PARIS - Scientists using a wind tunnel and a full-scale model have shed light on how feathery dinosaurs adapted to the skies, a study said on Wednesday.
A widening consensus among palaeontologists is that birds evolved from small, feathery dinos — but the question is: how?
Researchers at the University of Southampton created an anatomically correct model of a five-winged “paravian,” a type of dinosaur deemed to be a precursor of birds.
They made a microraptor, a denizen of the Early Cretaceous that lived around 130 million years ago.
It was the first known theropod, or two-footed dinosaur, to have feathers on its arms, legs and tail, providing it potentially with five surfaces with which to gain “lift” against the air.