Re: Tiny dinosaurs

[Betty Cunningham <bettyc@flyinggoat.com>]

bats can be even smaller than that- what insectivores have you been
considering?
why not any of the microchiroptera? most of them are insectivourus.

-Betty

dbensen wrote:
> As  long as we're talking about _any_ small dinosaur, I know of an extinct one
> that is only slightly larger than the (extant) bee hummingbird.  Liaoxiornis
> delicatus was a toothed bird from China during the Early Cretaceous (or was it
> Late Jurassic?) and measured about 6 cm long (taking into account an unusually
> long tail).  The body may well be about the same size as the bee hummingbird,
> but L. delicatus was probably an insectivore (it having a short bill and there
> not being many flowers around at the time).
> 
> Speaking of which, what advantage would such tiny size be to an insectivore?
> I've looked at the skeletal reconstruction and L. delicatus did not have the
> giant sternum of a hummingbird so it probably didn't hover.  No modern insect
> eaters (that we know of anyway) are that small, well, kinglets come close, but
> they are still 10 cm long.  So why be so tiny?


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