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We may not know how it tasted, but it certainly looked like a chicken.
A new species of feathered dinosaur — the earliest known bird ancestor — was recently discovered by a team of paleontologists in Liaoning, China.
What they found there was a remarkably well-preserved, 125-million-year-old fossilized skeleton of the three-foot long animal, which has been named Jianianhualong tengi.
Jianianhualong tengi is a troodontid dinosaur — one of the bird-like dinosaurs that are the closest relatives to modern-day birds.
One of the key features of the newly discovered dinosaur was its asymmetrical feathers, which are wider on one side than the other. This is a prime factor in the history of animal flight.
"Asymmetrical feathers have been associated with flight capability, but are also found in species that do not fly, and their appearance was a major event in feather evolution," the authors write in the study.
National Geographic.
The discovery was published Tuesday in Nature Communications, a peer-reviewed British journal.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech.../new-feathered-dinosaur-discovered/101196868/
A new species of feathered dinosaur — the earliest known bird ancestor — was recently discovered by a team of paleontologists in Liaoning, China.
What they found there was a remarkably well-preserved, 125-million-year-old fossilized skeleton of the three-foot long animal, which has been named Jianianhualong tengi.
Jianianhualong tengi is a troodontid dinosaur — one of the bird-like dinosaurs that are the closest relatives to modern-day birds.
One of the key features of the newly discovered dinosaur was its asymmetrical feathers, which are wider on one side than the other. This is a prime factor in the history of animal flight.
"Asymmetrical feathers have been associated with flight capability, but are also found in species that do not fly, and their appearance was a major event in feather evolution," the authors write in the study.
National Geographic.
The discovery was published Tuesday in Nature Communications, a peer-reviewed British journal.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech.../new-feathered-dinosaur-discovered/101196868/
