In the past two years, he has achieved fruitful results, completing five papers and a monograph on conodont fossils.

Most importantly, under the influence of his mentor, he accepted a whole set of concepts and methods from evolutionary biology.

"Since then, my whole research has changed-I am no longer just staring at a single ancient fossil. Every time I find a special burial, I will think about it and find its place in the whole evolutionary pedigree. If it has never been discovered before, then we will try to find out whether it is a new species or a new genus, or a special accidental variation. "

1in April, 1992, Ji Qiang returned to China and continued his research work in China Institute of Geology. Because of his outstanding achievements and numerous academic honors, he was quickly promoted to a researcher. A few years later, he successfully competed to be the curator of geological museum, China.

Under the leadership of such a specialized research institution that is open to the public and exhibits, Ji Qiang began to ponder the academic transformation of the researchers in the museum, and therefore took this "small" professional museum to compete with the two major paleontology institutes of Chinese Academy of Sciences, especially with the Institute of vertebrate paleontology and Paleoanthropology (referred to as "Northern Paleontology Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences").

Found the "feathered dinosaur"

In August 1996, a farmer from western Liaoning broke into Ji Qiang's office. He showed a fossil he carried with him, hoping that geological museum, China, could buy it.

After negotiation, the fossil was finally donated to the permanent collection in geological museum, China. Therefore, the farmer won a national award of 6000 yuan.

This is a well-preserved and detailed fossil profile: about one meter high, like a small dinosaur, with sharp teeth in its mouth, short forelimbs, long and stout hind limbs, and a long tail consisting of more than 50 coccygeal vertebrae. When Ji Qiang looked at it carefully with a magnifying glass, he found something that surprised him very much-this ancient creature was covered with a short, black fibrous thing.

His professional sensitivity was immediately mobilized-although his field was microfossil research, he had seen many dinosaur fossils before. "This short fiber structure has never been seen in dinosaur fossils found around the world in the past."

"I thought what this might be? Could it be mammalian hair? I'll rule this out first, because if it's hair, each hair will have an independent root. The fiber structure of this fossil is like dandelion, which means that many fiber structures are generated from a central point. This is in line with the characteristics of feathers, so I was bold and directly defined as' (original feather or professor). "

From 65438 to 0996, Ji Qiang, as the first author and colleague, published an article entitled "The Discovery of the Earliest Bird Fossils in China and the Origin of Birds" in China Geology. In the article, he named this fossil "loong Bird", and the formal Latin name is Sinosauropteryx: "Sinomeans" China "; Saur "is a" lizard ",which is common in the naming of dinosaurs; Pteryx "means" wings "and refers to birds, which is the same as the second half of Archaeopteryx, that is, Archaeopteryx Germany.

This naming reveals Ji Qiang's intention to ponder for months: he classified this newly discovered transitional species between typical dinosaurs and birds as early birds, and its fibrous skin derivative was a kind of "primitive feather", which was considered to be older than the oldest bird "Archaeopteryx" found in Germany. A few years later, Ji Qiang agreed with the mainstream views of international academic circles and revised his own views. He still classified "loong Bird" as a dinosaur, but kept its original name.

A few months later, Chen Piji, a researcher at the Institute of Southland Studies, Chinese Academy of Sciences, came to the 56th annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in North America with a front profile photo of the same fossil.

How did dinosaurs grow feathers? Once the "Chinese dragon bird" fossil appeared, it caused a great shock in the international paleontology community, and the origin of birds has been debated.

In international academic circles, the discussion about the origin of birds has been going on for nearly a century and a half. 1859, Darwin published the Origin of Species. Two years later, in Bavaria, Germany, archaeopteryx fossils with claws on the wing and long tailbone were found in the Late Jurassic strata about 65.438+0.46 billion years ago. These two important events have aroused more and more interest of the scientific community and the public in the origin of birds.

1868, Huxley, a loyal supporter of Darwin's theory of evolution, put forward the hypothesis that birds may have evolved from dinosaurs for the first time by comparing the hind legs of Megalodon and birds in theropod dinosaurs. This assumption is opposed by most academic "Daniel": they think that Megalodon and birds are both bipeds, so it is not surprising that the structural characteristics of hind limbs are similar. More importantly and intuitively, how could the exquisite "son of the sky" have evolved from a big dinosaur that could not fly?

1920s, various hypotheses about the origin of non-dinosaurs have become the mainstream views in the international scientific community, including "the origin of crocodiles" and "the origin of teeth". Until the generation of 1970, J·H· orstrom, a professor at Yale University, revived the hypothesis that birds originated from dinosaurs, and further pointed out that birds evolved from small theropods (carnivorous dinosaurs). His view has been supported by some young scholars, but there has been a lack of corresponding transitional fossil evidence.

From March 65438 to March 997, the "Dream Team" led by orstrom and organized by Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences visited China. At this stop, Ji Qiang received them in geological museum, China, and showed them the fossil specimens of "Chinese dragon bird".

The international academic circles have been arguing about the evolutionary status of "Chinese dragon bird".

Ji Qiang firmly believes in the evidence and judgment he has and keeps looking for more fossil evidence.

1March, 997, the northeast was freezing, and Ji Qiang learned a piece of news about fossils. In a vast expanse of whiteness, he drove to Sihetun, Beipiao, but missed it, and then rushed to Jinzhou according to the newly obtained clues, but still did not see the owner of the fossil. He had to stay in a small hotel near this house, knocked on the door every two hours, and kept it for four days and four nights, and finally saw the precious fossil. It is the "Protoarchaeopteryx" published and named by Ji Qiang and his collaborators in Nature in 1997.

Protoarchaeopteryx is the second feathered dinosaur discovered by Ji Qiang in western Liaoning. Its appearance is similar to that of the cunning and ferocious killer Raptor in the American blockbuster Jurassic Park, but it has real feathers, with a slender shaft, symmetrical feathers and a tail length of 15mm. On the phylogenetic tree, it is closer to birds than China's Arowana, but more primitive than German Archaeopteryx.

1998, Ji Qiang and his team discovered the third feathered dinosaur, the "tail-feathered bird". Its tail feathers completely conform to the concept of modern bird feathers, but its feathers are symmetrical. Most scientists believe that asymmetric feathers have the function of flying, and the symmetrical feathers of tail-feathered birds probably represent the primitive stage of feather evolution. This discovery and research conclusion were published in the journal Nature that year.

The following Spring Festival, Ji Qiang went to Boston as a special guest to attend the international symposium on "The Origin and Early Origin of Birds: Feathered Dinosaurs in China" organized by Yale University and National Geographic. In Peabody Museum of Natural History, he and Professor orstrom ushered in the highlight of their academic career-most of the more than 500 scientists attending the meeting accepted the view that "birds evolved from small carnivorous dinosaurs" and thought that "the discovery of rare fossils such as sauropods in western China was one of the most important scientific discoveries at the end of the 20th century".

Since the beginning of this year, "the dinosaur origin theory of birds" has become the mainstream knowledge in the field of international paleontology. 1998 10 the state approved the establishment of a 46.3-square-kilometer bird fossil group nature reserve in Fiona Fang with Sihetun in Beipiao, Chaoyang City as the center.

Since the "Chinese Dragon Bird", China paleontologists such as Ji Qiang have discovered more feathered dinosaurs and primitive bird fossils in Yixian, Beipiao and Lingyuan in western Liaoning, further perfecting the theory that birds originated from small theropods. Among them, Academician Zhou Zhonghe and Researcher Xu Xing of Gu Bei Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences put forward some influential new hypotheses and concepts, such as "arboreal dinosaur", "four-winged dinosaur" and "four-winged stage".

China's research on "Jehol Paleontology" has therefore been pushed to the forefront of the world.

Nature magazine 200 1 news edition reported how the paleontological research in China has made frequent achievements in recent years. This paper talks about the competition between two research institutes of China Academy of Sciences (South Institute and North Institute), especially their "tense relationship" with geological museum, China. In particular, Ji Qiang, who just stepped down as curator and became the chief scientist of the Institute of Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, said that his enthusiasm for paleontology hotspots and his "big method" in tracking fossils excavated by farmers made his colleagues quite "headache".

Ji Qiang accepted this "accusation" with a smile. But he thinks that he is out of pure truth-seeking, and his critics are trapped by the gains and losses of the department. He criticized the division of "mountains" in academic circles, which actually narrowed the vision and pattern of scientific researchers.

"For example, a dinosaur man went to the wild to do scientific research and found a fossil that had nothing to do with his research field. He often ignores it, even if he takes it back and throws it in the drawer. He is completely insensitive, wasting valuable research materials and delaying the progress of many important research. From a management point of view, this is a failure. "

Since 1995, Ji Qiang has also discovered rare fossils such as Shenzhou dragon, Huaxia jaw dragon, golden phoenix bird, Shenzhou bird, lucky bird, Jehol beast, hairy beast, ancestor beast, Chinese marsupial beast, Chinese ancient fruit and early flowering ancient fruit. His research tentacles cover dinosaurs, ancient birds, ancient mammals and paleobotany.

Ji Qiang * * * published 27 papers signed by authors in two top international academic journals, Science and Nature.

Looking back on his research career of more than 40 years, Ji Qiang regarded "loong Bird" as his most important and proud discovery-because of this guy, he was involved in the "dragon-bird dispute" at home and abroad, thus embarking on a special research path, "finally solving the problem of bird origin that has not been solved for more than 40 years in his lifetime/kloc-".

20 15 Ji Qiang put forward a bold suggestion in the book "Fei Long: The Origin of China's Long-featured Dinosaurs and Birds". In view of the increasingly unclear understanding of the definition of birds, it is difficult to give an exact biological definition to distinguish dinosaurs from birds. He suggested canceling "birds" and establishing "dinosaurs". Under the dinosaur class, it can be divided into "sauropods" and "birds' buttocks".

He looks to the further future, 50 years or even a century later.

"There may not be many people who respond to this proposal now. But this is just like our ancestor Huxley suggested in 1868 that birds and dinosaurs may be related. At that time, everyone thought it was incredible, and then 120 years later I proved it, right? "

Looking for "the first animal with eyes in history"

In 20 18, due to an accident, Ji Qiang got an ancient human skull from Harbin and stepped into the field of ancient human research.

Facts have proved that this is the most complete and largest fossil of ancient human skull in the world. Once the relevant research papers and data were published, they attracted the envy of international paleoanthropologists. He cooperated with Professor Ni Xijun's team, and thus discovered the third branch of ancient humans that evolved independently in East Asia-"Homolongi", which is also the closest sister group to us modern people.

If we are lucky enough, we may be able to uncover the most exciting discovery of molecular paleoanthropology in recent ten years-the mystery of "Denisova people". Except for a few teeth and half a phalanx, this extinct primitive human group left almost no morphological information, but it was proved that it left a special "genetic heritage" for Tibetans living on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and melanesians, an Australian island in South Asia.

The paleontologist is still running around: tracking dinosaur fossils on the Sino-Vietnamese border, presiding over and promoting research projects in Hebei laboratories, and planning and planning research funds.

At the end of the interview, I asked Ji Qiang: What mysteries do you want to solve in your lifetime about the life history of 3.5 billion years on earth?

"I especially want to solve-find the first animal with long eyes on earth." He suddenly became excited: hundreds of millions of years ago, many creatures had no eyes, such as corals, sponges and polypores. Some of them float in the water, and their mouths are open to filter other microorganisms for nutrition. But when it evolved into long eyes, it became active eating, and biological evolution was carried out at an acceleration. "So, I really want to find out this problem."

"I don't have [relevant fossil evidence] at present, but I know where to find it." He sold a lock. That annoying old question came up again-"Do you think people will say that I crossed the line and meddled?"

He burst out laughing, just like a child planning a prank.