A mammal fossil inside another fossil! This is what researchers have just discovered, studying a specimen of microraptor, dated 120 million years ago. This is the first ever evidence of a dinosaur eating a mammal!
Discovered more than 20 years ago, in 2000, a fossil of microraptor still continues today to reveal its secrets. It was found in the Jiufotang geological formation in northeast China. This place contains many fossils of animals and plants dating from the Lower Cretaceous, a period that spanned between 145 million years and 100 million years ago. Among them, many pterosaurs, mammals and this small microraptor that a study published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology detailed analysis.
These small, feathered dinosaurs with three-toed legs were no bigger than a chat, and just like these felines, they were carnivores! Adorned with feathers, they lived in the trees, and hunted small mammals. Their originality lies in their wings: they had not one but two pairs, one of which was located at the level of their hind legs!
A mammal fossil inside the microraptor fossil!
belonging to the species Microraptor zhaoianus and dated to around 120 million years ago, the specimen the researchers studied wasn’t exactly whole, but a large portion of the body still remained, allowing researchers to uncover what was inside : one foot small mammal ! The species it belongs to remains unknown, but scientists have noted slender toes, similar to those of opossums. The mammal was regarding the size of a mouse.
This is not the first evidence of the carnivorous diet of a dinosaur but, until today, only reptiles, fish or birds had been found eaten by dinosaurs, but no mammals! It remains to be seen if this one was chased away by the microraptor, and how. The researchers conclude on the impossibility of deducing a whole diet from their discovery “because gut content is an informative, but not exclusive, indicator of diet. »
