Education:

2010.09–2016.11        Ph.D. in Paleontology and Stratigraphy, Peking University, Beijing.

2014.03–2014.09        Visiting Ph.D. student in The University of Chicago, Chicago

2013.08–2014.02        Visiting Ph.D. student in American Museum of Natural History, New York

2006.09–2010.07        B.S. in Marine Geology, China University of Geosciences, Beijing

Positions:

2024.03–Present         IVPP

2023.02–2024.02        Research Associate, Shandong University of Science and Technology

2020.03–2023.02        Postdoctoral Associate, University of Calgary

2017.03 –2020.02       (awarded in 2016.12) Boya Postdoctoral Fellow, Peking University

I seek to understand the impacts of fish-to-tetrapod transition on morphological diversities of early tetrapods, the origin of modern amphibians (toads and frogs, salamanders and newts, and caecilians) and the interactions between morphological diversity and environmental and functional constraints, approached using comparative morphology, phylogeny, functional morphology, ontogeny and embryology.

14. J. Jia*. Wang, G. S. Bever, L. Fei, C.Y. Ye, J.P. Jiang*, K.Q. Gao*. 2025. Comparative osteology of the hynobiid complex Liua-Protohynobius-Pseudohynobius (Amphibia, Urodela): II. Anatomy and taxonomic revision of enigmatic Protohynobius puxiongensis. Journal of Morphology 286: e70087. DOI: 10.1002/jmor.70087.

13. Chen, C.S., J. Jia^*, X.-T. Wang, J. Yang, K.-Q. Gao*. 2025. Anatomy of the critically-endangered Anji Salamander (Hynobius amjiensis) provides new insights into morphological evolution of salamanders. Journal of Morphology 286: e70028. DOI: 10.1002/jmor.70028

12. Jia*, J., J.S. Anderson, J.-P. Jiang, W. Wu, N.H. Shubin*, K.-Q. Gao*. 2022. Ossification patterns of the carpus and tarsus in salamanders and impacts of preaxial dominance on the fin-to-limb transition. Science Advances. 8(41):eabq7669. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abq7669

11. Jia*, J., G. Li, K.-Q. Gao*. 2022. Palatal morphology predicts the paleobiology of early salamanders. eLife Sciences 11:e76864. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.76864.

10. Jia*, J., J. S. Anderson, K.-Q. Gao*. 2021. Middle Jurassic stem hynobiid from China shed new light on the evolution of basal salamanders. iScience 24: 102744. DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.102744. [Featured article in iScience]

9. Jia*, J., K.-Q. Gao*, J. Jiang*, G. S. Bever, R. Xiong, and G. Wei. 2021. Comparative osteology of the hynobiid complex Liua-Protohynobius-Pseudohynobius (Amphibia, Urodela): I. cranial anatomy of Pseudohynobius. Journal of Anatomy 238: 219–248. DOI: 10.1111/joa.13311. [Cover article]

8. Jia*, J., and K.-Q. Gao*. 2019. A new stem hynobiid salamander (Urodela, Cryptobranchoidea) from the Upper Jurassic (Oxfordian) of Liaoning Province, China. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 39(2): e1588285. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2019.1588285.

7. Jia, J., J. Jiang, M.H. Zhang, and K.-Q. Gao*. 2019. Osteology of Batrachuperus yenyuanensis (Urodela, Hynobiidae), a high-altitude mountain stream salamander from western China. PLoS ONE 14(1): e0211069. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0211069.

6. Jia*, J., M. Zhang, K.-Q. Gao and J. Jiang. 2018. 3D μCT dataset of skeletons of the holotype of Batrachuperus londongensis Liu and Tian, 1978, an endemic hynobiid (Amphibia, Caudata) from Mount Emei, Sichuan Province, China. China Scientific Data 3(2): 1–15. DOI: 10.11922/csdata.2018.0005.zh. [Published both in Chinese and in English].

5. Jia*, J., and K.-Q. Gao. 2018. 3D high-resolution μCT dataset of skeletons of Qinglongtriton gangouensis, a basal salamandroid (Amphibia, Caudata) from the Upper Jurassic of Hebei Province, China. China Scientific Data 3(1): 1–12. DOI: 10.11922/csdata.2017.0004.zh. [Published both in Chinese and in English as Cover article].

4. Jiang, J.-p., J. Jia, M. Zhang, and K.-Q. Gao*. 2018. Osteology of Batrachuperus londongensis (Urodela, Hynobiidae): study of bony anatomy of a facultatively neotenic salamander from Mount Emei, Sichuan Province, China. PeerJ 6: e4517. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.4517.

3. Jia, J., and K.-Q. Gao*. 2016. A new hynobiid-like salamander (Amphibia, Urodela) from Inner Mongolia, China, provides a rare case study of developmental features in an Early Cretaceous fossil urodele. PeerJ 4: e2499. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.2499.

2. Jia, J., and K.-Q. Gao*. 2016. A new basal salamandroid (Amphibia, Caudata) from the Upper Jurassic of Qinglong, Hebei Province, China. PLoS ONE 11(5): e0153834. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0153834.

1. Gao*, K.-Q., J. Chen, and J. Jia. 2013. Taxonomic diversity, stratigraphic range, and exceptional preservation of Juro-Cretaceous salamanders from northern China. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 50: 255-267. DOI: 10.1139/e2012-039.