This post was written by Staff Writer Matt Rist.

While some faculty members spend their summers digging through old papers, GW biology professor James Clark has spent the last few summers digging up fossils.

Clark recently published the discovery of a new bird-footed dinosaur – a discovery that will change the way scientists view the evolution of birds from dinosaurs. The paper was published in the June edition of Nature, an internationally recognized academic science journal, and included the new information about a bird-footed Jurassic ceratosaur, scientifically known as Limusaurus inextricabilis.

The ceratosaur’s skeleton was discovered in a remote region of Northwest China in the province of Xin Jiang, near the border of Mongolia.

Clark, who has been visiting the site with his team since 2001, said he worked alongside Chinese doctor Xu Xing to discover a number of ceratosaur fossils that were preserved in one particularly rich section.

“We realized that there were mud pits that the animals had gotten mired in the mud and stuck,” Clark said. “Another one would come along and get stuck in the mud.”

The skeletons of these dinosaurs, Clark and his research team noted, had particularly distinct finger and bone structures.

“We were able to study them, and we noticed the hand was very unusual,” Clark said. “That led us into the analysis of fingers and dinosaurs.”

That analysis of the new ceratosaur fossils ultimately led to Clark’s most recent paper on the discovery, which has been hailed as a significant contribution to theories surrounding the evolution of birds from certain dinosaurs – like the one he and his research team discovered in China.

With 30 years of field research under his belt, Clark is no stranger to publication in well-respected science magazines, but he said he still enjoys the fulfillment of the work and publication.

“I’ve been doing it since I was a teenager, so it’s something I certainly enjoy,” Clark said. “This is probably my 10th nature paper, I’m living the dream.”

Clark is also passing that life-long dream on to GW students by inviting them to join him on his research expeditions, which he said is a great way for students to get hands-on experience.

“One of the primary reasons for doing field research is a way to attract graduate students to come,” Clark said. “They have to get focused on seeing where the fossils are coming out of the ground.”

GW doctoral candidate Jonah Choiniere has joined Clark’s research team in the field for the past four expedition seasons.

“Professor Clark has made a lasting scientific impression on me during my five years in his tutelage,” Choiniere said in an e-mail written from the field in China. “He’s taught me to say little and hear much, which is a critical part of being a graduate student.”

Jordan Chapman, a senior who will join Clark in this summer’s trip to China, said he feels lucky to participate as the expedition’s only undergraduate.

“It’s just a really cool experience to be able to go out with really respected scientists and have them believe in you and say ‘hey, we think you can do this,’ ” Chapman said.

As Clark and his team gear up for another expedition to China, he is optimistic about the future of his research in Asia.

“There are a lot of opportunities there now,” Clark said. “There are a lot of great fossil beds that haven’t been looked at.”