World’s smallest dinosaur’s footprint found in South Korea

Scientists in South Korea have claimed to discover a fossilised footprint of the ‘smallest dinosaur’ ever found, paving its way to the Guinness Book of World Records.

The footprint of theropoda dinosaur found is 1.27 cm long and 1.06 cm wide, they were quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency. The current footprint is 29 per cent smaller than other specimens found so far.

The fossil was found in 2007 by a resident of Changseon of South Gyeongsang Province and was confirmed by experts recently, National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage said.

“The last smallest fossil found earlier in Isle of Skye, Scotland measured 1.78cm long and 1.16cm wide. The current fossil is believed to be of a newborn measuring 10 cm, and dates back to some 100 million years,” said Mr. Kim Gyeong-su of Chinju National University of Education, one of the two scholars who confirmed the fossil.

The fossil was acknowledged as an important find by scholars attending the 69th Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, held at England’s University of Bristol last month.