Dinosaur Made Meals of Early Birds

Dinosaur Made Meals of Early Birds

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Fossil evidence suggests a feathered but flightless dinosaur was able to snag and consume smaller flying dinosaurs, Canadian paleontologists say. A University of Alberta paleontology team has found the fossilized remains of three flying dinosaurs in the belly of a raptor-like predator called Sinocalliopteryx. Sinocalliopteryx was about 6 feet long and roughly the size of a modern-day wolf.

The creature’s flying meals were three Confuciusornis, one of the earliest birds with a crude version of a modern bird’s skeleton and muscles. Such primitive birds were probably limited to slow takeoffs and short flights, the researchers said. Sinocalliopteryx may have used stealth to stalk the flyers, they said.