Remarkable new finds announced by China’s Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology includes the earliest date yet established for a true bird and a bird-related dinosaur with leathery wings.

In a summary report on their website, Michael Balter said a team of paleontologists led by Min Wang and Zhonghe Zhou found 130 million year old fossils of two ancient wading birds in northeast China. The two remains of Archaeornithura meemannae show many features that belong to modern birds, including fan-shaped tail feathers and “the U-shaped wishbone familiar to anyone who has carved a roast chicken.” The fossils, dating back 130 million years, pushes “back the lineage that led today’s birds by at least 5 million years.” The report suggests this means the origins of true birds is older still. In an article in Nature, scientists from the Institute described a new species of scansoriopterygidae dinosaur they called Yi qi (pron. ‘yee chee’). Not only is this the shortest binomial ever given to a dinosaur, it’s also the first dinosaur found with striking evidence of ‘bat-like’ wings. Although other species of scansoriopterygidae were first described as early as 2002, this is the first fossil found with convincing evidence of membranous wings. Sometimes defined as ‘avian dinosaurs’, the scansoriopterygidae group belongs to a clade that ultimately lead to true birds. While it is not believed the group are direct ancestors of birds, they are examples of yet another evolutionary experiment in flight. Institute palaeontologist Corwin Sullivan said the while the dinosaur probably did not fly like a bird, “our guess would be that Yi qi was gliding or maybe combining gliding with some relatively inefficient flapping.”