There is no evidence that it flew, though. It lived about 20 million years after the first known bird, the Archaeopteryx. The Chinese researchers who made the latest discovery believe the two creatures had a common ancestor. Like the hulking Tyrannosaurus, little Microraptor belongs to a group of dinosaurs known as theropods, meat eaters that walked on two legs.
Many paleontologists believe birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs.
But previous theropod fossils are bigger than typical birds, weakening the theory. The researchers, who reported their discovery in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, said it came from a rich fossil field in the Liaoning region of northeastern China. The fossil stretches about 15 inches from head to tail. It shows some birdlike characteristics in its teeth and bones, including an extended toe that may have been used to grasp tree limbs, the researchers said. They said its feet in some ways resemble those of Archaeopteryx and Confuciusornis, another early bird.