(https://www.foxnews.com/science/worlds-smallest-dinosaur-discovered)
>The world's smallest dinosaur has been found, a two-inch bird-like creature that "looks like it just died yesterday."
Known as Oculudentavis khaungraae, the bird-like dinosaur was found encased in Burmese amber in 2016 and likely lived in Myanmar 100 million years ago, according to a study published in Nature. The creature died when a small amount of tree resin fell on its head, eventually entombing its skull.
>"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," the study's lead author, Lars Schmitz, said in a statement. "Its unique anatomical features point to one of the smallest and most ancient birds ever found."
O. khaungraae likely weighed less than an ounce and is believed to be on par with the smallest bird alive today, the bee hummingbird, which resides only in Cuba. Despite its tiny size, it's believed that the diminutive dinosaur was likely a predator, feeding on insects.
It also had wings, a pair of bulging eyes, similar to a lizard, and a beak with approximately 30 teeth, all of which can be viewed thanks to a computer-generated 3-D image. It's unclear if the dinosaur was able to fly, one of the study's co-authors, professor Jingma O'Connor, told Newsweek, noting its "weird" and "incomplete" features.
>"I was completely blown away. You can see this beautiful, tiny bird skull preserved within this piece of amber," O'Connor, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in a separate interview with British news agency SWNS. "I was going around showing it to everyone, like 'look at this, it's so cool!'"
>"To a paleontologist, it's weird. We've never seen anything like it," O'Connor added. "I definitely couldn't keep a lid on this one!"
>The world's smallest dinosaur has been found, a two-inch bird-like creature that "looks like it just died yesterday."
Known as Oculudentavis khaungraae, the bird-like dinosaur was found encased in Burmese amber in 2016 and likely lived in Myanmar 100 million years ago, according to a study published in Nature. The creature died when a small amount of tree resin fell on its head, eventually entombing its skull.
>"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," the study's lead author, Lars Schmitz, said in a statement. "Its unique anatomical features point to one of the smallest and most ancient birds ever found."
O. khaungraae likely weighed less than an ounce and is believed to be on par with the smallest bird alive today, the bee hummingbird, which resides only in Cuba. Despite its tiny size, it's believed that the diminutive dinosaur was likely a predator, feeding on insects.
It also had wings, a pair of bulging eyes, similar to a lizard, and a beak with approximately 30 teeth, all of which can be viewed thanks to a computer-generated 3-D image. It's unclear if the dinosaur was able to fly, one of the study's co-authors, professor Jingma O'Connor, told Newsweek, noting its "weird" and "incomplete" features.
>"I was completely blown away. You can see this beautiful, tiny bird skull preserved within this piece of amber," O'Connor, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in a separate interview with British news agency SWNS. "I was going around showing it to everyone, like 'look at this, it's so cool!'"
>"To a paleontologist, it's weird. We've never seen anything like it," O'Connor added. "I definitely couldn't keep a lid on this one!"
