Repenomamus

Repenomamus robustus · Repenomamus robustus was an opossum-sized early mammal that lived in China during the early Cretaceous period.

It lived about 125 to 123.2 million years ago.

Repenomamus
Photo: PaleoEquii, CC BY-SA 4.0
Repenomamus
Photo: No machine-readable author provided. Mateuszica~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0
Repenomamus
Photo: Dlyj0604, CC BY 4.0

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumChordata
ClassMammalia
OrderEutriconodonta
FamilyGobiconodontidae
GenusRepenomamus
SpeciesRepenomamus robustus

Where its fossils were found

Liaoning Province, northeastern China (Yixian Formation).

Fun facts

  • Repenomamus robustus ate dinosaurs: one fossil has the skeleton of a young Psittacosaurus preserved in its stomach.
  • A fossil shows a Repenomamus tangled up with an adult Psittacosaurus, likely the result of the mammal attacking the dinosaur.
  • In that fossil, the Repenomamus seems to have been clinging to the dinosaur with its arms and legs while biting it.
  • The larger species, Repenomamus giganticus, was about 50% bigger than R. robustus and weighed an estimated 12–14 kg.

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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).