PITTSBURGH — A Carnegie Museum of Natural History paleontologist co-led the discovery of a new predatory dinosaur species, Jian changmaensis, from northwestern China.
The findings, published on Thursday in the journal Annals of Carnegie Museum, mark the first time a non-avian dinosaur has been found at the significant fossil bird site in the Changma Basin, offering new insights into bird origins and the survival of feathered dinosaurs.
Jian changmaensis belongs to the Microraptorinae, a group of small to medium-sized feathered theropod dinosaurs colloquially known as microraptors, closely related to Velociraptor. These microraptors often possessed long feathers on both their fore and hind limbs and may have been capable of gliding.
This discovery in the Changma Basin of China’s Gansu Province represents the first definitive microraptor found outside northeastern China and may be the geologically youngest known member of its group, suggesting that microraptors existed for a longer period than previously understood by paleontologists.
The rare fossil, consisting of a three-dimensionally intact shoulder and forelimb skeleton, was collected by an international research team that included Dr. Matt Lamanna, Mary R. Dawson Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
Dr. Lamanna stated that the find provides crucial ecological context.
“Jian changmaensis reveals that non-avian dinosaurs lived in what is now the Changma Basin, an area famous for its fossil birds,” Dr. Lamanna said. “Our team has recovered more than one hundred bird fossils at Changma, but only this single non-avian dinosaur specimen. Jian provides critical new information on the biological history of the Changma region and the ecological context of the ancestors of today’s birds.”
Dating to approximately 120 million years ago during the early Cretaceous Period, Jian changmaensis offers rare anatomical preservation. This preservation may help scientists better understand how powered flight evolved in birds, as most microraptor fossils previously discovered were flattened, limiting their usefulness for studying wing motion and shoulder mechanics. The discovery provides insight into the origin of birds, as this dinosaur is one of the closest known non-avian relatives of the more than 10,000 bird species that share the planet today. It is also the first non-avian dinosaur known from the Changma Basin, an important fossil bird locality, thereby enhancing paleontologists’ understanding of avian evolution during the Age of Dinosaurs by adding a crucial non-avian perspective to the site’s fossil record.
Dr. Lamanna also highlighted the new perspective the discovery brings to the site.
“For decades, the Changma site has been renowned among paleontologists for its extraordinary bird fossils,” Dr. Lamanna noted. “Now, with the discovery of Jian, we finally know what was eating them.”
Dr. Carey Miller, Interim Daniel G. and Carole L. Kamin Director of Carnegie Museum of Natural History, emphasized the significance of such discoveries.
“This remarkable discovery represents a meaningful contribution to our understanding of life on Earth,” Dr. Miller said. “Carnegie Museum of Natural History stewards one of the most scientifically and historically significant dinosaur fossil collections in the world and each new species we uncover deepens our knowledge of the natural world – shedding light on our planet’s distant past while sharpening our responsibility to steward its future.”
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