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Published online 23 January 2003 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news030120-7
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Fossil boosts trees-down start for flight
Four-winged dinosaur fuels debate over evolution of air-borne birds.
The discovery in China of a remarkable dinosaur with birdlike feathers on its hindlimbs and tail as well as its forelimbs will re-ignite debate about the origins of birds, feathers and flight.
Xing Xu from the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology in Beijing and his colleagues found six specimens of the new, 77-cm-long dinosaur in the fossil beds of Liaoning Province, in the north-east of China1.
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