摘要
Mammals in the Mesozoic era (280 million to 65 million years ago) arecommonly pictured as tiny shrew-like creatures that were mainly insectivorous, probably nocturnaland lived in the shadow of the dinosaurs. This concept is challenged by new discoveries byresearchers from the CAS Institute of Verte-brate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) and theAmerican Museum of Natural History in New York. They provide the first direct evidence that someprimitive mammals were carnivores and large enough to compete with the dinosaurs for food and evenfeed on their young. In the January 13 issue of the journal Nature, the researchers report theirstudies on the fossilized remains of two mammals roaming the land about 130 million years ago thatwere dug out from the Yixian Formation in northeast China's Liaoning Province.
