1.   Bernard Wood of George Washington University in Washington said it was too soon to assess the place of the new fossils on the family tree.

2.   Dubbed Sinovenator changii, the new fossil comes from the same region that last year yielded the spectacularly complete remains of a feathered dinosaur.

3.   Instead of holding an academic appointment, he has preferred museum curatorships that allow him to spend more time in the field digging up new fossils.

4.   That means this new fossil comes from a creature completely different from anything else in the hominid family.

5.   The discoverers said the new fossils further supported the widely held view that birds evolved from dinosaurs.

6.   The new fossils include bits of a skull and a complete shoulder of the amphibian, which has been named Hynerpeton bassetti.

7.   The new fossil was discovered in an oyster-bearing marine deposit.

8.   The new fossils raised other questions about the timing and pace of amphibian evolution.

9.   The word Sinovenator means Chinese hunter, and the new fossil was clearly a voracious predator, the scientists said.

10.   He said that the new fossils are dated after those of the first bird.