New Feathered Dinosaur Suggests Flight Evolved More Than Once among Birds’ Closest Relatives
The discovery of a new dinosaur species, Norellraptor barsboldi, in China suggests that flight-related traits may have evolved independently multiple times in bird ancestors. This challenges the traditional theory that flight originated from a single common blueprint.
Why it matters
This finding significantly alters the scientific understanding of avian evolution and the biological origins of flight.
Norellraptor barsboldi , a new species of small microraptorine dinosaur from the 120-million-year-old rock beds of China’s Liaoning province, challenges the idea that the earliest fliers shared a common blueprint for taking to the air.
Life reconstruction of Norellraptor barsboldi . Image credit: Zhao Chuang.
Norellraptor barsboldi belongs to the Microraptorinae , a group of small, bird-like predatory dinosaurs.
Microraptorines combine wing-like arms with feathered legs, and some are thought to have glided or perhaps flown under their own power.
These dinosaurs have long been used as models for how flight began. One view holds that a rudimentary form of flight arose in the common ancestor of birds and their closest relatives, the paravians, and was later elaborated in some lines and lost in others. The other holds that flight-related traits evolved separately, at least twice.
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