Microraptor zhaoianus MY-kroh-RAP-tor
"Tiny thief"
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Microraptor 80 cm (2.6 ft) long
1 person — shorter than 80 cm (2.6 ft)
- Length
- 80 cm (2.6 ft) — About 80 cm long, 1 kg — crow-sized, four-winged.
- Period
- Early Cretaceous (125–120 Mya)
- Place
- Asia · China · Liaoning Province
- Food
- Carnivore — Small prey — fish, lizards, early birds, mammals (one specimen preserved with a mammal's foot in its stomach).
Microraptor had four wings. Long flight feathers grew on both its arms and its legs, making it look like a kind of biplane glider. It probably couldn’t take off from the ground like a modern bird, but it could glide between trees. Hundreds of specimens have been found in Chinese lake deposits, sometimes with feathers and even gut contents preserved.
What we know
- Real flight feathers on both arms AND legs — a true four-winged glider.
- Studied melanosomes show its feathers were glossy black, like a starling.
- Stomach contents in different specimens include fish, a bird, a lizard, and a mammal — a generalist hunter.
- Hundreds of specimens recovered from the Yixian Formation in China.
What we guess
- Whether Microraptor flew under power, only glided, or did both.
- How the leg wings were held in flight — splayed sideways or trailing behind?
- Whether four-winged flight was a step toward modern bird flight or a separate experiment.