Meet the Nanotheropods! 10 Smallest Nonavian Dinosaurs

Don't leave out the little guy! The nanotheropods storm the channel to take the limelight away from recent giant discoveries. Here we cover the ten smallest nonavian dinosaurs discovered as of 2023.
Thumbnail Anchiornis art by Matt Martyniuk.
Thumbnail Yi qi by Rebecca Groom.
Thumbnail Mahakala by Sauriazoicillus.
Fair use allows individuals to use a copyrighted work without obtaining permission when the use is considered commentary, criticism, teaching, news reporting, scholarship, or research.

[@beedrillbot121]

I think if I had to pick some of my favorite small theropods it would be Anchisaurus, Segisaurus, Saturnalia, and Lagerpeton. Anchisaurus has always been a favorite dinosaur of mine since when dinosaurs roamed America, and the fact that it is a small sauropodamorph only helps in loving it since Diplodocus is one of my favorites in general. To be fair though it isn’t very small, with it being medium dog sized and weighing 32 kg. Segisaurus is definitely a dinosaur I would pick as a pet, with its hypothetical diet of insects and carrion, I wonder if your average dry dog food could work as a substitute for meat, though you would probably need to feed it live insects like big grasshoppers and such. I find Saturnalia interesting since it feels so different from what you expect of a sauropod, it’s small, two legged, carnivorous, and is more similar to a theropod than that of a sauropod. In fact I wonder how different our world would be if the carnivorous Sauropodamorphs didn’t go extinct in the Triassic and replaced the theropods of our timeline as the apex predators since they were already getting quite large while living below the Herrerasaurids and Rauisuchians. But besides that I just love the image of this tiny offshoot of the Sauropoda family tree standing next to its giant relatives, in fact I even have the Lock Screen of my phone being a cool artwork of Saturnalia, and the Home Screen is Barosaurus. (Before I knew it was the potentially third largest known Sauropod of all time.) And Lagerpeton is a cool little Pterosauramorph that I just find neat.

[@TheVividen]

All good picks!

[@The_Industry]

"A reptilian Aye-aye on cocaine" has to be my single favourite descriptors of Epidexipteryx ever.

[@TheVividen]

What are some of your other favorites? Call it morbid curiosity

[@The_Industry]

@@TheVividen "Avian Smeagol"

[@TheVividen]

@@The_Industry That's a pretty dang good one

[@dibershai6009]

A protoavian aye-aye with a twisted way of thinking

[@011keepers]

This was to silly, and cute!! Loved this too much..

[@TheVividen]

I'm glad you liked it!

[@Myxinidae]

You didn't even get close to the smallest therapods; a male bee hummingbird has a Mr. Featherstone score of 0.0025!

[@CristinaMarshal]

This was fueled by some midnight energy wasn't it? :)

[@warhawk4494]

Sweet!! Mini raptors

[@DreadEnder]

Your wife’s been watching to much Batman and the wasp quantumania! Look out for the little guy.

[@vinnygranata8363]

For years I’ve been thinking Microraptor was the smallest dinosaur, thank god I was wrong and I know now that a true stabby chicken exists

[@petrfedor1851]

Ah yes, Microraptor! The gliding cat-crow!!

[@patrick_j_lee]

Sure Hesperonychus is technically related to Velociraptor (being in Dromaeosauridae), but it's a Microraptorine, so you should really say "a relative of Microraptor".

[@Toumoriryuu]

This was stupid in the best possible way. I absolutely loved it, thank you.

[@011keepers]

Stabby Chicken!!

[@TheVividen]

Stabby Chicken is unstoppable

[@011keepers]

@@TheVividen as it should be...

[@DreadEnder]

No yi chi lives in massive caves filled with weird naked gigantopithecus

[@TheVividen]

I'm not sure I want an explanation, so I'll accept your word for it

[@DreadEnder]

@@TheVividen reference

[@spongebombepicpants1073]

www.genesispark.com/exhibits/evidence/paleontological/old-bone/

[@Dnyn]

"Zero point six nine" nice...

[@anthonyhall7019]

Hilarious video! I laughed and laughed 😂😂😂

[@WildBillCox13]

Enjoyable.

[@Daniel-vk5li]

What's funny is that the word "smallest" killed this video in the algorithm.

[@dynojackal1911]

This only covers what genera have been fossilized. There may have been theropods and ornithischians that were as small as modern songbirds.

[@Myxinidae]

Modern songbirds are therapods as small as modern songbirds.

[@dynojackal1911]

@@Myxinidae Non-avian theropods.

[@douglasphillips5870]

Epidexipteryx sounds interesting. I'd like to learn more

[@mahmadmahmad1183]

Yi qi: the dragon 🐉🦖

[@Sirdilophosaurusthethird2.0]

S m o o l

[@TheVividen]

i n d e e d

[@TheGBZard]

I love yi qi, it’s literally a dragoj

[@Tyrannosaurus_rex.]

Well this is different!

[@MichaeltheORIGINAL1]

This channel is full of paleontology gems! :)

[@williamgrigsby3052]

Small dinos to be like

[@danielkorladis7869]

We would definitely keep these as pets if they were still around.

[@DreadEnder]

How much does your average cantaloupe weigh?

[@TheVividen]

According to The Kitchn, an average cantaloupe weighs about 3 pounds (1.5ish kilos). Pretty hefty compared to a Parvicursor! www.thekitchn.com/how-many-cups-of-fruit-are-in-a-pound-of-cantaloupe-234490

[@DreadEnder]

@@TheVividen fat melon

[@Compsognathus09]

Best vid on earth.

[@TheVividen]

My wife was happy to hear that--it was her idea!

[@Compsognathus09]

@@TheVividen Nice

[@Compsognathus09]

​@@TheVividenI swear this needs a part 2, nanotheropods are my favorite animal group ever.

[@dibershai6009]

Why would chickens worship Mahakala?! 🤣

[@SPIOoner]

{sees small dinos} compies? Coelophysis?

[@PelicanMobBoss]

Coelophysis isn't really small. It's 3 meters long

[@BinroWasRight]

Hilarious 🤣

[@TeethToothman]

💥🖤💥

[@Dnyn]

Wtf is a mr.featherstone score

[@blobfishiant8487]

Moist

[@TheVividen]

Always

[@gustavo-xd5uc]

O anchiornis ainda está em aviale,se sim ele pode ser considerado um dino aviano?