Chonosuke Okamura was a Japanese amateur paleontologist. In his late 70s, he claimed to have discovered fossils from the Silurian geological period of miniature animals, ranging from dinosaurs to humans, accounting for more than 1000 allegedly extinct "mini-species", each less than 0.25mm in length. He claimed that "There have been no changes in the bodies of mankind since the Silurian period... except for a growth in stature from 3.5 mm to 1,700 mm."