Not all winged dinosaurs were necessarily capable of full flight, but this anatomical feature may have enabled them to travel further by flapping or gliding
Tiny tracks in South Korea symbolise a moment 120 million years ago when a dinosaur took advantage of its wings to cover ground in large leaps – the oldest track evidence of wing-assisted movement in these extinct
Whether the creature, which was a raptor and not part of the lineage that led to birds, took full flight is uncertain. But the tracks support previous ideas that aerodynamics evolved multiple times across prehistoric lines, says“It’s pretty rare to find these kinds of tracks, and then to find them in an animal that’s not even a bird – that’s pretty special,” he says.
Velociraptors and other raptors are the ancestors of modern birds, but their lineage split into avian and non-avian, or “paravian”, lines about 170 million years ago. Despite having feathers and wings, paravian dinosaurs generally seemed to lack the wingspan needed to offset their body weight, says team member, or at least glide, before full flight evolved in birds, based on muscles in their upper bodies.
Further calculations and comparisons with fossil anatomy suggested he was right: the animal could not have made that stride with its legs alone. It was clearly flapping or gliding, possibly while launching or landing, says Pittman. “I think the vast majority of feathered dinosaurs were probably doing what this guy was doing – using the wings to augment running, jumping, braking and turning,” says Pittman.at the French National Museum of Natural History in Paris. “It’s not a matter of, ‘you don’t have it’ and then ‘you have it’. We really have to zoom out a little further to see how some characteristics evolved in their own path, without becoming a bird.
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