Microraptor
Microraptor
The Microraptor was a dinosaur that existed during the early Cretaceous, 125 to 120 million years ago. Microraptor represents a genus and three species have been identified: M. zhaoianus, M. gui, and M. hanqingi.
The Microraptor was a non-avian dinosaur; its fossils indicate that it had feathers on its wings and legs. Microraptor is among few known bird precursors with long flight feathers in the legs. Microraptor’s coloration was deduced to be a glossy black which is thought to have been used as communication or sexual display as it is with modern iridescent birds.
Due to the fact the wings on the hind legs would have hindered running on the ground, it is thought that Microraptor would have lived mainly in trees and used height as a means of gliding from location to location.
The Microraptor raises questions concerning the evolution of birds from dinosaurs, more specifically, whether birds went through a four-winged stage as seen with the Microraptor or if four-winged gliders were an evolutionary side branch which left no descendants. When examining evidence from phylogeny and morphology, it can be concluded that all birds may have evolved from four-winged ancestors or ancestors with unusually long leg feathers.
What the Earth was like:
Ferns, cycads, and conifers populated the land and this was also the first time that angiosperms emerged. Molluscs and fish were hunted by marine reptiles. Birds also soared in the air at this point. The oldest known insects also began to emerge during this period as well as the first radiation of diatoms in the oceans. At the beginning of the Cretaceous, Pangea was already well split apart and the end of the Cretaceous is marked by a mass extinction of nearly half of the species on Earth. Feeding It has been deduced from probable gut contents, the diet of the Microraptor. The contents consisted of mammalian bones and lizards. One specimen was found containing bird bones in its abdomen. The position of the bones indicated that the tree-perching bird was swallowed whole. Another specimen which corrected assumptions before 2013 that the Microraptor was specifically an arboreal hunter showed fish scales in the abdominal cavity. It is now thought that the Microraptor is an opportunistic feeder, hunting prey in bother arboreal and aquatic environments. |