Possible Smallest Dino

Galvasean

No official name for the critter yet so it has been nicknamed the 'Ashdown maniraptoran'.

A new species of carnivorous non-avian dinosaur, described in the latest issue of Cretaceous Research, could be the world’s smallest known dinosaur.

The tiny dinosaur, dubbed the "Ashdown maniraptoran," measures about a foot in length and was unearthed in the United Kingdom. It lived during the Lower Cretaceous, a period lasting from 145 to 100 million years ago.

"It perhaps weighed as little as 200 grams (seven ounces)," co-author Darren Naish told Discovery News. "Like other maniraptoran theropods, this would have been a small, feathered, bird-like bipedal dinosaur with a fairly short tail, long neck, long slim hind legs, and feathered clawed forelimbs."

Full article here.

Here's a picture for what it's worth. Although so little has been found that all restorations are very much in the realm of guesswork. I guess that's why scientists are reluctant to give it an official name just yet.


edit: here is the blog entry from one of the guys who found it. Much more detail than the Discovery Channel article above:
http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2011/05/tiny_cretaceous_theropod.php

Elmidena

Awww I want one! Interesting read, cheers

Rubecula

It may be a baby of some kind I suppose. Bu it if it is a full sized adult creature.... maybe it is the cretaceous version of a crow or something? Living off what it can catch and scraps of "road kill" (Something trampled by a big dino.:pac:)

Adam Khor

Rubecula wrote: »

It may be a baby of some kind I suppose. Bu it if it is a full sized adult creature.... maybe it is the cretaceous version of a crow or something? Living off what it can catch and scraps of "road kill" (Something trampled by a big dino.:pac:)

Hahaha I'm sure that happened a lot!

I'm also pretty sure there were loads and loads of very small dinosaurs and we just don´t find their fossils because their bones were so fragile. There were probably all kinds of little dinos eating bugs, carrion, seeds and berries, pecking at the wounds of larger dinos, etc etc etc, and we will never know about them.

Alvin T. Grey

Adam Khor wrote: »

Hahaha I'm sure that happened a lot!

I'm also pretty sure there were loads and loads of very small dinosaurs and we just don´t find their fossils because their bones were so fragile. There were probably all kinds of little dinos eating bugs, carrion, seeds and berries, pecking at the wounds of larger dinos, etc etc etc, and we will never know about them.

Did I spot another boo-boo in the article?
They say it lived 250million years ogo?
Thats early to mid Triassic?

Where did it get the fruit?

Galvasean

Where does it say 250MYA?

Alvin T. Grey

Galvasean wrote: »

Where does it say 250MYA?

Sorry, I got mixed up reading this story twice today. The article I'm confusing it with is here
http://www.worldrecordsacademy.org/nature/smallest_Dinosaur_Ashdown_Maniraptoran_Fossil_sets_world_record_112312.html

-snip-
Photo: The scientists said the World's Smallest Dinosaur would have roamed Britain over 250 million years ago. An artist's impression of the Ashdown maniraptoran'. Credit: Matt Martyniuk / University of Portsmouth

Dr Naish said: "It was perhaps an omnivore, eating small animals, including insects, as well as leaves and fruit."

Galvasean

More reports sans proof read journalism... we should start a thread or something...

*grumbles*