People
Principal Investigator
- Zhe-Xi Luo
- Professor
- Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy
- The College of The University of Chicago
- Committee On Evolutionary Biology
- Office: Anatomy 306
- 1027 E. 57th St, The University of Chicago
- Chicago, IL 60637
- Ph: (773) 702-7816 | Fax: (773) 702-0037
- CV | Faculty Page | E-mail
Biography
Zhe-Xi Luo is a paleontologist with a research interest in the evolutionary biology of vertebrates. By studying mammal fossils of the Mesozoic - the age of dinosaurs - Luo's work seeks to decipher the origins of mammalian biological adaptations, evolutionary relationship of major lineages, their ecological diversification, and their developmental patterns. In his fieldwork to search for dinosaurs and fossil mammals, he works in many parts of United States and China. He studies the fossils that help to shed light on the earliest mammalian evolution and diversification. Luo also studies the evolution of whales.
Luo and his international team of scientists have made discoveries of many early fossil mammals including Hadrocodium (the "paper clip" mammal from the Early Jurassic), Castorocauda (the earliest known swimming mammal), Juramaia (the earliest known fossil of the eutherian lineage), and Sinodelphys (the earliest known member of the metatherian lineage). He was a co-author for Mammals from the Age of Dinosaurs, a major book on early mammal evolution.
From 1996 to 2012, Luo was a Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, where he also served as Associate Director of Science of the Museum from 2004 to 2012. At the Carnegie Museum, he was the curator for the 1998 exhibit on "China's Feathered Dinosaurs" and a member of the museum team that built Carnegie's permanent exhibit "Dinosaurs In Their Time."
Professor Zhe-Xi Luo was a recipient of the CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (USA), and the Humboldt Research Award for Senior Scientists from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany).
Dr. Luo received his postdoctoral training at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, after earning his PhD in 1989 in Paleontology from the University of California, Berkeley and a BS in Geology, in 1982, from Nanjing University of China.
Lab Staff

- April Isch Neander
- Scientific Illustrator, Lab Manager
- Office: Anatomy 306
- 1027 E. 57th St, The University of Chicago
- Chicago, IL 60637
- Ph: (773) 702-4715
- CV | Website | E-mail
Bio and Gallery
April I. Neander is a professional scientific illustrator and lab manager for the Luo Mammal Paleontology Lab at the University of Chicago. She began her work there in autumn of 2012, after earning her M.S. in Biomedical Visualization at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Since then, she has worked with Dr. Zhe-Xi Luo to create both technical and artistic illustrations for publication, as well as process CT data for research. To date, the most notable publications that April has worked on with Dr. Luo are those that named and introduced Megaconus, Rugosodon, Docofossor, and Agilodocodon.
April has been captivated by biology and anatomy since childhood and in 2010 she earned a B.A. in Biology from the University of Vermont. She combines this love with a talent for art, seeking to convey the intriguing history, structure, and beauty of life with her illustrations. Building on her experience with traditional media, April primarily uses digital media such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Autodesk Maya to create her illustrations, 3D reconstructions, and animations.
In addition to artistic renderings, April spends much of her time segmenting CT data for scientific visualization of detailed specimen anatomy. These CT assets are then used to aid research and to inform 2D and 3D skeletal and flesh reconstructions. With the new UChicago PaleoCT Lab, April’s role now includes overseeing and instructing students on the use of the scanner and the process of CT segmentation using software such as Mimics.

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