NOVA: The Four-Winged Dinosaur  (2008)

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NOVA: The Four-Winged Dinosaur

Paleontological research and understanding took a stunning leap forward in the year of 2002, when a team of scientists, working diligently in Eastern China, discovered a beautiful and yet terminally odd artifact: a fossil, estimated at around 130 million years old, of a crow-sized flying creature (dubbed 'Microraptor,' by Chinese archaeologist Xu Xing). The animal in question had four wings - two on its legs, and two on its arms. Scientists now theorize that this creature - and other feather-covered dinosaurs not unlike it - were buried and fossilized by the eruption of a nearby volcano. The PBS special NOVA: The Four-Winged Dinosaur journeys to the site of the discovery and joins a team of scientists from multiple fields, including aeromechanics, biomechanics and paleontology. The experts speculate at length on the flying methods of this strange species, and subsequently create a scale replica of the same creature, testing its flying abilities within a wind tunnel in an attempt to gain more scientific insight into Microraptor. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide