Xing Lida holds up a small piece of polished, yellow amber. Sunlight shines through the ancient resin. (Resin is stuff secreted by trees. Over time, it hardens into amber, a precious stone.) The Chinese scientist sees the outline of an amazingly small skull inside. He spots an eye socket, the crown of the head, a long snout, and even little teeth.
The critter looks like a bird. Scientists call it Oculudentavis khaungraae. It’s one of the smallest dinosaurs ever discovered.
Scientists need to see the skull’s tiniest details. But they must not crack it. They scan the skull with X-rays and make a digital model. Oculudentavis is unlike any bird or dinosaur ever found!
How? It’s smaller. Experts compare it to the tiniest bird living today, the bee hummingbird. It likely measured no more than 1.6 inches from beak to tail. Could the dino simply be a baby? No, scientists decide. The bone growth patterns match an adult dinosaur. Imagine that! This dino darted around the world at the same time as the dinosaur Argentinosaurus. Argentinosaurus stretched 120 feet long. This one grew no bigger than a golf tee!
The skull is built for strength. Most dinosaurs have a small hole in the skull called an antorbital fenestra. This teeny dino doesn’t. And check out those eyes! Or, imagine them. The eyes themselves decayed long ago. But the bones show that the creature probably had cone-shaped eyes with small pupils. That design helps creatures move around in bright light. No other dinosaur we know of has eyes like this, though modern-day lizards do. Oculudentavis also had at least 23 sharp teeth.
All this adds up to a snapshot of Oculudentavis: a hummingbird-sized daytime predator that probably ate bugs. Totally unique!
But scientists scratch their heads. God’s creation is bigger—and littler—than they thought. Where does this dino belong in history? How many tiny, unknown dinosaurs do people still have to find? Scientists have a lot of guesses about big dinosaurs and when they lived. But Oculudentavis shows them: About the little stuff, they still know just a little.
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways! — Romans 11:33
