Unusual Fossil Shows Rare Evidence of a Mammal Attacking a Dinosaur
Published:16 Aug.2023 Source:Canadian Museum of Nature
Canadian and Chinese scientists have described an unusual fossil from around 125 million years ago that shows a dramatic moment in time when a carnivorous mammal attacked a larger plant-eating dinosaur. The fossil's presence challenges the view that dinosaurs had few threats from their mammal contemporaries during the Cretaceous, when dinosaurs were the dominant animals.
A close examination of the fossil pair shows that the Psittacosaurus is lying prone, with its hindlimbs folded on either side of its body. The body of the Repenomamus coils to the right and sits atop its prey, with the mammalgripping the jaw of the larger dinosaur. The mammal is also biting into some of the ribs, and the back foot of Repenomamus is gripping onto the dino's hind leg.
Mallon, Wu and colleagues ruled out the possibility that the mammal was simply scavenging a dead dinosaur. The bones of the dinosaur have no tooth marks, for example, suggesting it was not being scavenged, but rather was being preyed upon. And it's unlikely the two animals would have become so entangled if the dinosaur had been dead before the mammal came upon it. The position of the Repenomamus over top of the Psittacosaurus suggests it was also the aggressor.