Discover the smallest dinosaur footprint ever

The 110-million-year-old fossil was identified as belonging to a small dinosaur bird that could easily be held in hand.

The smallest dinosaur footprint ever discovered in a layer of lake sediments dating back to the Cretaceous period in Korea, Phys said on November 16. The 110-million-year-old fossil was identified as belonging to a small animal-legged dinosaur, also known as a dinosaur bird , whose size is equivalent to a sparrow.

The 110-million-year-old fossil was identified as belonging to a small zooplankton.

"Fossil footprints are only a centimeter long, meaning they are created by a small animal that you can easily hold in your hands. It may be the smallest dinosaur in the world," Anthony Romilio belongs to. Australia's University of Queensland, co-author of the study, said. "The feet of dinosaur birds only have two fingers that touch the ground, while the third finger shrinks like a cat's claw."

Scientists are currently unable to ascertain which specific dinosaurs have left these footprints. They may belong to an unprecedented dinosaur, or created by the offspring of larger dinosaurs like and Utahraptor.

The team named the newly discovered fossil Dromaeosauriformipes rarus , indicating the rare footprint created by a species of the dinosaur family. In addition to D. rarus, the team also found footprints of lizards, flying lizards, birds, turtles, frogs and some mammals at the site of the fossil discovery.

The study, conducted by a group of international paleontologists from Korea, Australia, China, the United States and Spain, was published in the scientific journal Electronic Reports.

Fossil footprints belong to small dinosaur birds like sparrows.