The exceptionally well-preserved feathered dinosaur, which has been named Norellraptor barsboldi, was 3 years old when it died and measured just 21 inches (57 centimeters) long. It was found in the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation in northeastern China, which dates to between 145 million and 100 million years ago.
N. barsboldi was a microraptor. Microraptors were close relatives of birds but not their ancestors; birds belong to a neighboring clade called Avialae. Fossils show that both microraptors and early bird-winged animals in the Avialae clade — such as Archaeopteryx, which lived in the Late Jurassic, about 150 million years ago — had feathers. The puzzle has been whether flight originated in an ancestor of both of these groups or if feathers — and potentially flight — evolved more than once.
Researchers found a series of fossilized remains of a four-winged dinosaur in northeastern China. (Image credit: Andrea Cau et al., Nature Communications (2026))However, the team's comparisons with other fossils revealed that the order in which these shared features evolved was different in the two groups. They reported the findings Tuesday (Sept. 29) in the journal Nature Communications.
"I'm very happy that they've come to the conclusion that there were probably independent origins of flight amongst various groups," Hartman said. "I strongly agree with them."
Hartman suggested that microraptors might have done a mix of gliding and flapping. "I doubt they could climb trees like a squirrel to gain height because their forelimbs don't have that range of motion," he said. However, they might have been able to take off after running down a slope, and rather than gliding down from trees, they might have leapt from hills or cliffs, Hartman added.
Related stories"There are a bunch of features, like a large well-ossified [bony] sternum or breastbone that could allow for larger pectoral muscles, so they probably have a pretty solid downstroke, which is what generates the thrust to keep it going forward," Hartman said.
It's also possible that the wings had other purposes, such as demonstrating fitness to mates or warming eggs on a nest, he said.
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