Xiaoming Wang

Vertebrate Paleontology Curator Xiaoming Wang holds a PhD from the University of Kansas, where he studied the evolution and ecology of an extinct dog group known as the Borophagines. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and later became Assistant Professor of Biology at Long Island University before starting as an Associate Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology in 2002.  He has held the position of Curator since 2007 and has received several grants in support of oversees field work in Inner Mongolia and the Tibetan Plateau of China.  Dr. Wang's research interest in the evolution of terrestrial mammals is primarily focused on the history of carnivores.  Over the past 20 years Dr. Wang has specialized on the systematics and phylogeny of canids, the group that includes the dogs, wolves, foxes, and coyotes.  He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers and a popular level book titled, Dogs: Their Fossil Relatives and Evolutionary History, by Columbia University Press. 

Dr. Wang actively mentors graduate students pursuing courses of study similar to his research interests and holds many adjunct professorship positions at local universities and international organizations, such as the University of Southern California, the University of California Los Angeles, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.  He is also currently serving as a Member-at-Large for the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP).

REsearch interests

• Mammal evolution of Tibetan Plateau and paleoenvironments
• Late Cenozoic biostratigraphy of Inner Mongolia
• Mammalian biostratigraphy and geochronology of Asia
• Systematics and phylogeny of canids (dogs, wolves, foxes, coyotes)
• Evolution of fossil carnivores
• Late Cenozoic fossil mammals of Southern California and Mexico
• Mammal migration between Eurasia and North America