Jakarta –
Researchers once again uncover new startling facts. According to them, there are other causes that trigger the extinction dinosaur other than the fall of an asteroid.
Because the debate about the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs, including Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops and whether there are mammalian species that can survive extinction is quite fuzzy.
Through a study conducted by an international team of paleontologists and ecologists, they analyzed 1,600 fossil records from North America.
Scientists have modeled the food webs and ecological habitats of terrestrial and freshwater animals in the last million years of the Cretaceous and the first million years of the Paleogene, after an asteroid wiped out the dinosaur species.
Small mammals and dinosaurs coexisted
Quoting from Science blog, small mammals are known to have coexisted with dinosaurs for a long time. However, this study uncovered the fact that mammals diversify their diet.
Furthermore, they adapted to the environment and became more important components of the ecosystem as the Cretaceous progressed.
Another case with dinosaur that live only in stable niches to which they adapt very well.
Mammals capitalized on the death of dinosaurs
According to experts, mammals not only profited from the death of the dinosaurs, but created their own advantage through diversification by occupying new ecological niches, developing more varied diets and behaviors and surviving minor climate changes, i.e. adapting quickly.
Well, this behavior allows them to survive. Therefore, mammals are better able to cope with the sudden and radical destruction caused by asteroids.
According to Jorge García-Girón, one of the researchers at the Geography Research Unit of the University of Oulu, Finland, the study provides an overview of the ecological structure, food webs and niches of the last ecosystem dominated by dinosaurs and the first mammals.
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“This helps us understand one of paleontology’s ancient mysteries, why all the non-bird dinosaurs died, but birds and mammals survived,” he said.
The stable ecology of dinosaurs becomes a barrier
Another researcher named Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza from the Department of Ecology and Animal Biology at the University of Vigo in Spain has revealed that the stable ecology of the last dinosaurs actually hampered their survival after an asteroid impact changed the rules. ecological era.
“Conversely, some birds, mammals, crocodiles and turtles were previously better adapted to rapidly changing and unstable environments, which may have made them better able to survive when things suddenly turned ugly when the asteroid hit.” he said. .
Dinosaurs have grown strong with a stable ecosystem. But when an asteroid destroys his kind, it ends their story. This is caused by the sudden change in the ecosystem.
“So not only did the mammals profit from the death of the dinosaurs, they made their own profits, which adapted them ecologically to survive the extinction and move into the niches left by them. dinosaur the dead,” concluded Professor Steve Brusatte, another author of the study.
Watch a video “Small dinosaur skeleton for sale, 1.3 meters high“
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