China: Discovery of a small dinosaur with bat wings – Daily Mail

 It’s called Yi qi . It is the size of a pigeon and bat wings: this strange dinosaur discovered in China was a surprise for paleontologists , who regard it as an unfinished process of evolutionary experimentation

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 Yi Qi seems to have featherless wings but with a membrane that allowed them to move in the air , a little like bats or flying squirrels, according to a study released Wednesday by the journal Nature.

 “We do not know if Yi qi flapping or planned, or did both but certainly developed a unique type of wings in the context of the transition from dinosaurs to birds,” said Xu Xing of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology Beijing.

 Yi qi, meaning “strange wing” in Mandarin, lived about 160 million years ago.

 

 It belongs to the family of the scansoriopterígidos, small feathered dinosaurs that lived in the Middle and Late Jurassic. They endowed with long fingers, were certainly able to climb trees. Its fossils were found only in China.

 The part scansoriopterígidos turn theropods, bipedal dinosaurs , generally carnivores, as the ancestor of birds or the famous Tyrannosaurus.

 Yi qi (pronounced i-chi) was discovered by a farmer in Hebei Province , near Beijing. Probably weighed about 380 grams, he estimated the team of paleontologists. Had teeth and was definitely omnivorous.

 They found traces of feathers with the skeleton, but these were too narrow and shaped filament to allow it to fly in the air.

 Had a strange bone appendage slightly bent 13 cm wide cuffs , and three articulated fingers.

 There are mammals such as bats or flying squirrels that have the same appendix with the function of holding an aerodynamic membrane. In the case of Yi qi, it is very rudimentary and “could represent an odd evolutionary experience which ultimately failed,” say the paleontologists. Yi qi “was not a champion when it comes to flying,” they conclude.