Cryptovolans
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| Cryptovolans pauli Czerkas et. al., 2002 |
Cryptovolans is a 90 cm long feathered theropod dinosaur discovered in the Jiufotang site, China. Its specific name, C. pauli, honours paleontologist Gregory S. Paul. Cryptovolans belongs to the family dromaeosauridae, along with a number of well-known dinosaurs such as Velociraptor.
[edit] Flight capability
Cryptovolans is remarkable for being the first known dinosaur to have flight-capable feathers on its legs as well as on its arms. It also had feathers on the end of its long tail, as well as on the rest of its body.
It is believed that Cryptovolans may have been able to fly better than Archaeopteryx, the animal usually referred to as the earliest known bird. Possessing a keel and ribs with an uncinate process, Cryptovolans has modern bird features which are absent in Archaeopteryx. The fact that this flight-capable animal is also very clearly a dromaeosaurid suggests that the Dromaeosauridae might actually be a basal bird group, and that later (larger) species such as Deinonychus were actually secondarily flightless. Current evidence for this theory is inconclusive, and some of the modern bird-like features in Cryptovolans may have evolved independently. Regardless of whether dromaeosaurs are a sister group to birds or actual members of Aves, there is significant evidence that they are part of the Maniraptora suborder and are ultimately theropod dinosaurs, though some researchers, such as Czerkas (2002), considers that birds are at least pre-theropod dinosaurs (if dinosaurs at all), and that dromaeosaurs are flightless birds.
Many think that Cryptovolans is a junior synonym of Microraptor.
[edit] References
- Czerkas, S.A., Zhang, D., Li, J., and Li, Y. (2002). “Flying Dromaeosaurs”, Czerkas, S.J. Feathered Dinosaurs and the Origin of Flight: The Dinosaur Museum Journal 1. Blanding: The Dinosaur Museum, 16-26.
