After ten years of investigation, GW researchers have discovered previously unknown stages in a dinosaur’s evolutionary development and extended its fossil record back another 63 million years. The new fossil animal exhibits characteristics associated with both dinosaurs and birds.
GWU doctoral candidate Jonah Choiniere named the specimen Haplocheirus soller, which translates to “simple, skillful hand.” Similar to birds, the Haplocheirus soller dinosaur had three toes, a birdlike keel-shaped chest and a long beak, but it had small teeth, like a dinosaur.
Choiniere spent six months traveling to museums in Utah, New York, England, Spain, and Mongolia in addition to traveling to China six times for research and expeditions.
The research was funded by the National Geographic Society, the National Science Foundation Division of Earth Sciences, the Chinese National Science Foundation and the George Washington University.
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