Avimimus

Avimimus (meaning "bird mimic") was a recently discovered maniraptoran.'Avimimus'. In: Dodson, Peter et al. The Age of Dinosaurs. Publications International. p130. . It was a very fast moving, light-weight, bird-like theropod dinosaur that lived in the late Cretaceous in what is now Mongolia, around 70 million years ago. that may have had feathers. There are two known species, Avimimus portentosus and Avimimus nemegtensis.

 Flight? 
The forelimbs were relatively short. The bones of the hand were fused together, as in modern birds, and a ridge on the ulna (lower arm bone) was interpreted as an attachment point for feathers by Kurzanov.Kurzanov S.M. 1981. "An unusual theropod from the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia Iskopayemyye pozvonochnyye Mongolii (Fossil Vertebrates of Mongolia)." Trudy Sovmestnay Sovetsko-Mongolskay Paleontologiyeskay Ekspeditsiy (Joint Soviet-Mongolian Paleontological Expedition), 15: 39-49. Nauka Moscow, 1981 Kurzanov, in 1987, also reported the presence of quill knobs,Kurzanov S.M. 1987. "Avimimidae and the problem of the origin of birds." Transactions of the Joint Soviet-Mongolian Paleontological Expedition, 31: 5-92. [in Russian] and while Chiappe confirmed the presence of bumps on the ulna, their function remained unclear.Chiappe L.M. and Witmer L.M. 2002. Mesozoic birds: above the heads of dinosaurs. Berkeley: University of California Press, 536 pp.  Kurzanov was so convinced they were attachment points for feathers that he concluded that Avimimus may have been capable of weak flight. The presence of feathers is now widely accepted, but most paleontologists do not believe Avimimus could fly.

 References 

Category:Oviraptorosauria
Category:Feathered dinosaurs