![\"\"](\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/21180803\/SEI_226532213.jpg\")
<\/div>Scientists studied the tracks of a sparrow-sized raptor called Dromaeosauriformipes rarus<\/p>\n
Dffdfdfdhmkt gmkgmtfkfgmgmgggg (CC BY-SA)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n
Tiny tracks in South Korea symbolise a moment 120 million years ago when a dinosaur took advantage of its wings to cover ground in large leaps \u2013 the oldest track evidence of wing-assisted movement in these extinct animals<\/a>.<\/p>\n Whether the creature, which was a raptor and not part of the lineage that led to birds, took full flight is uncertain. But the tracks support previous ideas that aerodynamics evolved multiple times across prehistoric lines, says Alexander Dececchi<\/a> at Dakota State University in South Dakota.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s pretty rare to find these kinds of [pre-flight] tracks, and then to find them in an animal that\u2019s not even a bird \u2013 that\u2019s pretty special,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Velociraptors and other raptors (dromaeosaurids) are the ancestors of modern birds, but their lineage split into avian and non-avian, or \u201cparavian\u201d, lines about 170 million years ago. Despite having feathers and wings, paravian dinosaurs generally seemed to lack the wingspan needed to offset their body weight, says team member Michael Pittman<\/a> at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.<\/p>\n But Pittman, Dececchi and their colleagues suspected that some paravian dinosaurs could fly<\/a>, or at least glide, before full flight evolved in birds, based on muscles in their upper bodies. That suspicion grew stronger as they investigated more than 2600 rows of dinosaur tracks around the world.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n One set of tracks, discovered during the construction of a shopping centre in south-eastern South Korea, showed surprisingly long spacing between steps made by a sparrow-sized raptor<\/a> called Dromaeosauriformipes rarus<\/em>.<\/p>\n Considering its relative leg length, its stride was three times as long as that of an ostrich and nearly twice as long as that of a kangaroo rat. \u201cI had this eureka moment: could it have been doing something other than running?\u201d says Pittman.<\/p>\n Further calculations and comparisons with fossil anatomy suggested he was right: the animal could not have made that stride with its legs alone. It was clearly flapping or gliding, possibly while launching or landing, says Pittman.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the vast majority of feathered dinosaurs were probably doing what this guy was doing \u2013 using the wings to augment running, jumping, braking and turning,\u201d says Pittman.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is really a mosaic kind of evolution, when it comes to wings and flying,\u201d says Romain Pintore<\/a> at the French National Museum of Natural History in Paris. \u201cIt\u2019s not a matter of, \u2018you don\u2019t have it\u2019 and then \u2018you have it\u2019. We really have to zoom out a little further to see how some characteristics evolved in their own path, without becoming a bird.\u201d<\/p>\n Topics:<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\n