Earth had a four-winged dinosaur too!

[Seze Mune]

"Microraptors, tiny four-winged dinosaurs that flourished approximately 120 million years ago in northeastern China, allured mates with sexy feathers, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science. The article, "Reconstruction of Microraptor and the Evolution of Iridescent Plumage," suggests that this Microraptor, with its iridescent plumage, looked very similar to one of today's crows.

"Despite its birdlike appearance, the Microraptor could not fly, reports the Christian Science Monitor. The tiny dinosaur's skeleton and muscle structures did not allow it to fly.    However, some scientists insists that it should be considered a bird.

"To me a bird is an animal with an avian hand and wrist with primary flight feathers," said Larry Martin, a professor at the University of Kansas who was not involved in study. "By that definition microraptor is definitely a bird," Mr. Martin added.

"ScienceNow, a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, reveals that after a thorough analysis of a Microraptor fossil found in northeastern China, researchers report that Microraptor feathers were loaded with a pigment granule called melanosomes. According to an article published in 2008 in the Journal of Cell Science, melanosomes "provide tissues with color and photoprotection."

"ScienceNow also reports that the particular shape of the melanosomes in Microraptor feathers suggests that the tiny four-winged dinosaur would have had iridescent plumage. Evidence that Microraptors had iridescent plumage also suggests that the dinosaur was not nocturnal, unlike previous studies have theorized.

"Jakob Vinther, who led the study, was the first researcher to figure out that scientists could ascertain the colors of ancient feather by looking at the melansomes in a fossil, reports Discover Magazine. "It's one of the most beautiful Microraptor specimens out there," Mr. Vinther posited.

"The researchers believe that the iridescent plumage had a purely "ornamental function" for the tiny four-winged dinosaur, allowing the creature to attract potential mates. "This finding and estimation of Microraptor feathering consistent with an ornamental function for the tail suggest a centrality for signaling in early evolution of plumage and feather color," the researchers from Beijing and the United States wrote in the study's abstract.

"Iridescence is widespread in modern birds, and is frequently used in displays," said Matthew Shawkey, a biologist at the University of Akron in Ohio, in a statement obtained by The New York Times. "Our evidence that Microraptor was largely iridescent thus suggests that feathers were important for display even relatively early in their evolution," Mr. Shawkey added.

"After a thorough analysis of the Microraptor fossil, researchers ruled out the possibility that the four-winged dinosaur used its iridescent plumage to help it fly. "People had interpreted (the tail feathers) as being helpful in aerodynamics, but now we know it wasn't aerodynamic, it actually probably hindered in flight," Mr. Shawkey posited. "I think this is the first example of these very early ornamental tail feathers," he added.

"Prior to this study, scientists were left guessing as to what Microraptors really looked like. In fact, Mark Norell, chairman of the American Museum of Natural History's Division of Paleontology and one of the study's authors, called the tiny four-winged dinosaur's appearance the "Anna Wintour special," according to The Associated Press. Ms. Wintour is the British-born editor-in-chief of American Vogue. The Devil Wears Prada is widely believed to be based on Ms. Wintour."

"This study gives us an unprecedented glimpse at what this animal looked like when it was alive," said Mr. Norell, according to redOrbit. Study co-author Julia Clarke at the University of Texas posited that its iridescent plumage is the oldest example of that appearance on an animal.

"There's been a lot of speculation about how the feathers of Microraptor were oriented and whether they formed airfoils for flight or whether they had to do with sexual display," Mr. Norell said. "So while we've nailed down what color this animal was, even more importantly, we've determined that Microraptor, like many modern birds, most likely used its ornate feathering to give visual social signals," he added.

Read more: Source

OK.  So it's tiny. Looked like a bird. Was probably avian.  So how did it get around? Lizardlike legs? Hopped?  How did it escape predators.  And why four wings?

Tell you what.  In a quantum universe like ours, there is a probable universe in which these may have developed into ikranlike animals.

[Niri Te]

I loved the post ma seze, but I could NOT get the link to work. I got a notice that firefox could not find the server.
Niri Te

[Seze Mune]

Sorry, ma Niri Te.  I think I fixed it. 

[Vur’evenge]

How very cool, ma Seze!

I thought this was interesting from Wikipedia on the microraptor:

Implications: The unique wing arrangement found in Microraptor raised the question of its importance to the origin of flight in modern birds—did avian flight go through a four-winged stage, or were four-winged gliders like Microraptor an evolutionary side-branch that did not leave descendants? As early as 1915, naturalist William Beebe had argued that the evolution of bird flight may have gone through a four-winged (or tetrapteryx) stage.[12] Chatterjee and Templin did not take a strong stance on this possibility, noting that both a conventional interpretation and a tetrapteryx stage are equally possible. However, based on the presence of unusually long leg feathers in various feathered dinosaurs, Archaeopteryx, and some modern birds such as raptors, as well as the discovery of further dinosaur with long primary feathers on their feet (such as Pedopenna), the authors argued that the current body of evidence, both from morphology and phylogeny, suggests that bird flight did shift at some point from shared limb dominance to front-limb dominance, and that all modern birds may have evolved from four-winged ancestors, or at least ancestors with unusually long leg feathers relative to the modern configuration.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microraptor

[Seze Mune]

Oooooo, nice find ma Vur'evenge!  Irayo seiyi for adding it to the thread!

True, we can't foreclose our knowledge on dinosaurs because we are learning new things all the time.  And when it comes to evolution, it's all just a theory anyway.  We're guessing such-n-such developed from something else, but we have no absolute knowledge that it's true.

When you start looking at gene activity (specifically epigenetics and transposons aka jumping genes), the study becomes truly fascinating.

Speaking of which, I'd like to know why blue-eyed people have an evolutionary advantage over brown eyed.  But that's a different subject for a different thread.

[Kamean]

Very interesting article. And irayo seiyi frapor for links.

[Niri Te]

 This is VERY interesting, in that the two sets of wings on this critter have a VERTICAL as well as a horizontal gap, just like my Flying Flea aircraft.  Pou du ciel in French. look up THAT aircraft and it's designer, Henri Mignet, in your search box, it is quite a story, but not half as cool as how the French underground HID one flown by a Colonel Eon to spot German troop movements from the air during the second world war. The Germans spent the ENTIRE war trying to find the plane, or where it flew from, and NEVER did find it. I have a photo of Col. Eon standing next to the plane taken in the 1950's.

Here is a link to a U-tube video of an HM293 the same as mine, flying. I am painting mine to look like an Ikran.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=itMDL-JIFfs

Niri Te