Unearthed: bird-like dinosaur with four wings

Chinese researchers have unearthed the fossil of a bird-like dinosaur with four wings in north-eastern China, which they suggest is a missing link in dinosaurs' evolution into birds.

In a paper in the journal Nature, they said they found the well-preserved fossil of the Anchiornis huxleyi, which roamed the earth about 160 million years ago, in a geological formation in China's north-eastern Liaoning province.

About the size of a chicken, the fossil has a total body length of less than 50 centimetres and a skull about six centimetres long, lead researcher Xing Xu at the Chinese Academy of Science in Beijing told Reuters in an email.

This finding suggests that birds are likely to be descended from a kind of small-sized four-winged dinosaur about 160 million years ago.