Independent assembly of the flight apparatus in a non-avian dinosaur clade
A new study describes the discovery of a feathered dinosaur species, Norellraptor barsboldi, which provides evidence for the independent evolution of flight in paravian dinosaurs. The findings suggest that aerial adaptations in these dinosaurs evolved through a step-wise process distinct from that of modern birds.
Why it matters
This research challenges previous assumptions about the evolutionary path to flight, suggesting that multiple dinosaur lineages independently developed the ability to fly.
The discovery of feathered dinosaurs revolutionized the studies on the origin of birds and the evolution of their flight. Among paravians (birds and their closest relatives), the microraptorine dromaeosaurids are unique in bearing several flight-related adaptations with a controversial evolutionary interpretation, supporting, alternatively, flight as ancestral to Paraves or having evolved multiple times among the latter. Here, we introduce an exquisitely-preserved member of Microraptorinae, Norellraptor barsboldi gen. et sp. nov., and describe in detail forelimb osteohistological features for that clade. Norellraptor nests among late-diverging microraptorines and supports step-wise assembly of aerial adaptations in that clade. About 30% of the microraptorine synapomorphies are convergently acquired by the bird lineage (Avialae).
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