The WHY It Is

12/06/2025

11/22/2025

Microraptor was more than a small feathered dinosaur. It was a window into one of the most important evolutionary transitions in Earth’s history. A creature that lived nearly 120 million years ago during the early Cretaceous, Microraptor carried the blueprint of flight on its tiny frame. And every new discovery about it brings us closer to understanding how dinosaurs slowly lifted off the ground and gave rise to the first true birds. The twist in today’s image is that this Microraptor exhibits leucism a genetic condition that causes partial loss of pigmentation creating pale or patchy feathers. If real such an individual would have been incredibly rare in the wild making this reconstruction even more striking.

Microraptor was small barely reaching one meter in length and was one of the tiniest raptors ever discovered. But size never limited its importance. Fossils found in northeastern China are so exceptionally preserved that paleontologists can study not only bone structure but the arrangement of feathers themselves. These fossils reveal something extraordinary. Microraptor had flight feathers on all four limbs. Wings on its arms and wings on its legs forming an aerodynamic configuration unlike anything alive today.

Its lifestyle likely depended on this unique design. Instead of powered flight like modern birds Microraptor moved through the forests by gliding from tree to tree. Its feathered limbs allowed it to control descent angle speed and direction as it launched itself from branches. This gave it the advantage to surprise prey such as small mammals lizards and insects while also helping it escape larger predators roaming the forest floor. Its feathers also helped regulate temperature and might have played a role in display during social behaviors or mating.

The discovery of Microraptor has reshaped how scientists view the evolution of birds demonstrating that flight did not emerge overnight but through a series of experimental anatomical stages. Four winged gliders like Microraptor represent one of those remarkable evolutionary experiments written through time in delicate feathers.

Strange fact: Microraptor fossils are so well preserved that scientists have identified traces of melanosomes pigment structures revealing that many individuals had iridescent glossy feathers similar to a modern crow.

11/10/2025

Can you believe Kim Kardashian didn’t pass the BAR exam?! Shocking..

10/26/2025

10/04/2025

09/11/2025

With Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology – I just got recognized as one of their top fans! 🎉

09/10/2025

https://youtube.com/shorts/k3yZjgwcCtA?si=7zhnqK8tEhZ0-DWA

09/06/2025

Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, thoughts?

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09/01/2025

08/26/2025

Brachiosaurus actually made it to the Early Cretaceous period.
DILOPHOSAURUS, however, DID only live in the Jurassic period

08/19/2025

Immunologist | Microbiologist | Biomedical scientist. Providing you the facts, the fiction, and the fraud behind science and health topics.

Come for the science, stay for the snark.

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08/17/2025