Rosa Rubicondior: Creationism Refuted - A Four-Winged, Flying Dinosaur - From More Than 100 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'

Norellraptor barsboldi 130108-MHGU-F4281, appendicular elements.

a Right hand. b Pubis. c Feet. am, acetabular margin; ap, apron; cs, claw soft tissue; gi, gastral impression; mcI-III, metacarpals I to III; mtI-V, metatarsals I to V; p, phalanx; pf, pubic foot; r, radius; sc, semilunate carpal; t, tibiotarsus; u, ulna; uI-III, unguals 1 to 3. Scale bar = 10 mm.

Revolutionary Feathered Dinosaur Discovery in China Suggests Flight Evolved Multiple Times : ScienceAlert

For creationists who insist that complex adaptations could only have appeared as complete, purpose-built packages, another feathered dinosaur has provided an awkward piece of evidence. Evolution does not require a finished flight apparatus to materialise in a single miraculous leap. It can modify inherited structures, combine them in new ways, and produce similar adaptations along different branches of the family tree. A newly described dinosaur from China adds evidence that even among the close relatives of birds, there was more than one evolutionary route towards an aerial lifestyle.

In a paper published in Nature Communications, Xuri Wang and colleagues describe Norellraptor barsboldi, a small microraptorine dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning, north-eastern China. Its remarkably complete, 57-centimetre skeleton preserves traces of plumage, including on its forelimbs and hindlimbs. It belonged to the group of feathered dinosaurs famous for their four-winged forms: evolutionary relatives of birds, rather than evidence that modern birds appeared fully formed and unrelated to other dinosaurs.

The crucial finding concerns the sequence in which adaptations arose. The researchers’ evolutionary analysis indicates that approximately 30 per cent of the derived anatomical features identified in microraptorine evolution also evolved independently in the bird lineage. However, they appeared in different orders. This supports the gradual assembly of flight-associated anatomy under different selective pressures, rather than the inheritance of an already completed flight apparatus from a common ancestor.

The Jiufotang Formation^ A Window into the World of Feathered Dinosaurs. The Jiufotang Formation of north-eastern China preserves an extraordinary record of Early Cretaceous life, more than 100 million years ago. Its fossils belong to the Jehol Biota: a remarkable assemblage of ancient plants and animals preserved across several geological formations. “Jiufotang” names a body of rock; “Jehol Biota” names the organisms represented in the wider fossil record.

A landscape of lakes and volcanoes

When these sediments accumulated, freshwater lakes occupied a region affected by volcanic activity. Mud and other sediment settled into the lakes, while eruptions supplied volcanic ash. Over time, these deposits became layers of sedimentary rock interspersed with volcanic material. They preserve evidence of both aquatic organisms and animals that lived in the surrounding landscape.

Why do these rocks preserve feathers?

Fossilisation usually removes much of the information about an animal’s appearance. Feathers, skin and internal organs generally decay long before bones disappear. Exceptionally favourable burial conditions, however, can preserve impressions or traces of these delicate structures.

Fine sediment and rapid burial helped protect some Jehol remains before their skeletons disintegrated and their soft tissues vanished. Researchers have proposed that volcanic events killed, transported and buried animals at some fossil-bearing horizons. However, preservation varied between sites and layers: there is no need to assume that every fossil resulted from the same process or a single catastrophe.

Birds alongside their dinosaur relatives

The Jiufotang Formation has yielded feathered non-avian dinosaurs as well as early birds, including the long-tailed Jeholornis. These discoveries reveal a diversity of anatomical combinations, rather than a neat division between familiar modern birds and entirely featherless dinosaurs.

Their coexistence is entirely consistent with evolution. Evolution produces branching family trees, not a ladder on which each new form must replace everything below it. One lineage can acquire particular adaptations while related lineages persist and evolve in different directions. A feathered dinosaur living alongside an early bird is therefore no more paradoxical than humans living alongside other apes.

Dating the landscape

Volcanic layers provide an especially valuable means of establishing the chronology. Minerals in the ash can contain radioactive isotopes whose decay allows scientists to estimate when those minerals formed. Dates from volcanic beds, interpreted alongside their positions in the sedimentary sequence, constrain the ages of the fossil-bearing rocks.

These ages are not assigned simply because a fossil looks “primitive” or because evolution supposedly requires a particular timescale. They come from measurable properties of the rocks and minerals. Nor does rapid burial of an individual animal imply rapid formation of the entire geological succession: a brief local event can occur within a much longer history of sediment accumulation.

Brief glossary

Formation

A recognisable, mappable body of rock distinguished by its physical characteristics. A formation need not have accumulated in one event.

Biota

The organisms of a particular region, environment or interval of geological time.

Tuff

Rock formed mainly from consolidated volcanic ash.

Lagerstätte

A fossil deposit notable for exceptional abundance or preservation. Deposits preserving delicate structures can reveal details usually missing from the fossil record.

Radiometric dating

Estimating an age using the decay of radioactive isotopes and measurements of the relevant isotopes in a sample.

Research into exceptional preservation in the Jehol Biota.
The discovery of Jeholornis in the Jiufotang Formation.
High-precision dating of the Jiufotang Formation.

That distinction matters for the creationist argument from “irreducible complexity”. Pointing to the interacting components of a modern wing does not establish that those components always had their present functions, or that they had to originate simultaneously. Evolution works with structures already available, and an intermediate need only function in its own circumstances; it need not perform like a modern bird. Different sequences of anatomical change are therefore evidence to investigate, not gaps into which a supernatural designer must be inserted.

Young-Earth creationists face the additional problem of chronology. This is an Early Cretaceous animal, from a world more than 100 million years older than their supposed “Creation Week”. Calling it another specially created “kind” does nothing to explain either its geological setting or the detailed pattern of shared and independently acquired characteristics that places it within the dinosaur family tree.

The fossil does not, by itself, establish that Norellraptor could sustain powered flight. What it helps researchers reconstruct is the evolutionary assembly of adaptations associated with aerial locomotion. The scientific debate concerns how those histories unfolded — a productive question that “a designer did it” neither answers nor helps to resolve.

As the accompanying Nature Portfolio press release explains, the evidence points towards different evolutionary histories in these related lineages:

Palaeontology: A new feathered dinosaur from China (Nature Communications)
A newly described feathered dinosaur found in northeastern China adds evidence to the theory that flight-related features evolved differently in various bird-like dinosaur groups. The findings, reported in Nature Communications, are based on the analysis of an exceptionally well-preserved fossil of a microraptorine (a small dinosaur with feathers and wings) found in a geological formation estimated to be between 145 and 100 million years old.
Microraptorines were small, bird-like predatory dinosaurs and close relatives of birds. These feathered dinosaurs were most commonly discovered in northeastern China. Fossils show that some microraptorines had long feathers on both their forelimbs and hindlimbs, which suggests that they may have been adapted for flight. Whether these features mark the origins of flight adaptions in Paraves (the group that includes microraptorines and birds), or whether such features evolved independently remains an open question, although evidence suggests the latter theory is more likely.

Andrea Cau, Qiang Ji, Xuri Wang, and colleagues describe a new species called Norellraptor barsboldi, found in the Lower Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation in Liaoning, China. The complete skeleton measures 57 centimetres and parts of its plumage are preserved. Analysis of the fossil indicate that it was at least three years old when it died and reveal a collection of features associated with flight. The authors compare these results across an evolutionary tree, finding that around 30% of anatomical changes identified across microraptorine evolution also evolved in the bird lineage. However, the order in which these shared features appeared differed between the two groups.

These findings challenge the idea that microraptorines and birds inherited either a common flight apparatus or a shared developmental process that drove its evolution. The authors conclude that different selective pressures probably shaped the flight-related features of each lineage. Further fossil and bone-growth evidence will be needed to test how widespread the pattern was among bird-like dinosaurs.

Publication:
Wang, X., Ji, Y., Cau, A. et al.
Independent assembly of the flight apparatus in a non-avian dinosaur clade.
Nat Commun 17, 10074 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-77804-6

Abstract
The discovery of feathered dinosaurs revolutionized the studies on the origin of birds and the evolution of their flight. Among paravians (birds and their closest relatives), the microraptorine dromaeosaurids are unique in bearing several flight-related adaptations with a controversial evolutionary interpretation, supporting, alternatively, flight as ancestral to Paraves or having evolved multiple times among the latter. Here, we introduce an exquisitely-preserved member of Microraptorinae, Norellraptor barsboldi gen. et sp. nov., and describe in detail forelimb osteohistological features for that clade. Norellraptor nests among late-diverging microraptorines and supports step-wise assembly of aerial adaptations in that clade. About 30% of the microraptorine synapomorphies are convergently acquired by the bird lineage (Avialae). Yet, the sequences of flight-related novelties reconstructed along the two lineages differ consistently; combined with histological evidence which might indicate a peculiar limb growth model in Microraptorinae, these results dismiss a shared developmental pattern driving the evolution of the flying dinosaurs and support multiple and independent selective regimes at the origin of the winged taxa in Paraves.

Fig. 1: Norellraptor barsboldi 130108-MHGU-F4281.

a Whole specimen. b Skull in lateral view. c Close up of the rostrum. d Close up of the posterior part of skull. e Pectoral region. f Distal end of tail. aof, antorbital fossa; arm, ascending ramus of maxilla; at, anterior tympanic recess; bt, basal tuber; bp, basypterygoid process; cf, coracoid fenestra; ct, caudal tympanic recess; cnV, 5th cranial nerve opening; cnVII, 7th cranial nerve opening; cv, cervical vertebra; d1, first dorsal vertebra; de, dentary; dt, dorsal tympanic recess; fo, foramen; fr, frontal; fu, furcula; gl, glenoid; h, humerus; la, lacrimal; lat, laterosphenoid; lcv, last caudal vertebra; lp, lateral pneumatic recess; mc, metacarpus; mxf, maxillary fenestra; na, nasal; oc, otosphenoid crest; or, otic region; pa, parietal; paw, postantral wall; pmx, premaxilla; pp, paroccipital process; ppd, posterior processes of dentary; pt, pterygoid; pxf, promaxillary fenestra; r, radius; rp, retroarticular process; sa, surangular; sc, scapula; so, supraoccipital; sp, sternal plate; sr, sclerotic ring; u, ulna; up, uncinate process; vor, ventral otic recess. Arrow indicates point of histological sampling. Scale bar = 50 mm (a); 10 mm (b–f).

Fig. 2: Norellraptor barsboldi 130108-MHGU-F4281, appendicular elements.

a Right hand. b Pubis. c Feet. am, acetabular margin; ap, apron; cs, claw soft tissue; gi, gastral impression; mcI-III, metacarpals I to III; mtI-V, metatarsals I to V; p, phalanx; pf, pubic foot; r, radius; sc, semilunate carpal; t, tibiotarsus; u, ulna; uI-III, unguals 1 to 3. Scale bar = 10 mm.

Fig. 4: Simplified diagram of the phylogenetic relationships among Paraves.

Collapsed clades indicated by the triangles (triangle areas proportional to the sampled taxa included: the complete topology reconstructed is available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.33006146.

Fig. 3: Histology of the left radius of 130108-MHGU-F4281.

a–c close-up of the left radius midshaft microstructure (d, e). Physical transversal sections in transmitted (a, d), fluorescent (b), and elliptically polarized light (c, e). In a–c, note an irregular interface between the inner periosteal bone and the endosteal bone (red arrow); a high difference in fluorescence between well-developed primary osteons of the zone 1 and of the inner group of osteons of the zone 2 (blue arrow); and ill-developed primary of the outer group of osteons of the zone 2 (yellow arrow); a low fluorescene in the secondary osteonal bone (orange arrow). Compare the higher birefringence of the endosteal bone, an annulus-like tissue (white arrow), and early bone deposited to form zone 3 (black arrow). In d, e, note the occurence of more organized osteocyte lacunae in the outer region of zone 1 and througout the zone 2; increased birefringence in primary osteons of zone 1 (green arrow); in an annulus associate with LAG1 (white arrow) and zone 3 (yellow arrow); and highly birefringent endosteal bone tissue (orange arrow). Abbreviations:?ans, putative annulus; avbl, avascular layer; avr, avascular region; END, endosteal bone; FLB, fibro-lamellar bone; ICL, inner circumferential line; LAG, line of arrested growth; LAG-nvc, LAG crossing neurovascular canal; LAG1, inner circumferential layer; LAG2, outer line of arrested growth; ipos, ill developed primary osteon; lanvc, laminar neurovascular canal; lonvc, longitudinal neurovascular canal; meca, medullary cavity; onvc, neurovascular canal open on outer surface; osla, osteocyte lacuna; PER, periosteal bone; PFBM, parallel-fibered bone matrix; pos, primary osteon; pnvc, primary neurovascular canal; prpos, partially resorbed primary osteon; prsos, partially resorbed secondary osteon; ranvc, radial neurovascular canal; rel, resorption line; rupt, postfossilization rupture; snvc, secondary vascular canal; sos, secondary osteon; z1-3, first through third zone. Scale bar 200 microns (a-c) and 100 microns (d, e).

Fig. 5: Evolutionary sequences of the derived features shared by Microraptorinae and Avialae.

Numeration refers to the character states used in the phylogenetic analysis. Characters in black indicate the “0- > 1” transitions, characters in white the reversions “1- > 0”. The “i” letter indicates novelties optimized as synapomorphic among the immature semaphoronts²⁰.

Wang, X., Ji, Y., Cau, A. et al.
Independent assembly of the flight apparatus in a non-avian dinosaur clade.
Nat Commun 17, 10074 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-77804-6

Copyright: © 2026 The authors.
Published by Springer Nature Ltd. Open access.
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)

What makes this discovery particularly awkward for creationism is the pattern it helps reveal. Related dinosaur lineages acquired similar flight-associated features in different sequences, producing combinations shaped by their separate evolutionary histories. That is what descent with modification allows us to investigate: inherited structures altered and recruited into new functions, without foresight or a predetermined destination.

The claim that a complex adaptation must appear as an indivisible package mistakes its present organisation for its evolutionary history. A structure need not have originated for the function it eventually performs, and natural selection does not require an intermediate animal to possess the capabilities of its distant descendants. Calling the resulting similarities “common design” adds no testable explanation for why particular features appeared where they did, or why their order of acquisition differed between lineages.

Nor does uncertainty about whether Norellraptor itself could sustain powered flight offer creationism a refuge. The researchers distinguish the evidence for flight-associated anatomy from the stronger claim that this animal was a powered flier. That distinction is a strength of science: conclusions remain proportionate to the evidence, and competing evolutionary explanations can be tested against further discoveries. Unanswered questions are invitations to investigate, not evidence of supernatural intervention.

For young-Earth creationists, the geological setting adds another difficulty. These remains belong to an Early Cretaceous world that existed more than 100 million years before their proposed creation date. Together, the fossil’s anatomy and its geological context reveal a history of branching descent, changing environments and evolutionary innovation. No plan or magical assembly is required — only inherited variation, natural selection and the contingent opportunities of a world that was never standing still.

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