Dino card No. 1926 of 2,027

Wulong

Say it: WOO-long

Name means: “dancing dragon”1

Ate: MeatRaptorsEarly Cretaceous

Wulong was a tiny, feathered dinosaur that lived about 120 million years ago in what is now China. It had long tail feathers and looked a bit like a bird, but it was actually a fierce little hunter related to Velociraptor.1

Lived

121 to 113 million years ago3

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Liaoning Province, China1 3

Food

Meat3

Length

0.9 to 1 m1

estimated from a juvenile specimen

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

as long as 2 house cats nose to tailas long as 6 bananas end to end

How big was Wulong compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

cool stuff

Fun facts

Wulong was only about 1 year old when it died, and it was still growing.1

It had two very long tail feathers that were more than 12 centimeters (about 5 inches) long, probably used for display.2

Wulong had feathers on its arms, legs, and tail, including fluffy down feathers and stiff flight feathers.1

Its skeleton was found lying in a natural pose, with all bones still connected.2

Wulong had more than 29 bones in its tail, which helped make it a good runner and jumper.2

Scientists studied the inside of Wulong's leg bones to figure out its age, the first time this was done for a microraptorine dinosaur.1

AI-made picture of Wulong — An AI-made picture of how Wulong might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

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Myth buster

Myth: Some people think all dinosaurs with feathers could fly like birds.

Truth: Wulong had feathers but could not fly. It used its feathers for warmth, display, and maybe gliding short distances.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Wulong
Named by: Poust et al. 20203
Group: Raptors
Family / clade: Dromaeosauridae3
Classification: Theropoda > Dromaeosauridae3
Age of the rocks: 121 to 113 million years (Aptian)3
Rock formations: Jiufotang3
Countries: China3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Wulong was named in 2020 by Ashley Poust and colleagues. The only known fossil was found in the Jiufotang Formation in Liaoning, China.3 1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how big a fully grown Wulong would have been, because the only specimen found so far is a juvenile.1

Where the facts come from

A new microraptorine theropod from the Jehol Biota and growth in early dromaeosaurids (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Description and ontogenetic assessment of a new Jehol microraptorine (scholarworks.montana.edu)
Wulong in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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