# Microraptor zhaoianus

> A crow-sized, four-winged dromaeosaurid from the Early Cretaceous of Liaoning, China, with long flight feathers on its arms and legs and glossy, iridescent black plumage. Fossils show it ate birds, fish, lizards and mammals.

- Classification: Dinosauria (clade) > Saurischia (clade) > Theropoda (clade) > Coelurosauria (clade) > Maniraptora (clade) > Dromaeosauridae (family) > Microraptorinae (subfamily) > Microraptor (genus) > Microraptor zhaoianus (species)
- Length: 0.8 m
- Hip height: 0.2–0.2 m
- Mass: 0.5–1.4 kg
- Age: 121.4–113.2 million years ago (Early Cretaceous)
- Fossils found in: Jiufotang Formation (Liaoning); China
- Diet: carnivore, piscivore
- Described: Xu Xing, Zhou Zhonghe & Wang Xiaolin, 2000

Canonical page: https://dinodex.club/dinosaurs/microraptor-zhaoianus
Last updated: 2026-09-27

## Overview

Microraptor zhaoianus lived in north-eastern China in the Early Cretaceous, in the forested lake country of the Jehol Biota. Xu Xing and colleagues named it in 2000 from the Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning as the smallest known non-bird dinosaur, smaller than Archaeopteryx.

Later specimens showed long flight feathers not only on its arms but also on its legs, so it had four wings; Xu et al. (2003) suggested that it could glide, a possible stage on the way to flapping flight. Its melanosomes match those of birds with glossy, iridescent black feathers (Li et al. 2012).

Stomach contents reveal a varied diet: an enantiornithine bird in one specimen (O'Connor et al. 2011), and fish, a lizard and a small mammal in others. Part of the first Microraptor bones had been glued into the fake "Archaeoraptor" sold in 1999.

## Name meaning

"Small plunderer", from Greek mikros ("small") and Latin raptor; zhaoianus honours the palaeontologist Zhao Xijin (Xu et al. 2000).

## Sources

1. (2026). Paleobiology Database: Microraptor occurrences. The Paleobiology Database (paleobiodb.org), data service 1.2, accessed 2026-09-23. https://paleobiodb.org/data1.2/occs/list.txt?base_name=Microraptor&show=coords,paleoloc,strat,loc,ref&pgm=gplates
2. (2026). Wikipedia: Microraptor. Wikipedia (English), accessed 2026-09-23. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microraptor
3. Li, Q., Gao, K.-Q., Meng, Q., Clarke, J. A., Shawkey, M. D., D'Alba, L., Pei, R., Ellison, M., Norell, M. A. & Vinther, J. (2012). Reconstruction of Microraptor and the evolution of iridescent plumage. Science 335: 1215-1219. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1213780
4. O'Connor, J., Zhou, Z. & Xu, X. (2011). Additional specimen of Microraptor provides unique evidence of dinosaurs preying on birds. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1117727108
5. Paul, G. S. (2016). The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs (2nd edition). Princeton University Press.
6. Xu, X., Zhou, Z. & Wang, X. (2000). The smallest known non-avian theropod dinosaur. Nature 408: 705-708. https://doi.org/10.1038/35047056
7. Xu, X., Zhou, Z., Wang, X., Kuang, X., Zhang, F. & Du, X. (2003). Four-winged dinosaurs from China. Nature 421: 335-340. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01342

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Cite as: "Microraptor zhaoianus". DinoDex. https://dinodex.club/dinosaurs/microraptor-zhaoianus (updated 2026-09-27).