2023-07-18 17:00:09
About 125 million years ago, dinosaurs still ruled the Earth, as they would continue to do for another 60 million years. Meanwhile, the mammals tried to make a hole to survive. Until now, it was believed that our first ancestors were more or less tiny creatures, who lived in fear of the then kings of creation, fierce, great and powerful. But that’s not the full picture.
An extraordinary fossil found in the Chinese province of Liaoning shows how a badger-like mammal, called Let’s call him strong againattacked a herbivorous dinosaur Psittacosaurus, the size of a large dog and one of the first horned animals, to make it their dinner. The scene, described this Tuesday in the magazine ‘Scientific Reports’, suggests that mammals were capable of attacking larger dinosaurs during the Cretaceous.
“The two animals are locked in mortal combat, intimately intertwined, and it’s some of the first evidence showing actual mammalian predatory behavior on a dinosaur,” explains Jordan Mallon, a paleobiologist at the Canadian Museum of Nature and co-author of the paper. study.
Before this discovery, paleontologists knew that Let’s repeat it fed on dinosaurs, including Psittacosaurus, due to the herbivore hatchling bones found in its stomach. “The coexistence of these two animals is not new, but the predatory behavior shown by the fossil is,” Mallon points out.
Entangled skeletons of Psittacosaurus (dinosaur) and Repenomamus (mammal). The scale bar equals 10 cm. gang han
The odd pair was discovered in 2012 at the Liujitun sites, dubbed ‘China’s Pompeii’ for the numerous fossils of dinosaurs, small mammals, lizards and amphibians that were suddenly buried en masse by landslides and debris after an o More volcanic eruptions. the remains of Psittacosaurus-Repenomamus They were kept in the collections of the Weihai Ziguang Shi Yan School Museum, in the Chinese province of Shandong.
Psittacosaurus (meaning ‘parrot reptile’ from the plant-cutting beak at the end of its snout) was an early relative of horned dinosaurs such as Triceratops. Smaller, it weighed between 10 and 20 kilos and moved on its two hind legs. For his part, Let’s repeat it it had splayed limbs, was carnivorous, and probably a capable burrower, so perhaps it lived in burrows.
Life reconstruction showing Psittacosaurus being attacked by Repenomamus, 125 million years ago Michael Skrepnick
face down and secure
Close examination of the fossilized pair shows that Psittacosaurus It lies face down, with its hind legs folded on either side of its body. Let’s repeat it it coils to the right and sits on top of its prey, holding the dinosaur’s jaw with one paw. The mammal also bites into some of its prey’s ribs, and the hind leg catches the dinosaur’s hind leg in turn. “Clearly there was an active attack taking place,” Mallon says.
Detail of fossil showing the left leg of Repenomamus wrapped around the lower jaw of the G. Han dinosaur
“At first we wondered if the mammal was simply rummaging through the dinosaur carcass, but we believe this is unlikely for several reasons,” the researcher told this newspaper. “First, the dinosaur’s bones show no sign of tooth marks, which we would expect if the animal had already been dead for a while, exposed to scavengers. Second, the mammal’s position on top of the dinosaur, as if it were trying to “In order to subdue it, it doesn’t make sense in the scavenging hypothesis. Ultimately, the mammal’s hind leg is trapped by the dinosaur’s bent hind leg, as if the dinosaur had collapsed on top of it. This doesn’t make much sense if the dinosaur was already dead.” , Explain.
Analogies of smaller animals attacking larger prey are known in the modern world. Some solitary wolverines have been known to hunt larger game, such as caribou and domestic sheep, “especially if they are hungry and desperate.” And in the African savannah, wild dogs, jackals and hyenas attack prey that is still alive. They collapse, often in shock. “Pack-hunting mammals are especially capable of taking down large prey, acting in a coordinated manner. However, we have no evidence to suggest that Let’s repeat it it hunted in packs,” Mallon says. “Perhaps the mammal surprised the dinosaur, attacking it in its sleep, although we really don’t know much about the preceding circumstances,” he adds.
The research team speculates in their paper that volcanic deposits from the Lujiatun fossil beds in China will continue to yield new evidence of species interactions, unknown in the rest of the fossil record.
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