Several years ago, Xing and his colleagues were besieged by villagers after they mistakenly wandered into a graveyard during an expedition in northern China. The villagers thought they were grave robbers, and Xing had to call the police.

He is always at risk. A falling rock just missed his head but smashed his computer during a field trip to northwestern China. In Canada, Xing was struck by lightning in a river and fainted. When he woke up, he found himself clutching a fossil in his hands.

Even so, he is determined to accelerate his research. In 2012, after hearing of the discovery of dinosaur footprints in Sichuan province, Xing rushed to the site but found it destroyed by a local mining company. He and his colleagues still tried to document the fractions that remained.

Xing is also fascinated with online science popularization. His posts have attracted more than 5 million followers on Chinese social media, mostly teenagers, and he's a bestselling author of dinosaur-themed science fiction books.

His two boys are nicknamed "Little Dinosaur" and "Little Flying Dragon".

"Dinosaurs are extinct, but they have been restored in our hands. I am determined to tell their stories all my life," Xing said.