Discovered a new super-small dinosaur, only 5cm long

The 99 million-year-old amber skull fossils reveal an unknown bird-like dinosaur.

The smallest dinosaur reconstruction image is based on a skull fossil.(Photo: SWNS).

The new species, dubbed Oculudentavis khaungraae , is even smaller than today's smallest hummingbird, according to research published in the March 11 issue of Nature . The animal's skull is preserved almost intact inside an amber in northern Myanmar.

Fossil analysis shows that O. khaungraae was present on Earth about 100 million years ago. This bird-like dinosaur has bulging lizard-like eyes and a long beak containing about 100 sharp teeth. They are predators despite their small size.

O. khaungraae has a long beak containing up to 100 teeth.(Photo: SWNS).

"When it comes to dinosaurs, many people often associate with large and slow-moving creatures, but recent amber findings show that prehistoric life was much more diverse than we thought. There are still many small dinosaurs that have not been described in the fossil record, " said Jingmai O'Connor, a professor at the Institute of Anthropology and Paleontology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

Vertebrate fossils are rarely found in amber."I am really surprised! We have never seen anything like it," O'Connor said, feeling when he first saw fossils of O. khaungraae. "When an animal is preserved in amber, it looks like it just died yesterday."

Samples in Myanmar were collected at a market by Khaung Ra, a Chinese woman, who later donated fossils to the Hupoge Museum for research. Scientists honored her contribution by using the word "khaungraae" to name the new dinosaur.

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