Science & technology | When mammals attack

A spectacular new fossil shows a mammal making a meal of a dinosaur

The two animals were interrupted during a fight to the death

Entangled Psittacosaurus (dinosaur) and Repenomamus (mammal) skeletons.
A fight, interruptedImage: Gang Han

That dinosaurs ate the mammals that scurried beneath their feet is not in doubt. Now an extraordinary fossil newly described in Scientific Reports, unearthed by a team led by Gang Han at Hainan Vocational University of Science and Technology in China, shows that sometimes the tables were turned.

This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Role reversal”

From the July 22nd 2023 edition

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