The fossil was found in 2012 in the coastal province of Liaoning in China, in an area known as the Pompeii of dinosaurs. Both skeletons were found nearly complete. In the eleven years since the discovery, the fossil, which is about 100 to 125 million years old, has been identified as authentic.
“The two animals fought together, closely intertwined. It’s one of the first pieces of evidence to show that a mammal displayed predatory behavior toward a dinosaur,” said study researcher Jordan Mallon of the Canadian Museum of Nature. CNN.
It is a mammal the size of a domestic cat. Knowing today, you wouldn’t think this was a big hunter, but at the time the animal was one of the largest mammals. The fossil shows the animal biting a young psittachosaurus – a plant-eating dinosaur.
“We’ve always learned that bigger dinosaurs ate smaller mammals. This turns everything on its head. It shows that mammals could outrun larger dinosaurs if they were hungry and desperate enough,” says Mallon.
