Everyone Always Neglects the Smallest Dinosaurs
When it comes to dinosaur facts, everyone always wants to know about the biggest dinosaurs: the largest, the longest, the tallest and the heaviest. Rarely though does anyone ask about the smallest dinosaurs to walk the Earth. These small reptiles may not be the prehistoric beasts many people think of when they think of dinosaurs but they still play an important role in the history of dinosaur evolution.
Some Examples of the Smallest Dinosaurs
Microceratops
Microceratops was the smallest known Ceratopsian species to date. Weighing around five pounds and standing at just a foot and a half and was bipedal in nature. Microceratops was preyed upon by mammals of the Mesozoic era. This frilled dinosaur lived during the Cretaceous period.
Microraptor
Microraptor is most commonly recognized for being the smallest raptor to live. With four wings, the Microraptor weighed just two pounds and was around two feet long from the tip of its snout to its tail. This raptor subsisted on a diet of insects and lived during the Cretaceous period.
Raptorex
Raptorex is the smallest Tyrannosaur known to date. Although certainly larger than the two pound Microraptor, Raptorex weighed in at around a hundred and fifty pounds, a considerable difference from Tyrannosaurus Rex. Raptorex was a Cretaceous period Theropod.
Europasaurus
Europasaurus is the smallest known Sauropod measuring in at just about ten feet long and weighing in at less than 2,000 lbs. This small long neck lived during the late Jurassic period and researchers believe it to have been so limited in size due to geographical isolation.
