Small size preceded ant specialization

A newly reconstructed 90‑million‑year‑old alvarezsaur (Alnashetri cerropoliciensis) shows that small body size was ancestral for the group and that the short, powerful digging forelimbs and tiny teeth associated with ant‑eating evolved later and repeatedly. That overturns the neat story that progressive miniaturization drove the evolution of insectivory in these dinosaurs. — This cautions against simple adaptive stories based on fragmentary fossils and changes how paleontologists infer behavior, ecology, and biogeographic history from skeletal form.