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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
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E-mail: huhan@ivpp.ac.cn
2023/12-, Professor, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences.
2023/04-2023/12, Honorary Visiting Senior Research Associate, School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, UK.
2021/06-2023/06, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, UK.
2020/02-2021/02, Visiting Researcher, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, UK.
2018/01-2021/02, UNE Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Zoology Division, University of New England, Australia
2011/09-2017/07, PhD in Paleontology and Stratigraphy, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences.
2007/09-2011/07, Bachelor of Science in Earth Information Science and Technology, Sun Yat-Sen University (SYSU).
My research focuses on the functional morphology of tetrapods and the origin and evolution of birds, using high-resolution 3D imaging and quantitative approaches such as geometric morphometrics. My work integrates large-scale comparative datasets of both extant and fossil taxa to reconstruct the anatomy, function, and ecology of key fossil species, with a particular emphasis on the dinosaur-bird transition.
1. O’Connor JK*, Clark A, Kuo PC, Kiat Y, Fabbri M, Shinya A, Beek CV, Lu J, Wang M, Hu H*. Chicago Archaeopteryx informs on the early evolution of the avian bauplan. Nature, 641, 1201–1207 (2025). (Co-corresponding author)
2. Hu H*, Wang Y*, McDonald PG, Wroe S, O'Connor JK, Bjarnason A, Bevitt JJ, Yin X, Zheng X, Zhou Z, Benson RBJ. Earliest evidence for fruit consumption and potential seed dispersal by birds. eLife, 11: e74751 (2022). (Selected for “eLife Digest”)
3. Hu H*, Wang Y*, Fabbri M, O'connor JK, Mcdonald PG, Wroe S, Yin X, Zheng X, Zhou Z, Benson RBJ. Cranial osteology and palaeobiology of the Early Cretaceous bird Jeholornis prima (Aves: Jeholornithiformes). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 198(1), 93-112 (2022).
4. Hu H*, Sansalone G, Wroe S, McDonald PG, O’Connor JK, Li Z, Xu X, Zhou Z*. Evolution of the vomer and its implications for cranial kinesis in Paraves. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(39), 19571–19578 (2019). (Selected for “In This Issue”)
5. Hu H*, Bjarnason A, Benson RBJ. 3D geometric morphometric protocol - quantifying the morphology of living and extinct vertebrates. Bio-protocol, e1010664 (2021). (in Chinese)
1. National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC): Excellent Young Scientists Fund Program (Overseas)，Tetrapod ecomorphology and the origin and evolution of birds, 2025/01-2028/12. (Principal Investigator)
2. Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship: Tetrapod limb ecomorphology inferring ecology during dinosaur-bird transition, 2021/05-2023/05. (Principal Investigator)
3. University of New England (Armidale, Australia): A fresh look at the dinosaur-bird transition: The evolution of birds as revealed by advanced digital approaches and key Cretaceous bird and dinosaur material from China, 2018/01-2021/01. (Principal Investigator)
4. State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology (Nanjing, China): Cranial functional morphology of Early Cretaceous birds, 2018/06-2021/06. (Principal Investigator)