Skip to content

A Tiny Dino That’s Actually a Lizard

A preserved skull in 99-million-year-old Burmese amber.
A preserved skull in 99-million-year-old Burmese amber. Image: Lida Xing

This remarkable amber fossil was originally thought to contain the smallest dinosaur in the fossil record (a kind of hummingbird-like creature), but a reassessment of the fossil, along with newfound evidence, forced a re-think, with scientists concluding that the tiny skull likely belonged to a lizard. Still, it’s a damned cool specimen.