Subscribe up for interesting CNN Theory of financial science. Explore the universe with news about exciting discoveries, scientific advances and more.
Snoring
–
Sometime during the Cretaceous Period, 120 million years ago, dinosaurs grabbed their last meal – a small mammal the size of a mouse. And it still is.
Spotted by an investigator with a keen eye from the inside of a mammal’s foot preserved in the viscera of the fossilized Microraptor zhaoianus, a feathered therapod less than a meter (3 feet) long.
“At first I couldn’t believe it. The foot of a small rodent-like mammal about a centimeter (0.4 inch) inside the Microraptor skeleton was perfectly preserved,” says Hans Larsson, professor of biology at McGill University’s Redpath Museum in Montreal. Larsson came across the fossil while visiting museum collections in China.
“These are the only solid evidence we have of long-term food consumption of extinct animals — which are extremely rare,” Larsson said in a news release.
The research, published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology On December 20, he said that the 21st known example of dinosaurs was preserved with the last dinner.
It’s still rare to find a mammal on the menu; Only one other such example is now in fossil form.
We already know of specimens of Microraptor in the parts of fish, birds, and lizards preserved in their stomachs. “This new discovery adds small mammals to their diet, suggesting that these dinosaurs were opportunistic and not picky eaters,” Larsson, co-author of the study, said in a statement.
“Scions that Microraptor was a generalist carnivore provides a new perspective on how ancient ecosystems can be made and insight into the success of small finned dinosaurs,” he explained.
Generalist predators, such as foxes and ravens, are important stabilizers in today’s ecosystems because they can be preyed upon by many species, the news release said. According to the research, Microraptor is the first known example of a generalist carnivore into the age of the dinosaurs.
It’s possible that other dinosaurs from the therapod family, which included Tyrannosaurus rex, may also have shared a similar infatuated diet, the study said.
A Microraptor fossil was discovered in the rich fossil deposits in Liaoning in northern China in the early 2000s. Specimen that features feathers on the arms, wings and legs, one of the first finned dinosaurs.
“While this mammal may not have been a human ancestor at all, we can look back at some of the dinosaurs’ early relatives who were hungry for dinner,” said study coauthor Dr. David Hone, lecturer in Zoology at Queen Mary University of London, in the eulogy.
“This study paints a fascinating picture of a moment – one of the first recorded dinosaurs eating a mummy – although it’s not quite as detailed as anything in ‘Jurassic Park’.”
#Rare #evidence #dinosaurs #feasting #mammals #discovered #Snoring
