Exciting discovery! The head of the smallest dinosaur has been found in amber!

The head of the tiniest dinosaur which lived 100 million years ago has been discovered in amber. Amber was found in Myanmar, Burma. The results of the research have been published in “Nature” magazine.

The unique sample of amber with the head of the tiniest dinosaur that ever existed, also contains fragments of the soft tissue of the animal, like its tongue pieces. It has been named Oculudentavis khaungraae. Its size is comparable with the size of a bee hummingbird, which weighs less than 2.0g. A computer reconstruction helped to establish its body measurements. The dinosaur was 5 cm long. In the amber other pieces of the animal were identified such as reptilian eyes and over 100 sharp teeth. According to the Academy of Science, the discovered animal can be a missing link between reptilians and birds. The ring which is located near the eyes was constructed of the same bone structures which can be found in the anatomy of modern lizard species but it shapes is similar to the shape which can be observed in modern owls’ anatomy. Oculudentavis khanugraae’s eyes are also one of its kind, and this type of eyes has never been found in any other animal. Jingami O’Connor, a paleontologist from the Chinese Academy of Science in Beijing, summarized the discovery: I love how natural selection creates amazing species like the one found in amber. We are lucky that the piece survived 99 million years.

The number of teeth also suggests that the animal was a predator and it fed on insects. Scientists believe that the discovered specie can lead to new discoveries in the field of interspecies evolution and the processes of miniaturization of animals that occur in closed environments.

Fot. Profesor Xing Lida