Many of us believe dinosaurs to be extinct but in truth, they surround us every day. All the world's birds, from the pigeons of our cities to the gulls of our seasides, are descended from dinosaurs, and modern science now classifies the birds with their long-dead kin. The gulf between dinosaurs and modern birds may seem huge, but the discovery of several feathered dinosaurs are seriously blurring the line between the two. And now, new research on the feathered dinosaur Microraptor reveals that birds may have evolved from dinosaur ancestors that flew not on two wings, but on four. The link between dinosaur and bird was cemented in the last two decades, when palaeontologists unearthed hundreds of beautifully preserved fossils in the Liaoning province of China . Many of the newcomers were small predators, belonging to the same group as the famous Velociraptor (and indeed, most scientists believe that this Hollywood star was also covered in primitive feathers). The new species run the full evolutionary gamut from flightless dinosaurs to flying birds. They range from Sinosauropteryx with its primitive, downy, proto-feathers to Caudipteryx , a dinosaur with proper flight-capable feathers, to Confuciusornis , a true bird. Together, these species provide a tantalising snapshot of how small prehistoric predators transformed into the familiar fliers of today's skies. One of these species, Microraptor , stood out among the rest, for it had w ...
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Many of us believe dinosaurs to be extinct but in truth, they surround us every day. All the world's birds, from the pigeons of our cities to the gulls of our seasides, are descended from dinosaurs, and modern science now classifies the birds with their long-dead kin. The gulf between dinosaurs and modern birds may seem huge, but the discovery of several feathered dinosaurs are seriously blurring the line between the two. And now, new research on the feathered dinosaur Microraptor reveals that birds may have evolved from dinosaur ancestors that flew not on two wings, but on four. The link between dinosaur and bird was cemented in the last two decades, when palaeontologists unearthed hundreds of beautifully preserved fossils in the Liaoning province of China . Many of the newcomers were small predators, belonging to the same group as the famous Velociraptor (and indeed, most scientists believe that this Hollywood star was also covered in primitive feathers). The new species run the full evolutionary gamut from flightless dinosaurs to flying birds. They range from Sinosauropteryx with its primitive, downy, proto-feathers to Caudipteryx , a dinosaur with proper flight-capable feathers, to Confuciusornis , a true bird. Together, these species provide a tantalising snapshot of how small prehistoric predators transformed into the familiar fliers of today's skies. One of these species, Microraptor , stood out among the rest, for it had w ...