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 The researchers on Thursday said the fast-running meat-eater was
about 6 feet (1.8 meters) long and covered with simple hair-like
feathers over much of its body, with large, quill-like feathers on
its wings and long tail.
The largest-known dinosaur with wings, it lived about 125 million
years ago during the Cretaceous Period. Considering its mouth full
of sharp teeth and its overall oddness, University of Edinburgh
paleontologist Steve Brusatte dubbed the dinosaur, named
Zhenyuanlong suni, a "fluffy feathered poodle from hell."
A member of a group of dinosaurs called raptors closely related to
birds, it was a cousin of Velociraptor, although that dinosaur,
featured inaccurately in the "Jurassic Park" films as much bigger
than it was, lived about 40-50 million years later.
"Zhenyuanlong was a dinosaur that really looked like a bird," said
Brusatte, who collaborated with Chinese paleontologist Junchang Lü.
"You wouldn't think of it differently than a turkey or an emu or a
big chicken."
In their form and shape, its wings looked like those of a modern
bird like an eagle or vulture.
"If you saw this wing on its own, you would probably think that
Zhenyuanlong could fly. But it's a fairly big raptor, and its arms
are so short in proportion to its body, that I have a hard time
believing that it could fly or glide or do anything in the air,"
Brusatte said.
More likely, Brusatte said, Zhenyuanlong used its wings for display
the way a peacock uses its tail feathers to attract mates and
intimidate rivals. Another possibility is using the wings to brood
eggs in the nest, Brusatte said.
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Brusatte said finding a dinosaur with traits like Zhenyuanlong's
raises questions about why wings evolved in the first place.
"Did they evolve specifically for flight? In that case, Zhenyuanlong
perhaps descended from a flying ancestor and that's why it still has
wings. Or, alternatively, did wings first evolve for display or egg
brooding or some other type of function, and then only in some
dinosaurs were they later co-opted into airfoils for gliding and
flying?"
Birds evolved from small feathered dinosaurs. The oldest-known bird,
crow-sized Archaeopteryx, lived about 150 million years ago.
The research was published in the journal Scientific Reports.
(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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