A baby lizard of a previously unknown species lived 110 million years ago.
Strange chains of footprints were spotted by Australian and Korean scientists in the petrified clay of one of the lakes in South Korea. The tracks looked recognizable in shape - similar to those left by raptors - predatory bipedal dinosaurs. But they were tiny. The length of each claw print did not exceed 1 centimeter. This means that the one who inherited was extremely small.
Traces left by predatory babies.
“Traces were left by a dinosaur the size of a sparrow,” says one of the authors of the discovery, Anthony Romilio of the University of Queensland. And he emphasizes that no smaller lizards were found, as well as their traces. Korean are the smallest in the world.
The world of dinosaurs was bizarre and varied - especially in terms of size. Their range is amazing.
Paleontologists gave the new species a rather long name - Dromaeosauriformipes rarus. Loosely translated, this phrase means "rare footprints left by a member of the raptor family." The baby is called D. Rarus for short.
The diagram on which the chains of the detected traces are applied.
Romilio believes that these D. Rarus were predators despite their size. They ate small fish. Behind them, in fact, were those individuals who left chains of footprints by the lake. Left about 110 million years ago.
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Before paleontologists knew about the existence of a sparrow-sized dinosaur, the smallest was considered the Microraptor, a lizard whose remains were found in China. He was like a crow.
Scientists told about the results of the study of Korean footprints in the journal Nature. I briefly introduced them to the Daily Mail.
VLADIMIR LAGOVSKY