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China Makes Advanced Paleontological Achievements
Chinese scientists of paleontology and paleoanthropology have made some of the most advanced achievements in the field of basic sciences, said a Chinese scientist Friday, December 8.
Wang Yuanqing, vice director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, made the remark at a press conference Friday.
He noted that two latest paleontological discoveries made by Chinese scientists were published recently in Nature and Science, the world's most authoritative science journal, evoking great repercussions in the international academic circles.
The institute now has four CAS academicians and a group of young scientists forming the backbone force of the research body, said Wang.
Since 1993, the researchers from the CAS institute have had a total of 31 thesis papers published in Nature and Science, leading all other institutes in the country.
Those papers were concerned with early vertebrate animals, feathered dinosaurs, ancient birds and early human-like anthropoids.
Wang said he hopes the institute, where the average age of the researchers is less than 40, will become one of the most competitive organizations in the field.
Most of the scientific projects carried out by the CAS institute have received support from governmental departments. The research and development expenditure in 2000 exceeds 10 million yuan (US$1.2 million), 40 percent more than that in 1999.
Founded in 1929, the CAS institute stunned the world in the 1930's with its finding of fossilized Peking Man skulls.
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