Large winged dinosaur closely related to the velociraptor discovered in China

The fossilised remains of a newly identified feathered dinosaur have been unearthed in China.

It is one of the most well preserved feathered dinosaur remains and also the largest of its kind. It has been dubbed the Zhenyuanlong suni and would have been a close relative of the velociraptor, which would have also been winged despite its depiction in the Jurassic Park franchise.

The wings consisted of multiple layers of large feathers and would have been short in comparison to its other family members.

The research paper, which was published in Scientific Reports, states that it belongs to an evolutionary family that consisted of feathered carnivores which lived some 125 million years ago.

The Zhenyuanlong suni would have grown to more than five feet in length and probably wouldn't have been able to fly, the archaeologists state. They add that they're unsure what the purpose of its wings would have been but it probably had them due to evolving from an ancestor that could fly.

Dr Steve Brusatte, of the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences, co-author of the study, said: "This new dinosaur is one of the closest cousins of velociraptor, but it looks just like a bird. It's a dinosaur with huge wings made up of quill pen feathers, just like an eagle or a vulture. The movies have it wrong – this is what velociraptor would have looked like too."

Lead author Professor Junchang Lü, of the Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, said: "The western part of Liaoning Province in China is one of the most famous places in the world for finding dinosaurs. The first feathered dinosaurs were found here and now our discovery of Zhenyuanlong indicates that there is an even higher diversity of feathered dinosaurs than we thought. It's amazing that new feathered dinosaurs are still being found."