In June 2000, scientists announced their discovery of a 220 million-year-old fossilised animal. The animal, named Longisquama Insignis, had appendages on its back which were hollow and had other characteristics which are seen today in birds’ feathers. This creature probably used its primitive feathers to glide between trees 75 million years before the first birds evolved.

The fossil was originally discovered by a Russian palaeoentomologist in the late 1960s but it was not until it became part of a travelling Russian dinosaur exhibit in the 1990s that US scientists were able to scrutinise it. The feathers were long and protruded from the back of the creature, which predates the dinosaurs. Further study of this creature should provide valuable insights into the origin of birds, and has already caused controversies in the palaeontological world