China finds bird-like dinosaur with four wings

Reuters on Yahoo ^ | 9/28/09 | Tan Ee Lyn

[NormsRevenge]

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Chinese researchers have unearthed the fossil of a bird-like dinosaur with four wings in northeastern China, which they suggest is a missing link in dinosaurs' evolution into birds.

In a paper in the journal Nature, they said they found the well-preserved fossil of the "Anchiornis huxleyi," which roamed the earth some 160 million years ago, in a geological formation in China's northeastern Liaoning province.

About the size of a chicken, the fossil has a total body length of less than 50cm (20 inches) and a skull about 6cm long, lead researcher Xing Xu at the Chinese Academy of Science in Beijing told Reuters in an email.

"This finding suggests that birds are likely to be descended from a kind of small-sized four-winged dinosaur about 160 million years ago," Xu said.

"It is a link between more typical theropods (dinosaurs which moved around with two rear limbs) and birds. It lived around a time period ... that we expected for birds' ancestor."

In a statement, the researchers said: "Long feathers cover the arms and tail, but also the feet, suggesting that a four-winged stage may have existed in the transition to birds."

The transition from dinosaurs to birds is still poorly understood because of the lack of well-preserved fossils, and many scientists say bird-like dinosaurs appear too late in the fossil record to be the true ancestors of birds.

[NormsRevenge]

afp has

Four-winged dino may be missing link in bird debate
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090925/sc_afp/sciencepalaeontologydinosaurbird_20090925085933

PARIS (AFP) – The stunning remains of a “four-winged” dinosaur have confirmed that birds owe their ancestry to two-footed dinosaurs that lived millions of years ago, the world’s most famous fossil-hunter said.

Xing Xu of the Chinese Academy of Science in Beijing is staking the claim thanks to an astonishingly-preserved fossil of a bird-like dinosaur called Anchiornis huxleyi.

Until now, A. huxleyi was thought to be a primitive bird. It was presumed to have been a near-contemporary of Archaeopteryx, the first recognised bird, which flew around 150 million years ago.

But these opinions were based on an incomplete fossil.

The new, nearly-complete specimen gives a different picture, suggesting that A. huxleyi is millions of years older than Archaeopteryx and has both dinosaur and avian features.

It is the long-sought evidence that proves birds descended from theropod dinosaurs, argues Xu.

[SkyDancer]

A bi-bird???

[rdl6989]

You beat me to it.

[SkyDancer]

I wonder if the wings are over and under or back to front like a dragonfly .....

[ETL]

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=new-feathered-dinosaur-specimen-wea-2009-09-24
__________________________________________

"Anchiornis huxleyi":
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=%22Anchiornis+huxleyi%22+&ei=UTF-8&fr=yff35ck

[Gator113]

Interesting.

[Pistolshot]

Crevo invasion in 5....4.....3.....2...

[ETL]

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=new-feathered-dinosaur-specimen-wea-2009-09-24

[OneWingedShark]

Soooo.... Two-winged critters are more complex than four-winged?
That doesn’t make any sense.

[Pistolshot]

Depends on the shoulder area. If there isn’t a degree of lateral as well as axial motion, the wings may have had the utility of a gliding apparatus, and not sustained flight

[Battle Axe]

Take a look at the insect world.

Bees and wasps (Hymenoptera) have two pairs, flies (Diptera) one pair and a vestigal knob in the place of the 2nd pair.

Beetles (Coleoptera) have a pair of elytra, a covering for the membranous pair that they use to fly.

[CommieCutter]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-Q-IwUijoc

[cweese]

Sounds like my (former) mother-in-law.

[OneWingedShark]

>Take a look at the insect world.

Actually that brings up a good point: there are wings in three distinct classes of animals (four if you count dinosaurs), these being: Insect, Avian, and Mammal (bat).

Now, it seems rather unlikely that these all evolved in serial, yet there is no common ancestor possessing wings between all of these. (Dinos are more advanced than insects, insects don’t have vertebrae, etc.)

[SunkenCiv]

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[Monkey Face]

Oh. Yah. After the National Geographic “find” several years ago, I’m pretty skeptical about the bird/dinosaur link.

Laying eggs doesn’t mean you’re related to birds...crocs, gators, turtles, etc., lay eggs, but there is no way they are gonna fly.

Waiting for proof.....:o|

[Battle Axe]

If you want to look at the embryology of the insect, it was a segmented creature. Each segment had a pair of legs, a pair of spiracles (breathing holes), and maybe a pair of wings. In Insecta proper, the first three segments ended up with the legs, the 2nd and 3rd segment wings.

Diptra, higher evolved than Hymenoptera, according to some, had only two sets of wings because the others got in the way. A horsefly can fly faster than a beetle. More space in the 2nd segment for muscles to power the wings. Hymenoptera does hook the wings together, they are not working independently. Beetles raise the elytra and just flap the 3rd segment membranous ones.

I really don't buy the 4 winged bird. How many did they find? ONE? and it died and was fossilized because it could not get off the ground?

[Ladycalif]

Could you add me to your list? Thanks

[SunkenCiv]

Glad you finally came out of your shell.