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Day 15 of Dinovember 2021

Evolution took some weird detours before it learned to fly like a bird.

Here we have a creature with four wings. Not just feathers on its hind limbs, but actual wings, with asymetric pennaceous feathers and all of that. But could it actively fly? Probably not; its wings were pretty short and more likely built for gliding. Actually just like was predicted more than a century ago for Proavis, a hypothetical missing link between reptiles and birds. Yet Microraptor is not a proto-bird; it was a raptor, member of the same family as Velociraptor and Deinonychus. As Microraptor is much older and basal than these creatures, this implies that an ancestor of the raptors actually was at least capable of gliding, if not of active flight. The alternative is that flight developed indepently in several Paravians, such as Microraptor (the raptor branch), Archaeopteryx (the bird branch) and the Scansoriopterygidae (see Yi qi of my last year's Dinovember).

Microraptor is known from hundreds of fossils, often well preserved. Originally those were placed into three species according to size, but now only the type species remains, with the original species seen as different age groups. Its color has been determined and surprise, surprise: it was black. At least it was a shiny black.

Digital sketch, Cintiq and CSP.

Description

Day 15 of Dinovember 2021

Evolution took some weird detours before it learned to fly like a bird.

Here we have a creature with four wings. Not just feathers on its hind limbs, but actual wings, with asymetric pennaceous feathers and all of that. But could it actively fly? Probably not; its wings were pretty short and more likely built for gliding. Actually just like was predicted more than a century ago for Proavis, a hypothetical missing link between reptiles and birds. Yet Microraptor is not a proto-bird; it was a raptor, member of the same family as Velociraptor and Deinonychus. As Microraptor is much older and basal than these creatures, this implies that an ancestor of the raptors actually was at least capable of gliding, if not of active flight. The alternative is that flight developed indepently in several Paravians, such as Microraptor (the raptor branch), Archaeopteryx (the bird branch) and the Scansoriopterygidae (see Yi qi of my last year's Dinovember).

Microraptor is known from hundreds of fossils, often well preserved. Originally those were placed into three species according to size, but now only the type species remains, with the original species seen as different age groups. Its color has been determined and surprise, surprise: it was black. At least it was a shiny black.

Digital sketch, Cintiq and CSP.