Jingmai O'Connor

O'Connor is from Pasadena, California.^[3] Her mother is a geologist.^[4] O'Connor says that while she was not a dinosaur enthusiast as a child, being present for her mother's geology fieldwork began her interest in the subject.^[4] She explains, "I enjoyed going to the field with her, collecting rocks, minerals, and fossils, and playing in the lab."^[5]

O'Connor graduated from Occidental College after majoring in Geology and studying with Donald Prothero.^[2] While a student, she volunteered in the paleontology department of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, working with Xiaoming Wang.^[2] She received a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in 2009, studying ancient birds with Luis M. Chiappe and David Bottjer.^[2]

After obtaining her Ph.D., O'Connor moved to Beijing where she worked as a postdoc at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology.^[2] Working with Zhou Zhonghe, she advanced to a full professorship while continuing her ancient bird research.^[2] Professor O'Connor is half Chinese and says that she is "very, very proud and fascinated by my Chinese culture" and found moving to China to pursue paleontology very rewarding.^[4]

In 2011, O'Connor named a species of Qiliania, a Cretaceous-era bird that she discovered with a team, the Qiliania graffini after Greg Graffin.^[3] Graffin is most well-known as the singer of the punk band Bad Religion and is also a professor of Evolutionary biology.^[6]

During her time with the Institute, O'Connor was part of a team that made discoveries of extraordinary Enantiornithes remains preserved in Burmese amber. These deposits dated to 99 million years ago and the remains are among the most well-preserved of any Mesozoic dinosaur. The team found fully feathered wings, feet, and even entire hatchlings.^[7][8][9] With the team, and also as first author, Prof. O'Connor has published findings showing that enantiornithines had fully modern feathers, clarified the feather arrangements and musculature of several species.^[7][10]

O'Connor was given the Charles Schuchert Award by the Paleontological Society. The award is given annually to a person under 40 whose work reflects excellence and promise in the science of paleontology.^[11]

In 2020, O'Connor returned to the United States, becoming the Associate Curator of Fossil Reptiles at the Field Museum in Chicago.^[2] She continues to publish, and in 2021 co-authored a paper on the discovery of quartz crystals in the stomach of an enantiornithine Bohaiornis.^[5] She is also doing research within the Field's collection, studying the mysterious holes in the jaw of Sue the Tyrannosaurus rex.^[12] She also assisted with the museum's acquisition of the thirteenth known Archaeopteryx specimen, which was announced in 2024, and will conduct further research with it.^[13][14]

Below is a list of taxa that O'Connor has contributed to naming:

• When Dinosaurs Conquered the Skies: The Incredible Story of Bird Evolution (2022). ISBN 9780711275133