Trending Science: Flying dinosaur discovered in China

A new study published in the journal ‘Nature’ sheds light on how dinosaurs evolved into birds. The 163 million-year–old fossil named Ambopteryx longibrachium had a wing structure that looked much more like a bat’s. It didn’t have feathery wings that give birds lift, challenging the idea that feathered wings were necessary among dinosaurs capable of gliding flight.How dinosaurs evolved into birdsScientists believe Ambopteryx measured 32 cm in length and weighed about 306 g. It joins Yi qi, another related dinosaur with such membranous wings that was described in 2015 and lived 2-3 million years later. Yi qi was found 80 km away. They both belong to a small family of dinosaurs called scansoriopterygids, which are among the earliest fossils discovered of tree climbers with very long hands and fingers. The research shows that Ambopteryx spent most of its time in trees. Bones in its stomach reveal that it likely hunted other animals.“It was nothing like a bird. Nothing like a dinosaur,” lead author and palaeontologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Min Wang told ‘CNN’. “Some people were not convinced by Yiqi. Soft tissue is not easily preserved in fossil record.” The fossil’s soft tissue provides more evidence for bat-like flight. However, given its tiny frame, Ambopteryx probably wasn’t able to flap its wings and fly the way birds do. “I would vote for gliding flight. The most important feature is that it doesn’t have flight muscle -- the sternum -- that would have allowed it to flap its wings.”Direct link between dinosaurs and birdsAmbopteryx lived during the Jurassic period in what is now north-eastern China. This was around the same time and place as dinosaurs with feathered wings. Eight to 10 species of dinosaurs at the time had feathered wings, but only Ambopteryx and Yi qi had membrane wings. These characteristic wing types in dinosaurs were short-lived. “So far, all known scansoriopterygids are from the Late Jurassic -- this unique membranous wing structure did not survive into the Cretaceous,” Dr Wang said. Later flying dinosaurs all featured feathered wings. “I hope we can find more of these dinosaurs to learn about the dinosaur bird transition and the evolution of flight in dinosaurs.”“The discoveries of Ambopteryx and Yi completely change our view about the origin of avian flight,” Dr Wang told ‘Reuters’. “For a long time, we thought feathered wings were the only flight apparatus. … However, these new discoveries clearly exhibit that membranous wings also evolved in some dinosaurs closely related to birds. Put together, the breadth and richness of the experimentation pertaining to flight is greater than was previously thought during the dinosaur-bird transition. And we may be seeing just the tip of the iceberg.”