Appearance of Cretaceous dinosaur restored

Beijing (CNS) -- A research team under the cooperative leadership of Chinese and American scientists has successfully restored the complete appearance of the distinguished Microraptor dinosaur species, based on a fossil specimen of the extinct creature preserved with its fine feathers in the Beijing Museum of Natural History (BMNH), the museum announced on Friday.

The fossil, with all four wings of the small dinosaur, was discovered in 2003 and is hailed as a rare archeological treasure.

The restoration of the little creature revealed an outstanding appearance– its whole body of smooth and dark iridescent feathers, exquisitely shaped and narrow and long in the tail, had the function of attracting mates, but were useless for flying.

Through comparative studies, scientists have found similarities between the back colors of today's barn swallows and the smooth and dark iridescent schemochrome of this most ancient fossil, estimated to be 120 million years old.

The article on the reappearance of the Microraptor was authored by the same team, led by Dr. Meng Qingjin from the BMNH and Dr. Mark Norell from the American Museum of Natural History, who published the first ever report on the restoration of the colors of a feathered dinosaur species, the Anchiornis huxleyi.

The finding of small feathered dinosaurs in northeast China's Lianning Province was the first to challenge the original supposition that dinosaurs are huge, horrifying animals, and cast more light on the origin and evolution of modern bird species.