The world’s smallest dinosaur has been discovered entombed inBurmese amber.
It had wings, bulging lizard like eyes and a beak packed with 100 sharp teeth – and measured just two inches long.
The unprecedented discovery has ‘blown away’ scientists. The miniature bird-like dinosaur ‘looks like it just died yesterday’, say the international team.
It lived in Myanmar 100 million years ago – at the same time as its giant reptilian cousins.
T Rex was roaming Earth while the pterodactyls – the biggestcreatures ever to fly – glided across the skies.
Named Oculudentavis khaungraae, it died when a blob of sticky treeresin fell on its head – leaving its tiny skull frozen in time.
The exquisitely preserved details – including relatively long jawsand razor sharp teeth – are visible in 3D.
Smaller than a blackcurrent, the quarter inch specimen enabledresearchers to create a computer generated image of the bizarre animal’s wholebody.
It would have been roughly the same size as today’s smallest avian– the bee hummingbird found only in Cuba.
The once in a lifetime discovery also sheds fresh light on birdevolution. Our feathered friends are known to have evolved from the dinosaurs.
Oculudentavis, meaning ‘eye tooth bird’, would have weighed less than an ounce – and could have danced in the palm of your hand.
Corrresponding author Professor Jingma O’Connor, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: ‘I was completely blown away. You can see this beautiful, tiny bird skull preserved within this piece of amber.
‘I was going around showing it to everyone, like ‘look at this, it’s so cool! To a palaeontologist, it’s weird. We’ve never seen anything like it. I definitely couldn’t keep a lid on this one!’
She said Oculudentavis, described in Nature, shows dinosaurs camein all shapes and sizes.
Prof O’Connor said: ‘It’s a little smaller than a bee hummingbird – the smallest bird alive today.
‘The jaws are filled with 100 teeth. It had these weird eyes staring out looking to the sides. There’s nothing like this alive today.
‘It’s just incredible to uncover this new ecological niche we never even knew existed.’
Oculudentavis had large eye sockets, similar to a lizard’s, with anarrow opening that only let in a small amount of light. This means it was onlyactive in day time.
The evidence points to it being a predatory dinosaur – despite itssize. It would have fed on small insects, said Prof O’Connor.
This is a completely different lifestyle to similar sized modernbirds which have no teeth – and rely on nectar.
It’s just incredible to uncover this new ecological niche we never even knew existed.’
Co author Professor Lars Schmitz, of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, said: ‘Amber preservation of vertebrates is rare, and this provides us a window into the world of dinosaurs at the lowest end of the body-size spectrum.
‘Its unique anatomical features point to one of the smallest and most ancient birds ever found.’
The stunning discovery adds to a remarkable collection ofCretaceous-period fossils from the amber deposits in northern Myanmar’s HukawngValley.
The region has yielded beautiful bird wings, a spectacularfeathered tail of a meat eating dinosaur, an entire hatchling bird and eventicks that feasted on dinosaurs.
Prof O’Connor and colleagues studied the animal’s unique featuresusing CT (computer tomography) and other scanning devices.
The shape and size of the eyes indicated a diurnal lifestyle, butalso revealed surprising similarities to those of modern lizards.
There was also a pattern of fusion in the bones of the skull thathas never been sen before – as well as the presence of teeth.
The researchers said the specimen’s tiny size and unusual formsuggests a ‘one of a kind’ combination of features.
Oculudentavis fills a vital gap in the fossil record and providesnew implications for understanding the evolution of birds, said theresearchers.
It demonstrates the extreme miniaturisation of avian body sizesearly in the evolutionary process.
The dinosaur’s remarkable preservation also highlights amberdeposits’ potential to reveal the lowest limits of vertebrate body size.
Prof Schmitz said: ‘No other group of living birds features species with similarly small crania in adults.
‘This discovery shows us that we have only a small glimpse of what tiny vertebrates looked like in the age of the dinosaurs.’
British palaeobiologist Prof Roger Benson, who was not involved inthe study, said the fossil suggests some of the earliest birds evolved tobecome miniature.
It also illustrates how ancient amber can act as a window into thedistant past.
Prof Benson, of Oxford University, said: ‘The study of small vertebrates preserved in amber, their ecosystems and their evolutionary relationships with one another is in a nascent phase.
‘But Oculudentavis suggests the potential for continued discovery remains large – especially for animals of diminutive sizes.’
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