**DONOTDELETE**
01-23-2003, 07:28 AM
New Species of Flying Dinosaur Found
Predator Lived in Trees, Likely Used Plumage to Glide
By Guy Gugliotta
Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A30096-2003Jan22?language=printer) Staff Writer
Thursday, January 23, 2003; Page A03
Scientists have discovered a new species of flying dinosaur unlike any seen before, a spectacular four-winged predator that lived in trees and probably used its elaborate plumage to glide from branch to branch, research published yesterday said.
The find, in northeastern China's fossil-rich Liaoning Province, significantly boosts the "top-down" theory of the origin of flight: that birds evolved from tree-dwelling dinosaurs that glided through treetops before flapping their wings.
"This time the evidence is overwhelming," said paleontologist Xing Xu, of China's Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology. "It's hard even to imagine how these little animals could have moved around bipedally" -- on their hind legs. Xu led the six-member Chinese team whose findings were reported yesterday in the journal Nature.
The team recovered six specimens of the small predatory raptor that showed nearly complete skeletons as well as the sharply etched outlines of elaborate feathers on the forelimbs, hind limbs and tail. Xu's team called it a four-winged dinosaur -- the first ever found.
Predator Lived in Trees, Likely Used Plumage to Glide
By Guy Gugliotta
Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A30096-2003Jan22?language=printer) Staff Writer
Thursday, January 23, 2003; Page A03
Scientists have discovered a new species of flying dinosaur unlike any seen before, a spectacular four-winged predator that lived in trees and probably used its elaborate plumage to glide from branch to branch, research published yesterday said.
The find, in northeastern China's fossil-rich Liaoning Province, significantly boosts the "top-down" theory of the origin of flight: that birds evolved from tree-dwelling dinosaurs that glided through treetops before flapping their wings.
"This time the evidence is overwhelming," said paleontologist Xing Xu, of China's Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology. "It's hard even to imagine how these little animals could have moved around bipedally" -- on their hind legs. Xu led the six-member Chinese team whose findings were reported yesterday in the journal Nature.
The team recovered six specimens of the small predatory raptor that showed nearly complete skeletons as well as the sharply etched outlines of elaborate feathers on the forelimbs, hind limbs and tail. Xu's team called it a four-winged dinosaur -- the first ever found.