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China’s ancient flying dinosaurs were more like birds than first thought, study says
- Using laser technology, researchers have teased new secrets out of China’s trove of fossils
- Feet from gliding microraptors reveal they lived much like today’s flying predators
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If you were to glance up at tree canopies 120 million years ago in what is now northeastern China, you might have caught sight of a birdlike creature about the size of a crow.
Microraptors were a type of flying dinosaur that had four primitive feathered wings and lived during the early Cretaceous period. They used their feet to hunt prey, much like hawks do today.
But instead of soaring high in the sky, they would launch themselves from trees towards their prey.
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The fossil record shows microraptors existed from 125 to 120 million years ago, but an international team of scientists discovered that many of these creatures had more in common with modern birds than previously thought.
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Perfectly preserved hadrosaurus embryo fossil discovered in China
Perfectly preserved hadrosaurus embryo fossil discovered in China
The biggest clues, according to an international team of researchers, were found in the well-preserved fossils of the feet of these ancient flying dinosaurs.
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