Large mammals once dined on dinosaurs

Two stunning new fossils from China have overturned this preconception. Not only did large mammals live alongside their giant reptilian cousins, but some were big and bold enough to go dinosaur hunting.

Named Repenomamus giganticus and Repenomamus robustus, the sturdily built mammals lived in China about 130 million years ago, around 65 million years before we thought their kind inherited the Earth. At 1 metre long, R. giganticus was big enough to hunt small dinosaurs, and a newly discovered fossil of its smaller cousin, R. robustus, died with its belly full of young dinosaur.

This totally overturns the notion of dinosaur-age mammals as tiny and nocturnal, says vertebrate palaeontologist Hans-Dieter Sues of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, US. "Apparently some mammals could grow much larger than anyone had thought was possible."

...The discovery suggests there is much we have yet to understand about mammal evolution during the Mesozoic era, which spans the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, from 248 to 65 million years ago. "It's very possible that when people start looking for Mesozoic mammals of this size, they will find them." Weil says.

The Repenomamus species, however, have no living descendants. They were triconodonts, a poorly understood group of primitive raccoon or opossum-like creatures that diverged from modern mammals during the Mesozoic. Triconodonts have faded from the fossil record by the late Cretaceous, and may have died out before the dinosaurs.

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Dinosaur Found in Mammal's Belly

The finds in the geological strata known as the Yixian formation in Liaoning provide the first clear-cut confirmation that some mammal species grew larger than their cousins elsewhere. Why is another question.

"People have speculated as to why mammals in this locality are so much larger," Hu said. "Some people say it is probably because the dinosaurs here are relatively small. In any particular ecological system, there is competition for food and territory between some members of the system. If the dinosaurs are not so large, the mammals might have a chance to evolve and become larger. It's all just speculation at this point."

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This is a plausible explanation to how humans and dinosaurs could have existed together. They didn't live in the same location.

Shane, I have heard that no dino fossils have ever been found in Great Britain. Do you know if this is true? How about in Austrailia?

I know they have been found in Australia, I don't know about the UK. We need to remember the continents are not in the same place now as they were in ancient times. Dinosaurs have been found on every continent. That is not to say dinosaurs existed in every location on every continent.

Biblically, we know humans and dinosaurs existed on the planet at the same time. We have pretty good evidence that dinosaurs were not just scavengers. Some were hunters. God may have placed a fear of humans in them. Or dinosaurs may have stayed away from humans for some other reason - like a fear of fire. Or humans may not have been an attractive prey for them.

What was interesting about this find is that it shows that medium-sized animals did exist with dinosaurs. To those that believe in a literal reading of Genesis, that comes as no surprise.

[quote]Biblically, we know humans and dinosaurs existed on the planet at the same time. /quote]

Ah, and where would that 'text' be?

Genesis 1:
20. And God said, Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
21. And God created the great sea-monsters, and every living creature that moveth, wherewith the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind: and God saw that it was good...
24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
25. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
26. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

If one were to make some assumptions, broad, that could be proof. However, I am not aware of that many Bible scholars and/or scientist, SDA type, that would use those texts to say they existed together. They may or may not have existed together, I don't know, but I don't believe we can use the Bible to prove it..sometimes it is best to simply say we do not know.

If

• we take the Bible to mean what it says
  We believe that God was the only Creator
  He created things when He said he did
  He created things in the order that He said He did

then Shane's texts firmly establish that man co-existed with all other living creatures (including dinosaurs.)

The logical steps:

• He had created all living things by the end of day six.
  He created man on day six.

therefore

• man co-existed with all other living things.

Graeme

Guess I'm not as smart as the rest of you!! I don't know it all and am not afraid to admit it!!