Four-Winged Dinosaur Discovered: 5 Fast Facts About Changyuraptor Yangi

Researchers have discovered the largest four-winged dinosaur known to man and the discovery is nothing short of amazing. The feathered dinosaur, which was discovered in 2012 in the Liaoning province in northeastern China, is believed to be 125 million years old and the finding may provide valuable insight regarding how the dinosaurs flew.

"The vast majority of feathered dinosaurs in Liaoning are collected by farmers who live there," said study author Luis Chiappe, a paleontologist and director of the Dinosaur Institute at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, to Live Science.

Here are four fast facts about the newly discovered four-winged dinosaur:

1. The four-winged dinosaur is named Changyuraptor yangi.

2. The dinosaur is a microraptorine, which is a predatory dinosaur with feathers that is related to well-known raptor dinosaurs. "Microraptorines are thought to be very close cousins of birds, sharing a common raptor ancestor," Chiappe told Live Science. "It's not known yet whether a four-wing body is something unique to microraptorines, or something the common ancestor of birds and microraptorines had, that was later lost in the bird lineage."

3. The Changyuraptor is estimated to measure 4 feet in length and weigh 9 pounds. According to Chiappe, these measurements indicate that the raptor specimen is 60 percent bigger than the largest species discovered previously.

4. Where did it live? The Changyuraptor lived in an area with "a broad peninsula or wedge into the ocean, with volcanoes," Chiappe said. "It was a moist temperate forest, mostly of conifer trees and gingkos, with dry hot summers and pretty cold winters. There were a variety of meat-eating and plant-eating dinosaurs in the area, including Yutyrannus, a feathered relative of Tyrannosaurus maybe 27 to 30 feet (8.2 to 9.1 m) long."

5. In terms of food, the Changyuraptor could have consumed fish and birds based on fossil findings. "We think Changyuraptor may have gone after small prey like birds, lizards, salamanders, fish and mammals," Chiappe said.