#lepidosaur

Meet Oculudentavis khaungraae, a tiny bird(?) that’s sparked a big controversy. Oculudentavis, according to current phylogenetic analysis, is a basal avialan that lived 99 million years ago. This is all well and good; however, the truly extraordinary thing about this creature is that its skull wasn’t even two centimeters across! This would’ve made it roughly the size of a bee hummingbird... and thus by far the smallest dinosaur yet discovered.

However, two controversies have surrounded this fossil: one taxonomic and one ethical. Some scientists are arguing that Oculudentavis was not a bird at all, for example, but rather a lizard-like lepidosaur. Why? Because the skull structure and pleurodont teeth, they argue, are suspiciously non-avian.

It is also known that the amber mines in Myanmar are kept running by forced labor and deplorable conditions, and that the profits garnered from them are used to fund the brutal and ongoing Kachin conflict. Certain paleontologists have warned of this association and are distancing themselves from Myanmar specimens as a result; renowned paleoartist Mark Witton even write a blog post about it.