06/11/2026
A fossil bed mystery solved. 🦅🦖
For years, a fossil bed in northwestern China held a paleontology puzzle: hundreds of prehistoric birds, some with bones crushed into pellets just like those coughed up by modern owls. But the predator responsible was nowhere to be found—until now.
Meet Jian changmaensis—a newly discovered dinosaur and a cousin to Velociraptor. With long feathers covering both its front and back limbs, this "four-winged" hunter was likely the missing predator.
Jian belonged to a group of feathered dinosaurs called microraptors, a branch of the dromeosaurs—the same family that includes the Velociraptor. While the famous Jurassic Park portrayed raptors as large scaly hunters, real dromeosaurs were smaller, speedy, and covered in feathers.
Like other microraptors, scientists suspect that it had long feathers on both its arms and legs, giving it the appearance of having four "wings" that it used to glide, similar to a flying squirrel.
There is still a lot to learn about Jian. Scientists found only part of the remains, but they estimate it had a wingspan of about 4 feet, roughly the size of a barn owl.
🎨 by Lewis LaRosa, colorized by Jão Canola
Carnegie Museum of Natural History
