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Smallest Dinosaur Found Trapped in Amber (VIDEO)

The bird-like skull of a tiny new species of dinosaur has been discovered trapped in amber at an archaeological site in northern Myanmar. Scientists say the fossil find represents the smallest dinosaur from the Mesozoic era to date and its diminutive size makes it smaller than the smallest living bird found on Earth today.

“When I first saw this specimen it just blew my mind,” Jingmai O’Connor, a paleontologist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and co-author on the paper, said in a Nature video. “I had literally never seen anything like this.”

The skull is estimated to be nearly 100 million years old, according to details of the remarkable find published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The find measures just over 15 millimeters in length, around the same size as the diameter of a US penny. Analysis of the skeletal features suggest the tiny creature was mature, had really big eyes and a lot of tiny teeth. For that reason, the new species has been given the scientific name of “Oculudentavis khaungraae” with the generic name “Oculudentavis” derived from the Latin for “eye-teeth-bird”. Its species name relates to the person responsible for donating the specimen.

To study the skull, the team ran the amber specimen through a specialized scanner that can determine features down to millimeter scales and generate a 3D reconstruction of the skull. Using the reconstruction allowed the team to infer how Oculudentavis may have lived and its eating habits. The reinforced skull also suggests it may have had a stronger bite than similar size species and likely fed on small insects. (Read more from “Smallest Dinosaur Found Trapped in Amber” HERE)

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Dinosaur-Like Creature With Flesh on Bones Found in India

By Michael Havis. Scientists have been left mystified after the body of a creature resembling a dinosaur was discovered with flesh still on its bones.

The partially-preserved corpse was discovered by an electrician cleaning out a sub-station that had been left untouched for 35 years in Jaspur, a small city in Uttarakhand, India.

It resembles a small dinosaur, but since flightless dinosaurs have been extinct for 65 million years, scientists have struggled to identify it.

The creature has now been sent for analysis, including carbon dating, which will reveal its age.

Dr Parag Madhukar Dhakate, a Conservator with the Indian Forest Service, said that the creature would remain an enigma until scientific analysis had been completed. (Read more from “Dinosaur-Like Creature With Flesh on Bones Found in India” HERE)

(Editor’s note: Our guess is “fake.” And not because we don’t believe that dinosaurs could currently exist, because they do. For example, the komodo dragon, crocodile, alligator, rhinoceros, elephant, etc., are alive and well and are definitely dinosaurian. Moreover, there are many other animals that evolutionists have said should have been dead millions of years ago, like the coelacanth fish, that are still being observed today. No, we think “fake” because of (1) its appearance (looks like a decayed rat with a bend in its back, something you’d expect to find in an abandoned electrical substation in India); and (2) where it was found and the third-world hucksters pushing the story on gullible westerners who click on their video. Perhaps we’ll be proven wrong in the next few weeks, but this looks like scam-city to us.)
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Scientists Baffled Over Half-Preserved Dinosaur-Like Corpse Found in India

By Outer Places. An interesting discovery has been made in an abandoned subway station in Uttarakhand, India, which may well change what we know about dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures.

According to reports, an electrician was cleaning the station, which had remained empty for over thirty years, when he came across a partially preserved skeleton which strongly resembles a raptor-like dinosaur. While the creature’s passing clearly wasn’t recent, its corpse still held some flesh, which by all rights should be impossible considering the length of time since the extinction of the dinosaurs.

The corpse has now been sent for testing and carbon dating, although it’s already very clear that this creature couldn’t possibly actually date back to the Late Cretaceous period during which raptors existed and thrived . . .

There are a few possible reasons for the creature’s uncanny dinosaur appearance. The easiest answer to reach for is that this is a fake, planted by some enterprising prankster in the hopes of garnering some attention from the scientific community. (Read more from “Scientists Baffled Over Half-Preserved Dinosaur-Like Corpse Found in India” HERE)

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Feathered Dinosaur Tail Discovered

The tail of a 99-million-year-old dinosaur has been found entombed in amber, an unprecedented discovery that has blown away scientists.

Xing Lida, a Chinese paleontologist found the specimen, the size of a dried apricot, at an amber market in northern Myanmar near the Chinese border.

The remarkable piece was destined to end up as a curiosity or piece of jewelry, with Burmese traders believing a plant fragment was trapped inside.

“I realized that the content was a vertebrate, probably theropod, rather than any plant,” Xing told CNN. (Read more from “Feathered Dinosaur Tail Discovered” HERE)

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