Career of Chang Meemann and her contributions to vertebrate paleontology

Over more than six decades of dedicated research, Chang Meemann’s career has spanned a critical era marked by a paradigm shift in vertebrate evolution studies. Beginning in the 1950s, inspired by the pioneering ichthyologists of the older generation, including Wu Xianwen, O. P. Obrucheva, and E. Stensiö, she conducted systematic investigations of fish fossils preserved in Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic strata across China. Her work yielded landmark achievements across multiple research domains: the evolution of early vertebrates, the phylogeny of sarcopterygians (lobe-finned fishes), the biostratigraphy and faunal evolution of Mesozoic-Cenozoic fishes, and the Cenozoic paleoecology of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau as inferred from fish evolutionary patterns. A strong advocate for integrating new technologies and methodologies into fossil vertebrate research, Chang Meemann founded the “Chinese School” of early vertebrate studies, which has since gained international recognition. Her meticulous anatomical analyses of a series of Early Devonian lobe-finned fishes reshaped the classical understanding of tetrapod origins. She played a pivotal role in introducing cladistics, a then-controversial new paradigm in systematic biology, into China. Serving two terms as the director of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, she led the institute’s internationalization during China’s Era of Reform and Opening-up. Under her leadership, a new generation of scientists was guided into the study of some of the world’s most significant fossil biotas, such as the Jehol Biota. Through her lifelong dedication, Chang Meemann elevated China’s fossil vertebrate research to a world-leading level.