Global News

[ad_1] A first-of-its-kind fossil of a mammal and a dinosaur from around 125 million years ago "locked in mortal combat" challenges the idea that dinosaurs ruled the land, researchers wrote in a study published Tuesday.  The new fossil, discovered on May 16, 2012, in China's Liaoning Province, shows a mammal attacking a dinosaur about three times its size. The mammal, a carnivorous Repenomamus robustus, was the clear aggressor, researchers wrote in the journal Scientific Reports . "The mammal died while biting two of the dinosaur's left anterior dorsal ribs; its mandible plunges downward into the indurated sediment to firmly clasp the bones," the study's authors wrote.  The discovery of the two creatures is among the first evidence to show actual predatory behavior by a mammal on a dinosaur, Dr. Jordan Mallon, palaeobiologist with the Canadian Museum of Nature and co-author on the study said in a press release. R