Smallest Dinosaurs (Ashdown Maniraptoran), It's in the UK - New type of dinosaur species found in fossil excavation in Britain may be recorded as the smallest dinosaur in the world. Dinosaur named Ashdown maniraptoran it has a body length of about one foot (30.48 cm) with a weight of 200 grams. He probably lived in the period 145 million years to 100 million years ago.

"Like other maniraptor, this species was small, hairy, walks on two legs, like a bird, short-tailed, long-necked, long-legged and lean back, and has front claws that hairy body parts," explained Darren Naish, honorary research assistant at the School of Earth & Environmetal Sciences University of Portsmouth, England, told Discovery News.

This species is found along with Steven Sweetman when analyzing the remains of dinosaurs in Pivensey excavations at Ashdown Brickworks Pit, a site located in the northwest of Bexhill, East Sussex.

Naish and Sweetman concluded, fossils they found was a species of dinosaur that has not been documented. The reason is, there are no dinosaur names that are maniraptor of rocks of the same age and from the same area. However, the discovery of dinosaur skulls has not made the researchers have not been able to conclude this maniraptoran Ashdown food.

However, Naish suspect, based on oviraptosaurus maniraptor and others, including omnivorous dinosaur that prey on small animals such as insects, in addition to eating leaves and fruits. In addition, the added Naish, Ashdown maniraptoran gait similar to other theropod, that is with the body and tail are in a horizontal position.

Toughest competitors maniraptoran Ashdown as a candidate smallest non-avian dinosaurs in the world today is Anchiornis from China, which has a body length of about 30 centimeters to 40 centimeters. However, it has not been established, how long exactly.