Scientists unearth the first mammal devoured by dinosaurs

If you have ever dedicated some time into the world of palaeontology and dinosaurs, you would know that the species were either herbivorous, or carnivorous and sometimes even omnivorous. That being said, until recently, scientists didn’t really know which was the first mammal that was devoured by dinosaurs. 

However, in the latest turn of events, they have discovered the foot remains of a mammal inside the ribcage of a small feathered dinosaurs called microraptors. They are approximately 120 million years old. These brand-new findings have been published in a report in the Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology and is being deemed as the first known instance of a mammal being eaten by a dinosaur. Wondering what kind of mammal, it could have been? Well, evidence suggest it was something like a mouse (with thin and short toes resembling the ones in present day possums) that lived on the ground and was not a good climber.  

As a matter of fact, it is immensely difficult to locate food samples inside dinosaur fossils making this recent discovery a first of its kind. It also sure gives an insight into the predatory nature and eating habits of dinosaurs at large and excludes the possibility of any human ancestors to have been devoured by these prehistoric giant reptiles.  

As for microraptors who have made this study possible, they were native to the forests of China and lived somewhere between 125 million to 113 million years ago. This two-legged (having three toes in each foot) carnivorous species may have also been trained in guided flight and were literally the size of crows to that of house cats and often hopped from one tree to another in search of small mammal preys.  

Interestingly, the specimen from which the animal footbone was found, was unearthed in the year 2000 in Jiufotung Formation in western China. But earlier team of researchers analysing it had failed to notice the recent findings. However, previous research did find microraptor fossils with non-mammal food inside them, such as birds, lizards, snakes, squamates and fishes.  

That brings us to the question why are mammal remains so hard to find inside dinosaur fossils? Is it because dinosaurs preferred other animal kinds? No, that’s not it. Instead, it may have been that mammals gave a tough fight to dinosaurs and didn’t end up as their food unlike other species.  

The team of researchers who conducted the recent re-examination is based at London’s Queen Mary University.