---
title: "Scientists Discover New Winged Dinosaur, Ancestor of Velociraptor"
description: "Scientists have discovered a winged dinosaur - an ancestor of the velociraptor - that they say was on the cusp of becoming a bird."
date: "2015-07-17"
modified: "2015-08-06"
authors:
  - name: "Andrew Tieu"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/andrew_tieu"
url: "https://futurism.com/dinosaur-find-velociraptor-ancestor-was-winged-dragon"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
---

# Scientists Discover New Winged Dinosaur, Ancestor of Velociraptor

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/311cf5f9-bb39-48f5-b6c9-1772a1ef68bf-2060x1236.jpeg>)

- The 6ft 6in (2m) creature was almost perfectly preserved in limestone, thanks to a volcanic eruption that had buried it in north-east China. And the 125-million year-old fossil suggests many other dinosaurs, including velociraptors, would have looked like "big, fluffy killer birds". But it is unlikely that it could fly.
- The dinosaur has been named Zhenyuanlong, meaning "Zhenyuan's dragon" - in honour of the man who procured the fossil for the museum in Jinzhou, allowing it to be studied.
- Even though it is a dinosaur, it looks exactly like a turkey or a vulture It has short arms, and it is covered in feathers with proper wings with layers of quill-pen feathers. Dr Brusatte notes: "China is the epicentre of palaeontology right now. There are \[museum\] storerooms full of new dinosaur fossils that have never been studied before. This is the most exciting time maybe in the history of palaeontology."