Dale Russell
As work was underway preserving and studying the bone beds at Dashanpu, China entered into a period of political and economic reform. Accompanied by Sun Ailing, Dong Zhiming visited Alberta, Canada in November 1985. Both a scientific and diplomatic mission, their visit helped initiate the China-Canada Dinosaur Project (CCDP). With $15 million CAD worth of funding, the mission was one of the largest ever mounted in the history of palaeontology and was the first major show of cooperation between Chinese and foreign palaeontologists since 1949. As an international collaboration, Dong Zhiming represented the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology as one of the project's three leaders; his two co-leaders were Philip J. Currie of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology and Dale Russell of the Canadian Museum of Nature.