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Tiny dinosaurs
Somebody was asking about teeny-tiny dinosaurs. There's some very small
dinosaur specimens known only from teeth. A tooth-crown known for _Koparion
douglassi_ (?troodontid; Late Jurassic, Utah) measures 2mm high. Several
Late Triassic putative ornithischians from North America are known from
tooth-crowns 2-3mm high: _Lucianosaurus wildi_, _Pekinosaurus olseni_,
_Tecovasaurus murryi_. But who's to say these teeth didn't come from
juveniles (even hatchlings)?
The smallest adult dinosaur I know of is _Mellisuga helenae_ from Cuba.
Males measure about 5.5 cm long (about 2.17 in), and weigh only 1.95 g
(about 0.07 oz). It's commonly known as the Bee hummingbird.
Tim
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