14 DAY TRIAL // A new paper in the journal Nature describes an odd-looking dinosaur that lived about 160 million years ago and that looked nothing like the scary beasts running around in Jurassic Park.
These ancient creatures, dubbed Yi qi, weighed merely 380 grams (about 13.5 ounces), which means that they were about the size of a modern pigeon.
Fossil evidence indicates that they had rod-like bones extending from their wrists. These peculiar bones, measuring 13 centimeters (a little over 5 inches) in length, likely supported membranes.
As illustrated in the image accompanying this article, the rod-like bones and the membranes attached to them formed wings similar to the ones that bats rely on to get around.
As detailed by University of Maryland paleontologist Thomas Holtz Jr., this dinosaur species is the first thus far documented to present such anatomical quirks.
“This is one of the strangest animals that I've seen in the fossil record in years,” the researcher said in a statement. “It's raising a lot more puzzles than it's solving,” he added.
For the time being, paleontologists cannot say whether the creatures used their bat-like wings only to glide through the air over short distances or if maybe they were capable of actual flight.
Still, seeing how the fossilized rod-like bones that were included in the wings' makeup don't look all that sturdy, odds are Yi qi weren't exactly masters of the sky.