A Unique Discovery: Researchers Have Uncovered an Ultra-Rare Piece of Evidence That Dinosaurs Ate Mammals
[...] A recent study in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology details the discovery of a mouse-sized mammal foot inside the gut contents of a Microraptor zhaoianus, a small feathered dinosaur from the early Cretaceous period. This is a rare and unique find, as there is only one previous report of a dinosaur with mammalian gut contents, and it's not closely related to Microraptor.
[...] Previous Microraptor specimens from this area have been found with gut contents of a fish, bird, and lizard, indicating that these small dinosaurs had diverse diets. However, it remains unclear whether Microraptor consumed the contents in a predator-prey relationship or by scavenging. Researchers can only say conclusively that Microraptor was carnivorous.
Sullivan says information about dinosaurs' diets is a key piece in the puzzle to learning more about what was going on at the time they roamed the Earth.
Journal Reference:
David W. E. Hone, T. Alexander Dececchi, Corwin Sullivan, et al., Generalist diet of Microraptor zhaoianus included mammals, J Vertebr Paleo, 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2022.2144337
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ilPapa on Monday February 06, @04:15AM (4 children)
Why wouldn't dinosaurs eat mammals? Mammals are freaking delicious. Everybody knows that.
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 06, @10:27AM
Birds are delicious too, so if you count them as dinosaurs then... i don't know, alls i know is that animals are tasty and will continue to eat them until the day i die.
This is one of those rare(?) cases where proving the opposite is what needs to be proven, otherwise it is what it is.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday February 06, @01:12PM
I had the same thing in mind. Any form of life is going to eat whatever it can find, that provides nutrition - or even if it only staves off hunger pangs. Dinos ate mammals, mammals ate dinos. What's that old saying about dogs? If you can't eat it, fuck it. If you can't fuck it, piss on it.
In other news, plants sometimes eat animals! Those plants that aren't carnivorous will eat animals as well, just as soon as the bacteria and fungi reduce that animal to readily available nutrients.
Life is amazing, ain't it?
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by aafcac on Monday February 06, @02:39PM (1 child)
I'd assume that this means that they've found evidence of it, not that they suddenly think that at some point there were some dinosaurs eating some mammals. Evidence of anything that dinosaurs did is hard to come by.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday February 06, @03:36PM
There are a few normals here. I applaud their attempts to educate themselves and your comment should surely help.
Not everybody understands how science works, or that Aristotle didn't have science. Or that logic and reason don't always lead to truth, and that the obvious is often incorrect. Ignorance leads to conspiracy theories.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2, Funny) by lvxferre on Tuesday February 07, @04:45AM
Roasted vengeance is a great Sunday lunch.
Кўис когитас ессе, Беллум?