Dinosaur Extinction Didn't Cause The Rise Of Present-day Mammals, Claim Researchers

A new, complete 'tree of life' tracing the history of all 4,500 mammals on Earth shows that they did not diversify as a result of the death of the dinosaurs, says new research published in Nature.

The multinational research team has been working for over a decade to compile the tree of life from existing fossil records and new molecular analyses. They show that many of the genetic 'ancestors' of the mammals we see around us today existed 85 million years ago, and survived the meteor impact that is thought to have killed the dinosaurs. However, throughout the Cretaceous epoch, when dinosaurs walked the earth, these mammal species were relatively few in number, and were prevented from diversifying and evolving in ecosystems dominated by dinosaurs.

The tree of life shows that after the MEE, certain mammals did experience a rapid period of diversification and evolution. However, most of these groups have since either died out completely, such as Andrewsarchus (an aggressive wolf-like cow), or declined in diversity, such as the group containing sloths and armadillos.

www.sciencedaily.com...

This alone changes everything. Such as the info here as well:

Relatives Of Living Ducks And Chickens Existed Alongside Dinosaurs More Than 65 Million Years Ago - www.sciencedaily.com...

No Takers? I not only figured this to be an interesting story, I was waiting for the attacks about to be hurled my way. Guess not... (sigh)

Originally posted by Grock
No Takers? I not only figured this to be an interesting story, I was waiting for the attacks about to be hurled my way. Guess not... (sigh)

I think it's cool when stuff comes out.

But, remember, paleontologists and such are close minded old men who try to keep everything in the norm. A new study like this would imply that scientists actually try to understand the world instead of the stereotype that's been popular for awhile.

takers on what?

sorry im must be missing somthing, the article shows that what we thought happened actually happened 10-15 million years later and there was another cause possibly global warming rather then the availability of the opened up nieches of enviroment, which the other mostly now extinct orders of mammals took over

dinosaurs died, mammals exploded to fill the nieches, somthing happened and allowed another group of mammals to surpase the ones that were currently ruling

it doesnt fundamentally alter anything just adds an previously unlknown event into our understanding of the time line of mammal evolution