Microraptor — Claw
A grasping sickle scaled to a sparrow's reach.
Cast from the recurved foot claw of a glider that weighed roughly as much as a pigeon, this piece traces the keratin sheath over the bony core to capture the hooked profile used for perching and seizing small prey. Mounted alone, it distills the predatory instrument of a feathered animal smaller than a crow into a single, arresting line.
The cast is hand-finished with attention to the fine groove along the claw's underside, so the curve catches light cleanly whether displayed upright or laid flat.
Preserved gut contents attributed to Microraptor include the remains of a bird, a fish, a mammal, and a lizard, marking it as a generalist hunter of small prey.
It ranks among the smallest of all known dinosaurs, with a total length around two and a half feet and an estimated body mass near one kilogram.
Its curved foot claws and limb proportions have been read as evidence of a partly arboreal life, gliding between perches in the Early Cretaceous forests of what is now northeastern China.
Microraptor — Claw
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