Four-winged around 120 million years ago dinosaur called about the size of crows microraptors roamed the ancient forests of present-day China.
While researchers have studied several microraptor specimens, there’s still a lot we don’t know about these feathered bird-like creatures – including what and how they ate.
Now, an incredibly rare fossil has revealed the preserved last meal of one individual: and unexpectedly, it was a mammal.
“I couldn’t believe it at first” says vertebrate paleontologist Hans Larsson from McGill University in Canada, who found the fossil while sorting through specimens in museum collections in China.
“There was a tiny rodent-like mammalian foot, about an inch long, perfectly preserved in one microraptor Skeleton.”
“These finds are the only solid evidence we have of the feeding of these long-extinct animals – and they are exceptionally rare.” Larsson adds.
The first microraptor was fossil found in LiaoningChina, 2000. There are three known species that lived in the Early Cretaceous to which the fossil in question belongs Microraptor zhaoianus.
That microraptors were among the first dinosaurs to be found with fully feathered wings on their arms and legs—and next to the famous feathered one dinosaur Archeopteryx, have corroborated theories that suggest modern birds are closely related to categories of dinosaurs.
During some studies have shown that microraptors would have been capable of powered flight, it is widely believed that they primarily used their wings for gliding.
Until now, the small dinosaurs had only been confirmed to eat birds, fish, and lizards, and they were thought to be tree hunters, gliding down from trees to capture prey.
The latest discovery extends this idea, suggesting that they are more opportunistic feeders, both preying and preying on a wide variety of vertebrates.
“We already know that microraptor Specimens with parts of fish, a bird and a lizard in their bellies. This new find adds a small mammal to their diet, suggesting these dinosaurs were opportunistic and not picky eaters.” says Larsson.
That’s a big deal, because while generalist carnivores are prevalent and important stabilizers in today’s ecosystems — think foxes and crows — this could very well be the first evidence of a generalist carnivore rolled into one dinosaur ecosystem, Larsson and his team write.
It’s incredibly rare to find dinosaur fossils that store their last meal in their stomachs, they add. Of all the carnivorous dinosaur fossils found, only we are know 20 containing their last meals.
The latest discovery assumes that number up to 21.
Learning more about their diet is not only fascinating for those of us trying to imagine what the world was like 120 million years ago, but also provides important clues for the researchers working hard to understand exactly how Dinosaurs left the land for the sky and evolved into the true birds we see today.
“Knowing that microraptor what a generalist carnivore is sheds a new perspective on how ancient ecosystems function and a possible insight into the success of these small, feathered dinosaurs,” says Larson.
The research was published in The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
