Jiang Dayong is a Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Deputy Director of the UNESCO Asia‑Pacific World Heritage Training and Research Center Beijing Branch, a member of the National Fossil Expert Committee, a council member of the Palaeontological Society of China, an executive council member of the Vertebrate Paleontological Society of China, Director of the Geological Museum of Peking University, and Director of the Institute of Prehistoric Life and Environment at the School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University. He has long been dedicated to the study of Triassic marine reptiles and stratigraphy.
Professor Jiang Dayong completed his undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral studies in the Department of Geology at Peking University from 1987 to 1997, after which he remained to teach. He has led major international cooperation projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. He discovered the oldest ichthyosaur fossils with land‑to‑sea transitional capabilities in Chaohu, Anhui Province. He conducted research on Triassic fossil assemblages in Panxian, Xingyi, Guanling and other areas of Guizhou Province, revealing the origin and early evolution of Mesozoic marine reptiles and the process of marine ecosystem reconstruction following the end‑Permian mass extinction. He contributed to the successful nomination of the Xingyi fossil site as a UNESCO Global Geopark and promoted the World Heritage nomination of the Guizhou Triassic fossil assemblage as well as the construction of science popularization bases. He has established international collaborative research teams in partnership with the University of California, the University of Milan, and others. He has named over ten new genera and species of ichthyosaurs and sauropterygians as first author, systematically redescribed groups such as tanystropheids, proposed the West Tethys biogeographic affinity of the Middle Triassic in South China, and explored the relationship between the evolution of marine reptiles and global sea‑level changes. His research findings have been published in journals such as Nature and PLoS ONE.
Through significant fossil discoveries, international collaborative research, and work on geological heritage nomination, Professor Jiang Dayong has not only advanced related disciplines but also made important contributions to the protection, interpretation, and international dissemination of China’s natural heritage.
Origin
WHITR-AP Beijing: As an expert in palaeontology and stratigraphy, how did you first become involved in the field of natural heritage protection, and what led you to join the Centre?
Jiang Dayong: This stems from my research. I study “dragons entering the sea”—why Mesozoic reptiles became the overlords of the oceans. Starting in 1999, I focused my research efforts and breakthroughs on Guizhou and Yunnan, primarily conducting basic geological surveys and large‑scale excavations. Our paleontological excavations are very similar to archaeological excavations. Archaeology actually borrows methods from geology. While history relies more on documentary sources, one important characteristic of archaeology is using natural science methods to answer historical questions—it draws on natural sciences, especially geology and palaeontology.
So, from the start of large‑scale excavations, my work became connected with archaeology. Examples include the Panxian Dadong site in Guizhou, the Wantun ancient tombs in Xingyi, and the nomination of Huangguoshu Falls in Anshun, which our Centre led, aiming to nominate it as a mixed property together with the Guanling fossil assemblage.
From 1999 onward, we engaged in international cooperation. My research on “dragons entering the sea” received two major international cooperation grants, establishing an international research platform. I visited fossil sites abroad for global comparison, examining their fossil localities and stratigraphy. I discovered that many famous fossil sites abroad are themselves natural heritage sites—for example, Monte San Giorgio, on the border between Switzerland and Italy, is a World Natural Heritage site. This extended my work from paleontological research to global comparisons of faunas, then to paleogeography and paleoenvironments, and naturally led to contact with local governments abroad and their natural heritage protection efforts.
Investigating the Jungfrau region in Switzerland in 2010
The second opportunity that introduced me to natural heritage came during my research on the Guizhou fossil assemblage, when the local government was promoting the nomination of Huangguoshu Falls as a World Heritage site. After several rounds of evaluation for the Huangguoshu nomination, it proved difficult. Officials from Anshun City and Guizhou Province then considered: could the Guanling fossil assemblage be added to form a mixed property with Huangguoshu? During a seminar in Anshun, I met Professor Sun Hua. Professor Sun focuses on demonstrating heritage value from a cultural perspective and has done extensive work in Southwest archaeology. At that time, I knew nothing about heritage—I attended as a paleontologist. For me, understanding the whole systemic picture from a different angle felt like entering a different world. Later, Professor Sun participated in several Fossil Culture Week events organized by Peking University and became very interested in fossil heritage, hoping the Center would also work in this area. Professor Sun, as a key participant in the establishment of the Beijing Center, focuses not only on cultural heritage but also on interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary development. His understanding of heritage is profound—he approaches it not merely from a humanities perspective, but also from the viewpoints of life sciences, geological sciences, even modern detection technologies, big data, and AI. I can say he was an important mentor for me in this regard.
My second mentor was Professor Li Jianghai. Professor Li is both a teacher and an elder brother to me. Although our disciplines differ—I focus on paleontology, he on structural geology—he became involved in the heritage field early on, such as with the Mount Wutai World Heritage nomination. He led a major project funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology on identifying potential natural heritage areas in China, evaluating which areas might be suitable for future natural heritage nominations. He was familiar with my work, recognized my strong foundation in Guizhou, Yunnan, Jiangsu, Anhui and other areas, and since fossil heritage is a key focus for UNESCO, he included me in the project team to contribute to work on paleontological fossil heritage.
My actual entry into the heritage field came through joining our Center. Professor Sun Hua had long hoped I would join the Center’s work. I am actually very familiar with many archaeology faculty—during my studies, archaeology students often interacted with us.
Professors Sun Hua, Sun Qingwei, and Lei Xingshan all felt that the Center should be operated more effectively and hoped we could contribute ideas, consolidate efforts, combine natural and cultural heritage, and truly work together according to UNESCO requirements and the Center’s own plans.
So, my involvement with the Center came about through several converging factors: international exchanges with foreign fossil sites, the domestic Huangguoshu nomination work, and the guidance of mentors like Professors Sun Hua and Li Jianghai.
Understanding Natural Heritage
WHITR-AP Beijing: How do you understand natural heritage? What unique value does it have compared to cultural heritage?
Jiang Dayong: Natural heritage is shaped by various natural forces during Earth’s evolutionary process. It records Earth’s past, and we study it to understand how Earth gradually became what it is today—Earth is dynamic, we want to know what it was like in the past, and natural heritage provides the classic evidence of global significance that demonstrates “what it was like.”
Compared to cultural heritage, I believe natural heritage indeed has irreplaceable unique value.
I feel that natural heritage brings humanity a kind of awe that transcends individuals. This awe first comes from beauty—such as karst landscapes, Danxia landforms, the Yardang landforms in Xinjiang, and Niagara Falls—they showcase spectacular beauty shaped by nature. And this beauty is almost universally recognized by humanity. Cultural heritage often represents a particular nation or a specific phase of civilization, which can sometimes be contested; but the beauty created by natural forces can be appreciated and felt by all of humanity.
Beyond beauty, the second unique value of natural heritage lies in its warnings and inspiration for all of humanity. For instance, some fossil deposits that record mass extinction events do not present beauty, but rather evidence of significant geological events in Earth’s evolutionary history. Such events have global significance—like the “Permian‑Triassic boundary stratotype section” at Meishan, Changxing, Zhejiang Province, which represents the timing and process of the mass extinction event that affected the entire planet 252 million years ago. Seeing this section, one knows that the same thing was happening all over the world at that time.
This reminds us: such events do not happen only once; they may occur again in the future. We do not know when the next mass extinction will come, when a supervolcano will erupt, or whether an asteroid will strike millions of years from now… But natural heritage tells us that once such a catastrophe occurs, over 90% of marine life and 75% of terrestrial life may disappear within tens to hundreds of thousands of years. Disasters, like the asteroid impact at the end of the Cretaceous, did not kill all dinosaurs instantly, but resulted from a chain of environmental reactions—high temperatures, anoxia, global wildfires—leading to the collapse of the biosphere over tens of thousands of years. Or, as the story of “Noah’s Ark” might metaphorically suggest, there have indeed been prolonged periods of heavy rainfall in history lasting millions of years.
Therefore, the core value of natural heritage lies in revealing the past with global significance. Such events do not occur only in Asia or the Americas in isolation; they are the shared memory of the planet and a common revelation for humanity’s future.
At the Monte San Giorgio World Natural Heritage Site in Italy in 2019
Triassic World Heritage Nomination
WHITR-AP Beijing: Could you share a particularly memorable case of natural heritage that you have been personally involved in?
Jiang Dayong: Let me share the Triassic case I have been working on. When it comes to geological heritage, Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) lies in being a witness to major events in Earth’s evolutionary process. What about the process of life evolution? Paleontological heritage is actually quite rare. Those that can be preserved hold great potential (for World Heritage nomination).
Paleontological heritage concerns major events in the 3.8‑billion‑year evolution of life—events of global significance, such as major origins, major transitions, major radiations, or major extinctions. Like human evolution, there were likely two major migrations of Homo sapiens. From the perspective of natural heritage, to find the origin of humanity, we must look for the place where “the first dawn” appeared, such as Lucy, Australopithecus. In paleontology, we pursue that “moment” of a major event in life evolution.
That “moment” may be long—for example, the key evidence for the Cambrian Explosion, the Chengjiang Fossil Site, is currently China’s only fossil‑type World Natural Heritage property. The Chengjiang biota appeared around 530‑520 million years ago; their “moment” might be 10 million years. Ten million years is long for humans but very short for biological evolution. Within those 10 million years, nearly all the major taxonomic categories of life today appeared simultaneously in the ocean. Investigating the Cambrian Explosion is about pursuing that moment: why did all these categories appear at once? Natural heritage is the evidence of that moment. Heritage requires evidence—there must be tangible remains left behind.
Observing ichthyosaur fossils at the University of California, Berkeley in 2005
Monte San Giorgio on the Swiss‑Italian border is already a World Natural Heritage site, with its OUV being the complete and exquisite representation of Middle Triassic marine life. So why is China’s Triassic different? In our nomination, we need to answer: why did dragons go into the sea? And what was the process after they entered the sea? Monte San Giorgio shows that there were dragons in the sea, but it does not tell us why. It presents a cross‑section, without showing diversity across a timeline.
The key to nominating the Triassic fossil assemblage as a World Heritage site lies in how to articulate its OUV. This is a process of discovery, starting from scientific questions. The early evolutionary process of dragons was not well understood for a long time. When large ichthyosaurs appeared at Guanling, Guizhou, it shocked the scientific community. It was precisely these fossils that gave us the opportunity to explore the question of dragons entering the sea and their early evolution.
How do we benchmark against similar international properties, such as Monte San Giorgio? We found that Monte San Giorgio presents a cross‑section in time, with exquisite fossils; we also have exquisite fossils. It has ichthyosaurs; we also have ichthyosaurs. It has high biodiversity; we also have high biodiversity. But what we present is a dynamic process: dragons entering the sea, migrating from shallow seas to deep seas—this itself is a major turning point in marine life evolution, and this process can be seen in Guizhou, with shallow seas, deep seas, and the transition point all observable. Secondly, in terms of biogeographic attributes, our early fauna was similar to Europe’s, while later it became similar to North America’s—a significant change that cannot be seen at Monte San Giorgio, which only shows the European paleo‑Tethyan biological attributes. Third, we focus on the biotic recovery after the end‑Permian mass extinction. Many thought the biosphere remained quiet for a long time after the mass extinction, but through our study of the Guizhou Triassic, we found it actually recovered quite quickly. Earth’s history tells us that such external impacts are not necessarily so devastating; life recovers quickly. The Guizhou Triassic shows the construction process of a new marine ecosystem, a structure that has persisted to this day. This is the value we emphasize. The Guizhou Triassic fossil assemblage presents the process—the establishment of modern marine ecosystems. Dragons entered the sea from land, rose, and became apex predators. What does “overlord” mean? It means being able to prey on opponents of similar size and growing extremely large. The Guizhou Triassic fully demonstrates this process, and we used this to articulate its OUV for the World Heritage nomination.
Once articulated, we need to work with local governments and various institutions to promote it. We organize various academic seminars, not only with paleontologists but also with experts in culture and archaeology. From Panxian to Xingyi to Guanling in Guizhou, different localities are connected, presenting a continuous process. At the same time, heritage is not just fossils and strata; it must be integrated with local geography and culture to form a whole. So, topography, landforms, and culture must all be integrated. Guizhou is a karst region, and relying solely on the aesthetic value of Huangguoshu Falls makes it difficult to reach a global consensus. But if we take the value of the Triassic fossils—biological evolution, paleogeography, paleoecology—as the core, and integrate culture, archaeology, and even Huangguoshu as components, then Huangguoshu and karst are not the core but become very important components. Together with local cultural landscapes, this forms a complete theoretical framework.
Introducing fossil specimens to evaluation experts
Education and Science Popularization
WHITR-AP Beijing: As a professor at Peking University, what specific work have you done in the field of natural heritage education and science popularization?
Jiang Dayong: We do more in the area of science popularization at the university. I have been teaching the undergraduate compulsory course Paleontology, which may be taken by students from the sciences, physics, chemistry, biology, and Yuanpei College, among others. Paleontology itself is heritage—fossils are the legacy nature has left to humanity, the material evidence of past life. This year, many students from the archaeology department, over a hundred in the class, have joined, along with students from the medical school and the school of foreign languages. At the same time, I am a member of the National Fossil Research Center; our regulations explicitly state: fossils are the legacy nature has left to all humanity—they are true material heritage.
As a teacher, science popularization is more about helping people recognize the greatness of nature and the greatness of life. The fossils left to us from these great processes are exceptionally precious, and we must cherish and protect them. In this process, I constantly think about how to enable everyone to jointly protect fossil sites. Many lives have lived on Earth, but the number that can be preserved as fossils is extremely small; those that become fossils and are discovered by humans are even fewer; and those discovered that are complete and exquisite are exceptionally rare. In this regard, fossils are even rarer than cultural relics—there may be more cultural relics, but a complete crinoid fossil, for instance, has odds of one in hundreds of millions.
We always emphasize that fossils should be priceless heritage. Although there is indeed a market price, their scientific and historical value cannot be measured by money. So in the classroom, I tell students to truly understand the scientific value and historical significance of fossils and to comprehend what they mean for humanity. We humans always want to know what the future holds, but to predict the future, we must first understand the past—just as archaeology and history teach us. Without a profound understanding of history, we will continue to make mistakes and stumble.
The same applies to life evolution. We want to know whether the climate will become hotter in the future, whether humans will go extinct, whether we will become more intelligent… The answers to these questions must be sought in the past. Understanding the present is the key to understanding the past; understanding the past is the foundation for predicting the future. Fossils are precisely the precious legacy Earth has left us to understand the past.
But revealing the truth of fossils is very difficult. Fossils are rare to begin with, and complete ones are even rarer. If not well protected, our understanding of the past can go wrong. Some people may tamper with or fabricate fossils, distorting our understanding of history. If the basic data is wrong, even using AI or big data for analysis will yield wrong conclusions. So we must protect fossils and fossil sites, and resolutely prevent illegal excavation, destruction, and forgery of fossils.
Moreover, the information contained in fossils cannot be fully interpreted by our generation alone. As technology advances, future generations will be able to extract more knowledge from them using more advanced methods. But if fossils are not protected, destroyed, or lost, future generations will have no opportunity. So we must preserve these possibilities for posterity.
Furthermore, science popularization should help people respect nature and respect life—this is a very important point. In paleontological science popularization, we must convey correct scientific concepts and help people understand how life actually originated. This is a long road ahead. There is still much misinformation about evolutionary history online. Whether it is natural heritage or cultural heritage popularization, its essence is enlightening the public. This is our responsibility—as Peking University, as educators. How can we enable society as a whole to possess a humanistic spirit and scientific mindset? How can we use these to advance the development of our nation? This requires joint efforts from the sciences and humanities.
Regarding heritage, I feel that society has already formed a certain consensus on protecting natural and cultural heritage. We should build on this consensus to continue promoting greater attention to the scientific aspects and scientific value of heritage across society.
Conducting fieldwork and leading student fieldwork at the Dolomites World Natural Heritage Site in Italy in 2016
The Geological Museum of Peking University
WHITR-AP Beijing: Speaking of natural heritage education, Peking University’s Geological Museum is a vivid classroom. As the museum’s director, could you introduce this museum to us?
Jiang Dayong: Many of the fossil “dragons” displayed in our Geological Museum are actually research outcomes from our team; many were excavated by our research group. Speaking of the Geological Museum, its functions are multifaceted.
First, public science popularization and education are among its most important social functions. Through the museum platform, we convey scientific spirit and concepts—this is its major contribution to society.
Second, it must be a research institution. A museum must have its own distinctive research, such as ours, which is closely integrated with the School of Earth and Space Sciences. Only with solid research support can a museum tell deep and distinctive scientific stories. A Peking University museum must reflect Peking University’s research level and characteristics. If all museums tell the same stories, quartz is just quartz, rocks are just rocks, then what uniqueness is there? What we want to convey to the public is the scientific spirit and research process at the level of Peking University.
Third, the museum must be a conservation institution. It needs to have formal qualifications and assume the responsibility of preserving and protecting natural heritage. Fossils, exquisite minerals—these are precious natural heritage and must be properly preserved by the museum. For a museum to have a long‑term future, it must collect and protect these specimens with true heritage value—ordinary rocks may not be valuable, but the “dragon” fossils we study are precious natural heritage.
Fourth, the museum should also be a center for exchange. It should serve as a platform for intellectual and cultural exchange, not just a place for elementary school children to walk through once. Visitors and scholars from different backgrounds communicate here, perhaps sparking new ideas and generating fresh thinking that can be disseminated outward.
Additionally, the Geological Museum of Peking University has another important function: teaching support. It is not only a place to display exhibits but also a venue for many courses in geology, biology, and archaeology. So our exhibitions serve teaching and support first‑class scientific research at Peking University.
We hope that through the museum window, more people will realize that natural heritage protection is not a distant concept. It begins with an attentive visit, arises from curiosity about the story of a fossil; we hope everyone who leaves the museum can become a guardian and disseminator of natural heritage.
Professor Jiang introducing fossils to children
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