0 points
Repenomamus
Period of life:
125–123 MYA
Era/period:
Cretaceous
Habitat:
China
Length:
1
Description
Repenomamus ("Reptilian mammal" from Latin) is the largest early Cretaceous period mammal lived about 125 million years ago. Its fossils were unearthed in China, in the Liaoning province. It bore a striking resemblance to the present "Tasmanian devil".
The ancient rodent total length was one metre and the body was 1 m long. Paleontologists believe that the beast was an average runner due to the limbs structure features - the shoulder and limb bones formed a wide-angle relative to joints. Fore and hind limbs were proportionally short for its body size. Moreover, it had plantigrade feet.
His diet definitely included meat as a specimen of R. Robustus was discovered with the fragments of dinosaur preserved in its stomach. This represents the evidence that mammals of that period were carnivorous and fed on other vertebrates. Though it is unknown whether they ate carrion or preys alive.