Image courtesy of Andrea Cau et al., Nature Communications (2026)
Joel Kontinen
The
57-centimetre-long fossil is between 100 million and 145 million years old, and
was discovered by a farmer near the town of Lamadong in Liaoning, China.
Some Darwinist
sat that a bird like dinosaur was found
in China, it was was donated to a museum
at Hebei GEO University in 2023, where Ji Qiang and his colleagues examined the exquisitely
preserved specimen, complete with plumage, teeth, wings and articulated spine.
he
researchers determined that the dinosaur was a new species, which they named
Norellraptor barsboldi in honour of palaeontologists Mark Allen Norell and
Rinchen Barsbold. It belongs in a group of small dinosaurs with both feathers
and wings known as microraptorines.
Based on
evolutionary relationships, the researchers found that around 30 per cent of
anatomical changes in microraptorines also evolved in the bird lineage, but in
a different order, providing evidence that the two groups evolved flight
separately and for different reasons.
Analyses of
N. barsboldi’s bone microstructure, its growth patterns and its evolutionary
relationships show that the evolutionary sequences leading to flight
adaptations in living birds and in bird-like dinosaurs were quite different,
says Jacqueline Nguyen.
This survey
does not say that dinosaurs and birds are relatives.
Source:
James
Woodford 2026
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