Crow-Sized Dinosaur Found in Near-Perfect Condition

A tiny dinosaur no bigger than a crow has emerged from the desert sands of Patagonia, perfectly preserved after 95 million years.

Researchers unearthed the nearly complete skeleton of Alnashetri cerropoliciensis, affectionately nicknamed "Alna," in northern Patagonia's Rio Negro Province. Weighing just 1.5 pounds, this feathered hunter would barely reach an adult's knee.

The discovery comes from a region famous for enormous dinosaurs like the eight-ton Giganotosaurus and the massive 70-ton Argentinosaurus. But Alna tells a different story about who really lived there.

This four-year-old female died in a desert environment and was quickly buried by a sand dune. That swift burial created something extraordinary: bones positioned exactly as they were in life, with microscopic details still intact after millions of years.

"The level of histological detail is exquisite," said paleontologist Sebastián Apesteguía from Argentina's National Scientific and Technical Research Council. The preservation was so perfect that scientists could study the bone structures under microscopes.

Alna had a rooster-like body with a long tail, slender legs built for speed across sand dunes, and strong arms that couldn't quite manage flight. Her numerous sharp teeth resembled a miniature Velociraptor, perfect for hunting lizards, snakes, small mammals, and invertebrates.

The fossil was found at La Buitrera, a site that has become a goldmine for small prehistoric creatures. The first partial remains appeared in 2004, but the complete specimen discovered in 2014 required 12 years of careful preparation and study.

Why This Inspires

This discovery rewrites our understanding of the "age of giants." When we picture dinosaur times, we imagine massive beasts roaming empty landscapes. But Alna proves those ancient worlds teemed with creatures of all sizes.

"It wasn't a time of giants, but rather a time of immense biodiversity," Apesteguía explained. The Kokorkom Desert (meaning "desert of the bones" in the indigenous Mapuche language) hosted an entire ecosystem of small and medium animals that movies and popular imagination often erase.

Alna also reveals that her dinosaur family, the alvarezsaurs, became tiny multiple times throughout their history. Later relatives developed specialized claws for digging into termite mounds, but Alna shows these dinosaurs started as generalist hunters before specializing.

Beyond birds, which descended from small feathered dinosaurs, Alnashetri stands as the smallest dinosaur known from South America. She rivals the tiniest dinosaur discoveries anywhere on Earth.

Patagonia continues delivering treasures both enormous and minute, reminding us that every ecosystem thrives on diversity at every scale.