A newly discovered feathery-limbed dinosaur species unearthed in China adds evidence that dinosaurs evolved toward flight along a path parallel to birds, researchers report in the journal Nature.

The finding suggests that the route to flight was not a single, straight line leading only to modern birds. Other dinosaur lineages were experimenting with flight-related features on their own evolutionary track.

The discovery builds on years of fossil finds showing that feathers and wing-like structures appeared across many dinosaur groups. Each new species sharpens the picture of how flight emerged in the dinosaur family tree.

The parallel path does not change the status of birds as the only surviving flying dinosaurs. But it shows that the innovation of flight was explored more than once, in different lineages, before the age of dinosaurs ended.

Palaeontologists say the Chinese fossil helps explain how flight-related anatomy could evolve independently. More finds like this could reshape how textbooks describe the origin of avian flight.