Yuchao Zhao
I am an anthropological archaeologist specializing in hunter-gatherer societies. My research explores deep time human responses to challenging environments and climatic fluctuations, with a particular emphasis on East Asia. Chronologically, my work spans from Middle Pleistocene hominins (including Homo erectus and Denisovans) to late Holocene Homo sapiens.
My scholarship centers on how past environmental changes and cultural interactions influenced long-term economic and social trajectories of East Asian foragers living in extreme ecosystems. Geographically, my research focuses on marginal environments, including the arid Chinese Loess Plateau, the elevated Tibetan Plateau, and the high-latitude regions of Northeast Asia.
As curator, I oversee the East Asian Anthropology collection, which comprises nearly 48,000 objects, primarily from China, Japan, and Korea. My curatorial work integrates collections-based research, digital documentation, and collaborative international scholarship.
In addition to my research and curatorial responsibilities, I serve as a lecturer and graduate advisor at the University of Illinois–Chicago, where I actively mentor students in archaeology and anthropological science.
Prospective students are welcome to reach out via email: yzhao@fieldmuseum.org
Education and Work
- Associate Professor, School of Archaeology, Shandong University, China (2022–2025)
- PhD, Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan (2015–2022)
- MA, Paleolithic Archaeology and Paleoanthropology, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (2012–2015)
- BA, Archaeology, School of Archaeology, Jilin University, China (2008–2012)
Learning Resources
2025 Field Explorers Oppoutunities
2025 Summer Camps Opportunities
A convenient guide with camps for all ages and dates.
3D Model: Cryolophosaurus Skull | Dinosaur Toolkit
Use this 3D model to see how scientists reconstruct animals like Cryolophosaurus from the fossil record.
3D Model: Glacialisaurus Foot | Dinosaur Toolkit
Learn how the first giant dinosaurs like Glacialisaurus moved by exploring this 3D model.
3D Model: Tyrannosaurus rex | Dinosaur Toolkit
Interact with this 3D model to find out what we can learn about SUE the T. rex's life by looking at its fossils, then test your knowledge
AAHM Scavenger Hunt-Arabic
AAHM Scavenger Hunt-English
AAHM Scavenger Hunt-Spanish
AANHPI Scavenger Hunt-English
AANHPI Scavenger Hunt-Spanish
A Celebration of Souls Fact Sheet
A Celebration of Souls Tour Schedule
A Conversation about Land Acknowledgments
Hear from Native speakers and experts as they discuss the custom of land acknowledgments, their importance, and other actions you can take.
Advantages of Levers | Biomechanics Toolkit
Test basic lever types and explore the trade-off between a force advantage and speed advantage in the animal world.
Adventures in the Herbarium: Museums and Medicines
The importance and impact of Field Museum’s African flowering plant specimens are highlighted in two podcasts. These podcasts were written, recorded, and edited by two college interns who worked alongside experts and collections specimens. Museums and Medicines highlights the impact plant specimens have had on human health and why their conservation is so important.
Adventures in the Herbarium: Pixels and Petals
The importance and impact of Field Museum’s African flowering plant specimens are highlighted in two podcasts. These podcasts were written, recorded, and edited by two college interns who worked alongside experts and collections specimens. Pixels and Petals highlights the digital imaging process and the impact of herbarium specimens.
Animal Observations | Science Hub at Home
Learn how scientists observe and track animal behavior and how you can do the same with your pets at home.
Animal Survival Unit | Early Elementary Science Partnership
Act as consultants to the City of Chicago and assess their relocation plan for urban coyotes.
Antarctic Dinosaurs Exhibition Overview
Antarctic Dinosaurs Fact Sheet
Antarctic Dinosaurs Tour Schedule
Apsáalooke Women and Warriors Exhibition Overview
Apsáalooke Women and Warriors Exhibition Walkthrough
Apsáalooke Women and Warriors Fact Sheet
Apsáalooke Women and Warriors Tour Schedule
Archaeological Footprint | China Toolkit
Analyze how we learn about history through objects and theorize what gaps can exist in object-based stories.
Artifact Observation Guide
Encourage close examination of a single artifact—an object produced by humans—using observations and inferences.
A Selection of Aquatic Macroinvertebrates of Illinois, USA
Ask an Artifact | China Toolkit
Discover what you can learn from the objects all around us when you look carefully and apply a specific disciplinary lens. Spanish subtitles available.
At-Home Activities
Explore the natural world with engaging activities that support learning at home, including activities, games, printables, and more.
At Home Collections | Science Hub at Home
Create your own museum collection at home.
Basket Making Demonstration with Lorene Sisquoc
Watch Lorene Sisquoc teaching and weaving a basket at the Field Museum opening of Native Truths: Our Voices, Our Stories.
Basket Making Discussion & Demo: Lorene Sisquoc and Kelly Church
Listen to and watch Lorene Sisquoc and Kelly Church discuss basket weaving and oral traditions.
Beginner's Field Guide: Fall in Chicagoland
With this guide, get to know the plants and animals that share your Chicagoland neighborhood during the fall. Birds migrate south, animals prepare for the cold, and leaves put on a colorful show.
Beginner's Field Guide: Pollinators in Chicagoland
This guide serves as a beginner’s guide to finding Chicagoland’s common pollinators, some you will recognize and some you will be surprised by.
Beginner’s Field Guide: Pollinators & Native Plants in Chicagoland
This Field Guide is all about the relationships between native plants and their pollinators in the Chicago region.
Beginner's Field Guide: Spring in Chicagoland
Get to know the plants and animals that you'll see in Chicago in the springtime.
Being Big on Land
Learn why being big isn’t always an advantage and find out how mythic creatures like Godzilla and King Kong could never have carried their own weight.
Bergmann's Rule | Biomechanics Toolkit
Uncover how an animal’s size affects its ability to regulate temperature.
Beverage Packages
Biodiversity and Ecosystems
Middle school-aged students will investigate the differences between native and invasive plants and demonstrate their learning by creating a model of a native plant garden.
BIOlympics Game | Biomechanics Toolkit
Jump into BIOlympics events to see how animals achieve amazing feats. Use that knowledge to choose competitors for different events.
Biomechanics Exhibition Overview
Biomechanics Fact Sheet
Biomechanics Tour Schedule
Bird Calls and Songs | PlayLab at Home
Listen to different songs or calls made by local Illinois birds.
Birding 101 | Science Hub at Home
Discover the birds of Chicago with these birding techniques.
Birds are shrinking as the climate warms
Forty years of data show that migratory birds have been getting smaller. Long-term studies like this one, published in Ecology Letters, are key to identifying trends caused by environmental changes.
Búsqueda del Tesoro español
Calumet Heritage Area
Learn about the collaborative effort to protect the Calumet region, one of the most diverse places in America.
Chef Jessica Pamonicutt Discusses Cooking and Fry Bread
Listen to and watch Chef Jessica discuss her career as a chef and fry bread.
Chicago Community Climate Partnership
Join Chicagoans who are taking action on climate change right here in our city.
Chicago's Chinatown Coloring Pages
Color and Explore Chinatown!
Chicago's Chinatown Community Guide
An infographic guide to Chinatown's past, present, and future.
Chicago's Legacy Hula Virtual Tour
Learn the untold history of four Kumu Hula (master teachers of Hawaiian Hula) who perpetuated, preserved, and protected Hula as a way of life. Listen to the voices of Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) as they tell their own history and learn how their community continues to thrive in Chicago and beyond.
Chicago Wilderness
Connect with an alliance of conservation leaders working toward a green vision for the Chicago region.
Colors in the Rice Native Gardens Field Guide
The Field Museum invites you to awaken your senses as you venture through the Field Museum’s Rice Native Gardens and experience the beautiful colors of the natural world.
Common Butterflies of the Chicago Region Field Guide
This guide will help identify some of the many species of butterflies found in the Chicagoland area.
Common Wild Bees of Illinois Field Guide
Use this guide to help identify less recognizable bee species common in Illinois.
Community Guide Instructions
This activity invites you to document, honor, and analyze a community through history, place, and lived experience.
Creating Monarch Habitat in your Midwestern Garden
This guide shows how adding native plants to your garden, balcony or community can help reverse the decline of the monarch butterfly.
Death: Life’s Greatest Mystery Exhibition Overview
Death: Life’s Greatest Mystery Fact Sheet
Death: Life's Greatest Mystery TE Walkthrough
Death: Life’s Greatest Mystery Tour Schedule
Deforestation is stressing mammals out
Higher levels of stress hormones are found in rodents and marsupials in deforested patches of South America's Atlantic Forest, in a paper published in Scientific Reports. The destruction of an animal’s habitat can drastically change its life, with less food and territory to go around.
Dia de los Muertos 2022
Dinopalooza Flyer
Dinosaur Family Tree | Dinosaur Toolkit
Examine dinosaur physical traits to identify similarities and differences in their features and construct a system of classification.
Discovery Adventures
This free online series takes viewers on an interactive, educator-led adventure around the Field. Tune in live every Tuesday, or catch the recordings any time.
Diversity of Life | Exploring the Field Guide
Observe animal dioramas to compare and contrast organisms and explore the diversity of life.
Dome Strength | Biomechanics Toolkit
Discover how much force a seemingly brittle object like an egg can withstand when it’s dome-shaped.
Dozin' with the Dinos 2025 Info Packet
Dozin' with the Dinos 2026 Info Packet
Dozin' with the Dinos on NBC5
English Scavenger Hunt
Everything Has a Purpose | Exploring the Field Guide
Examine why plants and birds have certain features to uncover the relationship between structure and function.
Evidence in the Unwritten | China Toolkit
Investigate the role of an archaeologist and discover the types of questions that drive their work. Spanish subtitles available.
Exhibition Investigation Guide
Investigate a museum exhibition using the claim, evidence, reasoning cycle.
Exploring Artifacts from the Pacific | Exploring the Field Guide
Observe and analyze artifacts from the Pacific Islands to develop evidence-based claims about how these cultures view the world.
Exploring Language | China Toolkit
Explore the history of writing in China by drawing conclusions about the impact of the written word on human civilizations and how language changes over time.
Exploring Objects | China Toolkit
Analyze objects using varied lenses, including anthropology, history, economics, geography, and art history.
Field Explorers Summer Camps FAQ
Get all your questions answered about our Summer Camps
Field Explorers Virtual Camp FAQ
Find information about camp activities, schedules, registration, and more.
Field Family Nights 2023 Info Packet
Prepare for your family night with this guide.
Field Family Nights 2024 Info Packet
Prepare for your family night with this guide.
Field Guides
Browse more than 1,000 plant and animal ID guides for over 40 countries.
First Kings of Europe Fact Sheet
First Kings of Europe Tour Schedule
Fish diversity and forest health
Scientists investigated fish populations in Guyana, which helped to show why aquatic corridors matter in conservation. Their study, published in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, makes an important case that protecting one tiny corner of the Guiana Shield can help protect biodiversity across the Amazon.
Forces Design Challenge | Biomechanics Toolkit
Use animal structure and function to design a way that humans can reduce the force felt and/or energy absorbed by an object.
Furiously Fast Falcons | Science Hub at Home
Figure out how fast you can run and how that compares to some of the fastest and slowest animals on the planet.
Giants from the Past | Dinosaur Toolkit
Analyze and interpret data about sauropods and build a nonfiction narrative about how this group of dinosaurs evolved over millions of years.
Giraffe Heart Dissection | Biomechanics Toolkit
Go behind the scenes in our mammals wet lab to watch the dissection of a giraffe heart.
Group Leader Planning Packet
Get the details for your group as they explore the museum.