Sussex fossil collector finds 'smallest' dinosaur
LONDON. June 16. KAZINFORM The fossil of what is thought to be one of the world's smallest dinosaurs has been found at a brickworks in Sussex; Kazinform refers to BBC News.
Experts from the University of Portsmouth identified the creature after a local fossil collector found it at the Ashdown Brickworks near Bexhill.
Palaeontologist Dr Steve Sweetman said: "It represents the smallest dinosaur we have yet discovered in the European fossil record."
The bird-shaped fossil is between 13in (33cm) and 16in (40cm) in length.
'Bird-shaped'
The dinosaur was found by local fossil collector Dave Brockhurst who works at the brickworks.
Rocks at the site have also yielded other fossils including the remains of salamanders, frogs, lizards, turtles, crocodiles, and other large dinosaurs.
After Mr Brockhurst made the discovery, university researchers identified the specimen.
They said it had come from the Mesozoic era, which began about 250 million years ago.
Nicknamed the Ashdown maniraptoran, the dinosaur was carnivorous or omnivorous and was part of a group that included all the two-legged meat-eating dinosaurs called theropods; Kazinform cites BBC News.
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