Hou Xianguang

Hou Xian-guang (alternatively Xianguang; ; born 26 March 1949) is a Chinese paleontologist at Yunnan University who made key discoveries in the Cambrian life of China around 518 myr. His first discovery of animal fossils from the Cambrian sediments (now called Maotianshan Shales) at Chengjiang County, Yunnan Province, led to the establishment of the Chengjiang biota, an assemblage of various life forms during the Cambrian Period. The discovery of the Chengjiang biota, remarked as "among the most spectacular in this [20th] century", added to the better understanding of how animal forms (different phyla) originated and evolved during the so-called Cambrian explosion.

Among the recognitions Hou received are the Grand Prize of Natural Sciences (1997) from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the First-class Award of Natural Sciences (2003), one of the highest State Science and Technology Prizes of the People's Republic of China. The Yunnan University claims that it "gained a worldwide reputation through the discovery and research [by Hou]."

Biography Hou was born in Fenxiang, (later highlighted as A Monograph of the Bradoriid Arthropods from the Lower Cambrian of SW China ).

While Hou pursued his research in Sweden, he got promoted as associate professor in 1922 and then a professor in 1994.

Awards and honours Hou received the Grand Prize of Natural Sciences from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1997; the First-class Award of Natural Sciences, one of the highest State Science and Technology Prizes, from the Chinese State Council in 2003; the Paleontological Science Prize of China in 2004.