Feathered dinosaurs existed for millions of years before the origin of birds and, for a time, there was a period where feathered dinosaurs and early birds coexisted with animals that don't fit neatly into either category. One of the latter was microraptor, a feathered dinosaur that doesn't appear to have been of the avian lineage but still seems to have had wing-like feathers on all four of its limbs. Researchers have now found that microraptor did have a close relationship with birds: it ate them.

Microraptor, as its name implies, was a small dinosaur, maybe a meter long counting its tail. Based on the number of fossils we've recovered, it was about as unremarkable as a pigeon in its day, which was about 120 million years ago. But most reconstructions suggest it looked rather unusual by modern standards. That's because microraptor featured wing-like forelimbs that retained claws, and hindlimbs that had an array of feathers similar to that on its forelimbs. A number of researchers suggest it could fly or glide, possibly using all four limbs for lift.

Read the comments on this post