A stunningly preserved fossil of a tiny four-winged dinosaur found in China suggests that flight evolved more than once among dinosaurs. The discovery was reported in Nature Communications on September 29.

The new species, named Norellraptor barsboldi, was just 57 centimetres long and about three years old when it died. It lived in what is now Liaoning province between 145 million and 100 million years ago.

The small predator belonged to the microraptorines, a group of feathered dinosaurs with wings on both arms and legs. Researchers found its path toward flight looked strikingly different from the one birds took, pointing to convergent evolution, much like whales and fish independently developing fins.

The fossil was discovered by a local farmer and described by scientists from China, Italy and Slovakia. It is named in honour of palaeontologists Mark Norell and Rinchen Barsbold, who both died in 2025.

The find adds to a growing body of evidence that birds and their closest relatives evolved flight several times, rather than through one single lineage. Each new fossil sharpens our picture of how life took to the skies.