Living large in the Cretaceous: Mammalian palaeobiology

Discoveries of large, carnivorous mammals from the Cretaceous challenge the long-held view that primitive mammals were small and uninteresting. Have palaeontologists been asking the wrong questions? Mammal bites dinosaur We tend to think of the the mammals that lived in the shadow of the dinosaurs a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 2005-01, Vol.433 (7022), p.116-117
Main Author: Weil, Anne
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Humanities and Social Sciences
multidisciplinary
news-and-views
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
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Summary:Discoveries of large, carnivorous mammals from the Cretaceous challenge the long-held view that primitive mammals were small and uninteresting. Have palaeontologists been asking the wrong questions? Mammal bites dinosaur We tend to think of the the mammals that lived in the shadow of the dinosaurs as scuttling around trying not to get eaten or trodden on. They were small, the size of a modern shrew or rat, feeding on insects, and active during evening hours. That picture is changing. The extinct mammal Repenomamus robustus , discovered five years ago, broke the mould: it was much bigger, the size of a Virginia opossum. And now another member of the genus Repenomamus has been found that is half as big again, the size of a badger or jackal. What's more, a specimen of R. robustus found preserved with its last meal inside its — stomach the bones of young dinosaurs. These carnivorous mammals were beginning to come out of the shadows.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/433116b