Four-winged dinosaurs from China

@article{Xu2003FourwingedDF,
  title={Four-winged dinosaurs from China},
  author={Xing（徐星） Xu and Zhonghe Zhou and Xiaolin Wang and Xuewen Kuang and Fucheng Zhang and Xiangke Du},
  journal={Nature},
  year={2003},
  volume={421},
  pages={335-340}
}
Although the dinosaurian hypothesis of bird origins is widely accepted, debate remains about how the ancestor of birds first learned to fly. Here we provide new evidence suggesting that basal dromaeosaurid dinosaurs were four-winged animals and probably could glide, representing an intermediate stage towards the active, flapping-flight stage. The new discovery conforms to the predictions of early hypotheses that proavians passed through a tetrapteryx stage. 
View on Nature
doc.rero.ch
402 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
43
Background Citations
165
Methods Citations
10
Results Citations
4

402 Citations

Palaeontology: Dinosaurs take to the air

  • R. Prum
  • Environmental Science, Geography
    Nature
  • 2003
The latest fossil discoveries from China indicate that the dinosaurian ancestors of birds had four wings — and that these animals glided rather than flapped.

Origins of avian flight - a new perspective

The discovery of a primitive bird-like dromaeosaur (Microraptor) with four functional wings vindicates Beebe's suggestion that birds went through a tetrapteryx stage in the origin of flight and may be more central to understanding how this came about than previously supposed.

Dinosaur Evolution: Feathers Up for Selection

A new maniraptoran dinosaur from China with long feathers on the metatarsus

A new eumaniraptoran theropod from China, with avian affinities, is reported, which also has long pennaceous feathers on its feet, suggesting that such morphology might represent a primitive adaptation close to the theropOD–bird transition.

Palaeontology: Leg feathers in an Early Cretaceous bird

A fossil of an enantiornithine bird from the Early Cretaceous period in China that has substantial plumage feathers attached to its upper leg (tibiotarsus) may be remnants of earlier long, aerodynamic leg feathers, in keeping with the hypothesis that birds went through a four-winged stage during the evolution of flight.

Four-Winged Dinosaurs, Bird Precursors, or Neither?

N fossil specimens from the Early Cretaceous lakebeds of Liaoning, in northeastern China, are once again bridging and even overturning what we thought we knew about various aspects of vertebrate…

The Link between Birds and Dinosaurs: Aves Evolved from Dinosaurs

  • Y. Moon
  • Environmental Science, Geography
    Korean Journal of Poultry Science
  • 2022
This review describes the link between birds and dinosaurs based on studies of their skeletal structures, feathers, respiratory organs, chromosomes, and metabolism and shows that birds are living theropod dinosaurs.

An exceptionally preserved Lower Cretaceous ecosystem

Findings include feathered theropod dinosaurs and early birds, which provide additional, indisputable support for the dinosaurian ancestry of birds, and much new evidence on the evolution of feathers and flight.

Response to Comment on "A Well-Preserved Archaeopteryx Specimen with Theropod Features"

It is argued that statistical support for the proposed phylogeny is weak, but the monophyly of Aves favored by most current researchers is also weakly supported, and it is believed that the statistical comparisons made by Corfe and Butler challenge the hypothesis regarding the ancestry of birds.

An integrative approach to understanding bird origins AVIAN EVOLUTION

An integrative approach to understanding bird origins with a focus on the origins of feathers and flight is presented.
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 41 REFERENCES

Two feathered dinosaurs from northeastern China

Two theropods from the Upper Jurassic/Lower Cretaceous Chaomidianzi Formation of Liaoning province, China are described, which represent stages in the evolution of birds from feathered, ground-living, bipedal dinosaurs.

A basal troodontid from the Early Cretaceous of China

The discovery of Sinovenator and the examination of character distributions along the maniraptoran lineage indicate that principal structural modifications toward avians were acquired in the early stages of manIRaptoran evolution.

New Perspectives on the Origin and Early Evolution of Birds Evolution of Feathered Dinosaurs Growth and Physiology

It is suggested extensive parental care provided the initial impetus for the evolution of endothermy and greatly influenced much of the homoplasy observed in extant birds and mammals, including their extraordinary ability to sustain vigorous exercise and their parasagittal postures.

The evolution of dinosaurs.

  • P. Sereno
  • Environmental Science, Geography
    Science
  • 1999
The ascendancy of dinosaurs on land near the close of the Triassic now appears to have been as accidental and opportunistic as their demise and replacement by therian mammals at the end of the…

Early Evolution of Avian Flight and Perching: New Evidence from the Lower Cretaceous of China

Modern avian flight function and perching capability must have evolved in small-bodied birds in inland habitats not long after Archaeopteryx.

Palaeontology: 'Modern' feathers on a non-avian dinosaur

The occurrence of pinnate feathers, which clearly feature a rachis and barbs, on a small, non-avian dromaeosaur from northern China indicates that feathers of modern aspect evolved in dinosaurs before the emergence of birds and flight.

Remarkable New Birdlike Dinosaur (Theropoda: Maniraptora) from the Upper Cretaceous of Montana

.i.bstmrt.-'v\'t: describe a small drmnaeosauricl dillosaur, BambimjJtorjtinberr;i n. gt:n. and n. sp.. bast'd upon a nearly complt:te fossil skeleton from the Two \ledicine Formation (Upper…

An Early Cretaceous bird from Spain and its implications for the evolution of avian flight

A new, exquisitely preserved, bird from the Lower Cretaceous Konservat-Lagerstätte of Las Hoyas (Cuenca, Spain) which provides evidence for the oldest known alula (bastard wing) and the recognition of a new enantiornithine taxon, Eoalulavishoyasi.

The smallest known non-avian theropod dinosaur

This is the first mature non-avian dinosaur to be found that is smaller than Archaeopteryx, and it eliminates the size disparity between the earliest birds and their closest non-Avian theropod relatives.

A NEW PHYLOGENY OF THE CARNIVOROUS DINOSAURS

  • T. Holtz
  • Environmental Science, Geography
  • 2001
The last several years have seen the discovery of many new theropod dinosaur taxa. Data obtained from these and from fragmentary forms not previously utilized in cladistic analyses are examined. An…