Winged dinosaur fossils found in China

BEIJING, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Chinese scientists have found fossil remains of a four-winged dinosaur called a Microraptor, with feathers on both its forelimbs and hind limbs.

Paleontologists say the new species provides more evidence that birds evolved from dinosaurs and might explain how ground-dwelling flightless dinosaurs evolved to a feathered animal capable of flying, National Geographic News reported.

Xu Xing, a paleontologist at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, and colleagues said the species is an early ancestor of birds that probably used feathered limbs, along with a long, feather-fringed tail, to glide from tree to tree.

Writing in the current issue of Nature, they argue the animal represents an intermediate stage in the evolution of flight, from gliding much as flying squirrels do today to the active wing flapping of modern birds, NGN reported.

Six fossilized specimens were found in Liaoning Province in northeastern China. They are dated between 124 million to 128 million years.