Microraptor

Four wings for flying

Its back legs had long feathers, shaped like the flight feathers of today's birds. [2]

At first, scientists thought it could only glide. More recent studies show that it could probably also really fly, like a bird. [1][2]

For a long time, people believed it lived mostly in trees. But its skeleton doesn't look like the skeleton of an animal built for climbing. [2]

Black and shiny

In 2012, a team of American and Chinese researchers studied tiny grains of color left in its fossil feathers. [1][2][3]

The result: its feathers were probably black, with shiny blue reflections, like a crow's. [1][2][3]

Some people thought it hunted at night, because of its big eyes. But birds that live at night don't have shiny black feathers: so this idea seems less likely. [1][3]

Its discovery

One of the first known fossils has a funny story. Someone had glued together pieces of several real fossils to make a fake one, called “Archaeoraptor”. Its tail actually came from a Microraptor. [1][2]

In 2000, three scientists, Xu, Zhou and Wang, give it its name: Microraptor zhaoianus. [1][2]

In 2003, Xu Xing and his team describe new fossils with long feathers on the arms and on the legs, under the title “Four-winged dinosaurs from China”. [2]

Since then, about 300 have been found: it was a very common dinosaur. [1][2]