Fierce mammal ate dinos for lunch

[indigobusiness]

These early mammals were predators, feeding on young psittacosaurs

An astonishing new fossil unearthed in China has overturned the accepted view about the relationship between dinosaurs and early mammals.
The specimen belongs to a primitive mammal about 130 million years old and its stomach contents show that it ate young dinosaurs called psittacosaurs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4165973.stm

Fossil shows baby dinosaur in mammal's belly

Wednesday, January 12, 2005 Posted: 4:36 PM EST (2136 GMT)



Mammal Repenomamus giganticus was the about the size of a large dog.


DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- Villagers digging in China's rich fossil beds have uncovered the preserved remains of a tiny dinosaur in the belly of a mammal, a startling discovery for scientists who have long believed early mammals couldn't possibly attack and eat a dinosaur.

Scientists say the animal's last meal probably is the first proof that mammals hunted small dinosaurs some 130 million years ago. It contradicts conventional evolutionary theory that early mammals were timid, chipmunk-sized creatures that scurried in the looming shadow of the giant reptiles.

In this case, the mammal was about the size of a large cat, and the victim was a 5-inch "parrot dinosaur."

A second mammal fossil found at the same site claims the distinction of being the largest early mammal ever found. It's about the size of a modern dog, a breathtaking 20 times larger than most mammals living in the early Cretaceous Period.

Considering the specimens in tandem, scientists suggest the period in which these animals lived may have been much different than is commonly understood as the Age of Dinosaurs, a time dominated by long-necked, 85-ton plant-eaters and the emergence of terrifying hunters with bladelike teeth and sickle claws.


http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/01/12/belly.of.the.best.ap/index.html

[Lautremont]

1. Why... that looks just like my cat!

Karl? Karl? What do you want? No, Karl, I already fed you... Ahhhh!!!

[Sporadicus]

2. Darned Cat, Dragging Home Half-Dead Psittacosaurs

Make him spit it out before letting him in the house!

[Ladyhawk]

4. Psittacosaurs..."parrot reptiles"...I have a pet parrot. Sniff.

Leave the psittacosaurs alone!

[unpossibles]

8. I have a sun conure

and when he walks on a flat surface, I always think of a mini T Rex.

What kind of parrot do you have? I'd like to get a Grey some day.

[Ladyhawk]

9. I used to raise greys. :) I have an Amazon parrot.

[unpossibles]

11. cute!

I like Amazons too. What is his/her name?

Mine is Icarus and he's not as loud as most conures (well...sometimes), and my 2 cats and dog are afraid of him.

He loves music and has good rhythm (his favorite beat is kind of like a clave, if you are familiar with Brazilian music at all) or a wood block.

[Ladyhawk]

12. Sunnies are like little jewels.

Gabby is my bird's name. I've had him for seventeen years. :)

[lazarus]

15. I've heard amazing things about the intelligence of Greys

apparently, they have some cognitive ability, are able to string words together into new and logical patterns, and can match up numbers (symbols) with words and do basic (very basic, human infant-level) math.

I'd like to see more studies on this. We're finding out a lot about animal intelligence.

That's my form of vegetarianism. I won't eat anything that shows unusual intelligence. Dolphin, monkey, octopus (oh, that was hard to give up). The jury's out on my beloved squid.

I think I'll do a thread on this.

[Ladyhawk]

3. The pictures look like it still had a sprawled stance.

I'll have to read it to find out. I love paleontology. :D

[indigobusiness]

5. Interesting quote:

"Mesozoic mammals were thought to have lived in the shadow of the dinosaurs. But the picture is quite different now."

[Ediacara]

13. Mesozoic mammals did live in the shadow of dinosaurs

This is a very very large Mesozoic mammal, but still a VERY small mammal. It happened to eat the BABY of a very very small dinosaur.

[yankeeinlouisiana]

6. They look like giant rats

to me. However, very interesting.

[lazarus]

14. R.O.U.S.'s?

Rodents Of Unusal Size?

Buttercup: We'll never succeed. We may as well die here.

Westley: No, no. We have already succeeded. I mean, what are the three terrors of the Fire Swamp? One, the flame spurt - no problem. There's a popping sound preceding each; we can avoid that. Two, the lightning sand, which you were clever enough to discover what that looks like, so in the future we can avoid that too.

Buttercup: Westley, what about the R.O.U.S.'s?

Westley: Rodents Of Unusual Size? I don't think they exist.

[BeFree]

7. I figure

The next find may be of a dinosaur with a humanoid in it's belly.

Face it, humans back then were mere prey to just about anything. We were running scared and whenever one of us fell, we were soon food for one of the other creatures, that's why no human remains have yet been found. But they will.

[Ladyhawk]

10. As far as science knows, the first upright bipedal human ancestor...

didn't exist until about 3.2 million years ago. The dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago. I don't think primates even existed at the end of the Mesozoic...of course, some paleontologist could prove me wrong.