Jan. 22 — Fossil hunters in China have discovered what may be one of the weirdest prehistoric species ever seen — a four-winged dinosaur that apparently glided from tree to tree.
THE 128-MILLION-YEAR-OLD animal — called Microraptor gui, in honor of Chinese paleontologist Gu Zhiwei — was about 2? feet (77 centimeters) long and had two sets of feathered wings, with one set on its forelimbs and the other on its hind legs.
Exactly where the creature fits into the evolution of birds and dinosaurs is not clear. But researchers speculated that it developed around the same time as or even later than the first known two-winged bird, Archaeopteryx, which is believed to have flown by actually flapping its wings.
Paleontologists were intrigued by the discovery. They have seen the fossils of gliding dinosaurs before, but never one with feathers. And they have never seen traces of a four-winged dinosaur before.
“It would be a total oddity — the weirdest creature in the world of dinosaurs and birds,” said Luis Chiappe, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County who did not participate in the dig.
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Four-winged dinosaur fossil found
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