World's smallest dinosaur: 110 million-year-old footprints found in South Korea belong to a sparrow-sized raptor that could fit in the palm of your hand

Researchers have discovered the smallest dinosaur tracks ever found, with each footprint measuring just 1 centimeter long.

The experts say the tiny carnivorous dinosaur was roughly the size of a sparrow, and walked on legs that were each only about the length of a matchstick.

The 110 million-year-old footprints found at an excavation site in South Korea indicate the creature that left them was a raptor, having two toes planted on the ground and a third that retracted like a cat's claw, the Daily Mail reports.

These new tracks are just one centimetre in length, which means the dinosaur that made them was an animal you could have easily held in your hand,” says University of Queensland researcher Anthony Romilio.

“They are the world's smallest dinosaur tracks.”

Romilio was part of a team that examined the ancient footprints that were first found in Jinju Innovation City in 2011.

He says he was shocked when he saw the tiny tracks.

'We knew they were raptor tracks, because we know what they look like. It was the size that was the extraordinary component,' Dr Romilio told AAP on Friday, after an article on the findings was released in an international science journal.

“They are the world's smallest dinosaur tracks,” he said.