Page 25 - 200303 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - February 2003

Four-winged dinosaur fossil found 25 Four-winged dinosaur fossil found 25 Four-winged dinosaur One theory holds that some of reptiles, mammals, birds and even Four-winged dinosaur fossil found these apparent bird ancestors learned to parachuting amphibians.” fossil found flap their wings to power flight while they Last week, Dial reported in the were gliding from tree to tree. The other journal Science that the way young birds theory suggests they learned to fly by such as turkeys and quail use their wings increasing their running speed with their suggests ancient birds eventually learned wings and taking off from the ground. to fly by running and flapping. The latest find tends to support the Paul Sereno, a University of Chicago gliding-in-trees theory. paleontologist, said the best way to “It’s a phenomenal find,” Chiappe determine whether Microraptor gui was said. “We don’t have anything that an intermediate stage in bird evolution or resembles this in the whole dinosaur and a dead end is to find other dinosaur fossils bird spectrum.” with feathered legs. Details of the fossils appear in Sereno called the Xu study a Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature. landmark paper but added: “Whether this Paleontologist Xing Xu of the represents an intermediate form that all ‘Weirdest creature’ sparks ‘Weirdest creature’ sparks Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and birds passed through is a question that’s debate among scientists Paleoanthropology at the Chinese going to be hotly debated.” [End] debate among scientists about the origins of birds Academy of Sciences described six about the origins of birds fossils with leg feathers arranged in a Genetic test might tell how long pattern similar to wing feathers in modern you'll live Fossil hunters in China have birds. discovered what may be one of the “They are long, and Scientists have developed a genetic weirdest prehistoric species ever some have asymmetrical test which could one day be used to let seen — a four-winged dinosaur that vanes like flight pensioners know how long they are likely apparently glided from tree to tree. feathers,” Xu said. to live. The feathered legs Scientists in the United States amount to rear wings, found it is possible to predict death risk THE 128-MILLION-YEAR-OLD Xu said. He speculated animal — called Microraptor gui, in they could have by looking at the ends of chromosomes. honor of Chinese paleontologist Gu represented an The discovery could have big Zhiwei — was about 2½ feet (77 intermediate stage of implications for life and health insurance, centimeters) long and had two sets of development before the and people's pension entitlements. feathered wings, with one set on its emergence of true flight powered by Those with lower life expectancies forelimbs and the other on its hind legs. flapping the wings. Or, the feathered legs might find it hard to get insurance, but Exactly where the creature fits into could have been an evolutionary dead could be rewarded by higher pensions the evolution of birds and dinosaurs is not end, other researchers said. because they would not be drawing them clear. But researchers speculated that it Scientists believe Microraptor gui for so long. developed around the same time as or probably did not fly by flapping its wings, The researchers from the even later than the first known two- because of the way the rear legs are set in University of Utah studied 143 winged bird, Archaeopteryx, which is the hip sockets and because the rear legs individuals all over the age of 60. believed to have flown by actually probably would have encountered They focused on the telomeres - flapping its wings. turbulence from flapping front wings. caps of DNA at the ends of chromosomes. Paleontologists were intrigued by the That suggests instead that both sets of Telomeres appear to protect and discovery. They have seen the fossils of wings were used just for gliding, Chiappe stabilise the chromosome ends, like the gliding dinosaurs before, but never one said. tabs on the end of shoe laces which with feathers. And they have never seen prevent them fraying. traces of a four-winged dinosaur before. NEW TWIST IN STORY OF FLIGHT Over time the telomeres shorten “It would be a total oddity — the and provide less protection, making cells weirdest creature in the world of Other scientists said the fossils add more vulnerable to degenerative age- dinosaurs and birds,” said Luis Chiappe, diversity to the story of flight, even if they related diseases. a paleontologist at the Natural History do not immediately provide answers. The US scientists measured Museum of Los Angeles County who did Ken Dial, head of a biological flight telomere length in cells taken from blood not participate in the dig. laboratory at the University of Montana, samples and compared them to individuals' life spans. said there is room for both gliding and The findings, reported in the DEBATE REVIVED flapping dinosaurs in evolutionary Lancet medical journal, showed that history. those with the longest telomeres lived the Scientists said the fossils — “Gliding represents a splendid discovered in the Chinese province of example of convergent evolution,” Dial longest. Those in the top half of the range Liaoning, northeast of Beijing, at a site said. “We should not be surprised to of telomere lengths lived four to five that has yielded several important unearth gliding dinosaurs as we have years longer than those in the bottom half. specimens in recent years — revive a numerous living-day examples of gliders [End] debate between two theories of how in nearly all the vertebrate groups — dinosaurs might have evolved into birds. Visit - www.rel-mar.com today!