Prof. Qiu Zhanxiang’s academic life presents a cross regional scientific research landscape: born in Qingdao City on the coast of the Yellow Sea, he devoted his life to exploring the mysteries of terrestrial mammalian evolution. In his early years, he received systematic training at the Geological Department of Moscow University and graduated in 1960, which laid a solid disciplinary foundation for him. After returning to China, he took root in the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, starting a scientific research journey that lasted for more than half a century. As a paleontologist, his career has distinct international characteristics: from 1982 to 1984, he was awarded the Humboldt Scholarship from the Federal Republic of Germany and completed his doctoral thesis at the Gutenberg University of Mainz, and from 1982 to 1999, he conducted a series of international cooperation projects. His academic leadership was particularly prominent in his career, as he led multiple strategic scientific research projects during his tenure at the institute from 1991 to 1995. His scientific research footprint spans from the Nei Mongol Gobi to the Tibetan Plateau, and from the Yushe Basin in Shanxi Province to the Linxia Basin in Gansu Province. The National Climbing Plan of “Research on the origin of early human beings and environmental background” presided over by him has created a new paradigm of interdisciplinary research. In terms of disciplinary achievements, Prof. Qiu has achieved three landmark accomplishments: deciphering the evolutionary code of the Paleocene red bed mammalian fauna of South China, clarifying the lineage of giant rhino fossils, and establishing a biochronological scale for the Neogene terrestrial strata in China and conducting in-depth research on the carnivore and perissodactyl fossils contained therein. These achievements have provided a key evidence chain for analyzing the evolutionary mechanism of mammals’ adaptation to environmental changes over 66 million years, which not only won him the title of CAS Academician in 2005, but also left China’s mark in the field of international Cenozoic paleontology and stratigraphy.
