Ancient mammals are not destroyed by asteroids, this is the reason Page all

KOMPAS.com – The most of dinosaur die when asteroid hit the Earth 66 million years ago, but not with mammals who apparently survived after the event.

A new study shows that ancient mammals were better adapted than dinosaurs, helping them survive the catastrophe and thrive afterward.

This conclusion was reached after researchers mapped the complex interactions between large numbers of ancient animals and their ecosystems before and after the asteroid hit Earth.

Reported by live science, Thursday’s (8/12/2022) modeling combines data from fossils collected in western North America whose ages span the boundary between the Late Cretaceous (145 million to 66 million years ago) and Early Paleogene (66 million to 23 million years ago).

These 1,600 fossil records represent more than 470 animal genera, including mammals, fish, crocodilians, birds, and non-avian dinosaurs.

Read also: The first mammals were small and short-lived

“From these models, we were able to determine that freshwater organisms and small terrestrial organisms, including mammals, were more resilient and better prepared to face extinction than non-avian dinosaurs,” said Thomas Cullen, of Carleton University in Ottawa, who was not involved in the study. she studies. ancient mammalian adaptations which is not destroyed by asteroids.

Furthermore, ancient mammals even diversified before the asteroid impact occurred.

This evolution resulted in mammals that could eat a variety of foods, live in a wide range of temperatures and weather conditions, and produce offspring fast enough to recover from sudden population crashes.

Scientists previously thought that the explosion in mammalian evolution following the demise of the dinosaurs would eventually leave a gap in the ecosystem that could be filled by them.

But the new study points to growing evidence that ancient mammals were already expanding into new niches before the asteroid impact.

Read also: After the extinction of the dinosaurs, mammals grow in size to survive

According to Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, a researcher at the University of Vigo in Spain, the US environment is similar to a swamp. However, the overall climate gradually cooled towards the end of the Cretaceous.

Despite the cooling, non-avian dinosaurs haven’t really adapted. Instead they stick to the same temperature range, weather conditions and diet to which they have adapted. Therefore their ecological role remains essentially stable.

During the same period, mammals moved from one climatic niche to another and adopted a wider range of habitats and diets.

Early on this instability likely caused mammalian populations to collapse and recover with little climate change.

However, when an asteroid hit Earth and made the planet suddenly dark and cold, mammals had the flexibility to adapt.

Read also: Protect marine mammal populations from extinction with tracking technology

“This ends up being a big stretch when things change dramatically due to an asteroid impact,” Chiarenza said.

Furthermore, the modeling approach used in the research was originally developed to study modern ecosystems.

However, the model ultimately helps explain why our mammalian ancestors fared so well during the winter after the asteroid impact.

“I was amazed not only by how they managed to thrive in an ecosystem dominated by highly complex (and possibly dangerous) dinosaurs, but also by how quickly our ancestors moved through the void after the asteroid impact “said Jorge García-Girón, a researcher at the University of Leon, Spain.

An adaptation study of this ancient mammal that eventually survived an asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs was published in the journal The progress of science.

Read also: 42-million-year-old fossil teeth reveal early saber-toothed mammals

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