China is awash in dinosaur fossils. But who will dig them up?
China’s most famous paleontologists were accidental scholars.
The year Wang Min entered college, in 2005, China was still finding its way onto the dinosaur map. Competition on the national college entrance exam was fierce, Dr. Wang says, and choices were limited for people who scored in his range. He stumbled into geology and eventually became enamored with a subset of that department: paleontology.
When Dr. Wang decided to pursue a Ph.D. in the field, he didn’t tell his parents for years, until after he’d graduated and landed a job.
“I didn’t want them to worry about my job prospects,” he says. “That would not be very helpful.”
What a difference a decade makes. Dr. Wang is now one of the country’s
A national paradoxSparking curiosityMagical wonder
