Four-Winged Dinosaurs, Bird Precursors, or Neither?

New fossil specimens from the Early Cretaceous lakebeds of Liaoning, in northeastern China, are once again bridging the various aspects of vertebrate evolution. The latest findings are of a small carnivorous dinosaur called Microraptor gui, an animal that seems to have very long feathers attached to the hind limbs, arms and tail. These feathers are believed to have created a "four-winged" gliding planform and that this should be seen as an incipient stage in the origin of bird flight.