Giant New Four-winged Maniraptoran

[Yutyrannus]

http://www.thewestsidestory.net/2014/07/16/14310/changyuraptor-yangi-biggest-dinosaur-capable-flight-four-wings/

I think this is a pretty cool new discovery .

[tyrantqueen]

Isn't that artwork actually David Krentz's Microraptor model?

[Yutyrannus]

Yeah, I don't know why they put that in there. But still this is a cool discovery, a four foot Microraptor-like maniraptoran .

[HD-man]

I wouldn't say that "1.32 metres in length and weighing close to four kilograms" ( http://blog.everythingdinosaur.co.uk/blog/_archives/2014/07/17/new-type-of-four-winged-flying-dinosaur-a-liaoning-surprise.html ) is "Close to Velociraptor Size" (I.e. 1.8 m & 9.1-22.7 kg: http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/dinoappendix/HoltzappendixWinter2011.pdf ).

[Yutyrannus]

I was referring to length not weight and I know it isn't super close, but it's is closer than other microraptorines.

EDIT: I changed the title.

[stargatedalek]

I found this article a few days ago
but I somehow managed to not comprehend just how large it really was until now

New Feathered Dinosaur from China Sheds Light on Dinosaur Flight
An international research team including Stony Brook scientist Alan Turner detail how Changyuraptor yangi helps explain the role of long tail feathers in flight evolution
http://sb.cc.stonybrook.edu/news/medical/140715DINO.php?=marquee2

Research findings from an international team of scientists including Alan Turner, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomical Sciences at Stony Brook University School of Medicine, uncovers details on how a new species of a feathered raptorial dinosaur found in China provides evidence on how large-bodied dinosaurs took to the air. To be published in Nature Communications, the research hinges on understanding where within the evolutionary tree of dinosaurs this new species, called Changyuraptor yangi, belonged.

~ 海巳慧琉

[alexeratops]

Cool new discovery! Another dino to add too my drawing collection.

[Scipionyx]

I have not done any research, but is it a possibility that this is just like a big flightless microraptorine, descended from smaller gliding forms?

[Concavenator]

A cool discovery,that's for sure.Just one question:if it's Velociraptor-sized and related to Velociraptor,would it be phisically possible that Velociraptor have leg wings and be able of gliding as well?

[stargatedalek]

velociraptor did not have the build of a glider, but it probably had "primary feathers" on its hind limbs, the same goes for all dromaeosaurs

[Balaur]

I have not done any research, but is it a possibility that this is just like a big flightless microraptorine, descended from smaller gliding forms?

That's what I thought too.

A cool discovery,that's for sure.Just one question:if it's Velociraptor-sized and related to Velociraptor,would it be phisically possible that Velociraptor have leg wings and be able of gliding as well?

It's not Velociraptor sized. Also, Velociraptor has relatively short arms compared to microraptorians, so it is unlikely to be a glider. However, I'm wondering if we have found young Velociraptors, and maybe the young were capable of gliding.

[stargatedalek]

I highly doubt that, it would require pretty near the entire general proportions of the animal to be reshapen as it grew in order for a young velociraptor to glide

changyuraptor was almost certainly a glider, the extend of feathering on the legs would have been a major handicap otherwise

[HD-man]

velociraptor did not have the build of a glider, but it probably had "primary feathers" on its hind limbs, the same goes for all dromaeosaurs

How do you figure that? Not even all microraptorines had primaries on their hind limbs.

Microraptor zhaoianus: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v408/n6813/fig_tab/408705a0_ft.html

Sinornithosaurus millenii: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v410/n6832/fig_tab/4101084a0_ft.html

[Yutyrannus]

Actually there is no evidence that they didn't, so as far as we know, all microraptorines at least did have "leg-wings".

[Scipionyx]

changyuraptor was almost certainly a glider, the extend of feathering on the legs would have been a major handicap otherwise

Are you sure it would have been a handicap? Many birds with long tails or long feathers on their legs (eagles, turkeys, peafowl etc) don't have a problem walking, and there is always the possibility that they would have been folded up. Feathers can't stop something from being able to walk; the feathers being dragged along the ground (if they were not folded up somehow) get damaged and tattered, but don't make much difference to the walking ability. It is only a problem if the leg feathers are important for survival which, if Changyupraptor was a ground animal, they would not. Maybe they were for display.

[stargatedalek]

but if they were, than why have them on the feet and not just further up the hindlimbs

[Gwangi]

changyuraptor was almost certainly a glider, the extend of feathering on the legs would have been a major handicap otherwise

Are you sure it would have been a handicap? Many birds with long tails or long feathers on their legs (eagles, turkeys, peafowl etc) don't have a problem walking, and there is always the possibility that they would have been folded up. Feathers can't stop something from being able to walk; the feathers being dragged along the ground (if they were not folded up somehow) get damaged and tattered, but don't make much difference to the walking ability. It is only a problem if the leg feathers are important for survival which, if Changyupraptor was a ground animal, they would not. Maybe they were for display.

All the birds you mention are still excellent fliers and can simply take off at a moments notice, I doubt Changyuraptor could do that. Long tail feathers are really not a good analogy for feathers on the legs. Peafowl and turkeys can still move about fairly uninhibited with their tails more or less held up off the ground. Even the feathers on the legs of an eagle don't really compare to the long stiff feathers on Microraptor.

[HD-man]

Actually there is no evidence that they didn't,

Besides the fossils mentioned in my previous post, of course.

[Scipionyx]

changyuraptor was almost certainly a glider, the extend of feathering on the legs would have been a major handicap otherwise

Are you sure it would have been a handicap? Many birds with long tails or long feathers on their legs (eagles, turkeys, peafowl etc) don't have a problem walking, and there is always the possibility that they would have been folded up. Feathers can't stop something from being able to walk; the feathers being dragged along the ground (if they were not folded up somehow) get damaged and tattered, but don't make much difference to the walking ability. It is only a problem if the leg feathers are important for survival which, if Changyupraptor was a ground animal, they would not. Maybe they were for display.

All the birds you mention are still excellent fliers and can simply take off at a moments notice, I doubt Changyuraptor could do that. Long tail feathers are really not a good analogy for feathers on the legs. Peafowl and turkeys can still move about fairly uninhibited with their tails more or less held up off the ground. Even the feathers on the legs of an eagle don't really compare to the long stiff feathers on Microraptor.

That is a good point. However, I was more referring to the fact that peafowl still drag their tails along the ground even though their tails get damaged, and don't really seem to 'care' about their feathers getting frayed and damaged. Changyuraptor would not have avoided walking if it damaged their feathers. Feathers can grow back, and being able to walk is more important than keeping their hindwings safe (especially if they were not used for flying and were instead used for  display or something.) The only way feathers on the hindlimbs would impair an animal's ability to walk would be if they were so stiff that they could not bend at all, which is a feature that even stiff flight feathers do not have.

[Yutyrannus]

Actually there is no evidence that they didn't,

Besides the fossils mentioned in my previous post, of course.

Those could just be poorly preserved, because one of those two species we know for sure did have them.