???? This extraordinary fossil shows a mammal biting a dinosaur

2023-07-29 06:00:09

An archaeological discovery in China takes us back 125 million years, right in the middle of the Cretaceous period. The scene captured is breathtaking: a mammal, similar to today’s badger, unleashing its fangs into the ribs of a dinosaur (Dinosaurs (from the Greek Dinosauria) are an extremely diverse clade of… three times bigger than him, both buried in a rain (Rain generally designates a precipitation of water in the state…) of volcanic ash.

According to Jordan Mallon, a paleontologist at the Canadian Museum of Nature, this discovery challenges common assumptions. Until now, it was thought that mammals, due to their small size, might not hunt dinosaurs. However, this fossil shows a Repenomamus (Repenomamus is an extinct genus of mammals of the order Triconodonta, including…) robustus, the size of a badger, in full attack of a Psittacosaurus lujiatunensis, a herbivorous dinosaur (An herbivore is, in the field of zoology, an animal (mammal, insect, fish, etc.) 120 cm in height (Height has several meanings depending on the area covered.), with a beak (A beak, in the strict sense, is an external anatomical structure that allows food intake and…) similar to that of a parrot (The term parrot ([pɛ.ʁɔ.kɛ]) designates in a way…).

It wasn’t a scavenger scene. The arrangement of the two creatures, with the mammal biting one of the dinosaur’s ribs and grabbing its paw, clearly shows an act of predation. Moreover, the absence of bite marks on the dinosaur excludes the idea that it was simply devoured following its death (Death is the final state of a biological organism that ceases to live (even if… ).

This excavation site, nicknamed the “Chinese Pompei”, is known for the abundance of dinosaurs and other animals fossilized in volcanic debris, as is the ancient city (A city is an urban unit (a “human settlement”) In 2005, another fossil was discovered there, showing a baby (in ancient Greek στόμαχος) is the…) of a Repenomamus.

Mallon calls this new discovery “one of a kind”. For him, it is proof that, during the Cretaceous, certain mammals were able to attack an adult dinosaur. Whether the Repenomamus hunted alone or in groups cannot be said. This extraordinary find is on display in a museum associated with an elementary school in the Chinese city of Weihai.
1690617958
#extraordinary #fossil #shows #mammal #biting #dinosaur