CNN —Sometime during the Cretaceous Period, 125 million years ago, a feisty mammal the size of a domestic cat encountered a dinosaur three times its size and thought it looked like a tasty meal.
“The inherited wisdom has been that the ecological interactions were unilateral: The bigger dinosaurs ate the smaller mammals.
What makes this fossil exceptional is that the mammal is caught in the moment of attacking the almost fully grown dinosaur.
A detail of the fossil shows the left forepaw of Repenomamus robustus wrapped around the lower jaw of the dinosaur.
Gang HanPredator vs. scavengerThe fossil shows R. robustus gripping onto the lower jaw of Psittacosaurus with its left forepaw.
Persons:
CNN —, paleobiologist Jordan Mallon, Michael W, Skrepnick, ”, Mallon, “, —, ” Mallon
Organizations:
CNN, Canadian Museum of Nature
Locations:
China, China’s Liaoning province