A latest study shatters the long-standing myth that the extinction of dinosaurs has something to do with mammal’s rise.
According to a study in the journal Nature, the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago hardly had any effect on the evolution of mammals.
An international team of researchers prepared a mammal “supertree” from existing fossil data and genetic analyses, which reveals the relation between different groups of mammals.
Mammals were relatively few in the Cretaceous Period, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and could not diversify and evolve in the ecosystems dominated by the giant reptiles.
But once the dinosaurs became extinct, mammals were allowed to diversify and they have come a long way since then to establish their domination on earth.
Kate Jones, from the Zoological Society of London, told the BBC Radio 4’s Leading Edge programme said,
The meteor impact that killed off the dinosaurs has traditionally been thought to have given mammals the edge they needed.
