Two years ago, a farmer in north-eastern China, found a beautiful fossil. When the scientists saw the new specimen, they were sure it was a dinosaur. Studying the well preserved and almost complete skeleton, the scientists took note of the creature’s sparrow-size body, the quill-like feathers on its neck, and its short, thick tail. However, on a closer look at the left arm, they saw a thin bone coming down from its wrist—a rod as long as the entire forearm, but not jointed like a finger. They knew they had found another bat-winged dinosaur. One of the scientists, Wang, says “Hold your arm out to the side, palm facing forward. Imagine a bony rod extending downward from your wrist. Now imagine that rod supports a membrane that stretches from your fingertips to your side.” That’s how Wang saw the new dinosaur—a feathered animal with a pair of bat-like wings. He named it Ambopteryx longibranchus, from the Latin for “both wings, long upper arm.” It is actually the second bat-winged dinosaur to be found. The first was also spotted in north-eastern China, and named Yi qi, after the Mandarin for “strange wing,” as it also had a long wrist-rod that likely supported a leathery membrane.
It was an amazing discovery, which removed a clean divide between two styles of prehistoric flight. The dinosaurs took to the skies by transforming insulating frizzy hair into elegant, flattened feathers, and eventually giving rise to birds. The pterosaurs—often bundled together with dinosaurs, but actually a very different kind of reptile—did so by lengthening their fingers to support membranes, creating a style of wing that bats later reinvented. However, Yi straddled both worlds. It was a dinosaur that independently evolved the leathery wings of pterosaurs, and covered their leading edges with indistinct primitive-feathers. Since its unveiling, paleontologists have hoped that something similar might show itself to either confirm or refute the interpretation of Yi qi. The discovery of Ambopteryx does the former. Its fossilized arms are folded, so it’s hard to reconstruct their outstretched shape. But the fact that the wrist-rod stows away into a sensible position also backs up the idea that it supported a leathery wing. “After all, an animal wing has to fold up properly when not in use,” say the scientists. “It’s a fascinating find, which confirms that dinosaurs took flight multiple times and in very different ways.”
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GmatWhiz1. The passage is primarily concerned with-A. challenging the implications of a previous discovery by analyzing a current discovery.
B. defending two hypotheses about evolution of flight in different types of an extinct species.
C. presenting and discussing the significance of a discovery in confirming the implications of an earlier discovery concerning flight in dinosaurs.
D. discussing the evidence presented by a discovery that has caused a long‐ standing belief to be revised
E. describing the development of physical features that enabled dinosaurs to evolve into flying creatures.
2. Which of the following best describes the “clean divide” between two styles of prehistoric flight?A. Dinosaurs converted their hair into feathers and pterosaurs grew their fingers into feathers.
B. The dinosaurs and pterosaurs did not share any commonality in the mechanism of evolving flight.
C. A dinosaur could not have evolved the mechanism of flight in a manner similar to that of a pterosaur.
D. Dinosaurs were a separate category that the totally different reptilian pterosaurs.
E. A pterosaur was a reptile and its mechanism of flight cannot be compared to that of a dinosaur.
3. According to the passage, the “interpretation of Yi qi” refers to the idea that Yi qi. A. could fly like a pterosaur even though it was a dinosaur.
B. had the best of the features of both the dinosaurs and the pterosaurs.
C. was a reptile that had learnt to fly by transforming its frizzy hair into wings.
D. was a dinosaur but had evolved bat-like wings the way pterosaurs had done.
E. had started flying by elongating its fingers to support a leathery wing-like membrane.
Which of the following is a product of Wang’s imagination of “a feathered animal with a pair of bat-like wings”?A. Wing-like membrane.
B. Stubby tail
C. Sharp pointed feathers on the neck
D. Long thin rod-like bone attached to the wrist.
E. Small body resembling a small bird’s
28 Oct 2021, 10:52
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