Dinosaur fossil found with its last meal still inside of it - a mammal foot
- Paleontologist Hans Larsson found a small mammal foot in the rib of a dinosaur fossil
- It’s one of only 21 dinosaur fossils ever found with its food inside of it
The key to a small, four-winged dinosaur species’ survival was not being fussy about what it ate, the examination of a rare fossil revealed.
Palaeontologist Hans Larsson, a professor at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, was the first to notice a small mammal foot lodged in between the bones of a fossilised microraptor, a carnivorous dinosaur with wings.
The discovery shows the dinosaur ate a long list of animals including mammals, fish, birds, and lizards, the university announced in a press release on December 21.
“These finds are the only solid evidence we have about the food consumption of these long-extinct animals – and they are exceptionally rare,” Larsson said in the release. The revelation that the animal was an “opportunistic” eater “puts a new perspective on how ancient ecosystems may have worked,” he added.
