As per news reports, in March 2020, paleontologists from China University of Geosciences discovered a 99-year old fossil in Myanmar. The report was published in the science magazine Nature. The discovery is a part of a growing number of amber-bound windows into the Mesozoic world. Though paleontologists have encountered dinosaur tails, baby birds in the Myanma, the present study stands out due to the tiny nature of the finding, i.e, fossil. The fossil belongs to the tiniest Mesozoic dinosaur discovered so far.
The Present Discovery
The newly discovered dinosaur is represented just like a skull. It only measures about half an inch long from its tiny teeth to the delicate ringed bones of its eyes. Through ambar-encased fossils are sometimes different to study, but in this finding, it is apparent that this little creature was a toothed bird that lived during the reign of its dinosaurian kin. As such, it is named Oculudentanis khaungraae, derived from Latin for genus ‘toothed eyebird’. The species was designated in honour of fossil collector Khaung Ra, who donated the said item for study. Such discoveries have an impact on how paleontologists reconstruct the past.