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Dinosaur find: Velociraptor ancestor was 'winged dragon'

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Melody Stacker
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« on: July 21, 2015, 12:41:59 am »

Dinosaur find: Velociraptor ancestor was 'winged dragon'
By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC News

    16 July 2015
    From the section Science & Environment

Media caption Dr Steve Brusatte talks about the discovery of the winged dinosaur fossil

Scientists have discovered a winged dinosaur - an ancestor of the velociraptor - that they say was on the cusp of becoming a bird.

The 6ft 6in (2m) creature was almost perfectly preserved in limestone, thanks to a volcanic eruption that had buried it in north-east China.

And the 125-million year-old fossil suggests many other dinosaurs, including velociraptors, would have looked like "big, fluffy killer birds".

But it is unlikely that it could fly.
An artist's impression of Zhenyuanlong shows how strange this feathered beast may have looked

The dinosaur has been named Zhenyuanlong, meaning "Zhenyuan's dragon" - in honour of the man who procured the fossil for the museum in Jinzhou, allowing it to be studied.
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The University of Edinburgh and the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences collaboration is published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Lead researcher Dr Steve Brusatte said it was "the single most beautiful fossil I have had the privilege to work on".

"It has short arms, and it is covered in feathers [with] proper wings with layers of quill-pen feathers," he said.
Zhenyuanlong is an ancestor of the infamous velociraptor

"So even though this is a dinosaur, even though it is a close relative of velociraptor, it looks exactly like a turkey or a vulture."

Dr John Nudds, a senior lecturer in palaeontology at the University of Manchester, told BBC News the find was part of an "increasingly complex picture" of emerging evidence "that certainly a lot of [dinosaurs] and possibly even all of them had feathers or at least downy hair".

Dr Brusatte said: "It will blow some people's minds to realise that those dinosaurs in the movies would have been even weirder, and I think even scarier - like big fluffy birds from hell."

He said its large body made it unlikely Zhenyuanlong would have been able to fly.
The complex feathers of the dinosaur's wings are beautifully preserved

"So maybe [wings] did not evolve for flight - perhaps they evolved as a display structure, or to protect eggs in the nest," he said.

"Or maybe this animal was starting to move around in the trees and was able to glide."

Dr Brusatte said: "China is the epicentre of palaeontology right now.

"There are [museum] storerooms full of new dinosaur fossils that have never been studied before.

He added: "This is the most exciting time maybe in the history of palaeontology."

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33510288
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Melody Stacker
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« Reply #1 on: July 21, 2015, 12:42:34 am »



An artist's impression of Zhenyuanlong shows how strange this feathered beast may have looked
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Melody Stacker
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« Reply #2 on: July 21, 2015, 12:43:11 am »



Zhenyuanlong is an ancestor of the infamous velociraptor
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Melody Stacker
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« Reply #3 on: July 21, 2015, 12:43:42 am »




The complex feathers of the dinosaur's wings are beautifully preserved
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Back to Earth
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« Reply #4 on: July 21, 2015, 12:49:21 am »

That looks like a mean SOB.
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Manetho
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« Reply #5 on: July 21, 2015, 12:51:29 am »

In 1993 paleontologist Paul Sereno and colleagues described Eoraptor and named the species, and determined it to be one of the earliest dinosaurs Its age was determined by several factors, not least because it lacked the specialized features of any of the major groups of later dinosaurs, including its lack of specialized predatory features. In 1995, Sereno posited that Eoraptor is the earliest recorded theropod, and is closest to "the hypothetical dinosaurian condition than any other dinosaurian subgroup."
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Bat
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« Reply #6 on: July 21, 2015, 12:54:04 am »

Alright. Lets say Eoraptor was indeed a basal theropod, not just a basal saurischian. Its place in the dinosaurian phylogenetic tree is debatable (perhaps it always will be). The thing is, my point that dinosauria appeared after the Permian extinction event, still stands. Also, as I said before, early theropods show no adaptations for flight whatsoever.
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Do It With Disco
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« Reply #7 on: July 21, 2015, 12:56:40 am »

Theropods have many birdlike features. The question I posit is whether birds acquired them from theropod ancestors, or did both theropods and the lineage that lead to true birds inherit them from a small arboreal common ancestor that radiated after the Permian extinction.
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Orcseeker
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« Reply #8 on: July 21, 2015, 01:03:01 am »

Waiting for jurassic park.

The way you phrased your question made it sound like theropods were already evolving into flying/avian forms before the Permian extinction.
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Calibas
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« Reply #9 on: July 21, 2015, 01:06:02 am »

Looks like an insane and nasty chicken.
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