New evidence sheds light on mammal-eating dinosaur

New fossil proof sheds gentle on the consuming habits of a small dinosaur which was discovered with a mammal foot in it.

The intestinal contents of a Microraptor zhaoianus — or micro raptorfor brief – confirmed uncommon proof of what the small, feathers dinosaur eaten in the course of the Cretaceous interval, about 120 million years in the past.

The findings had been just lately revealed within the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

“It is uncommon and particular to discover a dinosaur skeleton that preserves intestine contents or, actually, any form of direct proof of interplay with one other kind of animal,” mentioned the College of Alberta paleontologist and examine co-author , Corwin Sullivan, mentioned.

The microraptor’s intestine contained the foot of a small mammal, in regards to the measurement of a mouse.

The primary microraptor ever found in 2000 revealed the abdomen contents of fish, lizard and fowl, proving the range of the dinosaur’s weight loss program.

Given their small stature – in regards to the measurement of a modern-day crow – microraptors weren’t looking for out giant herbivores with which they shared their setting, Sullivan mentioned. It’s unclear to researchers whether or not this was a predator-prey relationship.

Microraptors, which hail from a lush, forested area in what’s now China, aren’t the primary historical species to be discovered with mammalian materials of their guts.

“There is just one beforehand recognized instance of a dinosaur skeleton with mammalian content material, additionally from the Early Cretaceous of northeastern China, so we Micro raptor specimen offers uncommon further proof that mammals had been on the menu for some dinosaurs,” Sullivan mentioned.

Microraptor has blade-like enamel, typical of carnivorous dinosaurs, and its jaw proportions recommend that it was “fairly able to capturing and killing small vertebrate prey.”

Whereas it isn’t on a regular basis {that a} paleontologist comes throughout dinosaur fossils with intestine contents, Sullivan mentioned there are dozens of instances that present a various vary of meals supplies consumed by these historical creatures and supply a extra full image of what environments and ecosystems reminiscent of thousands and thousands of years in the past.

“I feel it is truthful to say that Micro raptor is the one dinosaur for which we now have proof, from completely different people, of feeding on fish and lizards and mammals and birds! It is fairly a diverse weight loss program.”

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