C.W. Post Biology Professor Collects
Fossils from the Tibetan Plateau (September 29, 1999)
The new millennium doesn't impress Xioaming Wang. The Westfield,
N.J. resident has already seen 4,000 of them. The paleontologist
and assistant biology professor at the C.W. Post Campus of Long
Island University reaches back in time to study the implications
of fossils on the evolutionary history of mammals and the earth.
His most recent project took him to China's Tibetan Plateau.
"In the past 20 million years we have thousands of millennia
to talk about," says Wang. "A millennium is significant
in human history, but it's only a very short blimp in the much
longer history of the earth and, for that matter, of many animals--including
humans."
In July, Wang flew to Beijing, his native city, and boarded
a train for the ancient city of Dunhuang along the Silk Road.
From that city traveled 100 kilometers south to the northern
border of the Tibetan Plateau, about 9,000 feet above seal level.
This was his second summer in the region. He had worked inside
the plateau in 1998, but chose to work on the edge this year.
He and his crew camped at a small village called Yindirte.
The fossils he and his crew found this year ranged from rodents
and turtles to ancient rabbits and calicotheres, vegetable eaters
the size of present-day rhinoceroses. Because most of the fossils
remain buried in pieces of rock, they must now be "prepared."
That task is being performed both in China, at the Chinese Academy
of Science, and at the American Museum of Natural History, where
Wang works in the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Once the rock has been chipped away from the fossils, Wang
will determine their age and relation to present-day mammals.
He will, for example, look at the animals' teeth to determine
what they ate, and their arms and legs to determine how they
traveled about. "There's all kinds of clues in the anatomy
of their bones," says Wang. "We question what they
did in the past and how they relate to each other in their genealogical
relationship. Through that we can further infer a climactic pattern."
The fossils will help Wang determine the age and uplifting
history of the plateau, which most scientists estimate to be
about 50 million years. The fossils he found on the inside of
the plateau in 1998 were younger and contain ancient three-toed
horses. So he concluded that the animals living inside the plateau
existed before the plateau rose and cut them off from the rest
of the continent. Wang says the plateau rose so high that it
blocked the flow of air and had profound effects on the region's
climatic deterioration.
Wang specializes in the evolution of vertebrates. He also
studies the evolutionary history of the dog family, and is writing
articles on the subject for National Geographic and Natural History
magazines. He teaches evolutionary theory and comparative anatomy
at C.W. Post, and plans to take his students to the American
Museum of Natural History to view the Tibetan fossils. One of
them, senior Maki Tomatsubara, works in his lab. He doesn't rule
out the possibility of bringing one of those students with him
to China next summer-if they're up to the challenge. "It's
a harsh environment," he admits. "But if I have very
dedicated and enthusiastic and committed students, I would not
hesitate to bring them."
For more information call the C.W. Post
Public Relations Office at (516) 299-2333 or e-mail pr@cwpost.liu.edu or send
mail to: Long Island University, C.W. Post Campus, 720 Northern
Blvd., Brookville, New York 11548-1300.
