Anchiornis

Anchiornis is a genus of small, four-winged paravian dinosaur. The genus Anchiornis contains only the type species Anchiornis huxleyi, named for its similarity to modern birds. Anchiornis fossils have been only found in the Tiaojishan Formation of Liaoning, China, in rocks dated to the Late Jurassic, about 160 million years ago. Anchiornis is known from hundreds of specimens, and given the exquisite preservation of some of these fossils, it became the first Mesozoic dinosaur species for which almost the entire life appearance could be determined, and an important source of information on the early evolution of birds. Anchiornis huxleyi translates to 'T.H. Huxley's near-bird' in Greek. Anchiornis huxleyi was a small, bipedal theropod dinosaur with a triangular skull bearing several details in common with dromaeosaurids, troodontids, and primitive avialans. Like other early paravians, Anchiornis was small, about the size of a crow. It had long, wing-bearing arms, long legs, and a long tail. Like all paravians, it was covered in feathers, though it also had scales on certain parts of the body. The wings, legs, and tail supported long but relatively narrow vaned feathers. Two types of simpler, downy (plumaceous) feathers covered the rest of the body, as in Sinornithosaurus: down feathers made up of filaments attached at their bases, and more complex down feathers with barbs attached along a central quill. Long, simple feathers covered almost the entire head and neck, torso, upper legs, and the first half of the tail. The rest of the tail bore pennaceous tail feathers (rectrices). Long feathers on the head (crown) may have formed a crest. While the first specimen of Anchiornis preserved only faint traces of feathers around the preserved portion of the body, many more well-preserved fossils have since been found. Studies of Anchiornis specimens using laser fluorescence have revealed not only more details of the feathers, but also of the skin and muscle tissue. Taken together, this evidence has given scientists a nearly complete picture of Anchiornis anatomy. Additional studies indicate that Anchiornis had body plumage that consisted of short quills with long and independent, flexible barbs. These barbs stuck out from the quills at low angles on two opposing blades. This also gave each feather an overall forked shape and resulted in the theropod possessing a softer textured and 'shaggier' appearing plumage than is seen in modern birds. 'Shaggy' contour feathers probably influenced thermoregulatory and water repellence abilities, and, in combination with open-vaned wing feathers, would have decreased aerodynamic efficiency. Its size was originally estimated at 34 centimetres (13 in) and 0.11 kilograms (0.24 lb), but some specimens show that is could in fact have grown somewhat larger, up to 40 centimetres (16 in) and 0.25 kilograms (0.55 lb). Anchiornis had a wing span of up to 50 centimetres (1.6 ft). Like other early paravians, Anchiornis had large wings made up of pennaceous feathers attached to the arm and hand. The wing of Anchiornis was composed of 11 primary feathers and 10 secondary feathers. The primary feathers in Anchiornis were about as long as the secondaries, and formed a rounded wing. The wing feathers had curved but symmetrical central quills, with small and thin relative size, and rounded tips, all indicating poor aerodynamic ability. In the related dinosaurs Microraptor and Archaeopteryx, the longest wing feathers were closest to the tip of the wing, making the wings appear relatively long and pointed. However, in Anchiornis, the longest wing feathers were those nearest the wrist, making the wing broadest in the middle and tapering near the tip for a more rounded, less flight-adapted profile. Like other maniraptorans, Anchiornis had a propatagium, a flap of skin connecting the wrist to the shoulder and rounding out the front edge of the wing. In Anchiornis, this part of the wing was covered in covert feathers which smoothed the wing and covered the gaps between the larger primary and secondary feathers. However, unlike modern birds, the covert feathers of Anchiornis were not arranged in tracts or rows. The arrangement of the covert feathers was also more primitive in Anchiornis than in birds and more advanced paravians. In modern birds, the coverts usually cover only the upper portion of the wing, with most of the wing surface made up of uncovered flight feathers. In some Anchiornis fossils, on the other hand, several layers of covert feathers seem to extend down to cover most of the wing's surface, so that the wing is essentially made of multiple layers of feathers, rather than a layer of broad feathers with only their bases hidden by layers of coverts. This multi-layered wing arrangement might have helped strengthen the wing, considering that the primary and secondary feathers themselves were narrow and weak. The wing included three clawed fingers; however, unlike in some more primitive theropods, the longest two fingers were not separate, but were bound together by the skin and other tissue forming the wing, so Anchiornis was functionally two-fingered. These bound fingers were incorporated into a post-patagium, or flap of skin and other tissues that helped support the bases of the main wing feathers. Like the toes, the skin around the bottom of the fingers was covered in tiny, rounded scales. Unlike the toes, the flesh around the underside of the finger bones was twice as thick as the bones themselves and lacked distinct pads; instead, the fingers were straight and smooth without any major creases at the joints. Scales and skin around the fingers is very rarely preserved in fossils of early pennaraptorans, the only notable exceptions being Anchiornis and Caudipteryx, which had similar thick, scaly fingers associated with its wings. In addition to the front wings, Anchiornis had long, vaned feathers on the hind legs. This has led many scientists to call Anchiornis a four-winged dinosaur, along with similar animals like Microraptor and Sapeornis. However, the feathers on the hind legs in Anchiornis did not have the shape or arrangement expected from flight feathers, and it is likely that their primary role was in display rather than flight. Anchiornis had very long legs, which is usually an indication that an animal is a strong runner. However, the extensive leg feathers indicate that this may be a vestigial trait, as running animals tend to have reduced, not increased, hair or feathers on their legs. Like most paravians, Anchiornis had four toes on the foot, with the third and fourth toes the longest. The first toe, or hallux, was not reversed as in perching species. The hindwings of Anchiornis were also shorter than those of Microraptor, and were made up of 12 to 13 flight feathers anchored to the tibia (lower leg) and 10 to 11 to the tarsus (upper foot). Also unlike Microraptor, the hindwing feathers were longest closer to the body, with the foot feathers being short and directed downward, almost perpendicular to the foot bones.