A Dinosaur the Size of a Pigeon with Bat-like Wings

Scientists in China have announced the discovery of the strangest bird-like creature ever known. This creature is a dinosaur the size of a pigeon with wings resembling those of a bat and apparently lived shortly before the emergence of the first birds. Reuters reports that Chinese scientists have named this creature 'Yi Qi,' which means 'strange wing' in Mandarin. Evidence suggests that it lived about 160 million years ago during the Jurassic period, which is 10 million years before Archaeopteryx, the first known bird species. This discovery was published in the latest issue of the scientific journal Nature. This species is considered a relative of birds, but its wing structure is similar to that of contemporary flying reptiles and bats that appeared a hundred million years later. Instead of being covered in feathers like birds, its wings had a very hard skeletal structure and were made of membranous tissues. Carwin Sullivan from the vertebrate paleontology department at Peking University said, 'It is hard to imagine that this creature could flap its wings well because the bones connecting to its wrists had little flexibility. Therefore, our guess is that Yi Qi could have floated in the air or at most flapped a little while in a floating state.' Carwin Sullivan added, 'The discovery of a dinosaur with bony and membranous wings is extraordinary and unexpected. This species well illustrates the evolutionary process of that era and the changes in the lineage of dinosaurs that lived before birds.' It is speculated that this small dinosaur lived in trees and fed on small mammals, lizards, insects, and possibly fruits from trees with its needle-like teeth. Xing Xu from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professors from Linyi University stated, 'In fact, this dinosaur is not far from the first bird species. It belongs to a strange group of dinosaurs called Epidendrosaurus, which are closely related to early bird species like Archaeopteryx.' 'Yi Qi' is the shortest name ever chosen for more than 700 discovered dinosaur species. Scientists in China have announced the discovery of the strangest bird-like creature ever known. This creature is a dinosaur the size of a pigeon with wings resembling those of a bat and apparently lived shortly before the emergence of the first birds.