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The Top 5 Smallest known Dinosaurs
| Dinosaur | Maximum Length | Period | |
|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Micropachycephalosaurus | 50 centimetres ( 20 inches) | Late Cretaceous (80 to 70 million years ago) |
2 |
Saltopus | 60 centimetres ( 23 inches) | Late Triassic (250 to 220 million years ago) |
3 |
Yandangornis | 60 centimetres ( 23 inches) | Late Cretaceous (80 to 70 million years ago) |
4 |
Microraptor | 77 centimetres ( 30 inches) | Early Cretaceous (106 to100 million years ago) |
5 |
Lesothosaurus | 90 centimetres ( 35 inches) | Early Jurassic (180 to 176 million years ago) |
Sources: Top 5 of Anything.com research 2012. Including the Smisonian Institute.
List Notes: Data is smallest known dinosaurs (2012) measured in length.
- The name Micropachycephalosaurus at 23 letters long is the longest name in the dinosaur kingdom. Broken down and translated from the Greek it means "tiny thick-headed lizard."
- Saltopus which means "hopping foot" was discovered in Scotland by chemist William Taylor and is thought to be the oldest known European dinosaur. Saltopus was the size of an average house-cat.
- Yandangornis was named by Cai and Zhao (1999), it means "long-tailed bird from Yandang Mountain", after where the fossil was found in the Tangshang Formation, Zhejiang, China. Its type is Yandangornis longicaudus.
- Microraptor means "small thief". It was thought to have been completely covered in feathers and it is one of the 300 fossils found to date that hint at the evolutionary link between birds and dinosaurs.
- Lesothosaurus, meaning "lizard from Lesotho" was named by paleontologist Peter M. Galton in 1978. It was a small, bipedal plant-eater and lived in the hot, arid circumstances of Lesotho and South Africa during the Early Jurassic period.
Copyright © 2012 Steve Scott and Noel James Riggs. All rights reserved.