The smallest eating the largest: the oldest mammalian feeding traces on dinosaur bone from the Late Jurassic of the Jung
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The smallest eating the largest: the oldest mammalian feeding traces on dinosaur bone from the Late Jurassic of the Junggar Basin (northwestern China) Felix J. Augustin 1
&
Andreas T. Matzke 1 & Michael W. Maisch 2 & Juliane K. Hinz 1 & Hans-Ulrich Pfretzschner 1
Received: 18 March 2020 / Revised: 9 July 2020 / Accepted: 13 July 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Reconstructing trophic interactions in ancient ecosystems is an important and fascinating branch of palaeontological research. Here we describe small bioerosional traces that are preserved on sauropod bone from the early Late Jurassic Qigu Formation (Oxfordian) of Liuhuanggou gorge in the southern Junggar Basin (Xinjiang Province, northwestern China). The most likely producers of these traces are tiny Mesozoic mammals as evinced by the small size of the traces as well as by their paired and opposed arrangement. The feeding traces are only superficially preserved on the bone surface and most likely were inflicted unintentionally during feeding. The occurrence of the bite marks along small ridges and the “gnawed” appearance of the bone surface points to selective feeding on the remaining soft tissues of the dinosaur carcass. The traces represent the oldest direct evidence for mammalian feeding behaviour in the fossil record. Additionally, these traces expand the known range of the early mammalian feeding repertoire significantly and shed light on the palaeobiology and palaeoecology of early mammals, a field that has remained evasive for a long time. Keywords Bite marks . Early mammals . Palaeobiology . Dinosaurs . Late Jurassic . Junggar Basin
Introduction For more than 160 million years, mammals lived in the shadow of the dinosaurs, remaining small and elusive with an average adult body size close to 100 g (Luo 2007; Lee and Beck 2015). Nonetheless, recent discoveries demonstrate that Mesozoic mammals were ecologically diverse and occupied various ecological niches. They ranged from ground-dwelling generalists to Communicated by: Aurora Grandal d'Anglade Institutional abbreviation SGP – Sino-German Project collection, currently housed at the University of Tübingen, Germany. The collection remains the property of the People’s Republic of China and will be transferred to a Chinese public collection after the scientific studies are completed. The final repository will be announced in an internationally accessible journal. * Felix J. Augustin [email protected] 1
Institut für Geowissenschaften, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Hölderlinstraße 12, 72074 Tübingen, Germany
2
Albstadt, Germany
specialists with semi-aquatic, fossorial, arboreal and even gliding habits (Luo 2007). This ecological diversity suggests an equally varied diet, probably encompassing herbivory, insectivory, carnivory and omnivory (Luo 2007). The reconstruction of the diet and feeding behaviour of Mesozoic mammals is, however, largely based on circumstantial evidence such as tooth morphology. Direct evidence for feeding behaviour is scarce and s
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