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| Sunday, 23 October 2005 |
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Junior Observer |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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When dinosaurs ruled the world... : Dino dwarfs and babies The prehistoric creatures, the dinosaurs are considered to be the biggest land animals that ever lived on Earth, but not all dinosaurs were as huge as the plant-eating sauropods or even the meat-eating dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus-rex. Some dinosaurs were small, as small as modern-day lizards.
One of the earliest and smallest meat-eating dinosaurs was Saltopus which was a speedy hunter that could catch fast-moving lizards and flying insects. At just 50 centimetres long, its body was no bigger than a large chicken's. In 1984, fossils of a small plant-eating dinosaur named Leaellynasaura had been discovered in Australia. The fossils had been the same size as that of a Saltopus, but some scientists think that this may be because they were not fully grown. They say that adult Leaellynasaura may have been up to two metres long and not as small as the fossils indicate.
Like the big dinos, the small dinos too were plant-eaters and meat-eaters. Some ate plants while others fed on insects, worms or small reptiles.
The fossil remains of a Compsognathus discovered by experts had contained its last meal, a lizard inside the stomach area. Another speedy little dinosaur was Hypsilophodon which grew to about two metres long. It had a horny beak which was used to nip off juicy shoots from plants. Oviraptor, another small dinosaur which was wolf-sized may have hunted lizards and small mammals, darting along at up to 50 kilometres an hour. Like the Troodon, which was also rather small and speedy, the Oviraptor too is believed to have raided other dinosaur nests to snatch unguarded eggs. The smallest armour-plated dinosaur was Scutellosaurus. Though only the size of a cat, this little plant-eater was no easy meal for any big dinosaur. It was well protected like some of the big dinos such as Ankylosaurs. Scutellosaurus had rows of small, bony knobs along its back and tail, making it difficult for bigger creatures to capture it. Dinosaur babies ... Have you ever wondered what size dino babies may have been? Well, you may be amazed to learn that some of the dinosaur babies were very small, so small that you could easily have carried them. Even though Protoceratops were large dinosaurs, their babies were small enough to hold in your hand. A baby Troodon fossil discovered had been only seven centimetres long - the size of a large hen's egg!
He discovered the most exciting find - the first dinosaur eggs. The nest of eggs were those of Protoceratops. Some eggs were smashed while others contained fossils of dino babies that had died before hatching. Dinosaur eggs were laid in clutches of ten to 40, and though the size of the eggs varied according to the size of the adult dinosaurs, they were rather small for such big animals. In 1961 fossil hunters found 80-million year-old sauropod eggs in France. These eggs had been twice as large as those laid by a modern ostrich. Most dino eggs however are said to be the size of an ostrich's egg, which by the way is 15x14 cm (6 x 5 1/4 inch) and weighs around 1.6 kg (3lb 10 oz) on average. The reason dino eggs were not bigger than this would have been because then the shell of the large egg would have to be thicker, making it difficult for the baby dino to break its way out. Experts believe that like modern-day birds, some dinosaurs built nests and sat on their eggs to hatch them. Dinosaurs such as the Maiasaura are known to have built nests because a huge nesting area had been found in Montana, United States. According to these finds it is said that the female Maiasaura made a low mound of mud about two metres across and lined it with leaves. Having laid about 20 to 25 eggs in it, the mama dino then covered the eggs with more plants to keep them warm. Most probably mama dino guarded these eggs carefully in order to protect them from egg-thieves such as the Troodon and Oviraptor.In 1993, exactly 70 years after Roy Chapman Andrews found the first dinosaur eggs, another expedition set out for the Gobi Desert in search of dino fossils. And this time scientists discovered evidence to prove that dinosaurs
sat on eggs to hatch them. The fossilised remains of an Oviraptor sitting
on a nest of eggs was what the scientists discovered in the Gobi
Desert.Now that we have discovered many interesting facts about the
dinosaurs that lived on land, let's check out some of the prehistoric
creatures that lived in the sea and also took to the air, in the
forthcoming issues. |
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The reason not much is known about them is because only a few fossils
of these small dinosaurs have been discovered. Experts are of the view
that this is due to the fact that most of the small dinos were eaten by
the bigger ones, and also because the bones of small dinos, which were
fragile, would have easily broken over the years. 
The smallest dinosaur skeleton had been discovered from Argentina in
South America. It is believed to be that of a baby Mussaurus
(mouse-lizard). The skeleton, small enough to fit into the palm of the
hand, has had a big head, eyes and feet. Some small eggs, about 2.5
centimetres long, had also been found nearby. Going by these facts,
experts think the adult Mussaurus may have been about three metres long.
Lesothosaurus is considered to be a plant-eater which lived in a herd
and relied on speed to outrun predators. Compsognathus on the other hand
was a meat-eater or theropod. Would you believe that this little dino was
no bigger than a large pet cat? It too was quick on its feet like the
Lesothosaurus, but used its ability to run fast to catch fast-moving prey
like insects and lizards. 
Less than a century ago scientists had little knowledge about dinosaur
babies. In the 1920s, an American named Roy Chapman Andrews led many
expeditions to Mongolian deserts in search of fossils. He worked for the
American Museum of Natural History and even used specially adapted cars to
drive across the Gobi Desert. Some people think he was the original
'Indiana Jones'. 
