Microraptor Gui: The Dinosaur with Four Wings Knowing that pterodactyls belong to a separate group of reptiles than dinosaurs, the thought of a dinosaur with wings may seem somewhat strange. But a fairly recent archeological find adds an extra detail to make this idea truly bizarre: a dinosaur with four wings. Microraptor gui, discovered by Xing Xu and colleagues, is believed to be a kind of missing link between strictly ground-dwelling dinosaurs and birds, namely Archaeopteryx, the earliest
Microraptor: The Missing Link Between Birds and Dinosaurs In December of 2000, three Chinese scientists reported the discovery of the smallest adult dinosaur ever found, a species that claims to tighten the evolutionary gap between dinosaurs and birds. The dinosaur’s specie name is Microraptor, and it is slowly restoring the integrity of a sect of paleontology that was discredited in November of 1999 after National Geographic printed a story on the discovery of a species known as Archeoraptor
and while falling would gain enough speed enabling them to fly. Opposing the arboreal theorists were there cursorial theorists who felt flight evolved from la... ... middle of paper ... ... tree to gain enough speed to obtain flight. When Microraptor gui was discovered in 2000, this was an enormous gain for arboreal theorists. This well preserved creature provided evidence that flight evolved from tree-dwelling animals. Even though it is still not widely accepted, it gives us a new look on
Feathers are complex, branched, keratinized epidermal features commonly associated with Class Aves, or birds (Bock, 2000). Cells in the epidermis called keratinocytes are the structural components of feathers; however, the protein keratin varies in its distribution and can be of different types (Prum, 2002). Many functions involved with feathers include thermal insulation, flight, cleaning of plumage, heat protection, sound production, chemical defenses, water repulsion of plumage, social communication
The extinction of dinosaurs is an interesting issue. “There once was a time when people didn’t know anything about dinosaurs. In fact, there wasn’t even the world “dinosaur” until 1842” (Dr. R. Holtz, JR, 2007, P.6). Although dinosaurs died more than 60 million years ago, paleontologists have not yet discovered the reasons of their extinction. There are many types and sizes of dinosaurs. There are gigantic types, which are the common types, and small-sized dinosaurs. Ironically, dinosaurs mean