The largest dinosaur ever found with wings on its arms, a new species of feathered dinosaur was uncovered in China.
The so-called Zhenyuanlong has three layers of quill-like features and is coated with feathers, making it resemble a modern bird. One of the new species' closest relatives is the well-known velociraptor, which lived approximately 125 million years ago.
The thousands of feathered dinosaurs that have been discovered in the Liaoning Province of China, where the Zhenyuanlong was discovered, are renowned, and this most recent find further diversifies the region's biodiversity. The fossil of the Zhenyuanlong is a perfectly preserved illustration of dinosaur life from the Early Cretaceous period, just as previous species.
The name Zhenyuanlong is derived from the combination of the words "long," which in Chinese means "dragon," and "Zhenyuan," which is the last name of the person who obtained the specimen for examination.
According to a report published today in the journal Scientific Reports, the dinosaur, like previous dinosaurs unearthed in the area, "has broad wings on its arms comprised of multiple sets of pennaceous feathers and large pennaceous feathers on the tail." According to paleontologists, the raptor "appears to lack vaned feathers on the hindlimb" in contrast to its close relatives.
But it's not these characteristics that set this dinosaur apart from others. According to the researchers, the Zhenyuanlong is "an aberrant and rare animal compared to the vast majority of other Liaoning dromaeosaurids, due to its large body size and proportionally tiny forearms". Most of the dinosaur's relatives are around the size of a domestic house cat. The Zhenyuanlong is larger, with short forearms and broad, intricate wings.
It's also intriguing to note that although the Zhenyuanlong has wings, they don't necessarily appear to be designed for flying.
A short-armed species like the Zhenyuanlong may have grown wings even if it did not fly, according to the researchers' theories. The researchers hypothesized that the persistence of paravians without flying could be explained by the possibility that broad, multiple-layered feathered wings were helpful for show and may have even developed for this purpose rather than for flight.
