People were shocked to see the strange creature with the head of a dinosaur and the body of a bird

A study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution has revealed that a bizarre creature that lived in China about 120 million years ago had the head of a dinosaur and the body of a bird.

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) studied the recently discovered complete fossil of an organism called Cratonavis zhui.

They found that the chicken-sized hybrid had long shoulder blades and claws, but its large skull had roughly the same shape as T-rex and other meat-eating theropods.

The researchers studied the fossil using high-resolution computed tomography, or CT scans.

This enabled them to digitally manipulate the bones of the specimen and reconstruct the original shape of the skull, and even deduce some of its dinosaur-related functions.

According to the study, the team also analyzed Cratonavis' shoulder blade and metatarsal, a long bone in the foot that connects the ankle to the toes, to understand more about its bird-like body.

They confirmed that the creature's skull was morphologically closer to that of a dinosaur than to that of standard birds.

Li Zhiheng, a lead author of the study, said, "The primitive cranial features speak to the fact that most Cretaceous birds such as Cratonavis could not move their upper bill independently in relation to the braincase and lower jaw, the most common among living birds." A widely distributed functional innovation that contributes to their enormous ecological diversity." 

As for the creature's shoulder blade, the researchers explain that it was "functionally critical" to avian flight, meaning it helped Kratonavis exhibit strong stability and flexibility during aerial travel.

The new study also showed that the first metatarsal (toe bone) was subjected to selection during the dinosaur-bird transition to favor a smaller bone.

Once it reached its optimal size, less than a quarter of the length of the second metatarsal, it lost its evolutionary potential.

The study fills in some gaps in how some dinosaurs evolved into birds, the researchers said.

The strange creature's unique mix of anatomy is also indicative of how all living things represent a surge of change, and birds of all feathers evolved together along a variety of different paths.

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