A newly identified dinosaur from northwestern China is drawing attention for looking like something out of science fiction. Researchers say the animal, a predatory four-winged creature, may also help solve a long-standing mystery involving strange piles of fossilized bird bones.
What happened?
According to Sci.News, dating to roughly 124 million to 120 million years ago in the Early Cretaceous, Jian changmaensis has been identified by paleontologists as the first non-avian dinosaur from a fossil locality that has also produced more than 100 ancient bird specimens.
The dinosaur was part of Microraptorinae, a branch of small, feathered dromaeosaurids. That group includes Microraptor, famous for its four-winged body plan and thought to have been capable of gliding, and possibly even powered flight.
Its bones came from the Xiagou Formation near the village of Changma in northwestern Gansu, and scientists say the animal was notably larger compared to other members of its group.
The study was published in the Annals of Carnegie Museum.
One of the study's authors, Dr. Jingmai O'Connor, explained, "Jian changmaensis is one of the biggest microraptor specimens that has ever been found."
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"The piece of its upper arm bone that we have is about 10 cm (4 inches) long, so the entire dinosaur probably had something like a four-foot wingspan, around the size of a barn owl."
She added, "We suspect that Jian changmaensis, like its fellow microraptors, had long feathers on both its arms and its legs, giving it the appearance of having four 'wings' that it used to glide."
Why does it matter?
Researchers think the animal may offer an answer to a persistent question at the Changma fossil site, where broken clusters of bird bones have been difficult to explain. The presence of a relatively large predator that likely glided could account for those accumulations.
Before this find, clearly identified microraptorines were known only from the Jehol Group in northeastern China, over 1,200 miles away. That wider geographic separation hints that these feathered dinosaurs may have occupied a broader range than previously recognized, expanding researchers' understanding of the early evolution of feathered, winged animals.
What are people saying?
O'Connor said researchers had long been baffled by an odd pattern in the fossils at the site: "Scientists have found these weird, broken-up clusters of bird bones at this site, and we didn't know what made them."
In her view, the new predator is the strongest explanation so far: "This new microraptor dinosaur is our best guess."
She added, "It's the only dinosaur found at this site that wasn't a bird, it was a carnivore, and it was much bigger than everything else."
Fellow co-author, Dr. Matt Lamanna, said, "Birds are arguably the most successful group of land-dwelling vertebrate animals on Earth today."
"Learning about early birds and their close non-bird dinosaur relatives gives us a better understanding of what made the group of birds that survived so special."
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