Zhenyuanlong suni: Sun Zhenyuan's Feathery, Meat-Eating Dragon Dinosaur of Liaoning, China

The two paleontologists responsible for the published taxonomy of July 16, 2015, in Scientific Reports -- Junchang Lü of the Institute of Geology at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences in Beijing, China, and Stephen L. Brusatte of the School of GeoSciences at the University of Edinburgh in England -- draw upon different associations when describing Liaoning’s most recent dromaeosaurid in modern terms. Professor Lü emphasizes big chicken, emu, eagle, turkey or vulture resemblances. Professor Brusatte furnishes the whimsical description of a feathered, fluffy poodle despite the holotype’s respectively suspected total lengths and weights of:

• 165 centimeters (64.96 inches); and
• 20 kilograms (44.09 pounds).

They nevertheless give as the binomial, scientific, taxonomic designation Zhenyuanlong suni, Sun Zhenyuan’s dragon. 

Scientists have as the holotype upon which the formal taxonomy draws a fossilized skeleton with crushed rear cranial bones ;

• hair-like body, head, and neck plumes;
• lower jaw; and
• pennaceous (quill-pen-like) arm, tail, and wing feathers.

The specimen is preserved on one slab of fissile (divisible into layers) siltstone (clayey mix, of which 50%+ as silt-sized particles) in Liaoning’s anciently volcanic eruption-riddled Yixian Formation. The slab joins into three distinct, large pieces:

• head with anterior back and ribcage, arms, neck, pectoral girdles;
• posterior back and ribcage with legs, pelvic girdles; and
• tail.

The first piece keeps a smooth fit with the second whereas the second piece’s ilium knits less closely to the third’s left ilial postero-ventral corner. 

Featherless hind-limbs, larger size, and shorter fore-limbs nevertheless leave paleontologists guesstimating Zhenyuanlong suni’s life cycle and natural history as: 

• sharp-toothed carnivore;
• shiny-winged contemporary 125,000,000 years ago of amphibians, dinosaur-eating repenomamuses, salamanders, and Yutyrannus huali; and
• short-armed cover for eggs and hatchlings.  

Appearances indeed make flying or gliding seem impossible feats for Sun Zhenyuan’s dragon. The deep truths behind Zhenyuanlong suni’s definite foreshadowing of Velociraptor’s (of Jurassic Park fame) emergence 65,000,000 to 75,000,000 years later and possible descent from flying ancestors therefore necessitate further research.

The above-mentioned fossil of a sickle-clawed sub-adult of fused caudal and cervical vertebral and semi-fused anterior dorsal and sacral vertebral neural arches and centra nevertheless offers hope for twenty-first century resolutions to ancient mysteries. 

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Phylogenetic relationships of Zhenyuanlong suni among dromaeosaurid theropods.
Zhenyuanlong joins five other Liaoning fossils (Changyuraptor, Graciliraptor, Microraptor, Sinornithosaurus, Tianyuraptor) in assignment to Dromaeosauridae ("Running Lizards") family.
Lü & Brusatte, "A large, short-armed, winged dromaeosaurid," Scientific Reports 5, Article no. 11775 (July 16, 2015), Fig. 5: Junchang Lü & Stephen L. Brusatte, CC BY 4.0, via Nature Publishing Group @ https://www.nature.com/articles/srep11775

Zhenyuanlong suni had tail feathers similar to those of Archeopteryx, a bird-like dinosaur native to area of modern-day Germany in Late Jurassic period, 147 million years ago.
Archaeopteryx lithographica chasing a juvenile compsognathid (Compsognathus longipes) through a dark forest: Durbed, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Archaeopteryx_lithographica_by_durbed.jpg

fossil specimen of Zhenyuanlong suni
holotype of large-bodied, short-armed Liaoning dromaeosaurid Zhenyuanlong suni
Lü & Brusatte, "A large, short-armed, winged dromaeosaurid," Scientific Reports 5, Article no. 11775 (July 16, 2015), Fig. 1: Junchang Lü & Stephen L. Brusatte, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zhenyuanlong.jpg; Junchang Lu, Usage restrictions None, via EurekAlert! @ https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/759410 (specific image URL @ https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/899786)

"Zhenyuanlong suni: biggest ever winged dinosaur is found in China" (2:39)
Uploaded July 16, 2015, by Megiston to YouTube ~ URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff8mQtj0RZI

preserved feather traces of fossil Zhenyuanlong suni
University of Edinburgh, "Feathered cousin of 'Jurassic Park' star unearthed in China," EurekAlert News Release July 16, 2015: Junchang Lü, Usage restrictions None, via EurekAlert!/AAAS @ https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/759410; (specific image URL @ https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/899785)

Stephen L. Brusatte describes Zhenyuanlong suni as "fluffy feathered killer"with "sharp claws on its wings and a mouth full of teeth".
artist's interpretation of Zhenyuanlong suni commissioned by research team: artwork by Chuang Zhao, currently China's only Paleo-art specialist
University of Edinburgh, "Feathered cousin of 'Jurassic Park' star unearthed in China," EurekAlert News Release July 16, 2015: Chuang Zhao, Usage restrictions None, via EurekAlert!/AAAS @ https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/759410; (specific image URL @ https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/899784)

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