The Prehistoric Peacock: Changzhousaurus sinensis

Publication Info:

Transcript:

Xing Xu. 2026. A new feathered dinosaur from Early Cretaceous of northern China highlighting the complexity of early pennaraptoran evolution and comments on several relevant conceptual and methodological issues. Vertebrata Palasiatica, in press; doi: 10.19615/j.cnki.2096-9899.260616

Meet Changzhousaurus sinensis, this newly named raptor relative from Cretaceous china is being described as having a peacock-like tail. The finer details of its anatomy may also have some far reaching implications for the taxamonic groups that include the raptor like dinosaurs and birds!

Episode 298

Notes:

Get ready to meet a brand-new raptor relative that's being called a prehistoric peacock. Here's your most recent paleontology news almost daily or whenever I get around to it. So, I said raptor relative and I'm really kind of tempted to leave it at that cuz the classifications on this one are a little messy and are probably going to get messier. Because it's published as a deinonychosaurian within Pennaraptora and both of those groups are I don't want to say controversial, but kind of being debated. And yes, I know when getting into taxonomy, I can already feel a lot of your eyes glazing over. Either way, this dinosaur is on the deinonychus / velociraptor side of maniraptora. Anyway, this is Changzhousaurus sinensis and it follows the same kind of general body plan as a lot of the more recent small raptors from Cretaceous China. In this case, about 120 million years ago. It has the famous killing claws, it has teeth, it has four wings, but it was small and at only about 13 in long, it definitely wasn't taking down Muldoon in the raptor paddock. At a glance, it really does look a lot like some of the other small raptors like Microraptor. With a lot of its key differences, the things kind of making its classification a little complicated, uh not really being that visible from the outside of the animal. But luckily, like with a lot of the amazingly well-preserved specimens out of China, paleontologists have feathers and that's what really stands out for this dinosaur. With abnormally large wings and primary flight feathers that were over 4 and 1/2 in long. Again, for an animal that was only about 13 in. And it had 16 highly enlarged tail feathers that are being compared to the feathers on a peacock. As usual, if you want more information, here's the source.