An international team of paleontologists has announced that they have discovered the first known case of a dinosaur being eaten by a mammal.

The fossil belongs to a small winged dinosaur named Microraptor that lived in the ancient forests of modern China during the early Cretaceous period about 120 million years ago. The dinosaur in question was about the size of a crow or a cat, and although it walked mostly on two legs, it probably also flew on its long wings from tree to tree, preying on small animals.

Although the fossil has been discovered since 2000, it is only now that scientists have noticed that inside it is a second smaller fossil of a single animal, namely the foot of an ancient mammal. The leg was preserved almost completely and belonged to an animal the size of a mouse. Analysis of his bones showed that he lived mostly on the ground.

The corresponding publication in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology was made by researchers from the UK, Canada, the USA and China, led by Dr. David Hawn from Queen Mary University of London.

Other microraptor fossils have been found in the past, with bird, lizard and fish in their stomachs, and now a mammal is added to the list of prey, indicating that this little dinosaur ate everything.

“It’s very rare to find food samples inside dinosaurs, so any find like this is really important because it gives us direct evidence of what they ate. While the mammal in question was definitely not a human ancestor, it can be assumed that some of our ancient relatives were food for hungry dinosaurs. Our research reveals an exciting moment in history – the first discovery of a mammal-eating dinosaur – even if it’s not as scary as Jurassic Park,” said Hawn.

Source: RES-IPE