A new discovery has filled the void of the fossil record showing how birds evolved.
The dinosaur called Fujianvenator prodigious, which means “bizarre hunter from Fujian,” was found in the Fujian province in southeast China, CNN reported.
The fossil is as old as the ‘first bird’, Archaeopteryx, and might have specialized in running or wading instead of flying. https://t.co/rvAUHwzX3W
— nature (@Nature) September 6, 2023
The dinosaur was about the size of a pheasant and was estimated to be about 1.4 pounds. It lived in the late Jurassic period from 148 million to 150 million years ago.
It had very long legs, with its lower legs about double the length of its thighs, while other dinosaurs had longer upper legs and shorter lower ones, CNN reported. Not only do longer lower legs help animals run quickly, but they also are prevalent in birds, such as storks and cranes, that wade, leading scientists to believe that the Fujianvenator may have lived in a swampy aquatic area.
The fossil was found among those of other aquatic and semi-aquatic animals, such as turtles and ray-finned fish.
It also had wing-like arms, Reuters reported.
One thing that was missing from the fossil is any indication that it had feathers, but other dinosaur relatives did, so researchers believe it is highly likely this one did as well. However, they can’t tell if it could fly or not, CNN reported.
Experts say that birds evolved from two-legged theropod dinosaurs like the massive T. Rex, but there are few fossils from when the transformations happened. The new discovery helps bridge that gap.
“Fujianvenator, given its unique skeletal morphologies, sheds new light about the morphological evolution … in the earliest evolutionary stage of birds,” said Min Wang, the lead author of the study recently published in the journal Nature.
Wang is a professor at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing.
She said that while similar, it may or may not be classified as a bird. It all depends on the definition used to call something a bird.
One thing is clear in the description of the animal, summed up in one single word.
“I would say ‘bizarre.’ Fujianvenator is far from similar to any modern birds,” Wang said, according to Reuters.
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