Chinese and Canadian researchers have a fossil found recording a mammal biting a dinosaur. According to the scientists, this is unique, because it was previously thought that dinosaurs had little to fear from mammals.
The fossil was found in 2012 in China’s coastal province of Liaoning, in an area known as the Pompeii of the Dinosaurs. Both skeletons were found almost complete. In the eleven years since the find, the fossil, which is about 100 to 125 million years old, has been determined to be genuine.
“The two animals are fighting together, intimately intertwined. It’s one of the first pieces of evidence to show a mammal exhibiting predatory behavior toward a dinosaur,” said researcher Jordan Mallon, of the Canadian Museum of Nature. in return for CNN.
It is a mammal the size of a domestic cat. With today’s knowledge you would not think that this was a large hunter, but at that time the animal was one of the largest mammals. The fossil shows the animal biting a young psittacosaurus — a plant-eating dinosaur.
“We’ve always been taught that the bigger dinosaurs ate the smaller mammals. This turns everything upside down. It shows that mammals could take on bigger dinosaurs if they were hungry and desperate enough,” says Mallon.
2023-07-18 20:05:17
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