While there is little doubt that many a Mesozoic mammal became a meal for a dinosaur, it may come as a surprise to learn that some mammals also dined on dinos.
A dramatic fossil unearthed in northeastern China shows a badger-like mammal in the act of attacking a plant-eating dinosaur, mounting its prey and sinking its teeth into its victim’s ribs about 125 million years ago, scientists said on July 18.
Dated to the Cretaceous Period, it shows the four-legged mammal, Repenomamus robustus - the size of a domestic cat - ferociously entangled with the beaked two-legged dinosaur Psittacosaurus lujiatunensis, as big as a medium-sized dog. The scientists suspect they were suddenly engulfed in a volcanic mudflow and buried alive.
