A fossil found in China reveals the smallest flying dinosaur ever discovered: a sparrow-sized pterodactyl. Known pterosaurs have wingspans up to 33 feet, but this tiny dino only has a 9.8-inch wingspan.

The pterosaur's species has been named the Nemicolopterus crypticus and the reptile has been dated to have lived 125 to 120 million years ago.

Examining the fossil, scientists believe that the toothless dino fed on insects and used its claws to hold on to trees. Scientists believe that its discovery would reveal more of how flying creatures evolved.

Lawrence Witmer, an associate professor of anatomy at the Ohio University College, explains that scientists can now study how closely related birds and pterodactyls are. Although the two species share the common trait of flying, they are not directly related.

Alexander Kellner, author of the paper that introduced the pterodactyl to the scientific community, explains that although modern birds evolved from dinosaurs, and that pterodactyls are also of the dinosaur lineage, the two species are not directly related.

Essentially, the two are cousins from the same family tree. Kellner explains that the discovery of the tiny ptero "opens a new chapter in the evolutionary history of flying creatures."