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New Feathered Dinosaur Suggests Flight Evolved Multiple Times
Confirmed
In Short: Instead, the findings suggest that flight-related traits may have evolved separately, at least twice, among different groups of dinosaurs.
Researchers from Hebei GEO University and the OPHIS Paleontological Museum have identified a new species of small microraptorine dinosaur, Norellraptor barsboldi, from the Lower Cretaceous Jehol Biota of China’s Liaoning province.
This discovery challenges the prevailing theory that a rudimentary form of flight evolved in the common ancestor of birds and their closest relatives, the paravians, and was later elaborated in some lines and lost in others.
Microraptorines, the group to which Norellraptor barsboldi belongs, are known for their wing-like arms and feathered legs, traits that some believe allowed them to glide or even fly.
The researchers noted that the new species does not share a common flight apparatus or developmental process with other early fliers, indicating a more complex evolutionary history.
Dr. Qiang Ji and Dr. Andrea Cau stated, “The findings challenge the idea that microraptorines and birds inherited either a common flight apparatus or a shared developmental process that drove its evolution.”
What's confirmed
- Researchers from Hebei GEO University and the OPHIS Paleontological Museum have identified a new species of small microraptorine dinosaur, Norellraptor barsboldi, from the Lower Cretaceous Jehol Biota of China’s Liaoning province.
- This discovery challenges the prevailing theory that a rudimentary form of flight evolved in the common ancestor of birds and their closest relatives, the paravians, and was later elaborated in some lines and lost in others.
- Microraptorines, the group to which Norellraptor barsboldi belongs, are known for their wing-like arms and feathered legs, traits that some believe allowed them to glide or even fly.
- The researchers noted that the new species does not share a common flight apparatus or developmental process with other early fliers, indicating a more complex evolutionary history.
What's still developing
- These dinosaurs have long been used as models for how flight began.
- The other holds that flight-related traits evolved separately, at least twice.
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- “The amount of these chemical bonds is basically set 70 million years ago when this tooth first formed in the body of a dinosaur,” Eagle said.
- “Natural history collections are reservoirs of evidence, often used in ways no one could have predicted when they were first built,” said Luis Chiappe, director of the Dinosaur Institute at the Natural History Museum.