Four-winged dinosaurs from China
Top Cited Papers
- 1 January 2003
- journal article
- Published by Springer Nature in Nature
- Vol. 421 (6921) , 335-340
- https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01342
Abstract
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.Keywords
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