A newly discovered feathered dinosaur with four wing-like limbs may have prowled the lakeside forests of what is now northwestern China, gliding between trees like a flying squirrel and snatching some of the earliest birds out of the Cretaceous sky.

The predator, named Jian changmaensis, was a close cousin of Velociraptor and belonged to a strange group of small birdlike dinosaurs called microraptors. Unlike the large and scaly "Jurassic Park" version of raptors, these animals were feathered, lightweight and glided to get around. Based on fossil evidence, J. changmaensis had long feathers on both its arms and legs, giving it the look of a tiny dragon with four wings.