Scientists have uncovered fossils of a small dinosaur that terrorized ancient birds around 120 million years ago in what is now northwestern China. The discovery reveals how this feathered predator thrived in a lakeside environment teeming with avian prey.
Researchers found remains of a Cretaceous Period dinosaur roughly the size of a barn owl that shared close family ties with the famous Velociraptor. The newly identified species, called Jian changmaensis, likely sported feathers across its body, moved both on land and through trees, and possibly glided like modern flying squirrels when launching surprise attacks on its victims.
“Jian would look like a small Velociraptor – the real Velociraptor, not the scaly thing in ‘Jurassic Park’ – but with long feathers on both the forelimbs and hindlimbs instead of just the former,” explained paleontologist Matt Lamanna of Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, who co-led the research published in the journal Annals of Carnegie Museum.
“I often describe Jian as a Velociraptor trying to be a flying squirrel – except, of course, that Jian was predatory and flying squirrels aren’t,” Lamanna added.
The dinosaur’s remains were discovered at a fossil site in China’s Gansu Province, an area famous for its exceptionally well-preserved bird fossils. Among these discoveries were fractured bones compressed into pellets similar to those regurgitated by modern owls after consuming prey such as rodents. Scientists believe Jian exhibited comparable behavior following bird meals.
“Jian is of the correct size and suspected ecology to have been the ‘pellet maker,’” Lamanna noted.
The species takes its name from a mythical flying being in Chinese folklore. Scientists identified Jian from five shoulder and arm bones that showed enough variation from Microraptor, a closely related species that inhabited China during approximately the same period, to confirm they represented separate species.
Though the recovered Jian fossils are too fragmentary to reveal its complete body structure, researchers believe it resembled Microraptor, which possessed feather-covered limbs that created the appearance of having four wings.
All carnivorous dinosaurs fall within a classification known as theropods. While some grew to massive proportions like Tyrannosaurus or Spinosaurus, many smaller varieties likely occupied ecological roles similar to modern weasels or wolverines.
Birds descended from small feathered dinosaurs during the Jurassic Period. Archaeopteryx, recognized as the earliest known bird, existed approximately 150 million years ago.
The ancient ecosystem would have provided abundant bird species to sustain Jian’s appetite, including the pigeon-sized semi-aquatic Gansus, which probably had webbed feet and, like Archaeopteryx, featured a mouth filled with teeth. Additional bird species from this environment included Feitianius, Changmaornis, Avimaia, Novavis and Meemannavis.
“Jian was probably an ambush predator, stalking and pouncing on distracted birds that were working on finding their own meals,” said paleontologist Jingmai O’Connor of the Field Museum in Chicago, who also helped lead the study.
“We know Microraptor was an opportunistic predator that fed on birds as well as lizards, mammals and even fish. Jian was likely the same, eating whatever it could catch. Dense bird populations may also have been seasonal, forcing Jian to have a diverse diet,” O’Connor explained.
The actual Velociraptor measured about the size of a large turkey – considerably smaller than its movie depictions in films like “Jurassic Park.” It lived in Asia roughly 45 million years after Jian’s time. Velociraptor, Jian and Microraptor belong to a broader group called dromaeosaurs, commonly known as raptors, featuring bodies designed for swift movement and persistence.
Utahraptor may have been the largest of the raptor family, inhabiting North America about 15 million years before Jian emerged in China, and growing to approximately 23 feet in length. Jian would have measured slightly over 3 feet long, including its tail.
Speaking about the raptor lineage that encompasses Jian and Microraptor, Lamanna observed, “They’re extraordinarily closely related to the earliest birds such as Archaeopteryx – really, just about as close as you can be to being a bird without actually being a bird yourself.”
