News Paleontology

A new dino fossil may solve an ancient murder mystery

A newly described microraptor species may explain the avian carnage at a Chinese fossil site

A brighly colored illustration of a large birdlike dinosaur attacking a bird

In this illustration, the newly-described dinosaur, Jian changmaensis, ambushes an early Cretaceous bird, Gansus yumenensus. How capable this gliding predator was at snagging prey in the air remains a mystery.

Illustration by Lewis LaRosa, colorized by Jão Canola.

By Aaron Tremper

The arm and shoulder bones of a gliding dinosaur might have just revealed the culprit behind a gruesome whodunit that took place some 120 million years ago.