Post by Delirious on Apr 2, 2015 22:51:25 GMT 2
Microraptor
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Name Meaning: Small Seizer
Diet: Carnivour
Size: Similar size to a modern falcon.
Time: Early Cretaceous (112 to 97 million years ago)
Appearance
Microraptor was a genus of small, four-winged paravian dinosaurs. Microraptor provides important evidence about the evolutionary relationship between birds and dinosaurs. Microraptor had long pennaceous feathers that formed aerodynamic surfaces on the arms and tail but also, surprisingly, on the legs. They speculate that it may have glided using all four limbs for lift. Subsequent studies have suggested that it is possible Microraptor were capable of powered flight as well. Adults ranged from 77–90 centimetres long (2.53–2.95 ft) and with a weight estimated up to 1 kilogram (2.2 lb). Their bodies had a thick covering of feathers, with a diamond-shaped fan on the end of the tail, possibly for added stability during flight. Though Microraptors where basically pre-historic birds, they did not have beaks. They had a short, featherless snout filled with tiny needle like teeth.
By analysing the fossilized melanosomes (pigment cells) in the fossilized feathers with scanning electron microscope techniques, the researchers compared their arrangements to those of modern birds. In Microraptor, these cells were shaped in a manner consistent with black, glossy coloration in modern birds.
Behaviour
Due to the extent of the hind wings onto most of the animal's foot, many scientists have suggested that Microraptor would have been awkward during normal ground movement or running. The front wing feathers would also have hindered Microraptor when on the ground, due to the limited range of motion in the wrist and the extreme length of the wing feathers. So they would have lived most of their lives off the ground, in the trees and in the air. It is possible that Microraptors used their wings to parachute from trees, possibly to attack or ambush prey on the ground, as a precursor to gliding or true flight. Microraptor had a diet of small lizards, other dinosaurs and even mammals. It is possible that they fed on abandoned carcases as well.
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