Microraptor's World
Four-winged dinosaur
Microraptor
Like other great discoveries in Liaoning over the past two decades,
Microraptor has transformed scientific understanding and
pop-culture imagery of what dinosaurs of the Early Cretaceous looked
like. Whereas we once might have envisioned smooth-skinned reptiles
plodding along the ground, we now can imagine sprightly, feathered
creatures gliding from tree to tree. Microraptor's ability to
glide, and its exact flying form, are still debated, but the notion
of a flying feathered dinosaur isn't as outlandish as it may have
seemed a few decades ago.