Mini dinosaurs prowled North America Paleontologists unlocking
the diversity of prehistoric hunters with discovery of pint-
sized cousin of Velociraptor Massive predators like
Albertosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex may have been at the top of
the food chain, but they were not the only meat-eating dinosaurs
to roam North America, according to researchers who have
discovered the smallest dinosaur species on the continent to
date. Their work is also helping re-draw the picture of North
America’s ecosystem at the height of the dinosaur age 75 million
years ago. “Hesperonychus is currently the smallest dinosaur
known from North America. But its discovery just emphasizes how
little we actually know, and it raises the possibility that
there are even smaller ones out there, waiting to be found,”
said Nick Longrich, a paleontology research associate in the
University of Calgary’s Department of Biological Sciences.
“Small carnivorous dinosaurs seemed to be completely absent from
the environment, which seemed bizarre becaus