Outline: a typical theropod
Haplocheirus
"simple hand"
- Lived
- 162 to 155 million years ago, Late Jurassic
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Group
- Theropods
- Found in
- China
- Named by
- Choiniere et al. 2010
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
160 million years ago
Field notes
About Haplocheirus
What it was like
Haplocheirus was the oldest known alvarezsaur. Later alvarezsaurs were small with stubby arms, but Haplocheirus was bigger, with longer arms and three working fingers, showing how the group started.
Its world
It lived in the Jurassic, in what is now China. It comes from the Shishugou Formation, where it shared the land with the crested early tyrannosaur Guanlong, the predators Sinraptor and Monolophosaurus, and the small ceratopsian Yinlong.
How it was found
Choiniere and colleagues named Haplocheirus in 2010, from a nearly complete skeleton.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Alvarezsauroidea
Sources: WikidataNamed in: J. N. Choiniere, X. Xu, and J. M. Clark, C. A. Forster, Y. Guo, F. Han. 2010. A basal alvarezsauroid theropod from the early Late Jurassic of Xinjiang, China. Science 327(5965):571-574