LOOK: Bat-winged dinosaur discovered in China

Researchers have identified what could be a new flying dinosaur: the lone 160-million-year-old fossil was discovered by a farmer near Beijing.

 

The study, published in the journal Nature, describes a pigeon-sized dinosaur with bat-like wings that dates back to the Jurassic period. The findings of the Chinese scientists were immediately challenged.

 

Named Yi qi, which is Mandarin for “strange wing,” it’s speculated to have had wings with a membrane instead of feathers:

 

“It is definitely an example showing how much experimentation occurred,” said Xu Xing, co-author of the study from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. “Close to the origin of birds (from dinosaurs) ... many lineages tried in a different way to get into the air, but finally only one group succeeded.”

 

Yi qi wasn’t a direct bird ancestor, but was a close relative. It comes from a now-extinct line, belonging to a family called Scansoriopterygids. They had feathers and long finger-like digits that scientists speculate may have been used for catching insects or climbing trees. Scansoriopterygids were related to primitive bird types like Archaeopteryx.

 

An adult Yi qi weighed around 380 grams, with a four cm-long skull. Though it had feathers, they were considered too flimsy for flight. Instead scientists think that Yi qi used a 13-cm-long bony rod extending from each wrist—similar to features in modern airborne mammals like bats and flying squirrels—to fly. They even found remnants of membranous tissue with the fossil to support their theory.

But there are some other researchers who don’t agree with the study’s conclusions.

 

“To fly actively, an animal must be able to execute a flight stroke that can generate a vortex wake that propels it forward. No evidence presented so far suggest that Yi qi had this ability,” said Kevin Padian from the University of California, adding that “we can shelve the possibility that this dinosaur flapped.”

 

At the moment, it’s unknown if Yi qi could glide. Nothing below the ribcage was preserved so researchers are unable to determine what its center of gravity was.

 

Xu insisted that the evidence on hand supports the theory that Yi qi either flew or glided.

 

“But of course, it is open. I definitely welcome other scientists to do some analyses and have their opinion of this structure.” — TJD, GMA News