Xiaopeng completed his PhD at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS), where he studied Ediacaran fossils from South China. After completing his PhD, he became a Special Research Associate at NIGPAS before moving to the University of Cambridge as a Research Associate in the Department of Earth Sciences.
Xiaopeng is a palaeontologist interested in the Ediacaran (635–539 million years ago) fossil record and its implications for understanding the origin and early evolution of animals, with a particular focus on early-branching groups such as sponges, ctenophores, and cnidarians, as well as the phylogenetic affinities of some enigmatic Ediacaran animal groups. His current research focuses on the study and description of new fossil material from newly discovered terminal Ediacaran matground-hosted bedding planes in southern Namibia.
