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China’s Feathered Dinosaurs
Three-fingered left hand of Protarchaeopteryx
The thumb is on the bottom, the index fingeris the
longest, and the middle finger lies behind the others.
CLOSE WINDOW
used their arms to capture prey but later used them for flight. All maniraptors, flighted or not, possess
a unique wrist bone, the semilunate carpal, that moves with the hand in a broad, flat, 190 degree arc.
Powered by heavy chest muscles, the bones of the arm link together with the wrist so as to force
the grasping hands to spread out toward the prey during the forestroke/downstroke and fold in on
the prey during the backstroke/upstroke. As shown in the video in the adjoining room, these motions
play crucial roles in the highly complex flight stroke of modern-day birds.