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The dinosaur Microraptor loved to prey on rodents, and the 1cm long animal legs attached to the Microraptor fossils were the remains of its last supper. PHOTO/IST
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As reported by Live Science, Sunday (25/12/2022), scientists have revealed that the dinosaur fossil was a Microraptor, a type of dinosaur that resembled a bird with four wings.
Microraptor is said to have loved to prey on rodents, and the 1cm long animal legs attached to Microraptor fossils were the remains of its last supper.
Researchers in the study, published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, said the discovery marks the first known instance of a dinosaur preying on mammals.
“I couldn’t believe it at first,” study co-author Hans Larsson, director of the Redpath Museum and vertebrate paleontologist at McGill University in Montreal, said in a statement.
“This discovery is the only solid evidence we have of food consumption by these long-extinct animals, and they are extremely rare,” he continued.
Prior to this discovery, there were only 20 known cases of fossil remains containing the last meal of carnivorous dinosaurs. This includes the skeleton of the Daurlong Wangi, a species of raptor also found in China.
In their fossils they found a large bluish layer attached to the belly.
Among the 20 cases, the scientists have only four published examples (excluding this one) of the stomach contents of Microraptor itself.
