A 120 million-year-old fossil found in what’s now northwestern China is changing how scientists think about an unusual group of predatory dinosaurs known as microraptors.The location where the fossil was unearthed adds to the known geographical range of the smaller, gliding cousin of the sickle-clawed velociraptor.The bones also represent the most recent definitive microraptor specimen in the fossil record, expanding the timeline for how long the feathered dinosaurs existed.A new analysis of the intact shoulder and forelimb bones, first mentioned in a study abstract in 2010, showed the fossil belonged to a previously unknown microraptor species. The research team has named the dinosaur Jian changmaensis, according to the study published Thursday in the journal Annals of Carnegie Museum.AdvertisementAdvertisementJian references a one-winged bird in Chinese mythology as a nod to the dinosaur’s birdlike characteristics. The species name was also a nod to the Changma Basin in Gansu province, where the fossil was uncovered — and so far, it’s the only undoubted microraptor specimen to be found outside northeastern China.“Jian changmaensis reveals that non-avian dinosaurs lived in what is now the Changma Basin, an area famous for its fossil birds,” said study coauthor Dr. Matt Lamanna, senior dinosaur researcher and Mary R. Dawson Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, in a statement.“Our team has recovered more than one hundred bird fossils at Changma, but only this single non-avian dinosaur specimen. Jian provides critical new information on the biological history of the Changma region and the ecological context of the ancestors of today’s birds.”The well-preserved fossil could help researchers understand better how microraptors used their wings to move between trees — offering new clues about the origins of avian flight, according to Lamanna.A gliding predatorAt first glance, artist reconstructions of microraptors look like a depiction of birds.AdvertisementAdvertisement“If you saw that thing sitting in a tree, you wouldn’t think velociraptor from ‘Jurassic Park,’” Lamann …
