Dinosaurs Come in All Sizes

Everyone is familiar with massive dinosaurs such as the T-Rex, which could be up to 40 feet long. But did you know that dinosaurs came in small sizes too? The smallest dinosaur ever found weighed less than 1/10^th of an ounce and was about the size of a hummingbird. The dinosaur, known as an Oculudentavis, was discovered inside a piece of amber. It is one of only a few dinosaurs that were fossilized in amber to have been discovered. Scans were able to be completed on the fossil without disturbing the amber, so it remains intact. You can read more about amber here.

The Oculudentavis is so unique, that it was originally classified as a primitive bird and controversy still exists over its current classification as a dinosaur. It shares a similar skull shape with a bird; however, it has many lizard-like traits that are not present in birds. Some of these traits include the teeth being fused to the jaw as well as the connections of certain skull bones. The Oculudentavis has sharp teeth and likely ate insects for food. Its small size could be in response to limited food sources that were available in their habitat in prehistoric Myanmar about 100 million years ago.

Most of the dinosaurs in our parks are HUGE, but you can check out some fossils in our museums.