Haplocheirus sollers bird-like dinosaur fossil found in China

Researchers in China have discovered the fossil of a two-legged dinosaur that existed 160 million years ago and has features similar to that of birds.Named Haplocheirus sollers, the fossil was found in the Junggar Basin in the Xinjiang region, in China.

The team of researchers, headed by Jonah Choiniere of George Washington University, wrote in the journal Science, that the Haplocheirus sollers had a long, narrow skull, long tail, small teeth and powerful biceps and forelimbs, and a body length of between 6 feet 2 inches to 7 feet 6 inches.

Photo: Haplocheirus sollers bird-like dinosaur fossil via Reuters

This fossil creature has features similar to both dinosaurs and birds.

“It has unique features but it shares some features with birds. It moves its hands sideways, like how birds can fold their wings. Its head, vertebral column, hind limbs, hands are all bird like,” said Professor Xu Xing at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology & Paleonanthropology.

He added that the legs of the Haplocheirus sollers has four digits like modern birds, with three digits pointing forwards. The first digit, though, points sideways unlike in birds that point backwards.

It also has features similar to that of dinosaurs in that they are carnivorous. The Haplocheirus sollers preyed on primitive lizards and small mammals.

“The most salient feature of this group is their forelimbs, they are predators. They have three claws on their hands, used to catch other animals. They have very bizarre forelimbs, they are very short but very stout and very strong,” Xu has been quoted as saying.

The researchers have written that the Haplocheirus sollers belongs to the family of Alvarezsauridae, bird-like dinosaurs with very short powerful arms and large claws. It is not a bird, but represents the earlier stage in the evolution of birds, they said.

“They represent the earlier stage in the evolution of birds, but they are not birds. You can say they are early ancestors of birds … and very slowly, it (the lineage) turned into birds,” Reuters has quoted Xu as saying.