Key Takeaways on the Smallest Dinosaur:
At around 30 cm (11 in) in length, a species called Epidexipteryx likely takes the cake as the smallest dinosaur in this group. It lived during the Jurassic period in modern-day China and is known for having four long feathers in its tail.
If we’re speaking of creatures that are still living, we would say that the smallest dinosaur is the smallest bird. Known as the bee hummingbird, the smallest bird in the world is endemic to Cuba.
A complicating factor is that when paleontologists uncover a new species, it could be that it was small because it wasn’t fully grown. If it’s the first of its kind to be found, it’s hard to know whether it’s a small adult or a species that hasn’t yet reached maturity.
When you picture a landscape from the age of dinosaurs, it’s mostly made up of enormous herbivores dotted with the occasional large carnivore. But more recent findings paint a picture of a world that contained mostly smaller non-avian dinosaurs.
As paleontologists learn to excavate even the smallest and delicate specimens, we see that dinosaurs came in all shapes and sizes and that most of them were small.
Why Its Hard to Identify the Smallest Dinosaur
Uncovering the smallest dinosaur has been complicated for several reasons. In 2020, a paper in Nature documented what was thought to be the smallest dinosaur. It was a “hummingbird-sized” creature called Oculudentavis khaungraae that had been preserved inside amber in Myanmar. However, that paper was later retracted because the dinosaur was later found to be a lizard. There were also ethical concerns due to the specimen coming from Myanmar.
Beyond that, further complexities make pinpointing the smallest dinosaurs difficult, says W. Scott Persons, paleontologist and curator at the Mace Brown Museum of Natural History at the College of Charleston.
“Being big is almost synonymous with what we think of as being a dinosaur, but the really big dinosaurs are just easier to spot,” says Persons. We’re learning that ecosystems were filled not just with big dinosaurs, but with little ones as well, Persons adds.
As we begin to work in places like China and Mongolia, where the ecosystem makes for much finer preservation, scientists are finding much smaller specimens. And they’re also better at excavating smaller bones than they once were.
Another complicating factor is that when paleontologists uncover a new species, it could be that it was small because it wasn’t fully grown. If it’s the first of its kind to be found, it’s hard to know whether it’s a small adult or a species that hasn’t yet reached maturity.
Read More: World's Smallest Dinosaur May Actually Be an Ancient Lizard
Modern Day Tiny Dinosaurs
It’s also important to remember that birds are dinosaurs because birds evolved from a group of meat-eating dinosaurs called theropods. So if we’re speaking of creatures that are still living, we would say that the smallest dinosaur is the smallest bird. Known as the bee hummingbird, the smallest bird in the world is endemic to Cuba.
The smallest non-avian dinosaur is much harder to distinguish. Before the discovery of a number of teeny tiny dinosaurs in recent years, children’s books in the 1990s often said that the smallest dinosaur was a European theropod about the size of a chicken called Compsognathus. But in the last two decades, this thinking has changed as more and more tiny species have been discovered.
While we don’t know for sure what the smallest dinosaur is, Persons says that his money is on Scansoriopterygidae, a completely adorable group of climbing and gliding dinosaurs that resemble the modern-day flying squirrel, jumping through the prehistoric forests of Asia using skin stretched between elongated finger bones.
The Case for the Epidexipteryx
At around 30 cm (11 in) in length, a species called Epidexipteryx likely takes the cake as the smallest in this group. It lived during the Jurassic period in modern-day China and is known for having four long feathers in its tail. The feathers, which were likely used for sexual display and mating, suggest that it was at full maturity and size. While the species was experimenting with jumping and gliding, it was not a bird; in fact, it was still a non-avian dinosaur.
While these are among the smallest dinosaurs that we’ve uncovered so far, that doesn’t mean that they will be the smallest we find. Especially as paleontologists further hone their skills and as excavation becomes a global affair in places where the climate makes for much better preservation potential.
Read More: Small Dinosaurs May Have Flashed Their Feathers to Scare Prey
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
The Natural History Museum. Why are birds the only surviving dinosaurs?
The Natural History Museum. Compsognathus
Nature. A bizarre Jurassic maniraptoran from China with elongate ribbon-like feathers
Sara Novak is a science journalist based in South Carolina. In addition to writing for Discover, her work appears in Scientific American, Popular Science, New Scientist, Sierra Magazine, Astronomy Magazine, and many more. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the Grady School of Journalism at the University of Georgia. She's also a candidate for a master’s degree in science writing from Johns Hopkins University (expected graduation 2023).
