Buitreraptor gonzalezorum

While having fun at the Midwest Birding Symposium, I forgot to mention this: A skeleton found in Argentina reveals a dinosaur about the size of a rooster and poses the possibility that birdlike flight developed independently in two far-flung locations. Is this cool or what?

The skeleton shares characteristics of Archaeopteryx, long thought to be the precursor of today’s birds. You’ll find details at Scientific American.

Image courtesy of The Field Museum in Chicago