Fossil Reveals Bizarre Gliding Creature that Hunted Birds 120 Million Years Ago
- On Thursday, researchers announced the discovery of Jian changmaensis, a 120 million-year-old microraptor found in China's Changma Basin, according to a study published in the Annals of Carnegie Museum.
- Matt Lamanna, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, described Jian as a barn-owl-sized predator that likely glided between trees hunting birds.
- Preserved in three dimensions, the fossil's intact shoulder and forelimb bones offer 'critical new insight' into flight evolution, a rarity among microraptor specimens typically found flattened.
- Jingmai O'Connor, associate curator of fossil reptiles at the Field Museum, noted the predator likely preyed on ancient birds like Gansus yumenensis, filling a specialized ecological niche.
- This discovery expands the known geographical range of microraptors beyond northeastern China, helping scientists clarify the evolutionary line between non-avian dinosaurs and ancestors of modern birds.
31 Articles
31 Articles
New species of four-winged, predatory dinosaur found in China
Scientists have discovered a new species of non-avian, predatory dinosaur called Jian changmaensis that lived 120 million years ago in northwestern China. The newly discovered dinosaur is a feathered Velociraptor cousin with distinctive arm and shoulder bones. Based on the single recovered arm fossil, paleontologists suspect this dinosaur possessed long feathers on all four limbs, giving it a four-winged appearance. Though incapable of true, po…
Found in China a Fossil of a Strange Glider Creature with 'Four Wings' and Predatory Primitive Birds
A recent paleontological finding has changed the view that had so far of the microraptors, a group of predatory dinosaurs characterized by their ability to plan. A team of researchers has analyzed a 120 million-year fossil discovered in northwest China and the results have given a previous and unknown species of what was already known of a microraptor.After this discovery, the researchers decided to baptize it with the name of a Chinese mytholog…
By Ashley Strickland, CNN A 120 million-year-old fossil found in what is now northwestern China is changing the way scientists think about an unusual group of predatory dinosaurs known as microraptors. The place where the fossil was dug up expands the known geographic range of the smallest and most glider relative of the sickle-shaped claw velociraptor. Bones also represent the most recent microraptor definitive specimen in the fossil record, ex…
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