Cryptovolans is extraordinary for being the first known dinosaur to have flight-capable feathers on its legs as well as on its arms. It also had feathers on the ending of its long tail, and probably on the rest of its body. It is supposed that Cryptovolans may have been able to fly better than Archaeopteryx, the animal usually referred as the earliest known bird. Possessing a keel and ribs with an uncinate procedure, Cryptovolans has modern bird skin which are absent in Archaeopteryx.
Cryptovolans, a four winged bird. The flight feathers on the hind legs gives Cryptovolans the appearance of being a bird equipped with four wings. It was originally thought that animals like Cryptovolans did not have any wings because they supposedly represented the ancestors of birds before flight had evolved. The discovery that Cryptovolans had the ability to fly revealed that dromaeosaurs were actually birds. Sculpture by Stephen Czerkas, © 2005.
Cryptovolans head shot.
Cryptovolans means "hidden-flyer". It was a primitive bird that still had teeth. Sculpture by Stephen Czerkas, © 2005.
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