A Collection of Really Small Dinosaurs

Millions of years ago, the mighty creatures known as dinosaurs roamed the earth. While its easy to picture the enormous sizes of beasts that terrorized early mammals and dominated the lands, not all of them were imposing. In this article, you will encounter a collection of small dinosaurs, including the smallest raptor and a miniature sized Tyrannosaur , the cousin to the T-Rex.

Microraptor

During the early Cretaceous period, the Microraptor look like an odd-looking pigeon, as it was covered in feathers and possessed four primitive wings. One set of wings was found on its forearms and hind legs. The dinosaur only measured about two feet tall from its head to the tail, and weighed only about a couple of pounds. Paleontologists believe that the Microraptor dined on a diet comprised of insects.

Raptorex

Known as the smallest species of Tyrannosaur, the Raptorex was related to the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex (better known as the T-Rex). The Raptorex was about 150 pounds at its maximum weight. This is a much larger difference from the T-Rex, which measured 40 feet from the top of its head to its tail, and weighed about 7 to 8 tons. This species of dinosaur has come a long way, as the Raptorex lived about 60 million years earlier than the T-Rex.

Lariosaurus

In the water, the Lariosaurus was the smallest marine reptile that went extinct by the end of the Triassic Period. Dwelling in the sea, the dinosaur was not as tiny as the smallest of dinosaurs, but it was pretty small. Measuring around 2 feet long and weighing 20 pounds, it is one of the smallest creatures to live millions of years ago in the ancient waters.

Europasaurus

Usually, sauropods are considered some of the largest species of dinosaur. For example, the Diplodocus was about the same size as a house. However, the Europasaurus only measured about 10 feet long and weighed less than a ton, making it the smallest sauropod. This meant that the creature was only about the same size as the oxen of today. It is thought that during the late Jurassic period, the Europasaurus lived on a small island that was isolated from the rest of the mainland in Europe. If this is true, the dinosaur was able to survive with its small size because they didn’t have a great deal of large prey to deal with.

Microceratops

The Triceratops was a large dinosaur that possessed horns and is one of the more well known for dinosaurs. They belonged to the group of dinosaurs called the Ceratopsians that all had horns on their face. The Microceratops is the smallest of the Ceratopsians , weighing about 4 to 5 pounds, and measuring 1 ½ feet tall. Most of these animals moved about on four feet, but the Microceratops traveled on two feet in a scooting motion. This mode of movement most likely helped the creature avoid the large stomps of bigger dinosaurs.