Suzie
01-22-2003, 10:52 PM
Four-Winged Dinosaur Gives Vital Clue About Flight
Jan. 23
— By Patricia Reaney
LONDON (Reuters) - Chinese scientists have discovered fossils of a feathered, four-winged dinosaur which they say provides new evidence of the origin of avian flight. The creature, called Microraptor gui, is less than a yard long and is thought to have glided from tree to tree, similar to flying squirrels, in an intermediary step before full, flapping flight.
"The new fossils provide the best example of the transition from dinosaurs to birds," Xing Xu, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, said Wednesday.
"They are the link between the flightless dinosaurs and (flying) birds," he told Reuters in an interview.
For more than a century, palaeontologists have been debating whether flight originated from tree-dwelling creatures that glided or from ground animals that propelled themselves by running and frantically flapping their wings.
"The new discovery...requires us to re-evaluate some classical work in dinosaur evolution, in
MORE HERE (http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20030123_5.html)
Are there any other existing creatures with 4 wings.
Jan. 23
— By Patricia Reaney
LONDON (Reuters) - Chinese scientists have discovered fossils of a feathered, four-winged dinosaur which they say provides new evidence of the origin of avian flight. The creature, called Microraptor gui, is less than a yard long and is thought to have glided from tree to tree, similar to flying squirrels, in an intermediary step before full, flapping flight.
"The new fossils provide the best example of the transition from dinosaurs to birds," Xing Xu, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, said Wednesday.
"They are the link between the flightless dinosaurs and (flying) birds," he told Reuters in an interview.
For more than a century, palaeontologists have been debating whether flight originated from tree-dwelling creatures that glided or from ground animals that propelled themselves by running and frantically flapping their wings.
"The new discovery...requires us to re-evaluate some classical work in dinosaur evolution, in
MORE HERE (http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20030123_5.html)
Are there any other existing creatures with 4 wings.