Dinosaur find: Velociraptor ancestor was 'winged dragon'

Manach

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".

- link.

Adam Khor

I'm thinking this could possibly be an adult Sinornithosaurus, maybe?

It hails from the same place and age, and is said to be "closely related". Sinornithosaurus was 90 cms to 1.2 meters long; Zhenyuanlong was 2 meters long. Sinornithosaurus had a longer, narrower skull, but then again, so did juvenile Tyrannosaurus, for example. What if these guys started out as tree-dwelling, flying or gliding "Sinornithosaurus", and later moved to the ground as "Zhenyuanlong", now flightless but with the size and bite to better protect themselves from other land dwelling creatures- including their own kind? It would fit nicely with the recent study that suggests Deinonychus started out as a tree-dwelling flier as well...

Sinornithosaurus:



Zhenyuanlong:

Linnaeus

It's astonishing how many "feathered dinosaurs" have been discovered in the last years. Most of them come from China. How are we to classify this bewildering gallery of plumed creatures? Paravians, avialae, almost-birds, birds in the making? Or is it just possible that some of them...the most derived...were already true birds?

I still maintain that the first animal which could honestly have called itself a genuine bird was Iberomesornis. Other researchers continue to insist that Archaeopteryx has that honour, or possibly the recently discovered Aurornis...The controversy rages on, with a thousand conflicting theories and very little aggreement on the part of palaeontologists.:rolleyes:

Linnaeus

Looking at the reconstruction of Zhenyuanlong, it seems evident that this velociraptor ancestor could definitely NOT fly; his wings are too short and weak, his body structure lacks the streamlined power and thrust for aerodynamic flight. At best, I think old Zheni might have flapped and fluttered around like a hen. He was still a far cry from being a bird.:P