Rare Dinosaur Fossil Found With Perfectly Preserved Final Meal Inside

The ancient woodlands of what is now China were once home to four-winged dinosaurs that were roughly the size of crows.

There is a lot we don't know about Microraptor, including what they ate.

A mammal has been revealed as the preserved final meal of one person.

"I couldn't believe it when I saw it," says Hans Larsson, a paleontologist from Canada, who found the fossil while looking through samples in China.

There was a small mammal foot in the Microraptor skeleton.

The only evidence we have about the food consumption of these long extinct animals is found in these finds.

In 2000 a Microraptor fossil was found. There are three known species of Microraptor, one of which was found in the early Cretacious period.

The Microraptors and the famous feathered dinosaur Archaeopteryx are examples of dinosaurs that have feathers on their arms and legs.

Microraptors would have been capable of powered flight, but they mostly used their wings to glide.

Until now, the small dinosaurs had only been confirmed to eat birds, fish, and lizards, and they were thought to be arboreal hunters that glided down from the trees to catch prey.

According to the latest discovery, they were more likely to be opportunist eaters that were 888-609- 888-609- 888-609- 888-609- 888-609-

The Microraptor specimen has parts of fish, a bird, and a lizard in it's bellies. The new find suggests that the dinosaurs were opportunists and not picky eaters.

This could be the first evidence of a generalist carnivores in a dinosaur environment, and it's a big deal.

They say it's rare to find dinosaur fossils that preserve their last meal. We only know of 20 dinosaurs that had their last meals.

That number has been discovered to be 21.

Understanding more about their diet isn't just fascinating for those of us trying to imagine how the world looked 120 million years ago, it also provides important clues for the researchers working hard to understand exactly how dinosaurs left the land for the sky.

A new perspective on how ancient ecosystems may have worked and a possible insight into the success of small, feathered dinosaurs can be gained by knowing that Microraptor was a generalist predator.

The research has been published in a peer-reviewed journal.