Noasaurus
| Noasaurus Temporal range: Upper Cretaceous
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| Genus: | Noasaurus
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| Noasaurus leali Bonaparte & Powell, 1980
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Noasaurus was a small meat-eating dinosaur. It lived at a time when some of the biggest dinosaurs ever to live were roaming South America. Although it had some of the same characteristics as raptors that lived in North America and Asia, it was not a close relative. This little hunter is a good example of how dinosaurs filled lots of roles in the environment. Not only were dinosaurs the biggest hunters, but they were also among the smallest.
It was discovered by Jaime Powell and José Bonaparte in northwestern Argentina. Its unique foot claw has caused a great deal of discussion regarding the evolutionary lineage of this dinosaur.