Velociraptor ancestor was 'winged dragon'

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Dinosaur find: Velociraptor ancestor was 'winged dragon'

Scientists have discovered a winged dinosaur - an ancestor of the velociraptor - that they say was on the cusp of becoming a bird.

The 6ft 6in (2m) creature was almost perfectly preserved in limestone, thanks to a volcanic eruption that had buried it in north-east China.

And the 125-million year-old fossil suggests many other dinosaurs, including velociraptors, would have looked like "big, fluffy killer birds".

Read more...

[Anomalocaris]

I don't know what is more interesting: the fact that Feathered Maniraptorans are related to birds or that this group was related to the Tyrannosaurus. The evolution that never ceases to amaze us.

Edited July 16, 2015 by Anomalocaris

[Doc Socks Junior]

This creature, probably alive just before the Great Flood, must have given rise to legends about dragons. Truly phenomenal. Too bad there wasn't room for it on the Ark.

(Obligatory Poe's Law notification.)

[FLOMBIE]

Attack of the Killer Turkeys

[+Hammerclaw]

It would explain a lot about Theropod physiology if they were evolving into flyers and then returned to a terrestrial existence after the Permian extinction. This example is much to young to represent that, of course.

[Grandpa Greenman]

Great find WD. Last time I owned a bird I thought he was just a velociraptor in disguise. Mean little creatures.

[+Hammerclaw]

What. Dinosauria appeared after the Permian extinction. Some of the earliest dinosaurs, such as Eoraptor, despite being theropod-like in appearance, cannot even be classified as basal theropods but rather as basal saurischians. Moreover, early theropopods, like Daemonosaurus, show no adaptations for flight and/or vestigial traits that would indicate an ancestral flying/gliding lifestyle.

What? In 1993 paleontologist Paul Sereno and colleagues described Eoraptor and named the species, and determined it to be one of the earliest dinosaurs Its age was determined by several factors, not least because it lacked the specialized features of any of the major groups of later dinosaurs, including its lack of specialized predatory features. In 1995, Sereno posited that Eoraptor is the earliest recorded theropod, and is closest to "the hypothetical dinosaurian condition than any other dinosaurian subgroup." The precise placement of Eoraptor within Dinosauria has been unstable, with opinion often varying between a basal saurischian and a basal theropod. When it was first described by Sereno and Forster in 1993, it was regarded as a theropod, based on its "functionally tridactyl hand" and other features. In 2011, a study by Sues, Nesbitt, Berman and Henrici featuring description of Daemonosaurus, also concluded that there is now enough fossil evidence to confidently classify Eoraptor as a theropod. Sues et al. noted that the "transitional suite of character states" of the recently discovered dinosaurs, Daemonosaurus and Tawa further support that Eoraptor is a basal theropod, and not a basal saurischian or a basal sauropodomorph. Edited July 17, 2015 by Hammerclaw

[BeastieRunner]

That looks like a mean SOB.

[+Hammerclaw]

Alright. Lets say Eoraptor was indeed a basal theropod, not just a basal saurischian. Its place in the dinosaurian phylogenetic tree is debatable (perhaps it always will be). The thing is, my point that dinosauria appeared after the Permian extinction event, still stands. Also, as I said before, early theropods show no adaptations for flight whatsoever.

Theropods have many birdlike features. The question I posit is whether birds acquired them from theropod ancestors, or did both theropods and the lineage that lead to true birds inherit them from a small arboreal common ancestor that radiated after the Permian extinction.

[+Hammerclaw]

The way you phrased your question made it sound like theropods were already evolving into flying/avian forms before the Permian extinction. I don't think that we actually disagree.

I didn't think we did. It's a fascinating topic and I'm enjoying our conversation.

[TheGreatBeliever]

Waiting for jurassic park

[pewdsfan13]

Fascinating

[Zalmoxis]

Looks like an insane and nasty chicken.

[Athena1979]

KFC anyone?

[Anomalocaris]

lol

a dinosaur in a birds body seriously those things don't know theyre basically just horned turkey ostriches they think theyre still velociraptors o.0

Edited July 25, 2015 by Anomalocaris