Independent assembly of the flight apparatus in a non-avian dinosaur clade – a misleading headline for a wonderful new fossil with feathers
Quoting from the Wang et al 2026 paper on Norellraptor,
“The scapula is much shorter and gracile than the humerus, and is firmly fused to the coracoid. The latter is trapezoid, with a distinct proximal constriction between the scapular end and the main body.”
That primitive coracoid shape means Norellraptor (30108-MHGU-F4281) did not flap. So it did not fly. So there was no ‘flight apparatus’. Flapping in birds and pterosaurs includes an elongate, locked-down coracoid, elevating the forelimbs, changing LRLR action to up-down. Bats, lacking a coracoid, use the elongate, locked-down clavicle instead.
Long-time readers must be tired of hearing this factoid over and over. Apologies.
The Wang et al cladogram
(their Fig 4) includes too few compsognathids and only one Archaeopteryx, so the authors are stuck in old grooves, missing out on the really interesting (and more accurate) interrelationships.
See the large reptile tree, which minimizes taxon exclusion and so more closely models evolutionary events.
According to the publicity
“The animal is shown aloft, but actually, the paleontologists are not saying it could fly.”
“That microraptorines and birds did not inherit flight apparatus from a common ancestor. They underwent distinct developmental processes, Cau and the team suggest.”
No flight apparatus in Norellraptor. That headline is misleading.
Everyone already knew microraptors and birds evolved separately.
The publicity headlines (links below) dive even deeper into this dodge.
References
Wang, X (6 co-authors) 2026. Independent assembly of the flight apparatus in a non-avian dinosaur clade. Nature Communications. 17 (1). Nature Publishing Group: 10074. doi:10.1038/s41467-026-77804-6
Publicity
discoverwildlife.com/dinosaurs/norellraptor-barsboldi-china
Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2026/09/30/independent-assembly-of-the-flight-apparatus-in-a-non-avian-dinosaur-clade-a-misleading-headline-for-a-wonderful-new-fossil-with-feathers/
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