This dinosaur with bat wings is being called nature's 'failed experiment'

One pigeon-sized dinosaur is creating quite a stir among scientists.

The fossil, found in China's Hebei province, dates to about 160 million years ago, during the Jurassic period. In a new study, published in the journal Nature, researchers studied the fossil's forelimbs and found evidence for wings in its wristbones.

The new species, Yi qi (Mandarin for "strange wing"), had wings that were made from membranes, like bat wings, rather than composed of feathers, like the wings of other dinosaurs. Yi qi is the only known dinosaur with featherless wings. (Pterosaurs, known colloquially as pterodactyls, also had wings made from membranes, but aren't technically classified as dinosaurs.)

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Xu Xing, a paleontologist at China's Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology and co-author of the study, told CNN that Yi qi tried to use its wings to fly, but that was "a failed experiment" and "an evolutionary dead end." Xu said that the researchers aren't sure if Yi qi could flap its wings, and they believe the dinosaur glided through the air.

The fossil is now in a museum in China's Shandong Province, and the scientists plan to look for more Yi qi fossils to study.