Yoshitsugu Kobayashi (小林 快次, Kobayashi Yoshitsugu, born 1971) is a Japanese vertebrate paleontologist. He is a professor and the assistant director in Hokkaido University Museum. His major achievements include the description and naming of several dinosaurs from Japan, for example, Kamuysaurus, Yamatosaurus and Paralitherizinosaurus.[6] He is also a research affiliate of Perot Museum of Nature and Science,[4] a member of Jurassic Foundation,[4] a councilor of Palaeontological Society of Japan [ja].[7]

Yoshitsugu Kobayashi
Born (1971-12-23) December 23, 1971 (age 52)[5]
NationalityJapanese
Alma materUniversity of Wyoming
Southern Methodist University
Known forDescription of Fukuisaurus, Kamuysaurus, Yamatosaurus
Awards北海道新聞文化賞[1]
北海道文化賞[2]
科学技術分野の文部科学大臣表彰[3]
Scientific career
Fieldspaleontology
InstitutionsHokkaido University Museum
Doctoral advisorLouis L. Jacobs[4]

Education

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Yoshitsugu Kobayashi was born in Fukui Prefecture, Japan.[6] He attended a junior high school attached to the Faculty of Education at the University of Fukui, where he was a member of the science club under an advisor well versed in geology.[8] In junior high school, he was interested in ammonites and spent after-school hours and holidays excavating fossils.[9] After graduating from junior high school, he went on to Fukui Prefectural Koshi High School.[10] During his first year of high school, he participated in an excavation in Fukui Prefecture, where dinosaur fossils were discovered for the first time in the prefecture, which sparked his strong interest in dinosaurs.[11]

He met an employee of Yokohama National University through the above-mentioned research and entered the university.[11] He left school after one year to study abroad in the United States, entering the University of Wyoming[11] and receiving B.Sc. in Geology under Jason Lillegraven.[4] He then went on to Southern Methodist University, where he earned a M.S. and Ph.D. in Vertebrate Paleontology[11] under Louis L. Jacobs.[4] He studied a variety of taxa during his doctoral studies. He focused on ornithomimosaur dinosaurs from China and Mongolia, iguanodontian dinosaur and goniopholidid crocodyliform from Japan, therian mammal from Texas.[12]

Career and academic contributions

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He also became a curator at the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum during his doctoral studies.[12] He began his career at the Hokkaido University Museum in 2005 as an assistant,[11][13][14] and was promoted to assistant professor in 2008, associate professor in 2009, and professor in 2019.[13][14] He also became a invited associate professor at the Museum of Osaka University [ja] in 2013, and was promoted to invited professor in 2019.[13][14] In 2023, He has been appointed Special Advisor to the Mukawa Town Hobetsu Museum.[15] During his career, he has received some awards in Japan.[1][2][3]

His main research locations include Alaska, Japan, and Mongolia.[4] In 2006 and 2009, Yoshitsugu and his colleague discovered two remains of Deinocheirus, of which entire body had been unknown until they described the specimens in 2014.[16] He has also contributed to naming some new species of dinosaurs, including the ornithopod Fukuisaurus tetoriensis,[17] therizinosaurian Jianchangosaurus yixianensis,[18] hadrosaurid Kamuysaurus japonicus[19] and Yamatosaurus izanagii,[20] and the therizinosaurid Paralitherizinosaurus japonicus.[21]

He supervised NHK's some dinosaur programs,[22] including Amazing Dinoworld (2019).[23]

References

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  1. ^ a b "【受賞】小林快次准教授が北海道新聞文化賞を受賞". 北海道大学総合博物館. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  2. ^ a b "小林快次准教授が北海道文化奨励賞を受賞". 北海道大学総合博物館. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  3. ^ a b "令和3年度文部科学大臣表彰の受賞者が決定 ~北海道大学から 7 名が受賞~" (PDF) (Press release). 北海道大学. 2021-04-07. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  4. ^ a b c d e f "Yoshitsugu Kobayashi". Jurassic Foundation. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  5. ^ "世界的大ニュース、新種「カムイサウルス」発見! 恐竜博士・小林快次さん「誰一人、何一つ欠けても、今回の発見はなかった」". ZAKZAK. 2019-09-27. Retrieved 2024-01-18.
  6. ^ a b "小林快次". 新潮社. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  7. ^ "2023-2024年度 会長・評議員". 日本古生物学会. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  8. ^ 安田峰俊 (2020-04-22). "小林快次(北海道大学総合博物館教授・恐竜学者) 令和の開拓者たち 第10回". 文藝春秋. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  9. ^ 阿部朋美 (2020-10-30). "「これだ」掘り当てた恐竜学者の夢 いつもそばには父が". 朝日新聞. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  10. ^ "母校生徒に「限界挑んで」 高志高 恐竜研究者・小林さん講演". 中日新聞. 2019-11-13. Archived from the original on 2019-11-15. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  11. ^ a b c d e "恐竜をめぐって" (PDF). The Gi Forefront. 15 (1). メディカルレビュー: 5–12. 2019.
  12. ^ a b "Yoshitsugu Kobayashi". Palaeontologia Electronica. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  13. ^ a b c "研究者総覧". 北海道大学. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  14. ^ a b c "Yoshitsugu Kobayashi". research map. 科学技術振興機構.
  15. ^ "穂別博物館特別顧問に北大の小林快次教授 むかわ町". 北海道新聞. 2024-04-03. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  16. ^ 土屋健 (2015). "小林快次 「謎の恐竜」の正体を突き止めた男". National Geographic. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  17. ^ Kobayashi, Yoshitsugu; Azuma, Yoichi (11 April 2003). "A new iguanodontian (Dinosauria : Ornithopoda) from the Lower Cretaceous Kitadani Formation of Fukui Prefecture, Japan" (PDF). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 23 (1). Taylor & Francis for the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology: 166–175. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2003)23[166:ANIDOF]2.0.CO;2. S2CID 131386181.
  18. ^ Pu, H.; Kobayashi, Y.; Lü, J.; Xu, L.; Wu, Y.; Chang, H.; Zhang, J.; Jia, S. (2013). Claessens, Leon (ed.). "An Unusual Basal Therizinosaur Dinosaur with an Ornithischian Dental Arrangement from Northeastern China". PLOS ONE. 8 (5): e63423. Bibcode:2013PLoSO...863423P. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0063423. PMC 3667168. PMID 23734177.
  19. ^ Kobayashi, Yoshitsugu; Nishimura, Tomohiro; Takasaki, Ryuji; Chiba, Kentaro; Fiorillo, Anthony R.; Tanaka, Kohei; Chinzorig, Tsogtbaatar; Sato, Tamaki; Sakurai, Kazuhiko (September 5, 2019). "A New Hadrosaurine (Dinosauria: Hadrosauridae) from the Marine Deposits of the Late Cretaceous Hakobuchi Formation, Yezo Group, Japan". Scientific Reports. 9 (1): 12389. Bibcode:2019NatSR...912389K. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-48607-1. PMC 6728324. PMID 31488887.
  20. ^ Kobayashi, Y.; Takasaki, R.; Kubota, K.; Fiorillo, A. R. (2021). "A new basal hadrosaurid (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the latest Cretaceous Kita-ama Formation in Japan implies the origin of hadrosaurids". Scientific Reports. 11 (1): Article number 8547. Bibcode:2021NatSR..11.8547K. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-87719-5. PMC 8076177. PMID 33903622.
  21. ^ Kobayashi, Yoshitsugu; Takasaki, Ryuji; Fiorillo, Anthony R.; Chinzorig, Tsogtbaatar; Hikida, Yoshinori (2022). "New therizinosaurid dinosaur from the marine Osoushinai Formation (Upper Cretaceous, Japan) provides insight for function and evolution of therizinosaur claws". Scientific Reports. 12 (7207): 7207. Bibcode:2022NatSR..12.7207K. doi:10.1038/s41598-022-11063-5. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 9065154. PMID 35504901.
  22. ^ 植田和貴 (2021-08-15). "世界最小の「恐竜の卵」 "どんな恐竜"なのか、最新技術で「再現」してみた!". 現代ビジネス. 講談社. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
  23. ^ 植田和貴. "恐竜超世界 第1集 見えてきた!ホントの恐竜". NHK. Retrieved 2023-10-17.