Haplocheirus
| Haplocheirus sollers |
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|---|---|
 |
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| Holotype specimen | |
Scientific classification  |
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | Theropoda |
| Superfamily: | †Alvarezsauroidea |
| Genus: | †Haplocheirus |
| Species: |
† H. sollers
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| Binomial name | |
| Haplocheirus sollers Choiniere et al., 2010
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Haplocheirus is a genus of alvarezsauroid theropod dinosaur. It is the most basal member of its clade.[1] It is the oldest known alvarezsauroid, predating all other members by about 63 million years. This also makes it about 15 million years older than the oldest known bird Archaeopteryx. Haplocheirus was described in 2010 from a fossil specimen found from the 160-million-year-old Shishugou Formation in the Junggar Basin of northwestern China. The type species is H. sollers, meaning "simple-handed skillful one", referencing its hypothesized behavior of using its three-fingered hands for activities other alvarezsauroids couldn't, such as catching prey.[1][2]
Description
Haplocheirus was the largest known definite alvarezsauroid, at around 2 meters long. It had an enlarged thumb claw like other alvarezsauroids, but also retained two other functional fingers, unlike more derived alvarezsauroids, where only the thumb was significantly large and clawed. It had long legs and was probably a fast runner.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Choiniere, J. (2010). Guest Post: Haplocheirus, the Skillful One Dave Hone's Archosaur Musings, April 23, 2011.
External links
- Richard Stone Bird-Dinosaur Link Firmed Up, And in Brilliant Technicolor Science 29 January 2010: Vol. 327. no. 5965, p. 508, DOI 10.1126/science.327.5965.508
- Doreen Walton New dinosaur discovery solves evolutionary bird puzzle BBC News Thursday, 28 January 2010
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