Study Reveals Mammals Transitioned to Ground-Based Living Before Dinosaur Extinction

Mammals were adapting from life in the trees to living on the ground before dinosaur-killing asteroid

More mammals were living on the ground several million years before the mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs, new research has revealed.

When the Dino-Killing Asteroid Hit, Mammals Were Already on the Move

Researchers suggest that ground-based mammals fared better than their arboreal relatives during the end-Cretaceous extinction thanks to their lifestyle.

Flowering plants, not dinosaurs, drove mammals to ground 72 million years ago

Professor Janis said, "The vegetational habitat was more important for the course of Cretaceous mammalian evolution than any influence from dinosaurs."

Tiny Fossils Reveal Mammals Left the Trees Long Before the Asteroid Impact

Millions of years before the asteroid impact that ended the reign of the dinosaurs, mammals were already beginning to shift from tree-dwelling to ground-based lifestyles. A groundbreaking study uncovered this evolutionary trend by analyzing tiny limb bone fragments from marsupials and placental mammals in Western North America. These subtle fossil clues reveal that mammals may [...]

Mammals were adapting from life in the trees to living on the ground before dinosaur-killing asteroid, research reveals

More mammals were living on the ground several million years before the mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs, new research led by the University of Bristol has revealed.

New evidence was presented by a study led by the University of Bristol Mammals were adapting from life in trees to life on the ground millions of years before the asteroid that wiped out non-avian dinosaurs. This is revealed by new evidence presented by research led by the University of Bristol and published in the journal Palaeontology.