Scientists from institutions in China, Italy and Slovakia have described a new dinosaur species, Norellraptor barsboldi, from a fossil found in Liaoning province, in north-eastern China. The study was published in the scientific journal Nature Communications.
The animal, about 100 million years old, was a small, feathered, four-winged predator measuring 57 centimetres in length. The fossil is exceptionally well preserved, with a complete skeleton and parts of its plumage.
The species belongs to the microraptorines, small feathered and winged dinosaurs closely related to birds. According to the researchers, the results indicate that flight evolved independently in different lineages, under several selective pressures, rather than from a shared developmental pattern.
