The Liaoning Province of northeastern China has yielded a treasure trove of flying dinosaur fossils in recent years. The fossils, in turn, have helped scientists to answer many outstanding questions about when dinosaurs developed feathers, how they flew and about the evolutionary transition from dinosaurs to birds.

The latest discovery from the area is a 125 million year old flying raptor dubbed Changyuraptor yangi. Before you start having nightmares, it is not much like the Velociraptor featured in Jurassic Park. The Changyuraptor was about four feet long, weighed only 9 pounds and looked more like a very large pigeon than a small dragon.

Changyuraptor yangi had a full set of feathers over its entire body, including its hind legs which gave it the impression of having four wings. The most remarkable feature of the ancient animal were its tail feathers.

“At a foot in length, the amazing tail feathers of Changyuraptor are by far the longest of any feathered dinosaur,” said Dr. Luis Chiappe, paleontologist at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM), in a statement.

An analysis of the microstructure of the animals bones, conducted by Dr. Anusuya Chinsamy of the University of Cape Town, shows that the fossil is that of a fully grown adult. Although it appears likely that feathers and flight evolved independent of one another, researchers believe that Changyuraptor was capable of flight.

“Numerous features that we have long associated with birds in fact evolved in dinosaurs long before the first birds arrived on the scene. This includes things such as hollow bones, nesting behavior, feathers…and possibly flight,” said the study’s co-author Dr. Alan Turner of Stony Brook University.

How well the flying dinosaurs used the sky is still a matter of debate. The new find however helps to answer some questions. At nine pounds, safe landings would have been important for the raptor. The large tail feathers would have served as an extra guidance system.

“It makes sense that the largest microraptorines had especially large tail feathers—they would have needed the additional control,” added Dr. Michael Habib, a researcher at the University of Southern California and a co-author of the paper.

Changyuraptor also provides additional evidence that the origin of flight predates the transformation from dinosaurs to birds.

“The new fossil documents that dinosaur flight was not limited to very small animals but to dinosaurs of more substantial size. Clearly far more evidence is needed to understand the nuances of dinosaur flight, but Changyuraptor is a major leap in the right direction,” said Chiappe.