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Models of dwarf dinosaurs and their much larger relatives.
(Dinopark Munchehagen Via Associated Press)
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Really Old Dinosaurs In a New, Pint Size
· This is the story of the incredible shrinking dinosaur.
Some sauropods apparently stranded on an island 154 million years ago ended up over time one-third the size of their mainland cousins, fossils found in northern Germany show.
The island didn't have enough food for full-size dinos, according to the journal Nature.
Although scientists are calling the plant-eating dinosaurs dwarfs, they stretched out to about 20 feet from snout to tail, and they weighed about a ton, the report said. But that seems puny compared with their closest relatives on the mainland, which were about 60 feet long.
Dwarfism in large species has been seen in mammals: Fossils of three-foot-tall elephants have been found in Italy, for example. But finding it in dinosaurs "is pretty neat," Mark Norell, a dinosaur expert at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, told reporters.
When resources are limited, smaller body size is an advantage, scientists say. So, captive animals, over time, may shrink to survive.
The sauropods have been named Europasaurus holgeri . They were four-legged, long-necked creatures. Bone analysis shows that they grew more slowly than larger dinosaurs.
