An international team of paleontologists has discovered a new flying dinosaur that lived in what is now China 125 million years ago. One of the most striking characteristics of this new dinosaur is that it had an exceptionally long, feathered tail. The finding has been published in the journal Nature Communications .
The new fossil, which has been named Changyuraptor Yangi , was found in good condition in Liaoning province, northeast China. According to experts, the dinosaur’s body would have been covered with feathers and its tail, provided with even longer feathers, served to slow down the descent during flight to land comfortably and safely.
In addition, the analysis of the bone microstructure has revealed that the fossil found corresponds to a fully grown adult, measuring 1.30 meters long and weighing 4 kilos , which makes it the “four-winged” dinosaur (due to the feathers attached to the legs) largest known.
“At about 30 cm long, the incredible feathers of the Changyuraptor’s tail are by far the longest of any feathered dinosaur ” confirms Luis Chiappe, paleontologist at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History (USA) and leader of the investigation.
According to experts, the discovery of this fossil strengthens the idea that the flight preceded the origin of the birds . “The new fossils tell us that the flying dinosaurs were not limited to very small animals, but to some of more substantial size,” Chiappe clarifies.
