Story highlights Scientists discover new dinosaur with bat-like wings

However, it might not have been able to fly well

It would have glided rather than flapped

(CNN) Chinese scientists say they have discovered a new dinosaur species, with bat-like wings, that sheds light on how dinosaurs may have evolved into birds.

Based on a fossil specimen discovered in China's Hebei province a decade ago, scientists estimate the bird-like dinosaur existed for a very short time 160 million years ago during the Jurassic Period, according to a new paper published in scientific journal Nature on Wednesday.

The flying creature weighed about 230 grams and was 63 centimeters in length.

Xu Xing, a paleontologist with China's Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, and lead author of the report, told CNN the dinosaur's fossilized remains highlighted the complexity of evolution.

Named Yi qi, or "strange wing" in Chinese, Xu said it was one of the earliest dinosaurs to show some capacity for flight -- even though it wasn't very successful.

Only known specimen of the new dinosaur Yi qi.

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