New fossil of four-winged dinosaur sharpens flight debate
Norellraptor barsboldi supports, according to researchers, multiple origins of flight adaptations.
Researchers describe in Nature Communications a new, exceptionally well-preserved feathered dinosaur from China. The fossil shows that similar flight adaptations may have arisen independently in different dinosaur lineages.
The new species is called Norellraptor barsboldi and was found in the Jiufotang Formation in China’s Liaoning province. The fossil is approximately 57 centimetres long and preserves parts of the skeleton and impressions of feathers. The researchers classify the animal among the microraptorines, a group of small predatory dinosaurs close to the origin of birds, but not itself part of the ancestral lineage of modern birds.
The name refers to the palaeontologists Mark Norell and Rinchen Barsbold. Based on the bone tissue, the researchers estimate that the animal was at least three years old when it died. This is a biological estimate based on growth patterns in the bone, not a direct measurement of its age.
Microraptorines are known for long feathers on both their fore- and hindlimbs. As a result, some species are described as four-winged. That does not automatically mean they flew in the same way as modern birds. Some researchers suggest gliding or limited flight; precisely how the feathers and limbs were used remains a matter of debate.
The new study compares the development of flight-related features in microraptorines with that in the bird-like lineage. The authors find that similar traits did not arise in the same sequence in both groups. On that basis, they conclude that the adaptations involved probably did not arise directly from the same developmental programme.
That result touches on a longer-running debate about the origin of bird flight. One possibility is that an early ancestor already possessed traits that were later used by multiple lineages. Another is that separate groups independently developed similar solutions. The new fossil provides arguments for the second explanation, but does not definitively resolve the debate.
The research is peer-reviewed and published in Nature Communications. It concerns one new fossil and a comparative evolutionary analysis. New finds, other anatomical interpretations and improved phylogenies may still lead to the conclusion being revised. There is therefore no question of a definitive reconstruction of the first flight.
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The anatomical and evolutionary claims were checked against the original publication. The text identifies the status of the research and avoids breakthrough language.
- confirmed Norellraptor barsboldi is a newly described microraptorine from Liaoning. — The Nature publication describes the species and its find site. source
- confirmed The fossil is approximately 57 centimetres long. — The original study gives a length of 57 centimetres. source
- confirmed The researchers estimate its age at a minimum of approximately three years. — The osteohistological analysis in the study arrives at this cautious estimate. source
- confirmed The authors support multiple independent evolutionary routes to flight adaptations. — This is the central conclusion of the Nature publication. source
- confirmed The study is peer-reviewed and published in Nature Communications. — The publication appears in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications. source
Editor's note
This concerns a peer-reviewed study based on one new fossil and comparative anatomy. The evolutionary conclusion is a substantiated interpretation by the authors, not a definitive answer to the origin of bird flight.Sources
More on this in Dutch media
- Het Parool — „dinosauriërs fossielen”
- Trouw — „dinosauriërs fossielen”
- NRC — „dinosauriërs fossielen”