Science News Roundup: 'Dancing dragon' different feathers; SpaceX, 'picture perfect' and more

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

'Dancing dragon' shows feathers grew differently on dinosaurs and birds

An exquisite fossil of a fierce little Chinese dinosaur dubbed the "dancing dragon" that lived 120 million years ago - an older cousin of the Velociraptor - is showing scientists that feathers grew differently on dinosaurs than on birds. The two-legged Cretaceous Period dinosaur, called Wulong bohaiensis, was a bantamweight meat-eater - a bit bigger than a crow - residing in a lakeside environment, researchers said. It possessed a scaly face, a mouth full of pointy teeth and one particularly dangerous toe claw, and probably hunted small mammals, lizards, birds, and fish.

SpaceX says 'picture perfect' test paves way for human mission

Elon Musk's SpaceX simulated a successful emergency landing on Sunday in a dramatic test of a crucial abort system on an unmanned astronaut capsule, a big step its mission to fly NASA astronauts for the first time as soon as this spring. A Crew Dragon astronaut capsule launched at 10:30 a.m. and softly splashed down about 19 miles (32 km) off the coast of Cape Canaveral in Florida about eight minutes later, after ejecting itself from a rocket that cut off its engines 12 miles (19 km) above the ocean to mimic a launch failure.

Bad weather forces delay of SpaceX simulated rocket failure test

Bad weather forced Elon Musk's SpaceX to delay until Sunday a test in which it will destroy one of its own rockets in a trial of a crucial emergency abort system on an unmanned astronaut capsule. The test, the company's final milestone test before flying NASA astronauts from U.S. soil, had been planned to take place on Saturday.

(With inputs from agencies.)