Name: Rare Fossil Appears to Show Mammal Attacking Dinosaur
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A mammal attacked a much larger dinosaur — then a volcano froze them both in time.

Could a small mammal take down a dinosaur?

A mammal attacked a much larger dinosaur — then a volcano froze them both in time.

Rare Fossil Appears to Show Mammal Attacking Dinosaur

Could a small mammal take down a dinosaur?

Ancient Worlds

Narrator: A newly unveiled fossil over a hundred million years old appears to show a weasel-like mammal locked in mortal combat with a dinosaur almost three times its size Mallon: It's a pretty amazing thing to look at. It's the first example that I know of preserving a mammal and a dinosaur engaging in that way Longrich: This is not like, you know, the Mesozoic equivalent of a bunny rabbit or a squirrel. This is the Mesozoic equivalent of a Tasmanian devil. If anything could take out a dinosaur bigger than it, this species could. Narrator: This new evidence suggests that mammals and dinosaurs may have had a much more complex predator-prey relationship than previously thought, challenging conventional notions of dinosaur dominance over mammals Mallon: \And one of the questions that comes up is what was this mammal thinking? Narrator: Typically predators attack animals their own size or smaller but it’s not unprecedented for mammals to go after larger animals, even today.The study authors are convinced that in this case, the mammal attacked the dinosaur while it was alive Mallon: I think is most convincing is the fact that the hind foot of the mammal is actually trapped beneath the folded hind leg of the dinosaur. And it looks for all the world like the dinosaur collapsed on top of the mammal, trapping its hind foot. And that we don't think could happen if the dinosaur was already dead. Narrator: Still, Longrich isn’t ruling out the possibility that the mammal was scavenging an already dead dinosaur Longrich: I think scavenging I find a plausible explanation.Look, these animals have been dead for 125 million years. What's going on there? We have limited evidenceIt seems like if you're fighting a struggling dinosaur, you don't want to stick your hand in his mouth. So is it scavenging? Is it predation? I think both are possible. It's very hard to say definitively. It's a bit of a mystery. Narrator: The two animals were likely frozen in time – and impeccably preserved — by of a volcanic mudslide, in what is now Northeastern China, where the fossil was found The fossil is a rare look at a complete skeleton of a dinosaur and a near-complete skeleton of the mammal . Longrich: It's pretty rare to find something that's like nose to tail (or nose to most of the tail) complete - it's pretty exceptional. Narrator: But unfortunately, fossil forgeries are not uncommon – so researchers took measures, including analyzing fossil sediment in the fossil and from where it was found— to verify its authenticity Mallon: most of the fossil forgeries to come out of China are fairly simple juxtapositions of one animal, maybe next to another, one fossil next to another, or one on top of the other. In the case of of our fossil, the two skeletons are well intertwined Mallon: We have various reasons for thinking that it's the real McCoy. So we feel pretty confident in our findings. Longrich: It seems that if I was a fossil collector over there and I dug up a complete dinosaur like that, I'd try to sell it. It's like I just won the lottery with this complete dinosaur, and, like, you wouldn't say, Okay, let's hold on and see if you can win the lottery again and get a complete mammal I can stick on top of it.Still, there is limited evidence of mammal/dinosaur interactions in the fossil record and researchers say more is needed before drawing definitive conclusions. Longrich: I think this is something we're arguing about for a while. This is it might not be the last paper. And that's how science advances. One argument at a time.

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Rare Fossil Appears to Show Mammal Attacking Dinosaur

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Support Provided By

Explore More

Hybrid Dinosaur May Change How We Understand Dinosaur Evolution

The Dinosaurs Were Not Alone

40 Million Years Before the Asteroid Hit, Dinosaurs Were Already On the Decline