Scientists Uncover Bizarre Four-Winged Dinosaur That Defies Evolutionary Science
Imagine a predator no bigger than your favorite house cat — but with not two, not three, but four wings flapping through the forest canopy over 100 million years ago. Meet Norellraptor barsboldi, a pint-sized terror from northeastern China armed with razor-sharp claws and a mouthful of teeth designed to snatch anything from early mammals to baby dinosaurs. Sounds like a Jurassic miniature marvel, right? But here’s the twist that’s got paleontologists buzzing: this little flyer challenges everything we thought we knew about how flight evolved. Did birds and their dinosaur cousins really learn to fly together, or was it more like two contenders independently training for the same aerial bout? Dive in to discover how this tiny dino’s four-winged legacy might just rewrite the story of prehistoric flight, and maybe make us rethink who ruled the skies back then. LEARN MORE
This predatory microraptor measured just 21 inches across, but nevertheless used its razor-sharp claws and teeth to hunt early mammals, lizards, amphibians, and juvenile dinosaurs.
Mr. Zhao ChuxangPaleontologists studying the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation in northeastern China identified a new microraptor species known as Norellraptor barsboldi.
Paleontologists in northeastern China discovered a well-preserved fossil of a tiny dinosaur that lived more than 100 million years ago. Although the creature resembles a bird, this microraptor is unlike anything scientists had ever seen before — and it had four wings.
Researchers studying this newly-identified species of microraptor, named Norellraptor barsboldi, furthermore believe that this animal’s very existence challenges the long-held notion that prehistoric birds and microraptors evolved to take flight simultaneously and shared a common ancestor. Rather, researchers now argue that flight evolved separately among different groups.
The Remarkably Preserved Four-Winged Dinosaur Fossil Found In China
In a recent study published in Nature Communications, paleontologists describe both the new species and the broader implications of their findings in terms of dinosaur evolution.
This exceptionally well-preserved feathered dinosaur fossil was found in rocks from the Jiufotang Formation in northeastern China, which dates back to the Early Cretaceous period, somewhere between 145 million and 100 million years ago. In general, microraptors like this one are predominantly discovered in China and usually found in rocks dating to the Early Cretaceous.
Andrea Cau et al., Nature CommunicationsThe researchers studied the specimen’s forearm to determine that it was around three years old when it died.
Due to the fossil’s completeness, the researchers were able to estimate the dinosaur’s age when it died by studying its left forearm and comparing it to other juvenile and adult microraptors. They determined that this microraptor was at least three years old when it died — and that it was just 21 inches long.
The new microraptor was named Norellraptor barsboldi in honor of paleontologists Mark Allen Norell and Rinchen Barsbold, who both passed away in 2025.
N. barsboldi had sharply curved teeth and claws, which is likely suggestive of its predatory abilities.
Scott Hartman, a paleontologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who wasn’t involved in the study, told Live Science that this tiny dinosaur likely ate small mammals, lizards, amphibians, and young dinosaurs.
Wikimedia CommonsMicroraptors were the size of many modern birds and likely feasted on lizards, amphibians, and small mammals.
“These are clearly little predatory buggers. If you’re leaping onto things or dropping onto things, that kind of control would be pretty important,” Hartman said. “It wouldn’t have been attacking any large dinosaurs. That would be like mosquitoes attacking battleships.”
What The Discovery Of Norellraptor barsboldi Reveals About Dinosaur Evolution
Although micropators like N. barsboldi were close relatives of birds, they are not the ancestors of birds as we know them today. Research has shown that birds belong to a similar group, Avialae, which contains both birds and dinosaurs.
Analysis of microraptor fossils and Avialae fossils has shown that all of these animals had feathers — but little common ground has been established beyond that. For decades, researchers have been unsure if flight originated in a common ancestor for both of these groups, or if the ability to fly and grow feathers evolved more than just once.
Now, the paleontologists behind the N. barsboldi discovery believe that they have found an answer.
Andrea Cau et al., Nature CommunicationsResearchers determined that microraptors like this one evolved to take flight in a different way than birds did.
Their analysis showed that around 30 percent of the 194 changes recognized throughout the evolution of microraptors also happened throughout bird evolution. These changes include feathers, the fusion of bony bulges to the ribs to create a more rigid torso, forelimb bones becoming more durable than hind limbs, and an ulna that grew longer than the humerus.
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