Cute Dinosaur Names: The Most Adorable Prehistoric Names
Have you ever noticed that some dinosaur names sound almost too sweet to belong to real prehistoric animals?
Names like Mei, Minmi, and Bambiraptor could pass for cartoon characters â but these were living, breathing creatures that roamed the Earth millions of years ago. Some of them were tiny. Some were feathered. One of them was literally discovered curled up like it was taking a nap.
Let's meet the dinosaurs with the most adorable names in the fossil record.
Click any name to hear how to say it
These Little Dinosaurs Had Big Stories
Mei long is the undisputed champion of cute dinosaur names â and its story backs it up. This small feathered dinosaur was discovered in China, fossilized with its head tucked under its arm exactly like a sleeping bird. Its name means "soundly sleeping dragon" in Mandarin. It died 125 million years ago mid-nap, and somehow that's the most relatable thing any prehistoric creature has ever done.
Minmi was a little armored ankylosaur from Queensland, Australia. It was named after Minmi Crossing, a local creek â and scientists gave it the shortest formal dinosaur name ever recorded. Don't let the cute name fool you: Minmi was basically a walking tank covered in bony armor plates.
Leaellynasaura lived in polar forests so dark that it evolved enormous eyes just to see during the long Antarctic winters. It was named after Leaellyn Rich, the daughter of the paleontologists who found it. A dinosaur literally named after a kid â and one with giant eyes that let it survive the dark. That is a great combination.
Tiny, Fast, and Surprisingly Weird
A lot of the best cute dinosaur names belong to animals that were genuinely small. Bambiraptor was about the size of a chicken and had a brain-to-body ratio close to modern birds â meaning it was probably one of the smarter dinosaurs of its time.
Eoraptor is one of the earliest dinosaurs ever found, living around 231 million years ago. It was only about the size of a fox and could run on two legs or four. For something that old, it's surprisingly modern-looking.
Fruitadens â named after Fruita, Colorado, where it was found â was one of the smallest dinosaurs in North America, barely the length of your arm. It had tiny teeth and probably ate both plants and insects.
Aquilops was a horned dinosaur about the size of a rabbit that lived in North America over 100 million years ago. It's one of the earliest relatives of Triceratops, and it weighed less than a bag of apples.