Deng Tao
BornJune 1963 (age 60)
Yibin, Sichuan, China
Alma materPeking University
Known forWoolly rhinoceros
Scientific career
FieldsVertebrate paleontology, evolution, biostratigraphy
InstitutionsInstitute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology

Deng Tao (Chinese: 邓涛; born June 1963)[1] is a Chinese palaeontologist at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, who has made important fossil discoveries on Cenozoic mammals. He is a professor of vertebrate palaeontology, deputy director of the Academic Committee, and deputy director of Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Systematics of Vertebrates at IVPP.

Education

Deng was born in Yibin, Sichuan, China. He studied at Peking University from where he obtained BS in 1984.[1] He completed MS from Southwest Petroleum University in 1994. He obtained PhD from the Northwest University in 1997.[2]

Professional career

Deng works at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology as a researcher and PhD supervisor. His specialization is in the study of mammalian fossils, biostratigraphy, and environmental changes during the Late Cenozoic. Deng currently assumes several positions, including deputy director for the Academic Committee of IVPP, and professor of palaeontology at the graduate school of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is also the deputy editor-in-chief of two technical journals, Vertebrata PalAsiatica and Evolution of Life.

Research achievements

Deng has published more than 120 technical papers on palaeontology. He and his team had first major breakthrough in the Zanda Basin, from where they discovered fossil materials of Tibetan wooly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) on 22 August 2007.[3] After painstaking excavation, they unearthed the skull, jaw bone and cervical vertebra of the adult wooly rhinoceros. An analysis through animal group comparison and paleomagnetic test indicated the fossil's geological age to be about 3.7 million years old and in the middle of the Pliocene. Their research eventually lead to in-depth knowledge of the dramatic rising of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and its great impact to evolution of mammals with respect to climate changes. His team reported in 2011 that the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is actually the place of origin of the woolly rhinos during the Pliocene Ice Age, from where they evolved and spread out into other Asian and European regions.[4]

In 2012 he and his team reported the discovery of a 4.6 million-year-old three-toed horse Hipparion zandaense from Tibet.[5] In 2013 they discovered Sinotherium lagrelii from Linxia Basin in Linxia County, Gansu Province, a transitional fossil in the lineage of one-horned rhinoceros, the basis of the unicorn legend in the region;[6][7] and a new hornless rhino Aceratherium porpani from Thailand.[8][9][10]

In 2021, Tao Deng and his colleagues Xiaokang Lu and Shanqin Chen discovered a new Paraceratherium species in the Linxia Basin which they named Paraceratherium linxiaense.[11]

Discrediting forged fossil

Deng was on the news headline around the world for revealing a fossil forgery, Acinonyx kurteni or the Lynxia cheetah. The cheetah was reported in 2009, and was claimed to be the oldest true cheetah species ever discovered.[12][13] Deng was the first to note the unusual fossil description while proofreading the manuscript for publication of the discovery in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. He immediately reported to PNAS that parts of the skull had been concocted from plaster, and that pieces of bones looked like being glued together to create a unique skull.[14][15] However, his objection to publication was rejected as he had no direct examination of the fossil.[16][17] After years of arguments in the scientific community, it was only in 2012 that Deng was allowed access to the original fossil upon invoking the PNAS data access policy, and on examination, his primary suspicions were proven correct, that the fossil was a deliberate fake.[16][18] On 20 August 2012 one of the authors, Ji H. Mazák finally made a retraction in PNAS.[19]

Awards and honours

Deng was awarded with the Chinese national prize for outstanding dissertation in 2000.[1]

Publications

  • Tao Deng and Xue Xiangxu (1999). Chinese Fossil Horses of Equus and Their Environment. China Scientific Books.
  • Tao Deng (2000). Eighth China Vertebrate Paleontology Annual Meeting Proceedings (Chinese Edition). Ocean Publications. ISBN 978-7502753702
  • Tao Deng (2000). Scientific Journey: to Search for Traces of the Ancient Beasts (Chinese Edition). Shanghai Science and Technology Press. ISBN 978-7547809334
  • Tao Deng (2010). Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Meeting of the Chinese Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. China Scientific Books. ISBN 7-5027-5370-2
  • Tao Deng (2013). (With Zhan-xiang Qiu, Zhu-ding Qiu, Chuan-kui Li, Zhao-qun Zhang, Ban-yue Wang, and Xiao-ming Wang) Neogene Land Mammal Stages/Ages of China: Toward the Goal to Establish an Asian Land Mammal Stage/Age Scheme. (With Zhan-xiang Qiu, Ban-yue Wang, Xiao-ming Wang, and Su-kuan Hou) Late Cenozoic Biostratigraphy of the Linxia Basin, Northwestern China. (With Xiao-ming Wang, Qiang Li, Zhu-ding Qiu, Guang-pu Xie, Ban-yue Wang, Zhan-xiang Qiu, Zhijie J. Tseng, and Gary T. Takeuchi) Neogene Mammalian Biostratigraphy and Geochronology of the Tibetan Plateau. In: Fossil Mammals of Asia: Neogene Biostratigraphy and Chronology. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-15012-5

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Interview with Dr. Deng Tao". AAAS, the science society. 2013. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
  2. ↑ CAS (2013). "Details of the Faculty or Staff: DENG Tao". Chinese Academy of Sciences. Archived from the original on 16 October 2013. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
  3. ↑ Kathy Wren (1 September 2011). "Tibetan Plateau May Have Been A Cold Cradle for Ice Age Giants". AAAS News. American Association for the Advancement of Science. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  4. ↑ Deng T, Wang X, Fortelius M, Li Q, Wang Y, Tseng ZJ, Takeuchi GT, Saylor JE, Säilä LK, Xie G (2011). "Out of Tibet: Pliocene woolly rhino suggests high-plateau origin of Ice Age megaherbivores". Science. 333 (6047): 1285–1288. Bibcode:2011Sci...333.1285D. doi:10.1126/science.1206594. PMID 21885780. S2CID 8913866.
  5. ↑ "Three-toed horses reveal the secret of the Tibetan Plateau uplift". phys.org. 24 April 2012. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  6. ↑ Deng, Tao; Wang, ShiQi; Hou, SuKuan (2012). "A bizarre tandem-horned elasmothere rhino from the Late Miocene of northwestern China and origin of the true elasmothere". Chinese Science Bulletin. 58 (15): 1811–1817. doi:10.1007/s11434-012-5574-4.
  7. ↑ "One-horned rhino Elasmotherium 'source of unicorn legend'". ANI News. 22 June 2013. Archived from the original on 17 October 2013. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  8. ↑ Deng, Tao; Hanta, Rattanaphorn; Jintasakul, Pratueng (2013). "A new species of Aceratherium (Rhinocerotidae, Perissodactyla) from the late Miocene of Nakhon Ratchasima, northeastern Thailand". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 33 (4): 977–985. Bibcode:2013JVPal..33..977D. doi:10.1080/02724634.2013.748058. S2CID 84438829.
  9. ↑ Enrico de Lazaro (1 July 2013). "Aceratherium porpani: New Late Miocene Species of Hornless Rhino from Thailand". sci-news.com. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  10. ↑ "New fossil rhino species confirmed". Bangkok Post. The Post Publishing PCL. 24 September 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
  11. ↑ Deng, Tao; Lu, Xiaokang; Chen, Shanqin (17 June 2021). "IndricotheresAn Oligocene giant rhino provides insights into Paraceratherium evolution". Nature. 4 (639). Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  12. ↑ Christiansen P, Mazák JH (January 13, 2009). "A primitive Late Pliocene cheetah, and evolution of the cheetah lineage". Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 106 (2): 512–515. Bibcode:2009PNAS..106..512C. doi:10.1073/pnas.0810435106. PMC 2626734. PMID 19114651. (Retracted, see doi:10.1073/pnas.1211510109)
  13. ↑ Randerson, James (December 29, 2008). "Fossilised skull suggests cheetahs evolved in Asia not Americas". The Guardian. London. Retrieved April 23, 2010.
  14. ↑ Cheng Yingqi (6 September 2009). "Counterfeit fossils undermine research projects". China Daily. China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Retrieved 17 October 2013.
  15. ↑ Knevitt O (9 January 2011). "5 Greatest Palaeontology Fakes Of All Time #5: The Linxia Cheetah". Science 2.0. ION Publications LLC. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
  16. 1 2 Ivanoransky (20 August 2012). "Author retracts PNAS paper about alleged Pliocene cheetah fossil that critics said was a fake". Retraction Watch. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
  17. ↑ Rebecca Carroll (29 December 2008). "Ancient Cheetah Fossil Points to Old World Roots?". National Geographic News. National Geographic Society. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  18. ↑ Wang X (2013). "Mortgaging the future of Chinese paleontology". Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 110 (9): 3201. Bibcode:2013PNAS..110.3201W. doi:10.1073/pnas.1301429110. PMC 3587247. PMID 23431183.
  19. ↑ Mazák JH (2012). "Retraction for Christiansen and Mazák, A primitive Late Pliocene cheetah, and evolution of the cheetah lineage". Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 109 (37): 15072. Bibcode:2012PNAS..10915072.. doi:10.1073/pnas.1211510109. PMC 3443189. PMID 22908293.
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