The holotype was discovered in 2002 and was excavated between October 20 through November 23. It consists of a near-complete skull and lower jaw, 31 vertebrae (nine cervical, fourteen dorsal, three sacral and five caudal), shoulder and pelvic girdles, most of both forelimbs and both thighs. The holotype was informally mentioned in a 2010 Geological Society of America abstract by Sankar Chatterjee, T. Wang, S.G. Pan, Z. Dong, X.C. Wu, and Paul Upchurch. It was eventually named and described in 2018.