Mesozoic Mosaic pg #4 |
Illustration of a fierce Masozoic triconodont mammal , Repenomamus robustus chasing juvenile Psittacosaurus - by Beri (graphite), Copyright ©2005 BERI Jan 2005 |
MAMMALS STRIKE BACK Repenomamus robustus - a large triconodont mammal from Early Cretaceous of China
HU, Y., J. MENG, Y. WANG & C. LI. 2005. Large Mesozoic mammals fed on young dinosaurs. Nature 433: 149-152. "Mesozoic mammals are commonly portrayed as shrew- or rat-sized animals that were mainly insectivorous, probably nocturnal and lived in the shadow of dinosaurs. The largest known Mesozoic mammal represented by substantially complete remains is Repenomamus robustus, a triconodont mammal from the Lower Cretaceous of Liaoning, China. An adult individual of R. robustus was the size of a Virginia opossum. Here we report a new species of the genus, represented by a skeleton with most of the skull and postcranium preserved in articulation. The new species is 50% larger than R. robustus in skull length. In addition, stomach contents associated with a skeleton of R. robustus reveal remains of a juvenile Psittacosaurus, a ceratopsian dinosaur. Our discoveries constitute the first direct evidence that some triconodont mammals were carnivorous and fed on small vertebrates, including young dinosaurs, and also show that Mesozoic mammals had a much greater range of body sizes than previously known. We suggest that Mesozoic mammals occupied diverse niches and that some large mammals probably competed with dinosaurs for food and territory." References: 1. Large Mesozoic
mammals fed on young dinosaurs Yaoming Hu, Jin
Meng, Yuanqing Wang, Chuankui Li Some comments:
Repenomamus holotype
A few notes on: Psittacosaurus
sp. The psittacosaurids, known only from the late Early Cretaceous of Central Asia, are considered to be close to an ancestor of the horned dinosaurs. Both the parrot-beaked and horned dinosaurs possessed jaws, being curved and tapered foreward and the lateral teeth highly specialized to masticate the vegetative food. Adult Psittacosaurids were relatively small, up to 2 meters in length. They were probably mostly bipedal cursors although the forelimbs in these dinosaurs were relatively long and well-developed.
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