What Are the 10 Smallest Dinosaurs?

with Bob Strauss

 

he largest dinosaurs are easy for many people to name, but how about the 10 smallest dinosaurs? Here, learn about the 10 smallest dinosaurs and what they were.

Transcript: What Are the 10 Smallest Dinosaurs?

All About the 10 Smallest Dinosaurs

It's much more difficult to identify the smallest dinosaurs (and other prehistoric creatures) than the biggest ones. Here's a list of the 10 smallest prehistoric animals, according to our current state of knowledge.

The 10 Smallest Dinosaurs

1. Smallest Raptor - Microraptor: With its feathers and four primitive wings (one set each on its forearms and hind legs), the early Cretaceous Microraptor was a genuine raptor. However, it was one that only measured about two feet from head to tail and weighed a few pounds soaking wet.

2. Smallest Tyrannosaur - Raptorex: The Tyrannosaurus Rex, measured about 40 feet from head to tail and weighed 7 or 8 tons--but its fellow tyrannosaur Raptorex, which lived about 60 million years earlier, tipped the scales at 150 pounds, max, an object lesson in how plus-sized creatures evolve from wee ancestors.

3. Smallest Sauropod - Europasaurus: Europasaurus wasn't much bigger than a modern ox, only about 10 feet long and weighing less than a ton.

4. Smallest Marine Reptile - Lariosaurus: The sea-going Lariosaurus wasn't nearly as tiny as the smallest dinosaurs, but--at about 2 feet long and 20 pounds--it's one of the smallest marine reptiles yet identified.

5. Smallest Ceratopsians – Microceratops: Microceratops (also known as Microceratus), the smallest of all the ceratopsian ("horn-faced") dinosaurs, was only about a foot and a half high and weighed all of four or five pounds.

6. Smallest Pterosaur - Nemicolopterus: In February of 2008, paleontologists discovered the fossil of Nemicolopterus, the smallest pterosaur yet identified, which had a wingspan of only 10 inches and weighed a few ounces.

7. Smallest Ankylosaur - Minmi: About 10 feet long from head to tail, Minmi weighed anywhere from 500 to 1,000 pounds, which may not seem small until you compare this genus to much later ankylosaurs like Ankylosaurus or Euoplocephalus.

8. Smallest Prehistoric Elephant - Phosphatherium: Phosphatherium, the three-foot-long, 100-pound herbivore is the smallest of the prehistoric elephants. Modern elephants, as well as Ice Age Mastodons and Mammoths, can trace their family tree back to this squat, ungainly creature.

9. Smallest Prehistoric Whale - Pakicetus: The ultimate ancestor of modern whales was the early Eocene Pakicetus, a small, inoffensive, furry mammal that only weighed about 50 pounds. However, Pakicetus was a land-dwelling, four-footed animal similar in appearance to a modern dog.

10. Smallest Living Dinosaur - The Hummingbird: From the perspective of evolutionary biologists, dinosaurs never went extinct: they simply evolved into prehistoric birds (or, at least, the small, feathered, theropod dinosaurs did while their plant-eating sauropod, ornithopod and ceratopsian became extinct). Based on this reasoning, the smallest dinosaur that ever lived is the modern hummingbird, various species of which weigh as little as one-tenth of an ounce!