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Min Wang, Institute of Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of Vertebrates, Chinese Academy of Sciences
The birds evolved from dinosaurs, and in the midst of this evolution, there was a multitude of connections between the two. Scientists have now found another: a curious dinosaur that exhibited the type of wings associated with today's bats. They call him Ambopteryx longibrachiumwhich means "pteryx-like with the fore limbs lengthened."
Ambopteryx was discovered by a farmer in 2017 in a 163 million year old rock formation in Liaoning Province, China. Liaoning, located near the North Korean border, is a crucial place to understand the link between dinosaurs and birds. first known feather dinosaurs, Sinosauropteryx prima, have already been found. When Min Wang, a vertebrate paleontologist from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, saw for the first time the fossil: "I thought it was a bird" New York Times.
The fossil was remarkably well preserved. The bones were not only in excellent condition, but also rock and soft tissues, including wing membranes, thorny feathers, gizzards and even the contents of his last meal in his stomach.
Ambopteryx, what was the size of a blue jay, could have existed at the same time as S. prima, living during the Middle Jurassic and Early Cretaceous periods (S. prima lived at the beginning of the Cretaceous). He was able to fly through membranous wings made of skin, attached to a lean and pointed wrist bone. This wrist bone, very different from the wing of a bird, is a clue for scientists Ambopteryx is a dinosaur.
Membranous wings, which have veins that provide strength and reinforcement during flight, were considered extremely rare in dinosaurs. Ambopteryx is the second dinosaur ever discovered with them. The first? Yi qi, found only 50 miles from Ambopteryx. Wang thinks that they will soon have more companionship.
"For a long time, we thought that feathered wings were the only flying device" in the evolution of birds, said Wang to Reuters.
"However," he continues, "these new findings clearly show that membranous wings have also evolved in some closely related dinosaurs. Together, the scope and richness of the flying experiences are greater than previously thought during the dinosaur-bird transition. And we may only see the tip of the iceberg. "
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