It may not look like it, but that’s a dinosaur! The smallest dinosaur of its era, in fact. Based on a skull found preserved in 99-million-year-old amber in Myanmar, scientists think the Mesozoic Era’s smallest dinosaur was even more miniature than the smallest bird alive today, the bee hummingbird. This is based on the skull of the newly-identified dinosaur, which is only 7.1 millimeters long. Or about a fourth of an inch.
The team which discovered the dinosaur named it Oculudentavis khaungraae, which means “eye tooth bird.” This odd mishmash makes sense when you notice the teeny, tiny teeth the dinosaur had in its beak. And based on the skull’s spoon-like sockets, scientists think the animal’s two bulging eyes would have stood out in stark contrast to its tiny head. Finally, it appears to be not quite a dinosaur, and not quite a bird. It is somewhere along the spectrum of both. Eye tooth bird indeed!
