A new species of dinosaur is the smallest ever found in North
America scientists report in the Proceedings of the Royal
Society of London B today. The pigeon-sized Fruitadens
haagarorum lived 150 million years ago in the Late Jurassic
period. It was an agile fast runner, handy as it lived at the
same time as other giant dinosaurs such as the long-necked
Brachiosaurus and the meat-eating Allosaurus. Tiny jaw fossil of
the Fruitadens dinosaur showing 5 teeth © The Dinosaur
Institute, Los Angeles Museum of Natural History An
international team led by Dr Richard Butler of the Bavarian
State Collection for Palaeontology, Germany, and the Natural
History Museum, London, made the discovery by re-examining
fossils uncovered in the 1970s. 'This discovery demonstrates
just how remarkably diverse and successful the dinosaurs were,'
says Dr Butler. 'We have this diminutive dinosaur living
alongside titans such as Brachiosaurus that probably weighed
40,000 times as much.' The team studied fossils from 4
Fruitadens individ