2023-07-19 20:30:00
20 July 2023, 02:00 AM IST –
New York: Fossil found in China suggests early mammals may have hunted dinosaurs. This is a fossil of an amphipod-like creature that crawled out of a beaked dinosaur, grasping its chin and hind legs and sinking its teeth into its ribs.
According to a paper published in the journal ‘Scientific Reports’ regarding this, the fossil of these creatures was found in the Lujiatun sedimentary basin in China, regarding 12.5 million years ago. Jordan Malone, a paleobiologist at the Canadian Museum of Nature and author of the paper, said he had never seen such a fossil before.
Paleontologist Steve Brussate of the University of Edinburgh said the study overturns the common misconception that mammals roamed the earth during the age of dinosaurs.
The fossil is a mammal called Repenomamus. It preys on the parrot-billed Psittacosaurus lugiatanensis. The fossil, which was found by a farmer in 2012, was studied in detail by the researchers and came to the final conclusion.
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