An incredible fossil of a dinosaur and badger-like mammal locked in an eternal fight to the death has been revealed by scientists.

The 125 million-year-old fossil captures the dramatic moment in time when a carnivorous mammal attacked a large plant-eating dinosaur. It is among the first evidence to show mammals attacked dinosaurs bigger than them, rather than just targeting their young.

The dinosaur in the well-preserved fossil is a species of Psittacosaurus, which was about the size of a large dog and whose name translates to ‘parrot lizard’. Meanwhile the mammal in the fossil pair is a badger-like animal, called Repenomamus robustus.

Although not large by dinosaur standards, it was among the biggest mammals during the Cretaceous period, at a time when mammals had not yet come to dominate the Earth.

The fossil was collected in China’s Liaoning Province, and both skeletons are nearly complete. A close look shows the mammal sitting atop its prey, gripping the jaws of the larger dinosaur.