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Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Home>SCIENTISTS>Faculty and Staff
Title: Professor
Fax:
E-mail: yangshixia@ivpp.ac.cn
Born in Inner Mongolia in 1988, she obtained her BSc from Sun Yat-sen University in 2010. She then pursued graduate studies at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IVPP), earning her PhD in 2015. During her doctoral studies, she was funded by the Cai Yuanpei Exchange Program to conduct one year of exchange research at the University of Bordeaux. From 2015 to 2019, she held postdoctoral positions at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany. She was selected as a Humboldt Fellow (2017) and a member of the Youth Innovation Promotion Association, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2020). She is currently a Professor at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and also serves as a Visiting Professor at the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution.
Her research focuses on "Human Origins and Evolution," with a particular emphasis on the behavioral evolution and environmental adaptations of hominins during the Pleistocene.
Her research has yielded critical evidence for understanding the behavioral adaptations of modern humans in East Asia and proposes a theoretical model of their evolutionary trajectory—from "Creolization" to a "Mosaic Pattern"—thereby filling a critical gap in understanding the region's deep human history. Her work emphasizes interdisciplinary and cross-platform approaches, focusing on the multidimensional recovery of evidence related to human evolution and actively exploring new theoretical models.
Top Ten Scientific Advances in China (Ministry of Science and Technology December 2018
Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries in China (Palaeontological Society of China) 2023
First Prize of Natural Science, Guangdong Province (The People's Government of Guangdong Province) 2022
Yang, SX*., Martinón-Torres*, M. & Petraglia*, M. Palaeoanthropological evidence from China is changing the picture of hominin evolutionary history. Nature Ecology & Evolution (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-026-02983-w
Yue J.P., Song G.D., Yang S.X*. et al. Technological innovations and hafted technology in central China ~160,000–72,000 years ago. Nature Communications, 2026, 17, 615.
Yang SX#*, Zhang JF, Yue JP, Wood R., Guo YJ et al. Initial Upper Palaeolithic material culture by 45,000 years ago at Shiyu in northern China. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2024, 8, 552–563.
Wang F G#, Yang SX#*, Ge J Y, Ollé A, Zhao K L, Yue J P et al. Innovative ochre processing and tool use in China 40,000 years ago. Nature, 2022, 603: 284-289.
Yang S X*, Wang F G, Xie F, Deng C L, Zhu R X, Petraglia M D*. Technological innovations at the onset of the mid-pleistocene climate transition in high-latitude East Asia. National Science Review, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwaa053.
2026/01-2028/12. Chinese National Natural Science Foundation (Young scientist B) (No. 42522206): Hominin evolution and behavioral adaptations in the Pleistocene Eastern Asia.
2022/01-2025/12. Chinese National Natural Science Foundation (No. 42177424): The Hominins technological evolution and behavioral adaptation during Middle Pleistocene in North China
2020/01-2023/12. Project of the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of Chinese Academy of Sciences (2020074)