Velociraptor's feathery dinosaur ancestor discovered

Video caption, Dr Steve Brusatte talks about the discovery of the winged dinosaur fossil

Scientists have discovered a new feathery dinosaur in China, which they believe was an ancestor of the Velociraptor.

The 125 million year old fossil, called Zhenyuanlong, is almost perfectly preserved and covered in feathers.

Experts believe it shows that lots more dinosaurs would have looked like "big, fluffy killer birds".

Image source, Zhao Chuang

Image caption, An artist's impression of Zhenyuanlong shows how strange this feathered beast may have looked

Lead researcher Dr Steve Brusatte said the discovery would blow some people's minds.

Mind blowing

He added that although Zhenyuanlong had wings, it's large body might have meant it was too heavy to fly.

Dr Steve said: "It will blow some people's minds to realise that those dinosaurs in the movies would have been even weirder, and I think even scarier - like big fluffy birds from hell."

The dinosaur has been named Zhenyuanlong, meaning "Zhenyuan's dragon", in honour of the man who gave the fossil to the museum.