A GW biologist discovered a new type of dinosaur in northwest China, marking the fifth found on an expedition that has lasted over a decade in a politically turbulent area of the country.

Biology professor James Clark has traveled to China several times since 2001 to study links between birds and dinosaurs from the mid-Jurassic period, despite increased violence in the Muslim Xingjing region.

Clark, then-graduate student Jonah Choiniere and a team of researchers discovered the dinosaur named Aorun zhaoi in 2006, which was recently classified as a new species.

The research team found the dinosaur’s skull, jaw and part of its skeleton, and it took about a year to remove the fossils from the rock. The newest find showed links between the fingers of dinosaurs from the Jurassic period and the earliest birds, leading to more understanding about the anatomy of a group of dinosaurs related to birds.

“It’s basically a very generalized dinosaur of that group that’s related to birds,” he said. “It didn’t change too much except showing that there were more than the three groups known.”

Clark said his team was interested in conducting research in the area because of the knowledge gap about the mid-Jurassic period. He said that the team found what they were looking for.

“[Our research] showed that yes, they were there, where they were supposed to be. Things were happening when they were supposed to be,” Clark said.

The research has been co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation. Clark said that the research site is in a somewhat unsafe area, but that working with Chinese scientists has made it easier to continually do research in the area.

Typically, Clark said he works on the site in August, but he will not be traveling to China this summer, partially because of increased violence in the area. Last month, 21 people were killed in a case of “terrorist violence” in Xinjiang near the borders of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

“It’s difficult to get access to the field, to be able to continually do this. There are not too many groups who have been able to do this year after year,” Clark said.