Four-winged dinosaurs from China

@article{Xu2003FourwingedDF,
  title={Four-winged dinosaurs from China},
  author={Xing Zhou 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}
}

• Xing Zhou Xu, Zhonghe Zhou, +3 authors Xiangke Du
• Published 2003 in Nature
• DOI:10.1038/nature01342

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. 

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