At some point in the age of the dinosaurs, evolution diverged, and we were left with the infamous velociraptor and the not-so-intimidating microraptor, a close descendent of modern birds. The latest addition to that group is Changyuraptor yangi (C. yangi for short), a newly discovered four-winged animal that weighed about nine pounds and measured 51 inches from snout to tail.

Unearthed in China, C. yangi looks slightly less elegant now — like someone stapled feathers onto an overweight lizard — but the 125-million-year-old fossil can provide some clues into the evolution of flight, according to a paper on the animal published in Nature Communications. C. yangi likely used its hind wings for pitch control, according to the paper, letting it slow down to prepare for a landing.

Although feathered dinosaurs have been turning up since 1996 — frequently, like this one, in what's now China's Liaoning province — C. yangi is the largest four-winged dinosaur discovered yet. Researchers assumed a small body was required for flight, but C. yangi, four times as heavy as many of it cousins, expands that definition.

It was also a meat-eater, but doesn't sound especially vicious; one of the paper's authors told the Guardian it was like "a big turkey with a really long tail."