This tiny dinosaur had webbed wings like a bat

Not all dinosaurs fly the same.

New fossil evidence suggests that flight evolved in prehistoric animals in multiple ways — there were the pterosaurs, flying reptiles that we often think of as dinosaurs; "avian" dinosaurs, which eventually evolved into birds; and our newest find, a group of non-avian dinosaurs that evolved membranous wings, like a bat or a flying squirrel.

The new evidence, published in Nature on Wednesday, consists of a 163-million-year-old fossil found in the Liaoning province of China. It's the second such fossil found, but this one is a much clearer picture of the creature — even its feathers and soft tissue were preserved, Gizmodo reported. It was given the name Ambopteryx longibrachium, alluding to its similarity to pterosaurs, as well as its long forelimbs.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

When the fossil was first discovered, scientists thought it might even be the fossil of a bird, National Geographic reported. In reality, it bears more resemblance to "a little, creepy-looking dinosaur squirrel," said Jingmai O'Connor, the study's co-author. The specimen is thought to have weighed less than a pound, about the size of a pigeon.

But despite its diminutive nature, this fossil is helping scientists make big strides in studying the way flight evolved. Learn more about the ongoing research at National Geographic.