Dinosaurs and Mammals Near Extinction

Published: 23rd Jun 2016

New research shows that the meorite that caused the extinction of non avaian dinosaurs also nearly casused the extinction of mammals. It had always been thought that about 75% of mammals were killed off at the same time as the dinosaurs leaving about a quarter of the mammals that survived by living in burrows. From exhaustive studies of fossil remains of animals from around the 65 million year mark it is now apparent that many more mammals died out - up tp 93%.

However the remaining ones were extremely reilient and within 300,000 years of the extinction there was an explosion in mammal diversity with the early beginnings of many of the creatures we know today. In general it was the common species that survived and prospered after the extinction with the rarer mamal species in the Cretaceous being wiped out.

 

---