Feathered Dinosaur Solves a 120-Million-Year Fossil Mystery

Jian changmaensis is a barn-owl-sized, four-winged feathered dinosaur from 120-million-year-old rocks in Gansu, China.

It is the first non-bird dinosaur ever found at a site packed with hundreds of fossil birds.

Its arrival may explain mysterious crushed bird bones squashed into owl-pellet-like clumps.

A cousin of Velociraptor, it likely glided between trees and hunted early birds like Gansus.

The study was published in the Annals of Carnegie Museum in June 2026.