Washington, Dec 22 (IANS) Researchers have stumbled on the remains of the first ever venomous, birdlike raptor that flourished 128 million years ago in China.
“This thing is a venomous bird for all intents and purposes,” said study leader Larry Martin, Kansas University (KU) professor and curator at the Natural History Museum.

“This is an animal about the size of a turkey,” said Martin. “It’s a specialised predator of small dinosaurs and birds. It was almost certainly feathered. It’s a very close relative of the four-winged glider called Microraptor.”

The venom most likely sent the victim into rapid shock, shrinking the odds of retaliation, escape or piracy from other predators while the raptor manipulated its prey.

This dromaeosaur or raptor, Sinornithosaurus (Chinese-bird-lizard), is a close kin of Velociraptor. It lived in prehistoric forests of northeastern China that were filled with a diverse assemblage of animals including other primitive birds and dinosaurs.

“You wouldn’t have seen it coming,” said KU study co-author David Burnham. “It would have swooped down behind you from a low-hanging tree branch and attacked from the back. It wanted to get its jaws around you.”

“Once the teeth were embedded in your skin the venom could seep into the wound. The prey would rapidly go into shock, but it would still be living, and it might have seen itself being slowly devoured by this raptor,” said Burnham, according to a university release.

“When we were looking at Sinornithosaurus, we realised that its teeth were unusual, and then we began to look at the whole structure of the teeth and jaw, and at that point, we realised it was similar to modern-day snakes,” Martin said.

Sinornithosaurus is represented by at least two species. These specimens have features consistent with a primitive venom-delivery system.

These findings were published in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.