Decubren dinosaur fossil could have flown without feathers – Digital Journal Juarez

New York – In the past two decades, Chinese scientists have made a number of surprising findings related to dinosaurs, enough to rewrite the textbooks and even impress experts in the field. Eventually it was revealed that some of the smaller creatures had feathers, which restated the origin of birds.

Now, the discovery of fossils from 160 million years ago in northeastern China, released yesterday Nature, draws attention to a species of dinosaur that may have tried to fly with wings without feathers. Apparently it came from one of several experiments with the desire to fly that failed the test of time and were eventually abandoned. Even scientists are unsure how it would have worked.

After studying the findings of a team of paleontologists led by Chinese, Kevin Padian, a dinosaur expert at the United States, said it is likely that attempts innovations have “ranged from the strange and ridiculous.”

The fossil remains belonged to a previously unknown species among a shadowy group of small dinosaurs related to early birds like the famous Archaeopteryx. The species had feathers, but apparently were too small to be of use in flight. Then the scientists recognized a considerably long bone such a rod extending from each of the wrists. A curved structure that may give support to a streamlined membrane

And indeed, fragments were found membranous tissue over bone supports. Thus, the scientists concluded, the specimen must have had similar to those of bats or flying squirrels wings. Never before he had made a similar finding in dinosaurs.

The research team, led by Xing Xu of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing and Xianoting Zheng of the University of Linyi in Shandong Province , named the specimen Yi qi (pronounced “i chi”), meaning “strange wing” in Mandarin.

“No other bird or dinosaur wings have the same type,” said Xu in a statement by the institution of Beijing. “We do not know if the qi Yi fluttering or planned or both, but definitely developed a single wing in the context of the transition from dinosaurs to birds.”

The Yi qi belongs to a group of carnivorous dinosaurs that until now have only been found in deposits of Chinese fossils, and the few related species apparently did not have the ability to fly. The group is known as escansoriopterígidos. In a section, said Xu Yi qi could be the shorter name for a dinosaur.

In a commentary in the journal Nature, Padian, a paleontologist at the University of California, Berkeley who was not involved the team that made the discovery, said the analysis of fossil, found by a farmer in Hebei Province, was careful “to ensure that none of its elements have been falsified or restored.”

Added researchers were careful not to assert that the animal could flutter or plan, or both, or neither. To date, none of the evidence presented shows that qi Yi has possessed the ability to fly to motor. The preservation of the wing membrane was incomplete and not yet exactly known configuration support apparatus.

Also, most of the dinosaur below the rib cage body was not found. This leaves unanswered the important question of whether the animal’s tail helped him propel or crawl if he flew as other species (powered flight).

“It’s a real dilemma,” he said Padian .

The winged dinosaur with a strange structure, he said, “that gives the impression of having been used to fly, present in an animal that otherwise does not show such tendencies.”

And so far, he continued, “there is no other possible explanation for the function of this structure.”

Zheng, author of the report published in the journal, said the qi Yi lived in the Jurassic period, right in the middle of the Age of Dinosaurs and the early stages of the evolution to birds.

“This reminds us that the early history of flight was full of innovations, not all of which they survived” he added.

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