China finds 120 million-year-old feathered dinosaur with tail fan
The Liaoning fossil combines oversized leg feathers with 16 long tail feathers, a combination not seen before.
Scientists in China have discovered a new feathered dinosaur species that lived about 120 million years ago, from a fossil found in Liaoning Province in northeast China. The exceptionally well-preserved fossil shows thick traces of feathers around the skeleton. A study published in the journal Vertebrata PalAsiatica says the species had an anatomy combination not seen before: large leg feathers and very long, fan-shaped tail feathers. The research team estimated there were about 16 long tail feathers arranged like a fan. Based on morphological analysis, the species belongs to the dromaeosauridae family, a close relative of Velociraptor and Microraptor. Team leader Xu Xing of the Chinese Academy of Sciences named the new species Changzhousaurus sinensis.