New Delhi | Jagran Trending Desk: In a surprising discovery, a 100-million-year-old flying dinosaur encased in amber have been identified by the scientists, that may be the smallest dinosaur yet discovered, as reported by news agency AFP. The scientists are calling this small dinosaur, ‘Tinier than the teeniest bird, older than T-Rex and perfectly preserved for eternity’.
The skull of Oculudentavis khaungraae was found in a globule of amber in Myanmar, offering researchers a startlingly clear view of its features.
"When I first saw it I was blown away," AFP quoted, Jingmai O'Connor, a palaeontologist from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and lead author of the study published in Nature, as saying on Wednesday.
"It's pretty exquisitely preserved and really weird looking, with its unique scleral ring (eye bones) and a large number of teeth," she added.
The preserved skull of Oculudentavis khaungraae, found in amber, is just 7.1 millimetres (less than one-third of an inch) long, which is likely the smallest dinosaur discovered till now. Scientists said that it would have been smaller than the smallest bird alive today, the bee hummingbird. As to whether Teenie is a bird or a dinosaur, O'Connor said the lines were blurry.
"We think it's a bird -- the skull has a shape that only occurs in birds and some dinosaurs. However there are no skull characteristics that define birds therefore it could be a dinosaur or even something else," she said as reported by AFP.
The team of the scientists who have discovered this tiny dinosaur, refer the specimen as ‘Teenie Weenie’. Researchers also believed that this tiny dinosaur hunted insects, using its sharp teeth and large eyes to home in on prey. Unlike the fossils encased in rocks, the specimen found in ambers retain their soft tissues, which enables scientists to see their original colour and morphology.
Writing in a linked editorial, Roger Benson from Oxford University's Department of Earth Sciences said the discovery suggests birds may have evolved miniature body sizes much earlier than thought.
"This indicates that, only shortly after their origins late in the Jurassic period (which lasted from about 201 million to 145 million years ago), birds had already attained their minimum body sizes," he said.
And although it's encased in amber, there's no risk of scientists bringing it back to life, like a certain Steven Spielberg film. "There are most certainly fragments of DNA preserved inside but we'll never reach 'Jurassic Park'," said O'Connor.
(With AFP Inputs)
Posted By: Talib Khan
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