Feathered dinosaur fossil from Liaoning adds evidence that flight evolved more than once

2 October 2026

A stunningly well-preserved fossil of a previously undescribed feathered dinosaur from China adds to the evidence that birds and their closest relatives evolved the ability to fly several times rather than through a single lineage, Nature reported.
The specimen is 57 centimetres long and is a microraptorine that lived in what is now Liaoning province between 145 million and 100 million years ago. It was found by a local farmer and described by a team of researchers from China, Italy and Slovakia.
The fossil preserves traces of feathers on the fore and hind limbs and at the end of the tail, and the animal is estimated to have been about three years old when it died.
Microraptorines are small meat-eating dinosaurs weighing around one kilogram that form the clade Microraptorinae, close relatives of the bird clade Avialae.
Comparing flight-related adaptations, the researchers found that 30 per cent of the 194 such adaptations identified in microraptorines also evolved in Avialae, including wing feathers, hook-shaped toe bones and a forearm bone longer than the upper arm.
The adaptations did not develop in the same order in the two groups, so they could not be considered the expression of a shared developmental regime.