{"id":75226,"date":"2026-08-09T19:44:59","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T11:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=75226"},"modified":"2026-08-09T19:44:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T11:44:59","slug":"why-were-there-no-teeny-tiny-dinosaurs-like-we-have-with-mammals-and-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=75226","title":{"rendered":"Why were there no teeny-tiny dinosaurs like we have with mammals and birds?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1280x720\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/08\/07\/02168899-5df8-40fc-954b-bd8aced05943_a9f4cd55.jpg?itok=8P_ERY1P&amp;v=1786092138\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Everyone knows dinosaurs got really big. Some of \u2060the long-necked plant-eaters were the largest land animals ever on Earth, as shown by Argentinosaurus, perhaps 65 to 80 tonnes (70 to 90 tons) and upwards of 30 metres (around 100 feet) long. But why were there never tiny dinosaurs, like the size of a mouse? As far as we know, none ever existed.<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">New research investigates this phenomenon. Scientists employed mathematical models to explore the evolution of body size across vertebrate groups. They determined that energetics and physiology can account for the sizes of mammals, birds that fly and turtles, but these \u200cfactors fail to explain the absence of really small dinosaurs, aside from their <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">avian descendants<\/span>.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The researchers see other dynamics at play. They hypothesise that because early mammals \u2013 most of them puny and shrew-sized \u2013 had filled ecological niches for small animals, their presence prevented dinosaurs from evolving tiny body sizes adapted to such niches.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cWe know based on observations of living animals and the fossil record that most animal groups have members that achieve very small body sizes, and that these small animals typically dominate their ecosystems,\u201d says palaeontologist Stephanie Lechki, a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University in New Jersey and co-leader of the study published in the journal Evolution.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cA small animal typically requires fewer resources and can achieve reproductive maturity and reproduce more quickly than \u2060a large-bodied animal,\u201d Lechki adds.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The smallest dinosaurs included the likes of crow-sized Microraptor, weighing as little as 430 grams (15oz); Fruitadens, at 730 grams; and Anchiornis, at 530 grams. These were still much \u200clarger than today\u2019s smallest bird, the bee hummingbird (about 1.95 grams); smallest mammal, the Etruscan shrew (about 1.8 grams); and smallest lizard, the dwarf gecko (about 0.15 grams).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/travel-leisure\/article\/3363296\/why-were-there-no-teeny-tiny-dinosaurs-we-have-mammals-and-birds?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Everyone knows dinosaurs got really big. Some of \u2060the long-necked plant-eaters were the largest land animals ever on Earth, as shown by Argentinosaurus, perhaps 65&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[5931,27921,27922,27920],"class_list":["post-75226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-birds","tag-dinosaurs","tag-mammals","tag-teenytiny","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}