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A small feathered dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of China, about 160 million years ago. Only about 60 centimeters long, Anchiornis had wing-feathers on its forelimbs and shorter wings on its hindlimbs. The fossilized feathers preserved melanosomes, which allowed Anchiornis the distinction of being the first Mesozoic dinosaur to have its color reconstructed. We now know it was gray/black with a reddish crest and white-banded wings.
Almost certainly not a flying theropod, Anchiornis and its close relatives have bounced around the paravian family tree - sometimes found as basal avialans, sometimes as troodontids and sometimes as more primitive than the split between both groups. As non-fliers, resolving their phylogenetic position will help us understand how close some groups got to flight, and how many times incipient flight may have evolved.
