Paleontology, Fossil | featured news

Not every dinosaur grew up to be a mighty predator like Tyrannosaurus rex or a hulking vegan like Apatosaurus. A few stayed small, and some of the smallest dinosaurs that ever lived — tiny enough to nip at your heels — were among the first to spread across the planet more than 200 million years ago.

Paleontologists have found in the desert of Coahuila, a state in northern Mexico, fragments of vertebrae and long bones that could have belonged to a species of dinosaur that lived in the region 72 million years ago during the late Cretaceous period, officials said.

Paleontologists are reporting the earliest evidence to date for the emergence of dinosaurs, 250-million-year-old fossil footprints.